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TRACKS UNTOLD: JIMMY EDGAR & SOPHIE’S ‘METAL’ with Jimmy Edgar

Added 2022-04-21 18:01:01 +0000 UTC

TRACKS UNTOLD: JIMMY EDGAR & SOPHIE’S ‘METAL’

with Jimmy Edgar

In this Lux Cache track breakdown series, we invite artists, producers, engineers and songwriters to uncover the creative process of their work in their own words. In this chapter, sound design pioneer Jimmy Edgar explores ‘METAL’, the 2020 collaboration with the late iconic producer SOPHIE, sharing the intimate stories, techniques and tools that went into ‘CHEETAH BEND’.

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Cover art for Jimmy Edgar’s ‘CHEETAH BEND’ - self-released in 2021.

LC: Some of the organic & material-based sound design that has founded contemporary electronic music can be found in your work from 10+ years ago. How has your approach to sound developed since your foundation's experiments in electro and how has it stayed the same?

JE: I love unique sound, especially the kind that emulates materials synthetically. I also love musical harmony and different ways to create emotional resonance with sound. Its an endless universe so I am always searching and discovering new ways to create within these worlds. The best part is looking into the future because that technology is always evolving. Not only that, but there are so many great tools from the past that are incredible for new explorations.

This love for sound has taken me so many places. Connecting with music & sound hardware, software, block diagrams, DSP code, and theoretical ideas on sound synthesis.

Jimmy Edgar in 2018.

LC: You've had a vibrant career producing for artists in various genres - from pop artists like Bree Runway to hip-hop & rap artists like Vince Staples & Matt Ox. What approach do you take when curating and writing for your own projects versus an artists' track?

JE: With my visual art, it’s very meticulous and immaterial the way I conceive ideas and execute them. I love that images can be purely perfunctory but have a deep meaning. However, I don’t think about music & sound too much conceptually. I usually let the feeling guide that process. In the studio with artists, my goal is to create as much excitement as possible because nothing is better feeling than getting an artist excited by playing some big, banging tracks that feel unique and innovative. It's the same with DJing in the club, same general goal.. to create a wave of excitement and bring everyone along for the ride. I suppose you could say my solo music is more ego-centric and flex oriented though. I love to show off my skills to awe-inspire. My music is very challenging to sit and listen to. I want it to be appreciated from a skill achievement and technological exploration. I have not ever wanted to do that for another artist.

Cover art for Vince Staples’ ‘Big Fish Theory’ - released by Def Jam Recordings in 2017.

Jimmy Edgar & SOPHIE independently feature production credits on tracks ‘Yeah Right’, ‘745’ and ‘SAMO’.

LC: How do your experiments in visual art infer your experiments in music? Is there a different approach you take in both mediums?

JE: Music is very natural. I don’t think too much about it, except maybe the arrangement. I don’t have a natural ability for an arrangement so I often copy other artists there. I will often copy songs and then build upon the ideas, improving the sound design and other elements to make it my own.

With visual art, I have a lot of techniques to come up with ideas. I built a program in javascript that randomly chooses JIMMY-esque titles, using probability. It also chooses objects that are similar to my work, then algorithmically puts together a sentence explaining the meaning of the work. It’s quite funny but also amazing the results it comes up with. More & more, I am exploring the generative capabilities of art. I recently was studying some of my favorite artists and wanted to come up with an artwork so incredible that it was worthy of art news headlines. So, I actually worked backwards and developed a news headline generator and it's been giving me great ideas. A lot of people don’t know, but my most viral tweets are actually from my Tweet generator.

Whether I am doing sound, music or visual, I approach everything like a sculptor. Etching and perfecting in a mostly subtractive process, removing things and further polishing.

LC: Can you describe how you first heard of SOPHIE, and what impact she had on you in those initial moments?

JE: I did not first hear of SOPHIE. I met her around 2009 at a dinner and we instantly became best friends as if we knew each other for lifetimes, as if we had met each other again with an instant recognition. She had been a fan of my music so she knew who I was, but that night when I heard her music I knew and saw her potential. I loved it. Any opportunity I had to meet with her, we made it happen. She was very shy, and had such a lovely sweet personality.

LC: How did you and SOPHIE start working together, what was it like working in the studio with her? How would you describe the common thread between both your artist projects?

JE: There really was never a point where we were not working together. We have many many songs and creations. We both were the most extreme perfectionists, so that combined really left little room or interest to release any of it, which didn’t matter to both of us. It was the things we did in the present moment that were so special. We both really loved the Monomachines' capabilities to make sounds, so that was a big part of the relationship; sharing sounds and files with that machine. SOPHIE really loved the way I would compose music on the keyboard, the chords I used. Its quite funny because I loved the way she did it and I spent so long studying the way she did things. I would explain it to her and she didn’t care much for theoretical details, so that was quite funny. We went to see Autechre many times as we both loved them. She would always hide a recording device in her pocket and share the recording afterwards. We would then spend hours emulating those sounds.

SOPHIE for Glamcult Issue #129 in 2018, photographed by Renata Raksha.

LC: Where did the initial ideas from METAL come from?

JE: The sounds came from sharing sysex files that upload to the Monomachine. So, we would send these files back and forth when we were long distance. Though, when she moved to Los Angeles we had the time to spend more in depth. SOPHIE taught me basically everything she knew and discovered with the Monomachine. That is why our sonic palette is so similar. We shared so many obscure tricks from that machine that I hope one day to document it because it's unlike any other device. I have not heard anyone else get close.

The sounds were made on Monomachine and then recorded through a chain of API & SSL preamps, Eventide H8000 effects, and finally mixed on a Burl summing mixer A/D setup.

LC: Could you show us some of the physically tactile sound design and production tricks that went into METAL? What is the general workflow to approaching your productions and what intention did you lead with?

JE: Using the Monomachine we would often bend notes to make them inharmonic. Also, detuning the notes and playing within an inharmonic minor scale. We also went really deep into a synthesis style called Slipstick. This is basically Karplus Synthesis with an added block to it.

Ok, so Karplus is basically made from a sound, normally a click or an impulse. Then it’s run through a delay that is tuned to a keyboard. If you understand this as something akin to hitting a pipe, you could image the strike as the impulse and the resonating sound as the delay. This is the basic idea of how to create metal sounds… the strike and the resonation. Within that world you have so much to explore. For instance, you can use any sound as the impulse and there’s so many different types of delays, reverbs, comb filters. It's a theoretical way to make complex sounds.

So, to take it even further we explored ways of changing the material, which is called Slipstick synthesis. There is a good preset on the Kyma sound computer that demonstrates this easily, which is a synthesized creaky door. Each impulse of the creak is looped to create the “wood” impulses, then its runs further into a delay that resonates like wood.

The way we created sounds like squeaky windows, flexing metal, air whips… was this exact technique. It's such a complex array of synthesis techniques that you really can’t break it down easily, it's more philosophical. It's basically emulating a material, how a sound might resonate through that material, and the pitch of both to make one complete idea. For me, I had to understand this visually and block diagrams helped a lot.

Elektron’s ‘Monomachine’ synthesizer & sequencer, sold from 2004-2017.

LC: Yours and SOPHIE's music tends to be credited to the versatile use of modular and hardware synths such as Elektron's Monomachine, while also using a variety of software tools such as Serum and Ableton. What synths and tools do you use in your productions today, and how do you compliment hardware with software in your sound design?

JE: I use anything and everything. Right now I am using a lot of Serum. I am also programming the Nord modular quite a bit. This is an old synth but has a lovely computer interface and sounds unlike any other synth I ever used, very innovative and new sounding. I’m using the Kyma computer too, also very fresh and untapped territory. I combine this with outboard recording equipment and mastering equipment, mostly class A preamps and EQ’s.

LC: How do you feel SOPHIE has impacted electronic and pop music at large, and how has her art and friendship affected you personally?

JE: I cannot not put it into words. Immeasurable. It doesn’t feel right to try and sum it up into a paragraph. Though, I’m grateful everyday to have had her in my life and been a big part in shaping that world we shared and continues to be. My favorite lesson from her is that social media doesn’t have to mean anything & never sacrifice your integrity.

LC: With an ever-constant progression in technology and approach, how do you imagine the near-future of experimental music?

JE: I’m really looking forward to exploring more generative music processes. I’ve been doing it a lot with art, but I want to explore it more with sound. I am also very excited for A.I. to start making legible music. I absolutely cringe when I hear people scared about technological innovation like we will lose the human aspect or something. I cannot wait until I can run a program that makes music like me, without having to do it. I am much better as a director of vibes rather than doing laborious things to create. I want everything done for me quickly and efficiently.

I had the opportunity to upload my rapper friend B La B as an A.I. text-to-speech voice. This was a very cool project with some great results. I think now they released it for musicians to use in their own music. I’m very interested in things like this. Without such great innovations I would not be interested in sound and music.

LC: What advice would you give to artists just starting out that are looking to build their own interesting sonic languages?

JE: Follow the excitement, where there is a will to create something there is always a way.