hanging out with audiophiles – Details, episodes & analysis

Kicking off 2026 with a bang

Congrats to my Emmy winning guests Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein for their epic work as the band Survive and notable of late for making the many hours of music that score the rather popular show Stranger Things which just wrapped for the last time with its season finale.

Great to peek behind the curtain as it were as we get into the pure substance of their process. Unlock the clues in this episode and you too will certainly be up for an Emmy if you're as tireless and talented as them !

Thanks to Ableton for sponsoring this episode

I get into the MOVE in a rare nitty.

I took the box the climbing gym to do a little against the clock action 

here's a link to the move. I can really recommend it 

https://www.ableton.com/en/move/

Oh and 

HAPPY new Year !!

Let's get on with the show :)

!!!!!!!!!

You lot can use this code at checkout for 20% off Ableton Move, valid until January 31, 2026.

Really happy to share this chat with Luke as a celebration of the NEW RELEASE of our LP 

https://surl.li/fqimbs

"A companion for the spaces Between Dreams"

There are digital and physical copies

YES both vinyl and cassette I'm happy to say!

This music was made crafted here in my studio in Nashville, it's a guide for those liminal spaces you may find yourself in so to speak and it's been a real treat to put together

Luke is a special one and it was lovely to get a focused time to sit and chaat. 

We had a nice jam too and generated loads more amazing sound. 

Feels like such an easy thing for us to get on the same page. 

We get into how Luke found his path and along the way he mentions a lot of amazing pedal steel players 

I thought I'd best compile them for reference as they are pretty special !

Cheers y'all

Weldon myrick pedal steel 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LjxPOdRnJ0&list=RDEMuPD_UFE0zk-WjCWb0iisKQ&start_radio=1

Buddy Emmons 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0fk2KkBc2M&list=RDp0fk2KkBc2M&start_radio=1

David Lindley lap steel 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Q-447zVPY&list=RDV4Q-447zVPY&start_radio=1

Greg Leisz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k-oPe13gzM&list=PLuxRYQaerlLJ4_QCkkpCY53EQnmswvOy4

Hayden Pedigo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn5wfH_erZ0&list=RDXn5wfH_erZ0&start_radio=1

Anthony philips 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAm7WpjK6tk&list=RDEMS7XhuggzWddIhmF3utkRVQ&start_radio=1

North Americans 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBq4Qfh_diI&list=RDxBq4Qfh_diI&start_radio=1

Jeff Newman - Luke watched these tapes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LcpIBJUCbI&list=PLGaigx75v1m8tYNIcSy_TYYUoxzDtS9yi

Ralph Mooney 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nn8T2AEy50&list=RD3Nn8T2AEy50&start_radio=1

Lloyd Green and JayDee Maness 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqQ7CMJypPg&list=RDDqQ7CMJypPg&start_radio=1

Charley Pride featuring Lloyd green 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef61bmiiC44&list=PLM_I2E3hMy7Om7HwI-WfowvinWs5smIAE&index=2

Took me a while this one.

Sadly, as many of you may know, I lost my Dad.

It was a very long time coming and I was "prepared" but of course death has a power that yields a unique power and the grief has hit in waves. The first week was a kind of exhaustion, then I got to feel the sadness and the reality hit me in a new and more profound way. I talk about it here in the pod so I'll not linger too long in text form. Needless to say, it's been an intensely emotional time.

Shortly after this news I was thrown into full preparation for the first live show for the LP that is going to be announced (finally!) next month.

I was grateful to have my passions engaged in deep musical focus. Thanks to my wife and the amazing players that can to support me, the show was a truly beautiful event. Not one I'll forget.

So with all that going on, the pod has taken the back burner.

I had been meaning to air this Bibio episode for a long time.

A whole other perspective on the man compared to the first encounter. 

I hope you enjoy the west country rambles!

Thanks to all of you that shared your kind words with me about my Dad

love you guys

x

I'm happy to welcome grammy award winning musician/producer Adrian Quesada to the 50th Episode of the show! 

Let's just jump into the big list of collaborators he's rocked with to get a quick taste of the caliber of this gent!

How about Shawn Lee?! Yeah! as well as Ocote Soul Sounds,  Martin Perna of Antibalas… so so many more

He's performed on the Late Show with David Letterman as well as twice on PBS' historic Austin City Limits TV Show. 

He has also worked with Prince, GZA (Wu-Tang Clan), Bernie Worrell, Daniel Johnston, Israel Nash, Alex Maas (The Black Angels), Larry Harlow, Quantic and many more. 

As a producer Quesada has worked on albums by Daniel Johnston, The Sword, Natalia Clavier, Karl Denson, Toy Selectah, Wild Child, Graham Reynolds and Ian Moore, among others.

 I mean that's not the HALF of it! 

We catch up as he's deep in the mix at his superb Austin based studio, Electric Deluxe Recorders. 

He's coming out for an air break so we literally hear a rare sonic glimpse of the local wildlife outside the cave where he is working feverishly at all times…

That smell? Yeah he's likely cooking up amazing musical morsels like the NEW! HOT!  release from the Black Pumas which is the focus of our chat!

So yes, we've a Super humble badass in the hotchair

 Hey Adrian! I'm 50! 

Info Splash time:

web: electricdeluxerecorders.com

tw: @adrianmquesada

theblackpumas.com

Nitty sees me trying to "music" with filters.

6 filters and a smile :)

The music for the show comes courtesy of Kim Gaboury 

Find all the info about him here:

KIM GABOURY

kimgaboury.com

— 

aka AKIDO

akidomusic.com

—

Hello !

Greetings from the SONIC RANCH in El Paso!

Woe. I'm in another world right now

Massive thanks to Dave Sitek for inviting me out into space.

I'm blown away. The people here are so great and the studios are just absolutely bonkers.

Most importantly it's a totally secluded zone. The head expands.

Almost as many cats as people and WAY more pecan trees!

Ha

Welcome to Episode 49.

I met this Frank (Bink Beats) when we did a show together in Amsterdam recently.

I was sitting in with him on a couple of songs. Side note : one of the numbers we did is a new track that I hope finds the light of day!

We had a pretty hectic day of practice in the venue followed by show but nevertheless we snuck in a quick chat.

Frank is a serious badass. A player of a million objects and a hell of a signer to boot. 

Great to have him on :)

In the nitty I explore the sonic ranch's amps a little and send all sorts of stuff into speakers.

Some shall be spinning and some just spaced and weird. Check it!

Music for EP 49 comes from Evan Geesman. 

Good stuff!

https://evangeesman.bandcamp.com/album/mattress-money

Hello Amȯn Tȯbin!

He was Born in Brazil, but as you can hear from this interview he's got a distinctively English twang having spent yonks in the UK.

I don't want to give away the details of the chap's timeline just yet as we get into all of that in this FaceTime chin wag.

Might I say at this point though that I feel mightily chuffed to have Amon on the show. 

He's truly one of the outstanding living talents in Electronic music and that's really not an overstatement.

He's made a stack of cracking albums for London label 9Bar Records and of course the marvelous Ninja Tune. A relationship that kicked off way back in 1996. 

The boy doesn't stop!

Now he's busy as ever with his own label Nomark. 

He's got hard drives and aliases up the wazoo and he's making crazy shit every day and by the sounds of things a lot of new music is coming soon. 

The man has a masterful grasp of sound collage, from the wildest found sound and manipulated field recordings to the risky dark lands of additive synthesis and into modular madness.

He's always managed to present his sound to the world on the stage without falling into the usual cliched confines of the club.

He's performed at many a prestigious venue, such as the birthplace of musique concrete, the GRM in Paris.

In 2011 he seriously raised the bar on audio visual combos with the dazzling ISAM show.

When that footage started circulating I remember spitting out my coffee.

 It's STILL one of the most incredible things to witness on the interwebs as a realization of potent audio visual immersions. A true SHOW. 

He also produced several original scores, ranging from the cult film Taxidermia to the video game blockbuster Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Constantly shifting and constantly inspiring. Please welcome the show one of the most visionary electronic artists of his generation

Amȯn Tȯbin 

In the nitty I get into the murky world of pitch tracking guitars and seeing if there's any juicy noise to be had chucking the axe thro the modular.

Yeah… it's a wobbly affair!

Good to be back :)

Cheers y'all

_______________________

Music for the show comes from Brad Swanson aka "The Transparency"

Here's the LP from which I removed and edits some pod snips. Good stuff!

It's called aptly "It might get dark"

check it out:

https://thetransparency.bandcamp.com/album/it-might-get-dark

47 brings the bonkers talent that is Ariel Rechtshaid! 

He's had an incredible run of success with artists like Adele, Usher and of course Vampire Weekend (to name but three from a list of hundreds!)

This interview was conduced slightly before Vampire Weekend put out "Father of the Bride" to much critical and chart joy. We got to chatting about that process and how

they've become very solid friends over the years. The music they make comes from a deep trust and adventurous spirit which is something of a common thread in the stories you'll hear on this pod.

Ariel's got a strong point of view but a humble demeanor. He's a true lover of many genres of music and can wear many hats: Playing, tracking, mixing and producing at a top level. 

A seriously hard working chap, he's the real deal and I'm really chuffed to have him on the show.

He gave up a couple of hours to me to have me ramble with him at his spot in silver lake and it was a trip to hear it all from the horse's mouth!

Cheers Ariel!

______________________________________

Nitty this time sees me dipping a toe into the poly rhythmic bath thanks to the max4live handiwork of 

benniy c bascom and his excellent POLYRHYTHMUS patch!

I explore 3 very simple examples.

2:3:6 with a CR78

3:4:12 with the 707 and

3:5:15 with a marimba 

Find the max for live patch here:

http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device/2431/polyrhythmus-a-modular-euclidean-rhythm-builder

How to here: (benniy is AWESOME!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTgSgTGoBLc

______________________________________

Music for the show comes once again courtesy of good glued barometer aka Lee Beaumont!

Find his music here at his bandcamp page:

https://goodgluedbarometer.bandcamp.com

______________________________________

This episode's sponsor is winter-modular 

http://winter-modular.com

Makers of the very fine sequencing machine called the "Eloquencer"

A powerful and intuitive machine for use with in the eurorack domain and NOW 

In the wide word of MIDI thanks to the EME expansion unit.

Seriously badass machine and a great choice for anyone wanting to step away from the computer to make music.

I love mine. It's really a choice box!

So I was introduced to Emily at an Ableton event here in Nashville and we were chatting about some pretty specific protools stuff.

Something insane about how she needed to have a flightcase for an old Mac Pro to do her job. It was all very unusual. I had no idea who I was talking to tbh. But I could tell she had a WAY of doing things.

Turns out she's one of the biggest vocal producers working! 

No big deal. She's recorded and produced for folks like Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Ke$ha, Miley Cyrus, Jessie J, Flo Rida, Kelly Clarkson and WAY more. 

In 2010, Emily began work on Katy Perry's Teenage Dream as an engineer.

She also engineered eight songs and co-wrote one song ("Gasoline") on Britney Spears' Femme Fatale (not to mention her work on Circus, Pretty Girls and Britney Jean)

So it turns out she's seen and heard a LOT of craziness at a very high level. We are talking about top tier pop recording. I've never chatted with someone who's been in this particular line of work so it was ace just trying to work out how it really happens. How are those Britney and Katy Perry vocals really tracked?

A modern master with the Digi scissors who has literally cut together the stories of a big slice of modern pop.

Please welcome to the pod, Emily Wright!!!

______________________________________

In the nitty I get into the world of altered drones

Taking on a stack of tasty tones from a rare encounter with a CS80 I try to build a little something with them

______________________________________

Sponsors for today are in duality!

Hearty thanks to 

https://bastl-instruments.com

Makers of naughty, powerful and sometimes dark machines!

And to 

http://www.steadystatefate.com

Who've made a large range of modules including the new and rather tasty STEREO DIPOLE filter

I feel very lucky to have such cool companies get on board!

A special shout out also to Jim at 

https://modularaddict.com

He's helped me so much trying to navigate the huge world of bloops!

Whether or not you know the full, hard history of Lee Fields, I think 50 years into his music career, 10 years since he found the Expressions, and nearly 7 decades of a life that began in Civil Rights-era North Carolina make 2019 a prime time to celebrate "the coolest motherf***er to sing words into a microphone" (Vice). Across dozens of record labels, countless periods of defeat, and stretches of near-retirement, Lee jumpstarted the legacy of Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones, laid the groove for songs by Travis Scott and J Cole, and - with April 5th album It Rains Love (Big Crown) - will affirm his position as the new, benevolent standard of soul. 

On Episode 45 of HOWA, I feel very lucky to had a (rather scratchy sounding) phone chat with both Lee and producer Leon Michels (Lana Del Rey, Adele, Beyoncé & Jay Z) on how they've spent the past 20 years or so together, crossing analog and digital mediums, multiple generations of tape saturation, and six consecutive hours of vocal takes at a time to get this music to our ears. 20 years?!?!?

Here's a link to the album!

https://bigcrownrecords.com/store/it-rains-love/

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In this show I take a hint from the Episode number hitting 45 and start cutting into some wax. 

New life to old 45s in the nitty. Just rerun that runout groove!

Grab a knife, sandpaper and a record or 2:) cut to reveal hidden funk.

_____________________________________

Music for 45 comes from Lee Beaumont :) 

I got these tracks ages ago. Sorry it took me so long to feature them. In fact since then he's been getting busy and there's plenty of new stuff to be found. Check this here link:

https://goodgluedbarometer.bandcamp.com

_____________________________________

Sponsorship for the show comes courtesy of the wondrous digital minds at Valhalla DSP! 

I'm thrilled to be able to have them on board as I'm such a fan of all their stuff and the JUST released the new DELAY plugin and it's bonkers

Totally brilliant!!

https://valhalladsp.com

Want to get into Endless?

Here's the link to the HOWA jam http://bit.ly/HOWAjam

I met Tim Shaw aka Tim Exile in Berlin in the mid 2000s

We were 2 brits roasting in the furnace of creativity that was cooking in the East

It was a heady time. There were so many amazing performers around

Everyone from Peaches to Kevin Blechdom, Errorsmith to Neubauten 

You could inhale the punk as a gas and it fueled a lot of invention at that time

Tech was on that more steady and tangible bubble up and we were all trying to see how to combine our strengths with that digital promise.

Around 2000 I had decided to drop out of music making to be a builder of machines.

I got completely taken by the promise of Max/Msp and indeed it allowed me a great freedom to combine my voice and my obsession with the machine in a new way

I was making a living looping and Tim caught wind of those early shows and it set him off on a journey to build an absolute BEAST of a looper

I had travelled the Max way, Tim took the Reaktor to the loop limit. 

His flow machine was a joy to behold even in its infancy.

 I remember hearing it and being completely blown away 

Seem-less transitions and audio with no clicks!

All things my machine struggled with. Loops with various lengths all playing off against one another, FX that would cut and carve the shit into shreds only to have new layers swoop in to fill the void and uncover new counterpoints.

The Tempo could change. The Machine would time stretch and warp so beautifully. It was a marvel.

The ultimate looper. 

It's still is the best I've ever used and for a long time it wasn't available to the public. 

That is until ENDLESS

I'm super proud of him for daring to explode this idea into the world as something more than an esoteric loop maker for just one user.

He's had to quit his career as a musician essentially to focus on the company and now it's happening.

Endless is beginning.

Exciting times and I'm very happy to have known the evolution of all this. I see how far it can go coz I know how far the looper has already taken me.

Wild rides to get this far and more to come. Please welcome the marvelous mind that is Tim Exile to the show to share his thoughts!

___________________

MUSIC for 44 comes from - The Great Turtle 

https://greatturtle.bandcamp.com

Michael Sayer sent me a lovely mail about this improved music and how it's born of an obsession with music making.

How cool is this ? Music made at the Birds of Prey Conservation Area in Idaho.

Check it out

___________________

Sponsorship for the show comes courtesy of the wondrous digital minds at Valhalla DSP! 

I'm thrilled to be able to have them on board as I'm such a fan of all their stuff and the JSUT released the new DELAY plugin

The best $50 you'll spend on a delay, lemme tell ya! Get out and get it!

Speaking of which, thanks to Devon Gilfillian

The song we wrote together called "Get out and Get it"is out now as a single for him on Capitol Records!

Badass!

Listen here

https://devongilfillian.lnk.to/ListenWE

I use snips of the original demo vocal in the nitty gritty to show off the wobbly world of dual Melodyne 

Why not!

More wobbles in 2019!!!

Cheers