Pulse College / Windmill Lane Recording Studios were delighted to have internationally renowned Music Producer Donnacha Costello as key note speaker at Windmill Lane Recording’s free seminar held on the 18th February. The seminar entitled “Modern electronic musicianship - a practical discussion” covered a range of practical issues from the techno/house aesthetic to electronic music production to live performance of electronic music to life as a modern working, touring electronic musician. With Brendan Rehill degree student who helped organise the seminar gives us insight into the tips and techniques Donnacha shared with the audience.
"Despite our numerous successful musical exports, one would still not expect to find out that one of the most respected Electronica producers in Europe is a Dublin native by the name of Donnacha Costello. Few people can claim to have created a genre landmark, but that is just what Costello delivered with his 2004 series of colour coded EPs, collectively known as 'Colorseries'. Releasing one track per month, Costello approached the project by embracing the limitations of classic analogue hardware, and recorded the instruments live, imbuing the series with an organic feel that much computer programmed Electronic music now lacks. With years of production, touring and business management behind him this seminar was, by Costello's own admission, a chance to share some of that experience and offer any advice that he could.
No art exists in a vacuum, and Costello gives heed to this by beginning the seminar with a brief and personal history of Electronic music. Opening the proceedings with House classic 'Love Can't Turn Around'by Farley Jackmaster Funk, Costello immediately sets about deconstructing preconceptions. Asking the audience to ignore the gaudy 80s video and clichéd lyrics, he draws attention to the raw, authentic groove that is the tracks foundation. As the history progresses, this authenticity is contrasted with the mainstream chart material that appeared on the back of the burgeoning underground scene, with one track using samples from Sesame Streetover a stale House beat.
The peak of Acid House's popularity saw another genre of music emerge in the form of Ambient Electronica. Artists such as 'Plastikman' and 'Aphex Twin' became renowned for their hard-hitting, unrelenting Techno material, as well as the sparse and glacially chilled-out soundscapes they created in their Ambient tracks. Bringing it up to modern day, Costello plays a selection of what he considers contemporary classics, highlighting that they each pay their dues to not only the authenticity and groove of early House and Techno, but also the textural complexity and emotion of Ambient music.
Inevitably, a seminar on Electronic music will turn to a discussion on technology. Costello is a self confessed hardware addict, blaming 'Top of the Pops' for exposing him to the sight of a 'Mini Moog' in action. His studio has since seen enough classic hardware to make even the most die-hard plug-in supporters jealous; from the Roland 'TR-909', '808', 'SH-101', 'TB-303' and 'Juno 60' to a monolithic custom built Synclavier synthesizer, he has owned it all. He has utilised modern hardware as well, such as the 'Tenori-On', 'Monome', 'Lemur' touch-screen controllers and Native Instruments 'Maschine' which sits in front of him throughout the seminar. If this wasn't enough to inspire envy, he is an expert at the modular visual programming language 'Max/MSP', a software environment where a user can create their own plug-ins and instruments of complexity limited only by the imagination.
Despite this dizzying list of gear, Costello emphasises a philosophy of simplicity. He reveals that when working, he prefers “to concentrate on one or two machines and push what I can out of them and when I get bored I change things around.” He is also a firm advocate of 'if it sounds good, it is good' - during a collaboration with a prominent German Electronica artist, Costello was surprised to find that this artist was using stock 'Ableton Live' string sounds in his compositions. Costello has adopted such streamlined workflows, switching to 'Ableton' as his primary production DAW, whereas previously he would sketch ideas in 'Ableton' before transferring to 'Pro Tools HD'. The reason for his change in workflow is simple – he can spend more time focusing on the music than anything else. At the heart of it though, Costello makes clear that there is no 'complete' set-up that he relies on. He simply chooses what will best facilitate his intended result.
In the closing section of the seminar, Costello gave rare insight into the business side of the Electronica industry. Warning the audience not to rely solely on the Internet as a promotional platform, he instead advises a balance between Internet promotion and good old fashioned meeting people. Somewhere in the middle is 'Twitter' which Costello regards as a great social network to... network... it's fluidity of conversation being its main strength. He tells how his recent reply to a 'tweet' about putting jam on toast, resulted in an offer to remix a track. Remixing is another vital promotional and networking tool in his opinion, allowing artists to promote each other while getting promotion themselves. Through it all, Costello makes it apparent that there is no magic formula for success, and that ambition and hard work are the key ingredients. He admits that things are tougher for the musicians starting their careers in the current industry conditions, but that it is still not impossible to earn a living. In his own career, his income stream has begun to depend more on his live performance than his musical releases, the music serving mainly as a promotional factor, keeping his name active in the scene.
The primary lesson of the seminar appears to be of balance – balance between the mechanical machine sound that characterise Electronica and portraying emotion, between embracing the new technologies while still realising the potential of the older and between being aware of the multitude of options available to the modern musician and the creative power that limitations can offer. Lastly, click here for his homemade chicken wing recipe" - Brendan Rehill Pulse College, Degree Student
Due to success of these free informative and interactive College/ Windmill Lane Recording Studios have now taken the decision to host theses seminars on a regular basis. The aim is to provide free practical industry relevant workshops and seminars to help keep attendees up to-date with all the technical trends and industry techniques.
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