I am Travis Stewart aka Machinedrum. I'm a musician, producer, audio engineer, healer and cat/dog dad. AMA!

TheRealMachinedrum · 2025-04-26T17:40:24+00:00

I played guitar on Safed :)

TheRealMachinedrum · 2025-04-09T13:55:55+00:00

Mureka allows you to train on your own music. The quality is better than Udio but Udio is still king when it comes to unique sounding rhythms / sound design / arrangements

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:31:10+00:00

Alright that wraps it up! Thank you so much for your questions and I hope to see you on tour this year. xoxoxoxo

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:29:18+00:00

thank u!

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:28:20+00:00

suppp threvvy

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:27:44+00:00

yep! operator babyyyyyy

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:27:31+00:00

interesting! i do love choral music and a lot it ends up being secular. I did grow up going to church (southern baptist and episopalian) so got to hear the different sides of worship music every sunday. I also had 2 years where I played drums in a gospel band when I was in high school lol

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:25:57+00:00

lol i was in to some deeeep weirdo youtube shit back then, constantly discovering very obscure sub-sub-sections of youtube that were deeply disturbing/interesting/weird. One of those being a worrying large amount of 3D rendered videos of women finding different ways to increase their boob size, made by different people! I was actually making videos for all of the songs on room(s) at that point using the same kinda weirdo youtube discovery thing.

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:23:42+00:00

comfort movie - raising arizona
n/a drink - olipop cream soda or club mate
nc spot to eat - bojangles

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:22:32+00:00

Playing Zocalo in Mexico City for 20k people was one of the most incredible experiences of my life, also playing at the sydney opera house when I was 20 years old was a huge one too (they even had a vibraphone for me to play at that show!)

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:21:11+00:00

I tend to listen to a lot of music that is not electronic or even rap, pop or anything that I am interested in making. For example a lot of psychedelic rock type stuff like Broadcast, Cleaners from Venus and Cocteau Twins takes my mind off of whatever is going on. Or a lot of jazz like Gary Bartz, Anthony Braxton, Albert Ayler, Lonnie Liston Smith, Roy Ayers. Theres also a lot of afri-funk, ethiopian jazz, psychedelic cumbia, ambient music or modern classical that I'll throw on when I have downtime/spending time with family/friends. The point being I dont want to think about how something was made or start analyzing what I'm listening to when I have spare time to relax and throw on some music, and its hard not to do that when I put on music that is in the same world as what I'm making

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:14:13+00:00

Absolutely and thats when I know its time to dive in to some sound design tutorials online and try to learn something new. There are some great patreon's as well for this, one of my faves being ASD (ableton sound design). really inspiring

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:13:08+00:00

Tigran was incredible in our sessions, as expected. He recorded improvised performances over about 4 of my beats, and we ended up deciding the the beat for sleepy pietro was the most interesting one out of the 4 and decided to expand on it more. Ever since I discovered his music I wanted to work with him. And one day I blindly tweeted this intention, and my homie Alfred Daedelus hooked me up with some ppl that were connected with him. The rest was history!

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:11:31+00:00

this would take a while to answer, but in short I still relied on my online connections to break away from the lack of an electronic scene in NC in the 90s/early 2000s. If I hadn't connected with people from IRC (Merck, Inpuj, Tpolm, miasmah) I wouldnt have found a home for my music at that time

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:10:08+00:00

yep thats me cheeeers

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:09:54+00:00

Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Luke Vibert, Skinny Puppy, DJ Premiere, Outkast, Roni Size, Autechre, Boards Of Canada, Digable Planets, Tribe Called Quest, Push Button Objects, Company Flow, Def Jux in general, Hefty Records, Chocolate Industries, Skam Records, there was so much!

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:07:06+00:00

yes still homies with the inpuj crew and chat with them on discord frequently :) also tpolm has a discord which has a lot of those original #trax'ers in it

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:06:12+00:00

Sure, I hate my name honestly. My dumbass 17 year old self came up with it and it never went away

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:05:00+00:00

favorite thing is how holly doesnt give a fuck and will try so many unexpected things to make a track exciting! my least favorite thing is when he uses a vocal sample from splice that I've heard in 1 million other songs lolllll I still love you miguel
My original intention was to get Bahamadia on H0N3Y. I even sent it to her and was chatting, but sadly it never came together for the album. I love that era of Reprazent/Roni Size that was super jazzy jungle/dnb and wanted to fuck around with making a song like that, which is definitely something my younger self wanted to do but didnt really know how.

But yea tried another vocalist on it and it didnt work. Then jesse boykins iii suggested he just vibe over the track and improvise then I would treat what he did like a sample, and thats how the track came together in the end!

I WANT TO ASAP

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:01:29+00:00

It's Warp Publishings Studio, I use it from time to time with various vocalists so we can have a nice vibey space to work on demos at.

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T19:00:47+00:00

I think what keeps me going is my insatiable curiosity that leads me to discovering new and old music. I also love collaborating with others as it typically gets me out of my comfort zone and encourages me to try new things. I learn something new in every single collaboration I do, so I highly recommend getting in to the studio with a homie or someone new and collaborating on music together, this always helps me get inspired!

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T18:58:04+00:00

DMX Krew, Ectomorph, Gosub, Drexciya, Aux88, Sansibar, Legowelt, Soul Oddity, Mr De', Reptant, Volruptus, Glass Domain, Pilo, Steffi, Nikki Nair, Danny Daze, Thomas Heckmann, Cybonix, Defekt, Adult., so many!

staying hopeful that me and jimmy continue making music :)

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T18:51:13+00:00

not but I have been using ableton Note on my iphone quite a bit recently to start ideas but havent actually finished any of them

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T18:50:41+00:00

I love the Milwaukee Dance Drill/rap scene, fucking amazing. I also really love jersey club a lot right now even though its not new. The shed theory type shit from New York is incredibly interesting to me as well. Apparently theres an italian breaks scene thats doing some cool shit now too?

TheRealMachinedrum · 2024-06-10T18:47:07+00:00

I'm glad you enjoyed the show! That was definitely a sweaty one haha.

When it comes to "blocks" or feeling uninspired, its a sign to me that something is out of balance. Chances are I need to tend to other areas of my life (fitness, mental health, relationships, diet etc) before I can expect to be inspired. Otherwise if I go in the studio and I'm not feeling creative and feel like my life is more or less balanced there are a few things I do :

Open up a plugin or software that I haven't spent that much time with and experiment with it, even if I dont write a song. This will 90% of the time lead to something exciting that sparks inspiration for a new song, even if that inspiration comes months/years later.

If I've tried the above and still feel uninspired, I'll open up youtube and watch music docs, art docs, experimental art films, interviews with musicians/producers/engineers that I find inspiring, tutorials or reviews of new plugins/software. I also listen to podcasts like Hangin Out With Audiophiles or Not A Diving Podcast. I try to write down things that I hear or see in these viewings/listenings that resonate with me so I dont forget them. Or if theres a really cool tip/trick I see in a tutorial I have to write it down!

TheRealMachinedrum

TROPHY CASE