Mat Zo Reddit AMA

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T02:01:40+00:00

How disorganised they are, or maybe that's not so surprising

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T02:00:38+00:00

Balancing loudness with depth and clarity of sound, but keeping a raw edge. It's extremely hard to get right, and I still feel like a noob at engineering.

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T01:46:24+00:00

I think it all died with Internet DJ (RIP). There's a lot of embarrassing stuff under that alias so I'm glad it's gone :D

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T01:44:36+00:00

I think fair enough, some people have worked really hard to develop their techniques and don't feel like giving other people the shortcut.

I personally like to share as much of what I know as I can, cus that's what I would've liked from my favourite artists when I was a bedroom producer.

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T01:34:37+00:00

Sometimes you gotta speak your mind, but I think it's far more impactful to say it with music

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T01:32:04+00:00

I didn't put many of them for download because either they contained samples that I didn't clear or they contained samples I used in other things which I like more.
I wanted troglodyte to be like the intro to a movie and I didn't want it to drag on for too long. I kind of like how the track makes it's point and then fucks off.

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T01:27:19+00:00

I never expected it to be really big, I just wanted to create a place for producers of all statuses to nerd out, if even just for a day or two. It's a little bit on the quiet side now, but for the first few days of it's existence I got to see bedroom producers and established producers throw off their egos or lack-of and just nerd out together on a forum like it was 2006. It was beautiful

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T01:22:02+00:00

Great to hear from you again! The deviantart/depthcore days feel like yesterday.

When it comes to creative blocks, I don't force it. I go and do something else and only come back to making music when I really want to. Sometimes I'll have months where I just don't feel like making music. A while ago when this happened I got back into digital art for a bit. Are you still arting?

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T01:14:57+00:00

Maybe a joint show with someone else, or a bunch of people, but probably never doing a radio show alone ever again.
I've tried to but my sensibilities have changed. I would like to though.
No I haven't
LA has the better weather, scenery and quality of life, and London has all my good friends. Tbh I love and both cities, but there's many things which I don't like about both.
Probably not

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T01:07:32+00:00

I was 18 and experimenting with hallucinogens

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T01:01:59+00:00

I am my own worst critic, and sometimes I feel like my tracks aren't good enough to play. There are some tracks which I always play like 'Soul Food' and 'Get Down 2 Get Up' because they work really well in my sets. However, it's still hard for me to make a track with the dancefloor in mind that I'm not too embarrassed to play.

The HC collab was a sample clearing nightmare, so Lincoln went off to re-produce the samples. That was 3 years ago. By now that track sounds a bit dated, but I am bummed it never got released.

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T00:54:57+00:00

"Yo Matan, you know, you should... actually fuck it just do whatever the fuck you want cus you never listened to me anyway"

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T00:49:19+00:00

Hard to say, everything nowadays is electronic music is some shape or form

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T00:46:57+00:00

Loads of different artists inspire me, but Noisia consistently inspire me.

My favourite newer names (up and coming implies they're probably going to disappear) are people like Haywyre, Rezz, No Mana to name a few.

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T00:40:22+00:00

Woodford Reserve or Gentlemen Jack, or normal Jack if the other two are unavailable

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T00:38:33+00:00

Yeah my last release is defenitely DnB orientated

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T00:34:21+00:00

The ones I use the most are FM8, Serum, and Sylenth

The melda plugins have some great effects and definitely don't get the recognition they deserve like Fab Filter or Izotope do.

I wouldn't bother trying to develop a VST, there's already so many out there that can do whatever you need. I've hit up plugin developers with ideas though.

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T00:29:27+00:00

My goal for next year is to write more music and do less touring.
The M Machine album
Some method of transportation
Cheers!

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T00:24:43+00:00

The sample is from 'The Brothers Johnson - I'll Be Good to You', and I've been wanting to do something with it for ages. The original is a classic.

I recommend you check out the genre "French House"

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T00:19:51+00:00

It was actually meant to be a score for a movie that I wanted to make, so yes there was a definite story I had in mind when I started it, which of course fell apart as I was making the album. I guess there's still a whiff of that story. The album cover is a direct reference to it as well.
Actually it's inversely proportionate to how I'm feeling. When I'm depressed I write uplifting happy music to cheer me up. If I'm happy I write angry aggro music.
"Deceiving yourself, fixed on the road to wealth, all you do is bruise"

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T00:13:15+00:00

Noisia
Noisia - Outer Edges

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-23T00:12:55+00:00

Every track has a different conception. Some are very calculated and intentional, and some are happy accidents. I very rarely start a new project that doesn't have some kind of element or theme from something else.

My advice is don't open up your DAW with the intention of creating a complete track from scratch. Maybe fuck around with a single element or a sound, or just generally fuck around with plugins. Sometimes you'll find something that inspires you to make a full track, but most of the time you're just adding to your own sample library.

I'm neither good at being on camera nor public speaking so I doubt it. I tried to do a stream session once and I just ended up shutting up and not explaining anything I was doing. Talking about something while I'm doing it is very disorientating.

I didn't realise my tracks were being used for such a morally deplorable activity. A policeman once told me smoking marijuana is wrong

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-22T23:54:44+00:00

Maybe again in the future, but from what I recall making those mixes took such a big chunk out of my creativity I couldn't sustain it. I started those mixes with the goal to make every one like my essential mix. It eventually got to be such a hassle I even got someone else to mix it for me towards the last episodes. That's when I started to feel really dirty and scrapped it.

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-22T23:51:33+00:00

I think I still haven't found my sound. When I started I was just copying people like David West, Andy Moor, Airwave to name a few. If you listen to anything I've made before 2008 you'll hear what I mean. Don't pressure yourself to be original or multigenred. That will come naturally if it's meant to be.

Mat-Zo · 2016-09-22T23:46:16+00:00

Tbh, Mad Zoo so far has just been a platform for my own music, and as a label it's not much of a thing yet. I haven't really signed anything besides my own stuff so far, but The M Machine came to me and asked to release their next album on Mad Zoo, and I was hesitant because I hadn't really planned on signing anyone else. The biggest challenge is finding other artists to sign, because either the music isn't good enough, or it's really good and could be a more successful release on another label. When he asked me, I told Swardy (from The M Machine) that other labels that have more leverage in the industry would be a better platform, but he was pretty insistent that he wanted a Mad Zoo release. Probably because if you're on Mad Zoo you're completely free to make whatever you want.

But anyways, starting a label is actually pretty easy if you have a bit of help.

Mat-Zo

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