Here’s a fascinating interview with Surgeon! Really cool stuff, especially as he dives into his current live gear/studio setup. Happy reading!
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Cool. Was just listening to that album. Some good stuff there. “Metal pig” I think was the track title of the one I liked most.
Studio setup = live setup has been my philosophy for a while.
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Agreed on the studio/live setup front. Someday I would love to see STOOR live in action…
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Yeah, I’ve always been that way, started with an electribe never really got into fully composed tracks in a DAW, I do have separate gear I sample into my live rig but yeah I don’t make a separation between a studio set up and a live setup really.
Crash recoil seems pretty great on first listen, I still think his “raw trax” 1 and 2 are the pinnacle of his releases though… I think he said that was just a synthi and a 909 but dang is it good. This one feels like a very similar vibe though.
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“just a synthi and a 909” … sounds like a fantastic setup
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Funny I think and create in a similar way to Surgeon without even realizing it until reading this interview. It’s fun and intuitive than living in a DAW constantly with hundreds of software plugins.
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“When you watch a live stream, you’re given the impression that you’re watching a performance, but you’re not – you’re watching coloured pixels on a screen.”
How dare he dictate what my current definition of a live performance is! Does he not know how much my back aches standing/dancing around for more than 30 minutes at a venue? How my knees call for the sweet surrender of a plush office chair. Does he?!? Does he say anything about the cost of drinks. Just glosses over that as well doesn’t he.
I’m on to you Surgeon…
Side note, thought M.R. miss spelt colored, but upon investigation, colored is how it is primarily spelt in the States, while coloured is how they do it on the Isles.
Serious note, I’ve seen more artist start shrinking their live setups down to something you can toss in a backpack and be done with. Makes sense. Has to be a pain in the ass for most to have to always worry about checking gear in at the airport, and worrying about it’s wellbeing.
This is also the third Faderfox device I’ve seen Surgeon use in his live setup.
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Interesting interview. I love the idea of live setup/studio set up being the same thing. His quote about the actual process seems to go against that a bit though; recording in each part separately, then arranging/mixing in Ableton.
Also I love catching myself thinking I “need” a super nice mixer, Model One etc then you have Surgeon with a £35 number from Amazon haha.
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I love Surgeon but I think we need to be clear here because I don’t think this is really that much live improvisation. He has a bunch of patterns already made, he has the sounds and loops already made in the 1010 boxes. He’s jamming with patterns and presumably twiddling the knobs on his faderfox which are mapped to FX and some sound design parameters in the 1010 boxes - but is this much different to using ableton session view with a controller? Ultimately it doesn’t matter but I don’t think it’s right to sell the idea that this is free improvisation. With only 1 pair of hands you can’t make up everything on the spot, there has to be some leg work before the gig.
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He’s using things like the torso with pre-arranged patterns that can be changed and manipulated however he sees fit during the performance. He also uses the loop recorder on the pulsar, not to mention the real time control he has over a lot of parameters. Yes, he’s starting every gig with the same building blocks, but he’s given himself a fair bit of room to change and rearrange those building blocks as he goes.
This is very different from mixing fairly static pre-rolled clips in session view, but it’s also not completely improvisational in the more traditional sense of the word. I don’t think Surgeon would describe his sets as free improvisation or pure improvisation, but there are definitely improvisational elements.
Also, you only have to watch a Marc Rebillet video to see how difficult free improvisation would be in the context of live techno, where you don’t get a second to stop and chat to the audience while you work out what to do next.
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This looks to be mostly the same kind of setup as in the article -
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I haven’t seen him claim he does makes up everything on the spot. He’s very transparent about his process in interviews etc.
Looks like he can take the pre-planned stuff quite far from where it starts. I think the Torso is useful for coming up with stuff in the moment as well.
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I agree with this but I bet every set sounds almost like others.
I should emphasize though, I love Surgeon. Probably my biggest techno influence.
Edit - he obviously enjoys performing like this so that’s all that matters really.
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That’s pretty much what I do. At some point you have so much material that you can’t play all your stuff in a set, so the improvisation is in how you construct the whole set with your basic building blocks, not necessarily in how you create notes and sounds. There are many ways to play. This article on the subject is interesting: What Is [Live]? – The New Generation Of Live Techno - Attack Magazine
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And furthermore, he states in the interview that he recorded each part separately into Ableton and then finished the arrangement & mixing there – so essentially he is working with a simple hybrid hardware + DAW approach like so many of us already do.
Not pointing this out to try and take away from Tony or his process, only to put it in the appropriate context. I think it’s easy and common to fetishize the concept of spontaneous jamming while dismissing the fact that it still takes intention, preparation, and follow through to convert jams into records.
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The best device of the whole set-up is that £39.99 Amazon mixer
I have it too and love it more than my Mackie 1204 ( not difficult)
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Such an inspiring interview! The way he semi-improvise live shows and how album came out of this is exactly what I’m hoping to accomplish some day. Great to see such an artist successfully doing it in practice, it’s a real “moral boost” for me to continue to pursue this goal.
Also the part of only having two hands and how important it is to find the right setup for yourself is so true. Even though it’s interesting (and inspiring) to watch youtube videos of artist operating the instruments, it’s just his way (and one of endless possible ways) of doing it.
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Thought that was an Avalon on the table and not the Mono. Reminded me of this video of Carl Cox showing off his live setup.
He’s rocking Ableton w/Push which send clock to:
Pulsar
TR-8 (Aira)
Avalon
Dfam/Subharmonicon
LXR
all going through that big ass Pioneer V10 super mixer he’s been using the past years.
Was surprised to see he’s getting into doing a type of live performance.
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Not sure if I missed it in the article, but what wa he using for basslines? Was it samples?
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Not sure if it’s the Blackbox or the Lemondrop, but guessing one of the two. That said, it could be the Pulsar as well 