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We had the pleasure of speaking with RamonPang.
Does "Life Cycle Waves" represent an evolution in your music style? How do you think your sound has evolved from your earlier work, and what inspired this shift?
On paper, I'm working with the same sound palette on this new album - harps and stringed instruments (sampled and synthesized), skittering trap / IDM-inspired drum sequences and lush synthesizers. Lots of samples too, ranging from new age to ambient to techno to folk - there's probably about 100 different samples on this record. Same with my last two albums.
The shift in this album versus my last albums - this definitely feels more 'mature' in a way. The last records feel like an eclectic excitement; a bunch of ideas that couldn't wait to come out. A bit rougher on the edges, but with a charm that I love. More progressive, shifting song structures. Kinda like a old Skrillex, or the way that J Dilla might do a beat switch or something. I was often packing multiple ideas into one track on previous albums - and I consciously tried to make tracks on this album feel like they have a solid idea, loop or musical phrase running throughout. Think this was inspired by me just feeling more tired nowadays or something. I was going through a lot of personal stuff when I was writing this record, and I just did not want to listen to music that was overwhelming, changed too much, or shifted a lot. I still think a lot of the baseline-level of excitement I love in music still shines through though.
Overall, this album represents a big step in my music-making process, embodying a newfound sense of quiet confidence while retaining the essential elements that define my musical identity.
Could you talk about the creative process behind some of the tracks? What was the inspiration, and how did you curate the tracks for the album?
I write tracks and ideas whenever I can, no matter how silly or out-there the concept can be. I don't really set out to create an album then start writing tracks; the idea more-so comes out of the need to state something new. The tracks that most sound like "album" tracks are often the ones that incorporate the elements I mentioned earlier - lots of samples, yearning melodies, and a lot of fun. The starting point for one of these tracks can be anything. "Run Algae" started off the main melody MIDI, inspired by Four Tet's 2010s stuff and his Percussions alias. Then I placed it over a skeletal hip-hop beat (inspired by the likes of old Sam Gellaitry and his clones, etc) I had lying around from last year, and it worked perfectly. I could listen to that loop forever. It was the last track I wrote for the album, and I felt it was a great intro track. "Nothing to Figure Out" was a 95 BPM chill trip-hop track that I had lying around for about 2-3 years - I had been listening to a lot of Autechre's "Untilted" and Ghost's "Exploding Geometry" at the time, so I had the idea of placing a 190 BPM drill n bass over the old melodic ideas, and it created something absolutely gorgeous. It's definitely one of my favorite tracks I've ever made. I placed it right in the middle of the album, as a big centerpiece.
When I create enough album-worthy tracks independently, then I start fiddling with the idea of sequencing an album. I felt this album was ready when it made me cry while walking around the park during the day.
Your music combines elements from both chaotic dance-ready areas and naturistic sounds. How do you balance these seemingly opposite influences in your creative process?
I believe the track is just about finding balance and having patience. Zooming out a bit of your song-structure and figuring out where the "moments" are. The pockets of my naturistic melodies and sounds are often hitting different pockets than my drums. The drums might be going all over the place, like in "Nothing to Figure Out" or "A Vast Expanse" but they're still hitting the same general 4 bar sequences with fills. Meanwhile, the melodic phrases might be riding over the course of 8 bars. The naturistic and ambient-inspired elements are always lovely, I can listen to those on their own forever. But it's what's put on top of it that makes a track interesting, or sound like 'me'.
I also tend not to overcrowd my tracks when I'm establishing general themes. If I removed external effects, risers, background noise etc from my tracks, I'd probably only have 5-10 layers of the actual musical idea. I believe other stylistic things can come later, once a loop has been established and 'sat in'. Chaotic rhythms and sounds only sound chaotic in contrast to what's come before them. When you listen to genres like breakcore, American brostep or technical death metal where sounds and rhythms are so crazy all the time, the best tracks of those genres are all about preparing a listener the right way, through restraint, sequencing or streamlined song structures.
You mentioned using generative freeware, racks, and plugins for creating this album. Can you elaborate on how these tools helped shape the specific soundscapes of "Life Cycle Waves"?
I consider myself really awful and writing melodies in the traditional way. I'm often drawing things and doing lots of editing especially when I have a complex harmonic problem I need to solve. Most of the generative freeware and plugins I use are used for writing new melodies and chopping up sounds/samples in sequence that would take strokes of luck to come up with on my own. Here's a few I've been using a lot:
1. Phrase Generation Rack - this was inspired by a tutorial I saw from Ned Rush on youtube. It uses all stock Ableton plugins in a clever way, where I can have an Ableton Expression Control, with different MIDI parameters mapped to different parts of an Note Length (Note Length, Decay Time) and Arpeggiator (arpeggiation style, transposition, arpeggiation rate, etc). I can essentially feed any MIDI I want into this device and it will create crazy sequences that are randomly arpeggiated but also very controllable. I'll often lock this to a pentatonic mode or a harmonic mode so that the phrases that come out have less notes. 50% of the melodies the album were written by running really basic melodies through this track for about 10 minutes, then editing together the best sequences in a way that fit over the backbone of a track. I also like to put a sampler rack on this with like 128 samples loaded in to see what happens.
2. STING 64 - This is a Max 4 Live device by Skinnerbox - it was created to generate MIDI basslines that are inspired by 90s acid house. I use it for generating a lot more than basslines; just whenever I need something driving. It has a knob called "density", and a "length" slider for controlling the phrase of the loop. I like using this for writing basically anything, because of the 'acid house' connection to IDM. I feel like I'm generating real sounding IDM melodies when I use this. I used this to generate the bassline on "Third Freeze", as well as to get the crazy granular sequencing on "Waves Crashing".
3. AS_Steps - This is a Max 4 Live device developed by Sabroi and Hellbound! (two insanely good producers and coders). It's a very feature intensive step sequencer with tons of generation and randomization built in. There's way too much to explain about it, but I like to add a bit more randomization to the randomization until I come up with something a good sequence I can chop up. I'm often doing this less with VSTs, and more with sample racks. If you put delays within delays into this thing, you can yield some crazy results.
There's a lot more than these, but all of these are used for audio generation and MIDI generation. I believe a big key is to bounce and save and overwrite as much as possible. You never want to be stuck in a position where you're going through like 20 minutes of MIDI-recorded garbage trying to find the one 8 bar moment that works. It's tiring. Idea generation is way more important to me than knowing the ins and outs of how a thing works. Often times, due to the nature of randomization, it's like magic. Don't dwell on the fact you can never make an idea like that again - embrace the fact that you have it recorded now, as is.
The album title and tracks like 'A Vast Expanse' and 'Waves Crashing' suggest themes of nature and introspection. How do these themes play into the overall narrative of the album?
The overall narrative of the album (to me at least) is about a quiet, romantic confidence. A feeling that you've conquered a big personal mountain, and you can look out at the next one, and possibly smell the flowers along the way. I enjoy walking in nature and going on hikes a lot, I wish I did it more when I was writing this album. Was too sad to leave the house. Every hike I've taken that's changed my life tends to come at the perfect time though. Connecting with nature is nice, it puts a lot of your internet-caused problems into perspective. If half these greed-infused DJs just laid their head down next to a flowing stream in the forest, I think the world would be a much better place.
Considering the mixed reactions you get when citing IDM as an influence, how do you personally define IDM, and what elements of this genre do you find most influential in your own work?
To me, IDM (intelligent dance music) is any electronic dance music that puts aside genre conventions to create something more focused on home-listening. The conventions of a genre track, especially in dance music, are a lot more refined that people think. Things like drops, extended intros and outros, uninterrupted loops etc. What gives something the home-listening feeling is really subtle - like more dynamic mixdowns, more chilled out progressions, etc. I think making 'real' (or at least traditional) IDM requires some deep, nerdy knowledge of the history of techno and electronic music on some level.
The elements I find about IDM most influential are things like the sound design, the songwriting, and the general attitude. Artists who are still obviously dance-influenced, but not making music for the dance. But again, they're not making gibberish - the ideas of dance music are still there, but placed in a context that's not tied to big rhythms or genre conventions or obvious energy-signalling.
Having worked with notable artists and producers, how have these collaborations influenced your musical style or your approach to music production?
Every time I collab with someone, I learn something new. I'm a bit of a control freak on my own productions, so it's nice to let go and accept new ideas from someone else who I think is brilliant.
You've mentioned that the album was written during a period of personal growth and pain. How has this personal journey influenced the emotions and themes in "Life Cycle Waves"?
I find it really hard to write music when you're going through something personal and difficult in your life. I always feel a need to crate music, but I value my own comfort as a human being a lot more. I'd much rather do something that makes me happy, like eat good food or call up a friend before making music, especially when stuff isn't going right in my life. I think if anything, the fact that I was able to get through a rough period and come out with an album at the end is something I'm proud of. I believe you can definitely hear a lot of the sadness and yearning in the album, but also a sense of hope.
With tracks that blend smooth jazz and ambient sounds with glitch hop and drill n bass, what challenges do you face when merging these diverse genres, and what makes them compatible in your eyes?
I think the fun part is that I don't really see these genres as compatible. I have my personal gripes with the tropes of every genre. Smooth jazz has gorgeous amazing instruments that are nostalgic, but the songs themselves can be so boring and cheesy. Even the IDM genres like glitch hop and drill n bass can get way too self-indulgent and show-y for me, without a real cohesive song in mind. I feel that by combining these genres in the way I do, I can take my favorite parts and put them all together. The only difficult part is finding ways to capture the sound and reference of the other genres. This is why I like to sample a lot, or go into deep periods of learning how to making a genre.
You also designed the artwork for the album and singles. How does the visual design connect with the music, and what role do you believe visuals play in understanding and appreciating an album?
I've been designing for 10+ years, mostly as a hobby. My design practice mainly comes from studying forum signatures, abstract design, and what's now called "metalheart". Designing the singles and albums for this album came fairly naturally, it felt like a very 'blue' and 'yellow' album to me. I love experimenting with abstract forms and seeing how I can get them to integrate with nature and bright atmospheres, since they're usually depicted in very cybernetic and futuristic settings. The abstract forms do a great job of visually representing the 'IDM' side of my music, whilst the nature parts do a great job of representing the melodies. It happened purely by coincidence, which I love.
I greatly believe in respecting the sonics of an album on its own merit, but I do believe that visuals and a great lore have great potential to "unlock" a record or style. The first time I watched a fan music video for Autechre's "plyPhon" was when the track really clicked with me. Same with the visuals and story for the new Iglooghost record, Tidal Memory Exo.
How do you anticipate your fans will react to the new soundscapes and themes explored in "Life Cycle Waves"?
I have no idea. I think they'll like it though.
After "Life Cycle Waves," what direction do you see your music taking? Are there particular themes or musical styles you're eager to explore next?
I have no idea what direction I'm gonna take after this. But usually after I spend a long time working on album, I get booked for a lot of DJ gigs and end up wanting to write a lot of bangers for the club. So I think I'm gonna write more bangers for the club. We'll see though.
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