[00:00:00] Mahea: If you're like me, listening to Themes and Variation makes you want to work on some music of your own. I've got some good news on that front. The Soundfly team's been hard at work creating a massive collection of resources to satiate your curiosity and help you up your skills in areas like composition, production, and improvisation.
[00:00:19] Using the discount code PODCAST, you can get access to the full range of premium courses available at soundfly. com and an invitation to our online community for less than $10 a month.
[00:00:31] Also, be sure to stop by Soundfly's YouTube channel, where we're constantly adding new videos addressing questions like, "what is a pedal tone?" and, "do dogs understand music?"
[00:00:41] Plus, some of those videos directly relate to things we've discussed on this show. So if you like what you hear here, you should definitely check out what we have to offer there.
[00:00:50] Soundfly. Creative content for people who make music.
[00:01:00] Carter: A synth laden track to take you deep into space. An incredibly lush song to lose yourself in. And a transcendent piano piece to sink into. You're listening to Themes and Variation.
[00:01:27] track: [music]
[00:01:30] Carter: Themes and Variation is a podcast about music and perspectives, brought to you by the online music school, Soundfly. I'm your host, Carter Lee.
[00:01:42] All right, folks, another Themes and Variation coming at you. Shout out to Marty Fowler for that fantastic intro music. And today we're talking about "Songs to Escape Into."
[00:01:51] And speaking of things to escape into, we have a brand new course available at soundfly.com. That's right. Com Truise: Mid-Fi Synthwave Slow-Motion Funk is available now.
[00:02:04] So as you might expect, Seth Haley, a. k. a. Com Truise, breaks down his approach to production, songwriting, tips, tricks, and secrets of the Com Truise sound, and he takes you on a journey into some of his favorite tracks, including "Compressed Views," "Ultrafiche of You," and "Existence Schematic."
[00:02:18] Now there's actually a little secret about this course that you may or may not know. Seth actually creates a track from start to finish in this course. So yes, that's right, you get to see a Com Truise track come together from beginning to end, and I say this without any ounce of hyperbole: it is truly one of the most enlightening musical experiences that you can have online.
[00:02:41] So I've got something a little different for you today. We're going to play a snippet of the track "Dynetics" that Seth created exclusively for his course at soundfly.com. So wherever you're listening to this, maybe just sit back, get comfortable, relax a little bit as you listen to a taste of a completely unreleased Com Truise track.
[00:04:04] track: [music]
[00:04:05] Carter: So if you want to learn how this track was made from start to finish and use some of those same processes in your own music, head to soundfly.com and check out Com Truise: Mid-Fi Synthwave Slow-Motion Funk today.
[00:04:43] And hey, while you're there, why don't you take 20 percent off on me? Use that discount code THEMES on a monthly or annual subscription.
[00:04:51] All right folks, let's now turn our attention to today's episode where we've got three tracks for you to escape into. And of course joining me for this deep dive of musical escapism is my frequent co host Mahea Lee and the one and only producer and designer Seth Haley aka Com Truise.
[00:05:09] Combining a nostalgic reverence for '80s drum machines and production techniques with a futuristic sensibility, Com Truise has been building intricate musical worlds that are hyper modern and yet emotionally familiar for over a decade.
[00:05:23] All right. You know what? I think that is just about enough out of me. So without further ado, let's get into the episode "Songs to Escape Into."
[00:05:32] All right, folks, another Themes and Variation coming at you. Joining me is of course, Mahea.
[00:05:38] Mahea, how are you doing today?
[00:05:40] Mahea: I'm doing really well, Carter. How are you doing?
[00:05:41] Carter: I'm fantastic today. It is so good. We, look... I'm going to get right into it. We have an incredible guest for an incredible episode, as we're talking about "Songs to Escape Into," we have the one and only, seth Haley aka Com Truise.
[00:05:58] Seth, how are you doing?
[00:05:59] Com Truise: I am very well. How are you?
[00:06:01] Carter: I'm doing great, man. It's so good to speak to you again here.
[00:06:05] It's been, you know, it was a few months ago. We were together working on your course, which is now out, Com Truise: Mid-Fi Synthwave Slow-Motion Funk.
[00:06:14] Right off the bat, quick question for you. You coined the phrase mid-fi synthwave slow-motion funk. We had no choice, honestly, but to call the course that because it was so sick.
[00:06:26] Um, do you mind just sharing with the folks, like, what is that genre that you created?
[00:06:31] Com Truise: Well, I get lumped into the synthwave genre a lot. And I really think a lot of my music kind of, uh, never really kind of fits that mold or, uh, you know... especially the early stuff. And, and, you know, I think for me, coming up with that kind of, you know, long, uh, term for my genre or what I think my own personal, uh, sound was, was just because I really didn't think there was anything that it really fit in at the time.
[00:07:00] I think I called it that because, you know, you get asked by random people throughout life... you know, if you get picked up by like an Uber driver and they see the equipment, they're like, "Oh, you're a musician. What do you do? What kind of music do you make?" And you can say electronic music, which is what I say now, because it's just easy to say that, but like, you know, this was my detailed description, my sub sub sub genre of like what it, what it is.
[00:07:23] So it talks a little bit about the quality of, you know, the tones in the music and like what I'm going for. And I think you can kind of get the sort of equipment that I like just from hearing that, you know, mid-fi synthwave slow-motion funk. And you can kind of get a lot of what I like in me, in my music and others' music out of that kind of term.
[00:07:44] So I think it was just, you know, just being cool, I guess, you know, and it just kind of stuck, you know?
[00:07:49] Mahea: I mean, it is... it does sound very cool. Have you ever heard another artist where you're like that, that artist can be in my genre with me?
[00:07:56] Com Truise: I hear... here and there. I tend to, uh, stay away from, from my own genre of music as far as listening, not out of like, you know... i, I enjoy the music, but, uh, and it's not that I'm not trying to be influenced, but I just don't find, I don't find it like the stuff I really want to listen to, you know?
[00:08:16] Um, and I think the track that, you know, we're going to go through today is kind of a, is, is, is a way for me to explain like why I don't, you know, kind of really get into my own genre. When I think about listening to stuff that's similar to me, like I find tracks here and there and I'll put them on like a playlist or whatever, and, you know, can I kind of promote friends that are similar or people that, you know, just that I've met along the way that are cool... I think to me, it's always like I'm listening to some weird demo I made in my head.
[00:08:48] You know, cause like sometimes my stuff starts out like more of the synth wave kind of sound, I think. And then when I finally distill it into the final product, I think that's where I go weird with it and try to, I'm like, I don't want to be that. I want to be whatever I am, you know, like...
[00:09:05] Mahea: Can I ask you a question, Seth? You have such great song titles. Where do you come up? Like, and like, they're memorable, but they're short enough to remember so often. Where do you find titles?
[00:09:18] Com Truise: Sometimes I just kind of tumble down the Wikipedia rabbit hole. I'll find a topic and then I'll just kind of, you know, I'll be like, I was reading about, um, energy weapons this morning and I was like, you know, cause I have a list going all right here next to me, like of song title ideas for, you know, just the future and I'm thinking of, of titles for songs for the next record. And that's, that's a huge thing.
[00:09:45] Or, or, you know, I'll be watching a film and something, you know, obscure or, you know, not necessarily obscure and I'll, um... say there's like a, a computer screen in the background and you can kind of read, you know what it is, and then I'll kind of just like take that and then like maybe change it or put it reverse or just like use part of it and I mash words together all the time. And like, I don't know, I have a weird, definitely a weird naming process.
[00:10:12] I think something like "Ultrafiche of You" is one of the more, I would say it's more kind of, of a personal... um, like, uh, kind of song title as opposed to like "Data Kiss," you know, or "Terminal" or, you know, "Flightwave," you know, like it's that those have more of a feeling, I think, you know, that I'm kind of putting outward as opposed to "Ultrafiche of You," I think for me is like an inward thing.
[00:10:42] Carter: Love that.
[00:10:43] Mahea: There's an intimacy to that that's really interesting too.
[00:10:45] Carter: Of course. Well, why don't we, uh, listen to a little music? Let's get into our first selection of the episode. Here we go.
[00:11:14] track: [music]
[00:11:18] Carter: Alright, folks, we're listening to "Space Song" from Beach House, uh, the Baltimore dream pop duo. I don't know if they're still in Baltimore, but I, you know, I think they originated in Baltimore. Love seeing, I love... for whatever reason, I love seeing like East kind of coast or Eastern seaboard bands that have this washed out synth wave thing, 'cause I think too often it's like, Oh, it's gotta be West coast for sure. Like they gotta be in Los Angeles. But like, no, it's like Baltimore.
[00:11:42] Com Truise: People on the East coast, we, we, we go through the long winter, you know, for the most part, you know, at least the Northern part. Um, so I think we're always dreaming of the kind of sun soaked stuff, you know?
[00:11:53] So it's like more in our memories as opposed to like, say you live in Southern California. It's just kind of, it's just part of you, you know what I mean? You don't really, I think you don't think about it as often, especially if you grew up there.
[00:12:03] Carter: Man, it's like LA every day is the same. So if you're trying to be inspired by the weather somehow, it's like, "whoa, everything that I write forever is going to be basically the same track." So, um...
[00:12:12] Mahea: You could be sad. I grew up in Southern California. It could be sad. It can. You could still be melancholy.
[00:12:18] Com Truise: Oh yeah. I miss the, uh, the Southern California winter. That was, uh, I always enjoyed that, just cool when the rain came.
[00:12:27] Carter: Absolutely perfect. Um, so yeah.
[00:12:29] Mahea: Yeah. Beach House. So you picked Beach House's most popular song. Let's get back to that.
[00:12:33] Carter: Yeah. Which is fine. Uh, you know, and this record Depression Cherry is incredible and I would highly recommend listening to it all the way through.
[00:12:43] Mahea: I know that we own this one. Is this the one where the album was like velvet? That's what I thought. Yes.
[00:12:48] Carter: It's so cool.
[00:12:49] Mahea: It's funny how that stuff sticks with you or like the, the Bowie album came out around the same time, didn't it?
[00:12:54] Carter: Black Star.
[00:12:54] Mahea: Like, yeah, where you could put it in the sun and like under black lights and different things would happen. You shouldn't put a record in the sun for a long time.
[00:13:16] track: [music]
[00:13:17] Carter: One image that came to me. It really does feel like you're like floating through space and you can kind of envision yourself doing that. If you have... if you've seen the movie Gravity, uh, and if you haven't, it's a no spoiler... this came out years ago, so you can spoil the ending. It doesn't matter. Um, but the very end, and George Clooney is just floating out into space... for like, just like into the, the great beyond and like, it's just unbelievable. I could totally picture this song. If that was me just phoning myself, I could be humming this, this track in my head for sure.
[00:13:51] Com Truise: At the end of your, your, you know, when, when there's, when you've lost contact with the, all of their life forms that, that, that should just default play in your, you know, like, uh.
[00:14:03] I remember that movie. You know, I've seen it a few times and I just, oh, it's, it makes my feet sweat.
[00:14:08] Mahea: Yeah.
[00:14:09] Com Truise: Just thinking about this. Oh, it's so much anxiety. It just keeps... and you're right, he's floating for like, he's out there forever.
[00:14:17] Carter: He's still out there.
[00:14:18] Mahea: Yeah, it's like the 2001 thing. He's out there somewhere in a white room.
[00:14:24] Carter: He does, he does open his, his mask, I think, right? So he like, doesn't just, you know, anyways, I'm getting... we're getting so deep into this movie.
[00:14:34] Mahea: Spoiling sci fi movie.
[00:14:35] Carter: But it fits. That, that scene actually fits. The other thing I think that, that adds to, um, the escapism. I love, love, love the exact kind of very singable melody that the guitar enters with.
[00:14:49] And the things about the guitar, it's doubled at an octave. It might be played with a slide, I think. Plenty of chorus, super lush, plenty of verb. It's just a fantastic melody that gets played throughout the track. It opens with that mel... well, eventually gets to that. I would say that's a big part and kind of crescendos with the, with the intro there.
[00:15:07] It gets reharmonized at the end. So you have, you know, basic chord changes, E flat, C minor, F minor, B flat throughout most of the song, throughout the verse. And then the chorus, you get E flat, G, C minor, B flat, F, F minor, sorry. And then Ab.
[00:15:21] And that same melody gets superimposed over both changes, which I think is really cool.
[00:15:41] track: [music]
[00:15:46] Carter: That's me escaping into the nerdy harmony side of the track a little bit, and I do like doing that from time to time. The other thing, and this is something Seth, I think you do so beautifully in your music, it is something that I'm kind of thinking of as the arrangement in sequencing. So the arrangement is, is more nuanced than what you would look at from 10,000 feet of just like, this is the verse, this is the chorus, this is the bridge.
[00:16:08] There's so many things that, that are being used to shape existing sounds that you're creating. Like say it's a synth patch or whatever, and you're taking that exact same sample that you created and layering it and like using it as an intro. You do that on the demo track that you create in this track, uh, in the course, right?
[00:16:27] So like, you're getting the most out of the things that you have already created. And I think that's happening at play. When you break down this track, there's not so many elements to it, but they're getting reused in really exciting ways. They're getting the most out of them. So my, my question for you, Seth, is just kind of how you approach getting the most out of the sounds that you create yourself.
[00:16:46] Com Truise: What I tend to think is that if I don't kind of reuse or repurpose the sounds of the track that I'm working on, I'll just add too much stuff. I would complicate it.
[00:16:58] And, um, I was doing that yesterday. I started a new track and the first thing I did was like, I really liked this little synth line I wrote and the effects I had on it.
[00:17:07] And then I took it and I ran it through something else and made it all crazy. And it's the... now it's like the, it's kind of like the, um, the breakdown part. And it's like, it's, it's reminiscent of, of kind of the top melody of the song, but it's more like... It's a little more atmospheric and kind of smeared a bit and like, for me, it like ties back to the song so much that way.
[00:17:31] You know, I've been trying to simplify things and kind of subtract sounds and like pick stuff that's really good.
[00:17:38] Carter: And that's something I was really struck by when we were making the course and just watching you in your element and in your process.
[00:17:46] So you do, you do have a lot of tools at your disposal, of course, be they vintage synths or, or soft synths and effects and plugins that you've picked up on the way.
[00:17:53] Mahea: Or just knowledge and ideas.
[00:17:54] Carter: And knowledge and ideas, of course, but you're very good about like restricting yourself to just a couple of things that you find yourself using a lot in that moment and getting the most out of it.
[00:18:06] So like, I think people can listen to very beautifully produced music and be like, "there's so much going on. There's so much going on. There's so much going on." But then you scale it back. Like you say yourself in the course, it's like, it's actually pretty simple. You know, it's just about refinement and taste and getting, getting the most out of, out of the track.
[00:18:24] Mahea: I had a teacher tell me once — a comp teacher, and I always thought this was really smart — that simplicity is a sign that the composer respects their listener. You know, cause like, it... like you can't, you can't take everything in as a listener at once. And at the same time, when you hear those little things that are sort of familiar from somewhere else, you buy in a little bit more. And it like, it's almost like an inside joke and cause you recognize it and it sort of belongs to you in a weird way as a listener. Um, so I just, I love the emotional appeal of that kind of thing too.
[00:18:56] Com Truise: Definitely. It kind of feels like, uh, like your own memories in there somehow.
[00:19:01] Mahea: Yeah.
[00:19:02] Com Truise: Yeah. I just, I also think for me, it's like, I still want you to, for the most part, be able to figure out, you know, or, or at least hear the sound of the instrument, you know? Not necessarily the sound that the instrument makes, but the sound of the sound, the quality of the sound. You know, like those little things.
[00:19:17] And if you just kind of bury them with layering tons and tons of stuff on there, you lose that. And, you know, I, I like the noise. I like the weirdness. I like things that aren't recorded like perfectly, like it's all... it all adds weird character, you know?
[00:19:31] So, you know, I have probably like six keyboards in here, but you know, for me, that seems like a small amount now, you know. Over the years I've collected so much stuff, but I've really narrowed it down.
[00:19:43] And now my big thing is buying, um, outboard studio stuff, compressors, EQs, and things to process the sound. 'Cause like, I already know what sounds I like and what machines make those sounds. So now it's all about processing and like weird sequencing things.
[00:20:00] And I get a lot of boxes and little modules and you know, the Eurorack stuff. And I'm like in a Buchla and you know, that's all... a lot of that for me is going to be mostly kind of in the production kind of, part of my music as opposed to like, you know, writing, um, or making sounds. It's going to be more for like timing and coming up with weird sequencing and things like that.
[00:20:24] Carter: I'm very excited to hear that too. That's, that's sick.
[00:20:26] Um, one thing I have to mention about Beach House. Again, when you listen to this record, you probably think a lot of times, like, "oh man, I can't imagine all the gear used and how expensive it is."
[00:20:38] This group is super synonymous with just like picking up thrift store found synths. Like that, that's what they do. They spend, I think, not a ton of money on, on a lot of the gear that you find makes it onto these records.
[00:20:52] So one, um, one instrument that that's been pretty important, uh, from what I can gather in research is the Yamaha PS-20, which... just looked it up. You can get on eBay for like 150 bucks.
[00:21:04] Like they're, they're out there and the organ sound on this, on this track might very well be the Yamaha PS-20.
[00:21:14] track: [music]
[00:21:14] Mahea: I'm so, I'm so sorry. This is so rude of me, but you're saying "Yamaha" the Canadian way again. And I just need you to say "Yamaha" one time for me so we can replace it in the edit.
[00:21:31] Carter: I can't possibly do that, Mahea. It's, it's, it's in my blood. I have to say Yamaha and I will continue to say Yamaha. I'll probably say it more now that you mentioned it, uh, simply out of spite.
[00:21:43] Mahea: ... He says to his Asian wife. Go on.
[00:21:46] Carter: I can't, I can't say it any different.
[00:21:48] So, um, Alex Scally said, uh, just in, in finding this, um, Yamaha PS-20, uh, "this was incredibly fortuitous. Um, uh, Victoria found this at a thrift store in South Baltimore and it's become one of the most important organs for our sound. When she found it, it was just a transformative experience for us. It's hard to explain. We love every single sound on it. It's from 1981, right between when everything sounded really cheesy and when things sound really analog. So it's this mixture of two sounds that we've really come to fall in love with."
[00:22:19] Love that. Seth, you do this in the course, you talk about chasing... like when you find that synth that you love, and of course, you know, you had the opportunity to go into the OB-X, the Oberheim OB-X of course, and the Juno 106.
[00:22:31] Um, but you also, you talked about this incredible synth that you own yourself, the Crumar Bit One. Um, is that still kind of your go to these days as far as, uh, synths?
[00:22:41] Com Truise: That's my secret weapon, I'd say, because it just sounds weird. It's analog, but it's... I have... it's digitally controlled oscillators, but it's still very wonky and I have... speaking of which, it's definitely a time to replace the battery in it. I think this is my... It's down to like every eight months.
[00:23:03] I should probably, you know, well, you know, hard, hard to, it's just, but I don't ever save the patches, you know? Like I'll record something, because I know it's so wonky. I'm like, you know, I'm not, I don't want to, it's... I don't want to use that sound again once it's used. I'm not, you know, not necessarily a big fan of re... you know, I'll use drum sounds again because...
[00:23:20] Carter: Yeah.
[00:23:21] Com Truise: ...just drums in general, for the most part in the history of music are pretty much very similar.
[00:23:27] Mahea: Hmm.
[00:23:28] Com Truise: As opposed to like synth sounds and stuff. That's why I like the modular stuff because it's, you know, you can save the patches these days, but I do not do anything like that. I just turn it on, record, and then it's gone forever. You know, I'll take a picture of the way the knobs are and the cables are plugged in and hope that, you know, and then... when am I ever going to recreate images of my phone I have like that or..?
[00:23:50] But yeah, the Crumar, that's one of those things that like, you know, I had always looked at it. I remember researching stuff. I've always wanted like a weird Italian synth and like, you know, the Elka Synthex was like completely unobtainable. Like, you know, they're very few and they're very expensive.
[00:24:03] And then there was a Kickstarter campaign a couple of years back where they were taking the old stock of the parts for the synth and they were going to re... they were going to make new ones but it never got funded totally and it was such a bummer so i was like "uh yes" you know? Like "yes take all my money I'll pay for them all," you know like...
[00:24:20] Mahea: Yeah.
[00:24:22] Com Truise: But uh you know, I remember just seeing the graphics of the synth and looking it up on the various websites and... and I was just like "I have to have this," you know?
[00:24:31] And there wasn't an enormous amount of audio demos or anything like that out there in the world, and I had never used it before I got it. You know, I just, I knew I wanted it, you know, it was just like... and it's a cool looking synth. It's like, I don't know, it kind of looks like a retro '80s computer graphics, like graphing, you know, graphics and stuff, uh, like on the, you know, on the, on the, on the panel.
[00:24:54] But yeah, that's my, uh. That's that one that I think, uh, like, that's why "Ultrafiche of You" sounds like that, and that's like probably my main usage of it.
[00:25:06] track: [music]
[00:25:12] Carter: There were some sounds, um, I wanted to show you guys actually on this track, um, "Space Song." Uh, so at 4:20, the... everything is happening in the outro. There's so much. It really... the crazy thing about this outro, it's like, as it fades out, it sounds like every single element that was used to make this track is present, but is still really blending and working beautifully together.
[00:25:41] Um, but the thing that really kind of stood out and it's really buried in the back, uh, might be tricky to hear, but there's these very, um... there's some higher arpeggios happening, but then there's this lower, uh, both in range and mix, arpeggios. That I love, this little line here at about 4:20 of the track.
[00:26:00] track: [music]
[00:26:14] Carter: Vocals get more experimental. They're layered on top of each other. It's just so much happening.
[00:26:19] Mahea: You have the lyrical prosody going on too, right? Which is nice.
[00:26:23] When, like, like when lyrics and music match, you know? So like when the music does what the lyrics are saying in kind of a literal way, like everything in that part is falling back into place as they keep repeating it "fall back into place," you know, um, which I, yeah... I always get really excited and kind of geeky because lyrics are one of my favorite things when they work well, um, about that stuff.
[00:26:45] But this also... the ending also kind of reminds me of like a classical fugue in a little bit... where like you're taking all these simple components.
[00:26:51] Carter: Yeah, that's fair.
[00:26:51] Mahea: Yeah, not like in a like direct way, but it's just like everything's there and if you listen closely, you can pick each thing out, but it works.
[00:26:59] Carter: Yep. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:27:01] Um, the, the last thing I want to talk about on this track is the drum groove.
[00:27:05] And I didn't notice this the first like 10 times I listened to this track probably... the drum groove doesn't change at all. There are adjustments, but the groove, the pattern itself does not change at all, which I love.
[00:27:17] I love kind of hearing tracks because... I think for me, just in drum production, a lot of times it's like, it feels daunting. So you can build a really great track with simplistic drums, but there are some very unique things happening here.
[00:27:30] Um, the pattern doesn't change. The mix gets super narrow at the start of the chorus, which is so, so cool. And then it starts to build back out. Uh, you can hear the verb kind of get automated and you can really hear it in the kick.
[00:28:00] track: [music]
[00:28:02] Carter: You just hear a little bit of like weight coming into the track. And I really think that that's just a longer reverb on, on the drum track.
[00:28:26] And that you can hear too... I think there's some live drums...
[00:28:29] Com Truise: Definitely.
[00:28:29] Carter: ...layered on top of the program drums. Yeah. And so they get brought in and out.
[00:28:34] Com Truise: I'm realizing that that's a huge thing that I enjoy about music is like, you know, having all this width and then being able to subtract it basically. And you really can like push and pull the listener like in so many different ways that like, I probably didn't realize before. Like I was like, "Oh, you can only kind of make them move or, or, or feel with just melody." You know?
[00:28:55] And like, no, it's not necessarily true. You can pan things differently, or, you know, things can go from super stereo, you know, very wide to very narrow. Like, you know, that is a huge thing that I'm trying to experiment with in, you know, this next record that I'm working on.
[00:29:18] track: [music]
[00:29:31] Carter: So Seth, what do we have the pleasure of listening to?
[00:29:34] Com Truise: This is Grouper, uh, "Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping."
[00:29:37] Carter: Which I have to share the name of the record...
[00:29:42] Com Truise: oh, yes.
[00:29:42] Mahea: It's a good name.
[00:29:44] Carter: ...Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill. Incredible. You shed some light on this already, but it was an unexpected choice. When, when you shared it, for me, I was like, "Oh wow." like totally blown away, but yeah. What, what led you to this selection?
[00:29:58] Com Truise: You know, when we were talking about doing the podcast and kind of, we kind of decided on, you know, the escape theme, escape into, um, I think, uh, you know, I was thinking, "oh, I'll do, yeah, I'll do Boards of Canada. Yeah, that's easy."
[00:30:10] Carter: That's what I thought was coming.
[00:30:11] Com Truise: Yeah. You know? And then I was like, "but that's... I don't want people to think that's the only stuff I listen to," you know? Like, 'cause like, it probably seems like that, you know? And then I realized that like, I was like, "I don't know, don't do that."
[00:30:23] I mean, there's... oh my God, I have a million favorite songs, you know? But, like, to pick one that I never really have super publicly talked about. I've talked about Boards Canada and various, you know, artists that I enjoy many times before in interviews or whatnot.
[00:30:37] And so I was like, "I don't think I've ever talked about this Grouper track." And, you know, and I've known about it for probably, I don't know, since it came out in 2008.
[00:30:46] Um, I remember... I used to buy a lot of music when I worked in advertising from a website called Boomkat. I don't know if you ever used that.
[00:30:55] Carter: I don't think I did.
[00:30:56] Com Truise: It's like, uh, they sell mp3s, you know, like digital vinyl. You can buy all this stuff. But, um, they used to have really interesting music that I could never find anywhere else. Um, and I, I think I literally bought this like on a... like I went through these phases where I would just like, you know, judge a book by its cover kind of thing. But if the cover was cool enough, I'd buy it. I definitely bought this record because the cover was like, that's so crazy looking. It's weird. It's like this, you know, it's just crazy. It's a crazy album cover. And um, I definitely put it in the cart and did a checkout and then forgot to listen to it for a while.
[00:31:31] Then I finally came back to it and I was just like, "wow," you know. "This is incredible. This whole record is incredible." And like, I just picked it on a whim, you know what I mean? I had never heard of this artist before.
[00:31:43] And, and I think also for me, I mean, you can clearly hear the guitar in this, you know, in this song and on the whole record. And for a long time, uh, I didn't want anything to do with guitars. I, you know, I grew up, you know, I was listening to, used to listen to rock music and, you know, that's, that's what I first got into. And then once I found electronic music, I was like, anti guitar for a very long time. And especially acoustic guitar.
[00:32:10] I was like, yeah, you're hippies, you know? Just like, I just totally wrote it off. You know, I didn't... I was just like... I don't know.
[00:32:19] I think this is a good representation of me kind of like opening back up to it and realizing like sonic capabilities that I kind of just pushed away, you know what I mean? Because you can do so many crazy things with a guitar that I just like totally neglected to even care about.
[00:32:34] I listen to a lot of music that's like this now as opposed to like a lot... I mean I still listen to electronic music, but I find myself listening to more. You know, uh, definitely ambient stuff and a little more indie stuff and, and, you know, kind of more live instrumentation. And this is like just one song that kind of wraps that up for me. Like,
[00:33:05] track: [music]
[00:33:09] Mahea: It's beautiful. I hadn't heard it before and I'm really glad that I did. I just kind of kept listening to the album after I put it on.
[00:33:15] Com Truise: Oh, I've, this song is, yeah, the song is very, it's, it's, I mean, it's on the shorter side and I've definitely had it on repeat. Like sometimes when I'm flying, I'll just listen to it on repeat for like five hours.
[00:33:25] Mahea: Yeah. What is it? 2:38 or something like that? It's like, it's not even three minutes. Yeah.
[00:33:29] Carter: What's the best way to listen to this track? You mentioned flying, but yeah, where, what's your ideal situation when you put this head, this, uh, this track on?
[00:33:37] Com Truise: I think the moment I really fell in love with this track was maybe like, uh, five years ago was probably when I... you know, cause I, I, I had always been a fan of it, but where it really helped me out was on tour. Sitting in the van hour after hour, just driving through the middle of nowhere in the United States of America, just nothing but like gas stations and Subway food or McDonald's, you know what I mean?
[00:34:04] Like it literally was my escape from that. And uh, that's really... I think I, I, I tend to use this song a lot when I travel. Definitely. It's my escape. It's kind of like, I find it very soothing. It's sad, but it's, I don't know. It's kind of, it's like hopeful at the same time.
[00:34:24] Carter: It is. Yeah. It's harmonically... there's a hopefulness to it.
[00:34:28] I think in, in just... the one thing too, that, that hammered me about this track really is how it's like the mix meets the level of the creativity of the performance. Like the mix is so creative as well.
[00:34:41] I think mixing and production... well, production, I think people have realized that it's a very creative process. It's akin to songwriting, you know, it's so artistic, but for whatever reason, mixing gets lumped into a very technical thing. And there are technical aspects of it, but like you have to be incredibly creative in your mix.
[00:35:00] But yeah, it's just such a delicate... I'm curious your thoughts on the, on the production, of course, of, of this, uh, track and, and the mix itself.
[00:35:09] Com Truise: Oh, it's, to me, it sounds very, oh, it's very warm and dense.
[00:35:14] Carter: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:35:15] Com Truise: It's a super full song that I feel like I would expect to become distorted very easily on, you know, different listening devices. And yes, it's definitely not a song you, you crank up on a Friday night, you know, like, um.
[00:35:30] Mahea: I mean, you might be having a weird Friday.
[00:35:31] Carter: Yeah, that's true.
[00:35:32] Com Truise: True. If you have... yeah, that's, you know, true.
[00:35:36] Carter: You know, again, in the course, you talk about your music being both an escape for the listener, but also for yourself as an artist. But how do you think, you know, musicians and producers and creatives can use the creative process more as an escape for themselves?
[00:35:52] Com Truise: Oh, that's a deep one. Can you say that again?
[00:35:58] Carter: Like, just, uh, so many times I think in the creative process, it can become this, this kind of task where it's like, "I'm just working on something. I'm working on something. 'Cause I want to work on something." But keeping it more of an escape, you know? Like how, how do you inject that, that escapism into your own creative process?
[00:36:18] Com Truise: I think for me, it's like, uh, you know, we haven't talked about it on the podcast, but I, you know, we talk about it a lot on the course about how I came up with this narrative for the, you know, the kind of early, uh, Com Truise records. And I think that was my escape for the most part, like coming up with this narrative that isn't necessarily based on real life or, you know, isn't hard coded to real life.
[00:36:42] Um, But then I just kind of fill my mind with these ideas of this... you know, these little story cues of this kind of made up narrative in my head or on paper or wherever you put it, you know? And I think that's my way of escaping and then I really just kind of let myself feel that way. I'm a super nerd, but, you know, so, you know. I just, you know, it's, it could be like, you know, I've said before, sometimes I'll put, you know, just a, a science fiction TV show, film, whatever, you know, whatever on in the background just for the image quality, you know, just for something to look at, to just kind of... I don't necessarily find it distracting, honestly, but I mean, and the sound's off, but, um.
[00:37:26] I'll kind of go back and reference kind of moments, you know? I find that like it kind of jogs my creativity a little bit. It kind of adds movement in the space where there's like... you know, there's not much movement in a music studio for the most part, at least mine, I'm sitting in my chair by myself. The dog might come in once in a while, but you know, it's pretty, it's... I'm trying to think of a good way to explain why or how, how I even do it. I don't..
[00:37:54] Mahea: I have a question for you that might help, maybe. Just in terms of the narrative, and how that is a creative driving force for you. This is kind of a weird one, so feel free to be like, "that's a weird question. I'm not going to answer it." But when you use the... your narrative to create music, do you feel like, you mentally kind of identify with the protagonist or do you feel like the creator of the story?
[00:38:15] Carter: Hmm.
[00:38:16] Com Truise: I feel like the creator of the story, but I'd also say I would feel, you know, kind of a little bit of the protagonist kind of angle as well.
[00:38:26] You know, like I've said before, I don't necessarily write about personal current events in my life. I feel like it takes me a long time to kind of figure out what they actually meant and how I actually felt. So for me, like, this is a way to kind of translate those memories or ideas in more of a form where I feel like I can shape them a little bit, you know? Um, they can... and they also kind of put up a little bit of distance between... 'cause, you know, Com Truise is this project. I don't... it's not really me as a person, you know? It's not, you know, it's not representational or representative, sorry, of me, you know, as a person. This is like my expression of like, could be about my views of whatever, you know?
[00:39:07] Mahea: Uh huh. I love that.
[00:39:09] Carter: Absolutely. Um, anything else on, on, uh, "Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping" that you want to touch on?
[00:39:17] Com Truise: No, I, I, you know, I just, uh, I know I've used this song in various ways throughout the years. And, uh, you know, I'm a big fan of, of Grouper's music as a, as a whole. And, um, It's just a, it's definitely a special song for me.
[00:39:32] Carter: Yeah. Incredible. And thank you for sharing it with us. 'Cause I think I'll definitely be keeping this one on for, for quite a while.
[00:39:39] But why don't we dive into our last selection of the episode. It is Mahea's pick. And it's a classic.
[00:39:46] Mahea: It's somehow weird to, like, call classical songs "classic."
[00:39:49] Carter: Well, it is, yeah.
[00:40:02] track: [music]
[00:40:08] Mahea: That's all you need to play and people will know what it was. They'll be like, "oh, the song from the end of Ocean's Eleven."
[00:40:13] Carter: I don't remember that.
[00:40:15] Com Truise: That's one good use.
[00:40:17] Mahea: Yeah. I'm pretty sure this is the song that they play when they're in front of the fountains of the Bellagio.
[00:40:21] Com Truise: Oh, yeah. And it's epic there, it just gave me goosebumps thinking about it.
[00:40:25] Mahea: Uh huh. It always does. No matter, like... it's used in a scene in Twilight and I remember seeing that and I was like, "why, like, why is Twilight emotionally moving me right now?" It's the song. It's Debussy.
[00:40:36] Com Truise: Music is powerful.
[00:40:38] Mahea: It is.
[00:40:39] Carter: Mahea, what do we have the pleasure of listening to?
[00:40:42] Mahea: We have the pleasure of listening to my second favorite song by my favorite composer. This is Debussy's Clair de Lune.
[00:40:48] Carter: What's your first favorite song?
[00:40:49] Mahea: Oh, I've talked about it on the podcast before. "Sarabande" from Pour le piano is my favorite song of all time. If I could only listen to one thing for the rest of my life, it would just be that on repeat.
[00:40:58] Carter: When you're floating into space for the rest of your life, it would be, yeah.
[00:41:12] track: [music]
[00:41:13] Mahea: I pulled up a quote that was... I'm going to use "apropos" twice in one minute... that was very apropos for this episode. Um. You know the, the author Matt Haig? I'm so bad with how, how to pronounce people's names, but I think... he wrote, um, Reasons to Stay Alive, among many other things, but so he has all these really beautiful, empowering quotes about life, but one of them is: "How to stop time: kiss. How to travel in time: read. How to escape time: music." And that's all the... that's where I'm going to end the quote, that's cutting it off. But I thought that was interesting that that ties in with this episode so nicely.
[00:41:49] So yeah, so like I said, picking the song was hard for me and pretty overwhelming because there were just so many directions to go. And when I start to feel stressed out, whether it was during that research prep process or, you know... I have a fear of needles so when I get, um, blood tests or vaccines, I go in with my headphones and this is always the song that's on.
[00:42:09] It just kind of occurred to me like, oh, Clair de lune is my escape song. Absolutely.
[00:42:14] Com Truise: That's awesome.
[00:42:15] Mahea: And it's something you escape into because it like, it feels good. It's not just like pulling you out of something into something else that's potentially destructive. You know, like sometimes TV is an escape, but then you're like, aspects of watching TV aren't healthy.
[00:42:26] Carter: You realize you watched three straight episodes of The Sopranos. And that's what you did that night.
[00:42:32] Mahea: Yeah, it becomes a little out of the frying pan into the fire, you know? This always feels... listening to the song always feels healthy and wonderful, if a little melancholy.
[00:42:41] Carter: The beginning of it is so memorable that I always forget where the rest of the piece goes.
[00:42:46] Mahea: I know. It's also just a broken chord. Yeah. Like, it's just one chord broken into two, like... and it's like, the, not to get music theory nerdy, but it's, I'm pretty sure it's just the one chord if I remember correctly.
[00:43:00] track: [music]
[00:43:00] Mahea: That's not a total creative stretch, but something about it is perfect.
[00:43:06] Com Truise: Oh yeah.
[00:43:07] Carter: Seth, do you have... do you play piano? Like, you got all kinds of synths, but yeah, do you ever, do you sit down with the...
[00:43:12] Mahea: He has keyboard chops.
[00:43:13] Com Truise: There is a piano, a real piano downstairs, um, sometimes I'll, I'll put the, uh, field recorder up and then, uh, I guess you could call it play. Let's call it "noodle," you know, noodle a bit. And then I'll, you know, I'll throw it in a granular synth and kind of transform it into something else. Like I've used the... yeah, I've done that a few times. I did that on a Tycho remix and it's going to be all over the record. I did it on, um, Persuasion System on a couple of songs, but.
[00:43:44] I guess it is nice to have a real piano. I grew up with one in the home. My mom, um, she was trained, um, and, uh, my sister took lessons and I never did. I was more into sports, which, you know, it's funny how that works.
[00:43:59] Carter: Which track on Persuasion System?
[00:44:00] Com Truise: "Kontex."
[00:44:20] track: [music]
[00:44:25] Com Truise: But yeah, I also, by the way, have a terrible fear of needles. Um...
[00:44:30] Mahea: We're part of a rare evolutionary, like... glitch.
[00:44:33] Com Truise: My mother, my mother was a nurse when I was young and she used to bring the shots home and give them to me at the dining room table 'cause I would cry if the doctor did it.
[00:44:42] Mahea: Dude, I do that as an adult. They have to like, they have to partially sedate me for that. So...
[00:44:47] Com Truise: I've gotten much better, but I have no tattoos, no piercings. I can't do it.
[00:44:52] Yeah!
[00:44:52] Mahea: I want a tattoo. Can't do it.
[00:44:54] Com Truise: Yeah, I just can't do it.
[00:44:56] Um, but yeah, the, the, yeah, the piano is, is probably my favorite instrument. Uh, I want to make it a bigger part of my music because you don't necessarily hear it in the kind of synthy, you know, synthwave or whatever you want to say... I mean, you know, it's not a huge thing in my kind of genre and subgenre. So I really want to find a way to incorporate it in, in like a nice, um, you know, like a softer way, you know.
[00:45:25] Mahea: That'd be really cool. Speaking of the piano, so the recording that we were listening to, if it's the one I sent you Carter, which I think it was... it claims to be a recording of Debussy playing the piece himself.
[00:45:37] Let me start by saying it probably isn't. But, there are six existing "recordings" of Debussy playing his own music. He recorded some tracks, or some "tracks..." Debussy laid down some tracks, Claude was over here. No, he recorded some pieces on what I believe, I say everything wrong, especially French names and I apologize to the people of France.
[00:46:02] "Welte-Mignon." The second part sounds like the steak, so that part I think I feel good about. But around the early 1900s there was um, uh, like a reproducing piano. The player piano was also being developed around the same time, right?
[00:46:17] It captured the performance in like paper rolls and had the ability to capture things like dynamics and phrasing and pedaling to an extent.
[00:46:26] So there are six of those roles that Debussy sat down and played himself. Wow. Not this piece again, but. That's like early MIDI, you know? Which is pretty cool.
[00:46:36] Com Truise: Oh yeah. My grandparents had the player piano where they had the spools and they would, you know, you'd open up the doors. It was a big, huge piano.
[00:46:44] And I remember 'cause the, the vacuum, it was just like this old '70s, maybe probably '60s, late '60s vacuum that would hang, hung from the basement ceiling. That would... you know, was the vacuum for the thing.
[00:46:57] Mahea: Yeah.
[00:46:57] Com Truise: And you know, we'd take the like "Hello Dolly" and stuff and like, you know, put the, the spools on and it would just pull the paper, would run on the reel and it would go over this little metal bar with all these rectangular holes and as the air sucked through, it would pull the... you know, yeah, the pedals would go down.
[00:47:11] It would do all kinds of crazy... It was the coolest thing ever. They sold it, but.
[00:47:15] Mahea: Oh, that's too bad.
[00:47:16] Com Truise: I know. Um, my grandparents had so many, um. Songs on those rolls. They were just like... it's crazy. That's like a beautiful form of technology.
[00:47:26] Carter: That must have just the way you're speaking about the technical side of that, maybe that's some of the ethos of like where you just dig in and want to understand how everything works.
[00:47:36] Mahea: Yeah, I bet that stuck.
[00:47:37] Carter: Um, yeah.
[00:47:38] Com Truise: Oh yeah. I would put my, you know, I'd put my hand over a certain hole and like cut notes out and it was necessarily a sample chop.
[00:47:46] Mahea: I mean, kind of though! That's like... the player piano is awesome because it's so visual, you know?
[00:47:52] Like piano roll in, I mean, there's the reason it's called piano roll, but like piano roll in a DAW is one thing.
[00:47:58] Com Truise: Yeah.
[00:47:59] Mahea: But like seeing that in person... and I've only seen like two player pianos in my life... like, it just all starts to make sense a little bit.
[00:48:08] It's very cool.
[00:48:10] Com Truise: It's crazy.
[00:48:11] Mahea: But yeah, so Debussy played on a similar device in the early 1900s, which is pretty awesome.
[00:48:17] Com Truise: That's amazing.
[00:48:19] Mahea: Right? It's also interesting. Sorry, go ahead.
[00:48:21] Com Truise: Oh, I just, I was just, it made me realize I never did any research to understand like how they made the... did they, did someone have to like play it perfectly as like... ran a piece of paper and like, it would punch the holes out or was it... was it mathematic, you know? Like how did they, how did they make the rolls like perfect? I don't, yeah, it's crazy.
[00:48:42] Mahea: It sounds like the, the, the thing, the, um, Welte-Mignon, it sounds like that is just the people's performances.
[00:48:50] So in that case, what you hear, which is interesting because this piece too... so it wouldn't have been him who played this, but, uh, the, the rumor with that is that it is probably just another professional pianist of the time. Um, because the other thing is the, the actual piano rolls for this... I don't know if it's the same with player pianos, but, um, they could only be so long. So if you get later into this piece, it becomes a little rushed in this recording, which kind of sucks 'cause Clair de lune's all about the space.
[00:49:20] Com Truise: Yeah yeah.
[00:49:30] track: [music]
[00:49:31] Mahea: But there's all these people online, if you look at the YouTube link, like, basically bashing what they think is Debussy for playing the piece wrong.
[00:49:39] Com Truise: Yeah, the, uh, yeah, I remember the rolls on my grandparents' piano. Like if you didn't stop it, like before, right before it ended, the thing would fly off and... they always had, they always had tape on the, on the, on the little, uh, little paper hooks with the little metal, uh, O ring in it to like, you know, so they always had to get repaired 'cause they just fly off and that would make an ungodly noise that was smacking the piano. Like, yeah, that's...
[00:50:06] I couldn't imagine like, going to like a piano roll store. Like, "Sunday we're having, we're having brunch and getting some piano rolls done with the piano roll shop." You know, that's like crazy.
[00:50:18] Mahea: They probably just all look like scrolls sitting in shelves.
[00:50:20] Com Truise: Yeah, you're pulling out your Harry wand... or your Harry Potter wand, you know?
[00:50:25] Mahea: All mystical. Aw. Music used to be so cool. It still is. But it used to be really cool.
[00:50:32] Carter: I would argue that it's cooler now in a lot of ways.
[00:50:34] Mahea: Sure you would.
[00:50:34] Carter: But yeah. Anyways, yeah. Clair de Lune.
[00:50:37] Mahea: Yeah, Clair de Lune. So the other thing I learned about this song, which again has been my escape song since the first time I attempted to play this when I was like 13 or something like that, um...
[00:50:46] Which, actually, you know what, just aside, this is an interesting piece because I feel like, growing up classical, a lot of the time you force yourself to take a break, like when your hands hurt or when you really just can't get the part right.
[00:50:57] This is one of those pieces where you make yourself stop playing the second you realize that you're getting distracted. Um. And like as an ADHD kid, that was kind of tough, but you're really like, "oh, I'm not in it. I'm not playing it well anymore." And I love that about it.
[00:51:10] Um, but I, I learned, doing research for this episode, that it was actually inspired by a poem of the same name, um, by Paul Verlaine, who I believe was a friend of Debussy's.
[00:51:23] Carter, I'm not going to attempt... I'm not going to make you attempt to read the French unless you want to.
[00:51:27] Carter: I already did and it didn't go very well, so uh, we're not going to do that on the podcast.
[00:51:31] Mahea: Seth, unless you read French fluently, I'll just give us some lines in English.
[00:51:34] Com Truise: Unfortunately, I don't.
[00:51:34] Mahea: I wish I did.
[00:51:40] track: [music]
[00:51:42] Mahea: Clair de lune, by Paul Verlaine.
[00:51:46] "Your soul is a select landscape, where charming masqueraders and Bergamasques go. Playing the lute and dancing, and almost sad beneath their fantastic disguises. All sing in a minor key of victorious love and the opportune life. They do not seem to believe in their happiness, and their song mingles with the moonlight. With the still moonlight, sad and beautiful, that sets the birds dreaming in the trees, and the fountains sobbing in ecstasy. The tall, slender fountains among marble statues."
[00:52:21] I do feel like the scene that that poem describes Is more or less what you get from listening to the song without knowing the poem ever existed. Um, you know, like this idea of like the human soul being this scene where people are dancing in masks and there's a sadness, but it's beautiful and there's love, but there's sorrow.
[00:52:45] Um, I feel all that and I think that's amazing in an instrumental piece.
[00:52:50] Com Truise: Was that written after the song?
[00:52:52] Mahea: It was written before.
[00:52:54] Com Truise: That's pretty, that's amazing. That's, see... we're, we're, you know, we always, we're finding inspiration in all different places.
[00:53:01] Mahea: Yeah. Well, and I know that visuals are a big thing for you in the narratives too. I did not know those were big things for Debussy.
[00:53:10] Com Truise: Yeah. Right. I mean, it's crazy how you can find this information about such, such old music, really.
[00:53:18] And like today you can't, can't even, you can't find like... it's very rare to find like super detailed information on, on songs that maybe they just haven't been around long enough or no one really dug or no one really cared to learn what was behind it.
[00:53:32] You know? I like that stuff, you know.
[00:53:34] Mahea: You just need the academics to get on it.
[00:53:36] Com Truise: Yeah. To have a database of like, yeah, I would love to know what, you know, whatever song was, was really about or inspired by, you know.
[00:53:45] Mahea: Yeah, I don't... so like, I love instrumental music. I've occasionally written it, but I really lean on lyrics when I'm trying to say something.
[00:53:53] What like elements of a piece do you find yourself focusing in on when you're trying to tell a story without words? Like is it a melody thing? Is it..?
[00:54:02] Com Truise: Definitely for me the melody and I really enjoy it. 'Cause like I said, I, I used to like, you know, rock music or, or just music that had, you know, lyrics. And then for a long time I was anti lyrics or, you know, unless it was like a phrase or something.
[00:54:16] So I really kind of now enjoy the challenge of trying to convey my story, um, with just the melody, you know, cause like, uh, it is tricky.
[00:54:27] But I say that, in the same breath, I'd say that my music is open to interpretation. So like, you know, I'm trying to maybe sway you in the direction of the way I felt, but if this makes you feel something a little bit different, like, that's totally fine.
[00:54:41] Like, you know, it's, uh, yeah.
[00:54:43] Carter: Yeah.
[00:54:44] Mahea: It's beautiful.
[00:54:44] Com Truise: All melody. Yeah.
[00:54:46] Mahea: Yeah, if somebody can find something in your song that you didn't even know was there...
[00:54:50] Com Truise: Exactly.
[00:54:52] Mahea: That's why musicians deserve to like exist in the world. That's what we can give people.
[00:54:58] Com Truise: Definitely.
[00:54:58] Mahea: Yeah.
[00:55:00] Carter: Mahea, anything else? Or... 'cause I would like to jump into potentially the...
[00:55:02] Mahea: Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. I'll just wrap it up real quick by saying just with the fact that this is obviously a song that's been used in lots of places, one last thing people should check out if they're in a Clair de Lune mood that I found out in my research was, um... There's a deleted scene in Fantasia that was built around Clair de Lune and it ended up being too long so it was cut for time.
[00:55:21] But you can find it online and it's pretty cool.
[00:55:23] Carter: It does exist?
[00:55:24] Mahea: It does exist online.
[00:55:25] Carter: That's awesome.
[00:55:26] Com Truise: Gonna have to show notes that one.
[00:55:28] Mahea: Yeah, yeah. It's pretty, it's pretty cool.
[00:55:30] Carter: That's awesome.
[00:55:35] track: [music]
[00:55:46] Carter: Thank you so much for joining us. I mean, big thing for us here at Soundfly is your course, your brand new course. Com Truise: Mid-Fi Synthwave Slow-Motion Funk is out and live and people can subscribe and check it out right now at soundfly.com. Of course.
[00:56:00] For folks that haven't checked it out yet, what can they expect to find in your brand new Soundfly course?
[00:56:06] Com Truise: You know, I'd like to think it's a nice kind of, uh, view into my, uh, creative process. The way that I, um, formulate my ideas and the way that they reflect into my music. Um, you know, there's some tips and tricks and, you know, little things that I think are, uh, are fairly useful in my production and a lot of the things I do every day, you know, or at least every day I'm writing.
[00:56:31] So, you know, I think, um, there's some, some cool gear that I get, you know, that I got to work with and a beautiful studio and, uh, uh, with a great team and, uh, yeah. The final product is, uh, is, is worth it, I think. Yeah.
[00:56:44] Carter: Absolutely. I mean, and just to, to add... 'cause that is exactly what it is, but, you know, getting to see you unpack, you know, tracks like "Ultrafiche," of course, and "Existence Schematic," uh, "Compress—Fuse," like that was so sick.
[00:56:58] But then beyond that, you made a track from scratch, which is now one of my favorite tracks of yours, man. It's so sick! And because getting to see it from start to finish, the bass is just... oh my God, it's so sick. The arrangement of this track is so sick. But I think everything that that's in your creative process really shines through in doing that demo from start to... it was literally like, "Hey, why don't you just start making a track and we'll see where it gets to."
[00:57:24] And it was... just like the light, you see the light go on in, in your head and it just kind of was like nonstop, like just, just relentless, uh, creativity, which was so incredible to witness.
[00:57:37] And lastly, uh, Seth, I want to ask just like, what's, what's next in the world of Com Truise? Uh, musically, what's going on for you? Anything..? You don't have to share anything, of course.
[00:57:45] Mahea: Or is there anything next in the world of music for not Com Truise?
[00:57:50] Carter: Yeah. Yeah. What are you up to musically?
[00:57:52] Com Truise: Well, as I said, I, I... I've just been in the process of kind of, uh, acquiring some new pieces of equipment for the next record. Um, most of which have arrived and, um.
[00:58:03] I've basically kind of started, uh, in the past two days, really kind of focusing on it and, and, um, you know, I think I have the narrative locked down, which I won't give away yet, but it's, it's going to be an interesting record and it's going to be a long, a long record if, if Ghostly, uh, puts up with my demands.
[00:58:24] Um, yeah, I picked up a little, I picked up a, like a Tascam, uh, uh, little cassette, uh, four track thing. I'm going to start bouncing stuff to that and, you know, get a little more, you know... so I'm going to, yeah, I'm excited. I'm going to experiment with various forms of media, resampling, reshaping, and, um, there'll be lots of modular synths stuff on it because I really haven't focused on that in my other music and I have a lot of that equipment and I started to feel bad about just, you know, letting it collect dust.
[00:58:56] So um, yeah, I finally have this, uh, studio space that I'm in now kind of, uh, up and running. I recently rewired everything with this digital patch bay so I don't have to unplug or plug wires in or anything. It's all done on the computer with no signal loss and no conversion or anything. So it's really, it's, it's made... you know, running things through an EQ, through an outboard EQ, like extremely easy now, as opposed to before I had to, you know, just, I couldn't remember where stuff were plugged in or anything. You know, like it was, I always had to kind of... if I'm away from home too long, I'd be like, you know, "where did it... where is it?" You know?
[00:59:32] So that's, like, it's got me super inspired now. I can just sit here and work and, like, not really have to focus on, like, plugging things in, you know? Like, it's all ready to rock, so...
[00:59:41] Mahea: Or, like, worrying about your patch cables being...
[00:59:43] Com Truise: Yeah, just, oh. Yeah.
[00:59:45] Mahea: Something's not wrong, you're like, oh, do I have to unplug everything?
[00:59:48] Com Truise: Yes, yes.
[00:59:48] Mahea: That's awesome, you don't have, yeah. And you use the Eurorack stuff, right? Is that what you were saying?
[00:59:53] Com Truise: Yeah, yeah. I, uh, I've been using that for, for, uh, many years now, but I recently, um, it's still, it's still being built, but, uh, I got into the Buchla, uh, stuff, which, um, I built a, a three panel system, which is, uh, ooh, it's going to be a monster.
[01:00:09] I can't, I cannot wait for it to arrive.
[01:00:12] Mahea: Almost feel like christmas is coming.
[01:00:13] Com Truise: Oh yeah. Every time I get mail, it's Christmas. I'm like super lucky.
[01:00:18] Mahea: I want that. That's awesome.
[01:00:23] Carter: And that's going to do it for this episode of Themes and Variation. Thank you so much for listening.
[01:00:29] If you'd like to dive into all of the tracks mentioned on this episode, there's a link to a Spotify community playlist in our show notes. Feel free to check them out there.
[01:00:38] And folks, if you enjoyed the show, be sure to give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
[01:00:45] We'd really appreciate it. We'll be back in two weeks with a new episode and a new theme.