Stu Watts chats with Becki Whitton, who is an engineer, songwriter and producer working out of Melbourne’s Carriage Studio. Her approach in the studio balances focus and ease, and centres on a thirst to find the most powerful expression of a song’s emotional core. Becki has received ARIA, AWMA, MPEG and Music Victoria Award nominations for her sound work, and managed sound for Girls Rock! Camp ACT from 2016-2022. In her solo electronic choral project Aphir, Becki has been hailed as part of ‘Australia’s new wave of female electronic innovators’ and has performed around Australia and internationally including performances at Music Tech Fest (Berlin), Denmark Arts (WA), and Falls Festival.
Since 2016, Becki has released music through experimental label Provenance Records, founded by Stuart Buchanan (New Weird Australia) and, following Buchanan’s departure from the label, turned Provenance into an artist cooperative in 2021. Throughout 2020 - 2021 Becki embraced the challenges of pandemic lockdown through live-streaming on Twitch - first producing, recording, and mixing her 2020 LP, Republic of Paradise on livestream, and then pursuing marathon-length vocal improvisations on Twitch throughout 2021, culminating in a 12-hour performance on Boxing Day that year.
Becki has been actively involved in the left-field music community through the creation of The Wettest 100 - an alternative to Triple J’s Hottest 100 which was voted on Instagram and which celebrated 100 Australian tracks (narrowed down from 185 nominations) which sit outside the genre-world of the Hottest 100 countdown. Becki’s sixth LP, ‘The Halo Is Shapeless’, was released under her Aphir moniker in May 2023.
Chapters:
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:09 About Becki Whitton
00:03:23 Becki's music journey
00:08:27 Learning by assisting Andrei Eremin
00:10:13 Mindset and approach in her own sessions
00:13:44 A key moment that led her to understanding the artist's vision
00:16:22 Capturing the essence of the artist
00:20:25 Having a supportive community
00:21:58 The difficulty of knowing the right way to learn
00:23:12 Keeping open communication with the artist
00:24:15 Becki's solo project "Aphir"
00:29:00 What fuels Becki's creativity
00:31:46 PayPal donation link
00:32:10 Collaborating with others
00:33:48 Stu attempts to describe Becki's work
00:35:46 How Becki faces challenges with her ego
00:39:40 Not taking mix notes personally
00:43:20 What is Becki's meaning of a "good mix"
00:45:59 Becki's favourite tools
00:52:46 The Wettest 100
00:59:58 Becki's advice for Producers, Engineers and Artists
01:02:23 Where you can find Becki online
01:03:01 Conclusion/Outro
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