 Galapagoose is a great name. Where did it come from?Back in high school i was huge fan of tortoise and was listening to a remix of a tune of the name Galapagos (after the islands). Was trying to piece together an aesthetic and concept for my own musical endeavors and the imagery of those islands really gelled. I was having recurring dreams of godzilla-esque mutations and somehow everything fell together into a genetically mutated creature with an electrified brain bubble. My friend bonnita recently made a lovely rendition of the otherwise faceless creature.
I saw on your facebook that your off to New York soon, what's happening there? I've just got myself set up over here in new York, living out in Brooklyn tucked away from too many distractions. presently I'm producing my friend Young Magic's new record coming out on Carpark, and playing in his live band. Also spending time with my friend and collaborator % working on some software projects and crafting tunes together. Amidst all of this I'm writing new tunes and preparing for a couple of releases coming out later in the year. I'll be sticking around the states until late April when I'm coming back to Melbourne to play some big shows and hopefully launch one of my upcoming releases.
Your music is built on samples and beats, how much time do you spend on the computer editing samples and working with effects compared to jamming with a live sound? At the root of most of my tunes is a live jam which I'll bang on for up to an hour trying out different patterns, tempos and feels until i hit on a number of ideas that resonate. From there i sequence out a rough edit of the tune with different sections and then start building up all the complementary sounds around it. My computer editing process is generally quite quick as I've been working with the same setup for a number of years now and feel pretty comfortable. the hardest part is simply imagining which parts should fit together and structuring the thing into a cohesive whole.
What do you use to make your music? My setup is pretty basic especially at the moment as I'm traveling. I carry my laptop, mpd drum pads, monome128, rme audio interface, and a little synth called tetr4. From here i've been borrowing guitars and keyboards and whatever other instruments i can find and just recording them directly through the computer's mic or a usb condenser mic. on the laptop my live setup is based around some software i've been writing called mlrv2 which is freely available and open-source. this program allows me to chop up longer samples into fresh new compositions with my monome controller, though it's probably best explained through one of the many videos online. When I'm producing tracks I'll run the audio outputs from mlrv2 into ableton where I'll capture my live jams and then build up everything around that using overdubbed parts. I don't use a lot of plugins or virtual synths but have an absolute love for audio damage's dubstation which i drip all over everything. Regarding samples, i don't use a whole lot these days, and have been trying to focus more on recording my own parts and using these as my initial samples to slice up. still i've been unable to find a way to create as rich a sound as you can pull from vinyl, and a number of samples off cassette have provided thick textural backdrops to my more recent pieces. i'll continue to use samples in the future, but probably more for the warmth and dirty textures than melodies or harmony.
How long have you been making music? I got my first guitar when i was about 7 and played all through my school years. i picked up saxophone at around age 13 or so and started my multi-instrumentalism from there. these days i'll pick up most instruments and be able to bash out a few ideas. I started recording my compositions around age 16 and finally discovered beats and the monome in my first year of university. So i guess galapagoose has been around for about 5 or 6 years now though i didn't really start making anything i was terribly proud of until 2008.
How long did it take you to start putting your music out there and playing live shows and how did you get your music heard when you first started? I was playing in an electronic duo called luvtek which introduced me to the whole world of samples and crafting drum beats. The monome came along at the perfect time for me to start using it to perform with that band, and I guess the galapagoose beats came out of the dust of that project when i wanted to make more abstract instrumental pieces. I started listening to the whole LA beat scene around the same time and it was maybe a year of working on my own sounds before i played on a friend's radio show. My friend mikekay had my play a couple of mini-sets between bands at a show in late 2008 and from there it was just the luck of having different influential people happening to be around the shows i was playing. I think the whole idea of seeing someone play this kind of music live really excited a lot of people and i think that's been one of the greatest influences in how i've progressed with my live shows.
When do you best make your music? The essence of my sounds are created in my bedroom either early in the morning or late at night. I don't particularly prefer the rest of the environment but try and let it affect the sounds that come out. that being said I often find I'm far more prolific in warm weather, but my attention to detail is heightened when I'm rugged up on a cold night focussing on the sounds. recently i've been making tunes in cafes and on trains and planes which tends to lead to completely different sounds and ideas. Keeping the location fresh has been really helpful to not get stuck in a rut, and this trip to NY has certainly been helping on that front too.
What do you do right after you have finished a track you are happy with? Probably just run around like a giddy little child and high five anyone I can find. Then turn it up as loud as the stereo will go and jam out. After that though i'll probably turn off all music and give my ears some time to relax and recover!!
You're playing a gig, you're building up a song, the crowd is loving it....then you computer crashes. What do you do? Is this a fear when playing live with computers? I guess some kind of hand-clapping game or maybe get on the mic and beatbox a little (I'm really bad!). Generally though my whole setup is super stable and i've never had any issues with crashing in a live set. Also because I run ableton in the background for shows i have a couple beats that are ableton only on the drum pads and i can use those if something were to go catastrophically wrong with my own software. generally I've prioritised a stable system in my setup though so i don't have much to worry about.
Your live playing is very finger intensive, do you get RSI? Has it helped to improve your video games (if any) of vise versa? Injuries are definitely a concern with any instrument and i've certainly had my share of finger problems. Not so much RSI in my wrists but i have had a number of issues arise from hitting drum pads too hard and pulling nails away from fingers.. nasty stuff. Working on my technique to avoid injuries is also something i've been talking about with a number of people and thanks to Daedelus i've now got some hand warmup exercises. I also play a pretty mean mortal kombat... scorpion ftw!
Was it hard to get the hang of playing beats on your mpc with your left hand and then samples on your monome with your right? This is an interesting point as I so frequently get asked if I'm left handed due to the layout I run with. personally though it was just the natural way of setting everything up once I had the tools at the ready. I think I tried both ways, but felt my right hand was better at the intricate chordal passages on the monome and left for the raw feel. their must be some brain chemistry science that explains this better than i can though! It certainly wasn't an easy transition to playing in this style, and i've only been at it for right on a year now but slowly I can feel the coordination becoming more and more solid.
What do you think about other artists sampling your music? I strongly encourage it as long as they are doing something interesting and not just ripping me off! It would also be pretty lovely if they let me know too so I could have a listen!
What are you listening to at the moment? Last.Fm tells me i've been listening to plenty of lukid, lone, dimlite and wooshie. I try and keep my listening habits pretty fresh though and I'm always looking for new unreleased, undiscovered bits and pieces too.
I'm hearing a lot of good music coming out of Melbourne. What's happening down there? Melbourne is a really interesting place and there are so many talented cats just getting their feet firmly settled in the ground. there's a pretty strong scene that seems to be building and all kinds of electronic and sampled music is pouring out of the place. A number of shows and events have popped up where people can play their newest tunes to an attentive audience and generally get to know one another. there's definitely an air of import right now and i can't wait to see what 2011 brings for Melbourne beats! keep your eyes out for mikekay, wooshie, and electric sea spider in particular!
What do you think about websites like soundcloud and bandcamp? I really like soundcloud and it's been a great way to get in touch with producers from across the globe — something about having tracks available for only 100 downloads is kind of nice too and feels like a cool limited edition even in the age of everything being available for free anyway. bandcamp is an interesting one for me as it provides a nice system to build your work into, but they take a pretty substantial cut of any payments and i personally prefer to distribute things via my own website and keep donations on a direct level rather than trying to outsource to yet another piece in the online puzzle! I'm really excited by the age of the microblog that we're in right now where anybody can setup their own website to deliver music (which can be stored for free with tools like dropbox) and other assorted goodness with just an evening of tinkering.
If you could see one change in todays music industry what would it be? I think one change is far from enough, but the most important thing i would love to see would probably be radio djs on commercial stations that actually got to do their original job of finding new and unheard music, rather than being the mouthpiece for endless repetition that we hear these days. it's happening out there on so many great independent and community stations, but I think we need to see a shift in the mainstream presentation of music as art and less of a product.
If you could ask someone you don't know a question who, and what would it be? Stanley Kubrick. were the shadows in the moon landing video deliberately askew to encourage skepticism?
You can check out Galapagoose on his Soundcloud, tumblr and facebook. | 
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