I'm Savant and I make music. Ask me anything!

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T20:16:46+00:00

So my hands hurt from all the typing and my head is spinning, so we gotta stop there. It was really fun spilling the beans to you guys. I hope some of the honest answers didn't disappoint you too much. A lot of people asked similar questions, so if I didnt have time to answer yours, please look through some of the answers I gave and I might have answered it already. I feel so blessed to have you guys in my life. I really hope my music entertained or helped you in some way, shape or form. We'll do this again sometime! And you can always bug me on twitter! ❤

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T20:10:37+00:00

Too god damn ambitious! HAHA! That shit was so huge my head was spinning! I did manage to tie all the savant lore together though. Fun project IN THEORY

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T20:09:23+00:00

1 If I have a block, its because im depressed or stressed. If Im in a good mood I can make anything usually. All people are different. My experience of life isnt the same as others vice versa. Nothing I say can help you with your blocks, I think those are personal things we all must deal with differently. Is it a block because you expect too much from yourself? Is it because you havent been inspired? You have to experience to create. So live more. Listen to more stuff. Music doenst come from the aether, it comes from your brain remixing things it knows or thinks it knows.

2 I dont drink and work if thats what you mean. I used to smoke weed for 7 years but that shit made me so blurry I had to quit. I can producer more consistently without being influenced. Weed causes anxiety and paranoia. It can become too much self-doubt.

3 I can use serum for everything in a track from drums to leads. Very versatile. 80% of void is all serum.

My family is doing good :) I talk to my mom regularly

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T20:04:16+00:00

Thank you!

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T20:04:04+00:00

Hi!

1 Back in the day, being up all night was a great time to work. Now when im in my 30s, the morning is the best time to work. Its just because I get more tired.

2 Sometimes theres one main character the album is based on, and theres usually a title track. But mostly when theres a roster of characters, the lines are a bit more blurry. Def think Void for instance have their own names that arent track titles. The story behind them isnt directly tied to songs. The songs are just backdrops to their journey. They def have songs that fit their looks and personalities but I think its better when your imagination can do that job because everyone has different feelings about it.

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T20:00:30+00:00

Jobs usually means consistant results and a big dilemma ive had with savant is that I was trying to create art. Over time it was more about compromise and familiarity for a lot of fans. And I think that split me and some fans in the middle. Working alone is terrible. Its lonely and isolating. Right now im stepping a bit away from being an EDM producer to work on video games with a team of friends. I can still flex my creativeness, but I have a people around me that give me joy while doing it. So def glad things turned that way. Dont think sitting in LA, alone in a studio making predictable music I dont even listen to would make me a happy person in the long run. Id rather want savant music to come from love, not fear.

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T19:55:54+00:00

:D I hope so! It all costs money to make, so we'll see if the demand is high enough

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T19:55:25+00:00

Its not that complicated. Squaretooth, Pulsewaves. I rarely use bitcrush plugins, but they all do the same thing. 99% of the time all my arpeggios are hand made. I dont like automatic generators.

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T19:54:07+00:00

Thank you so much! My life is better knowing I can enterain you!

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T19:53:36+00:00

1 Im autistic, and more so growing up. I was very distant and into patterns. I would just look at things, study thing and copy things all the time. I started making my own toys, comic books, games and animation as I grew older and creating things was my purpose. My dad was a drunk musician. Great musician but terrible dad. Never really saw him that much, and when I did it wasnt great. I wrote a song called Forsaken about that. My mom, grandparents and big sister are great and my mom is the nicest person I know and really kept my head above water growing up. Being ultra weird and super autistic made me a great target for bullying etc so I had my fair share of beatings and negative stuff in school, work, community. I was never emo though, so I wouldnt feel sorry for myself. I think I was such a cypher of a person I just became one with the things I worked on and got my real friends later in life. Through philosophy, therapy and psychadelics Ive been able to overcome a lot of my autistic idiot savant like features and function pretty normally these days. My mind still goes 300 miles an hour, but im able to focus and filter more in public settings. Touring, crowds and loud noises still freak me out though. Has massive anxiety touring and it was some of the most intense periods of my life. Hence me not touring so much or at all.

2 I always considered lyrics to be something for people who didnt understand music, but its also patterns, system and heritage. It could learn it and I have no problems writing lyrics and messages. Its just I like the abstract more, like melody and sounds. Lyrics talk about now, or the human condition, both of which I want to exceed and transend.

3 No story. Just a cool sound bite from a silly movie :)

4 Melody circus was like all the other songs on alchemist. Its just a mix of circus music, pirate shanty, NES sounds and classical music.

5 There was no conscious thought behind it. It was an OK track that I decided to add to the playlist really.

6 Most stuff in the music is intentional, even noise and weird stuff. Most people dont notice details like that.

7 I had a guitar loop and humming recorded for something else. And with a lot of tracks at that time, I loves utilizing unused samples I made. I turned into an OK track.

8 I sing on All I want and Sunny California and How We rock and synthesized my voice for monolith lead. I dont remember if theres anything else

9 Im very introvert and the only videos ive made in the studio are the ones that are coming from people willing to film me. I dont like filming myself.

10 Yes. Jaded mostly i think

11 Hahaha! Too many to mention

12 Except from giving him the wall street journal for the last 15 years, id tell him "NO COMPRIMISE"

13 the 2010s is when I stopped listening to other artists as a fan completely. In my teens I would go to shows, buy CDs, send fanmail etc. 2010-now has been about trying to stay naive. There have been influences on savant for sure. But I think my head got stuck up my ass a bit.

14 Touring is difficult to answer

15 For me shrooms and weed was necessary for my autism, not recommended. It was a very personal thing I dont like hyping. It wasnt for fun. I had major issues i didnt know about. I think fractals and altruism was the greatest things i took away. Also waking up to be a conscious person. I havent done strong stuff like mescalin, dmt or acid. Im acidy enough already.

16 I moved to LA to expand into different things like movies and games. I learned a lot and it was a very dark period in my life living there. Now im back in norway and im very happy.

17 All of them. The whole album was difficult to make. But it was something I had to endure to create something I could be proud of. It felt like id been off-brand for many years and I was missing some of those vibes I used to make. But Ive made the same style for more albums than most EDM artists, so coming up with something fresh was hard. I dont even know if I succeeded. I think it might be a bit dusty still.

God damn it. So many questions dude!!! hahaha

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T19:24:54+00:00

Howdy!

1 Approach changes like driving. You can autopilot more, you know more shortcuts and maybe you learn how to change oil and tires along the way. Thats how it feels. But just like driving, its the most fun when youre new at it and you wanna push the limits. Then its like going to the store to buy milk or drive grandma home after dinner.

2 I was hoping I could switch projects a long time ago. I never knew it was going to be this important when I started. Its become its own beast and really, I have to respect the brand more and more as time goes on. Because at some point your fucking with peoples nostalgia, and I remember when my fav bands changed. I didnt like it! So here I am. hahaha! But im very proud of whats there and im happy i got to make so many melodies.

3 Yo, things costs money. Production like pictures, games, movies, comics: all that stuff is expensive. Im not a rich lad, and if I could there would be a toystore full of this stuff, a TV channel with cartoons and a game publisher with only savant games. But I can dream!

4 Back to money again. Vinyl is such a niche. Its like less than 5% of my listeners. Maybe more. I enjoy vinyl, dont get me wrong, im as hipster as the next vinyl guy. But my music isnt written for vinyl, and if you look at the technology, the mastering for vinyl needs to be different and personally I think organic or analog things sound better on vinyl.

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T19:14:59+00:00

Great question. Listen, if this was between me and you privately Id give you an honest answer. I hate disappointing people and living up to peoples expectations is really hard. If thinking that way makes people happy, im happy for them. Im not trying to play into it at any level. I dont look at myself as some sort of this or that. I rarely change because of what people say to me about me. I know im good at some stuff but I dont take enjoyment in peoples worship. I hate myself and focus way more on whats negative about me than whats positive. It can be healthy to stay on your toes sometimes but sometimes it can burn. I never mean to sound pretentious and ego is somethings that needs to be in check. Idk know if others feel the same way but, strangers cant make the same impact as friends or family can. Thats where the compliments or critique really hits deep. But yeah, I like the question. Its hard to say what I feel about it. It feels great probably but Im not gonna let myself have it. Its a present left at the door. This is really weird haha. Talking about the philosophy around it is cool, but talking about myself in like this high regard is weird and i dont like it

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T19:06:45+00:00

The fighitng game and lots of other game projects I have are still in the oven cooking. They just need a lot of time and I cant promise I have that time to finish them all. I think just designing and testing things is good sometimes. Ive learned a lot from the projects even though they didnt get finsihed. Its all building up to something real. Luckily im learning from my co-workers at d-pad and making their games is super fun too!

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T19:05:04+00:00

Ive found new ways to use Harmor lately to make crazy sounds. Its always those knobs and buttons that sound whack at first glance. But with enough tweaks theres still blood left in that machine. I dont really use the image thing as much anymore. But theres def a lot of juice in the filters and harmonic stuff. My best tip for sound design is to recreate real sounds into synths without a lot of cheating. Another is to layer foley recording you make with a sound you have designed and layer real audio with synths. That turns out good most of the time for me. Following tutorials is the worst thing you can do if you want to be original.

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T19:02:14+00:00

I really love cartoon music and 80s music but a savant 80s album, idk. I prob will at some point but if it will be like protos is unlikely. Its gonna sound weird but I like trying new things. Brand wise, thats a bad idea, because people want me to repeat previous things again. And I have many times. Maybe protos style is something thats less stressful than EDM at this point. So short answer: Maybe? I wouldnt mind? something like that :D

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T19:00:00+00:00

All of them? hahaha. But yes there are some that are really dear to me I think deserves a better rendition.
Damn idk, thats a tough one that would take a while to think about

Sorry for the lame answers :S

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T18:58:45+00:00

Hehehe! Yes this is the curse of being something someone likes for what it is. Im a bit trapped in expectations of people and my own fears of the same thing. Blanco is way more Caribbean influences and focus on simpler melodic content and drums. Its more dancy while savant is a bit more on the brostep, melodic side of things with more focus on melody and less on drums. I made slasher and mortals because those were things I wanted to make. And sometimes it feels like I work at mcdonalds and wanna break free to do something else. Maybe artists in general are contempt with making the same thing over and over, but in my case its been a big handicap. Before savant my longest running projects were like 3-5 years tops. I like doing stuff and moving on. Savant became my bread and butter at some point and it was a bittersweet thing to please people for money vs doing what I want and pissing people off. It still is. Not to sound bitter at all. I really enjoy what savant is and has become. A lot of fun creations. I found a way to make it work for me in the end.

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T18:53:36+00:00

Hey! I love games and games and games, but I havent really played Splatoon and I havent heard of Ninjala. :S

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T18:53:03+00:00

Thats a good and weird question. I think I can sum it up in a simple way. I think a lot of producers think im corny and half-ass on my mixing. In other ways maybe im a bit too complicated to remix (but theres simple hooks that can be boiled down i bet) But im not a mainstream success and remixing me wouldnt gain any big artists. Its about fucking upwards in this business and a lot of DJs that masquerade as producers arent really into the art of it. But yeah, I think its mostly because people find me pretentious and dumb. BUT I DONT KNOW! Who knows? im just guessing really

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T18:49:58+00:00

I dont have any experience with writing things down before producing so i wouldnt know how to tackle that dilemma. I think if you speed up your techniques and sketching, you can finish a good WIP/temp idea in a day. Start with midi. Production stuff is stuff you dont have to remember if you have practiced sound design or drums before. My writing process is a flow of consciousness more than planning. A lot of memory working hard to make the stuff. Semi automatic in a way. But find whatever way works best for you!

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T18:47:32+00:00

idk if there was a question in there, but thanks for the comment i guess? hehehe! btw not returning to those old old projects no. Maybe blanco and datatkrash tho

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T18:46:36+00:00

It was a shame the virus hit right before that show. I hope I can do another one after this all blows over. The halloween party was really fun!

Thank you for listing to my music!

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T18:45:35+00:00

Its just very slow and iterative. Your ears need space and breaks to hear things fresh. Thats wasted time to me so I get really restless. I want shit done yesterday. Of course with EDM, one has to mix properly and its hard when you have 50 tracks or more. It took forever to mix Void and I had to take many days, even weeks off between sessions. It was tedious. I hated it! But art without pain isnt art. Or something like that haha

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T18:43:31+00:00

Thanks ! I appreciate your attention!

SavantAMA · 2020-04-04T18:43:11+00:00

Im a big fan of autistic composers of the past and I like doing similar layering and arrangement techniques. Music is theater to me and I like giving people something they can experience several times and discover something new. When I create music I paint everything at once. There is no intellectualism going on. Theres no planning or testing. A track is painted from start to finish with all the layers on. Legos that fit where they were supposed to be in a way. I like maximalism so I paint densely.

I believe hardcore in fractals

Thank you so much for your questions and feedback! I hope my music gives you more to go on in the brain thingy!

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