Dubspot was at the Electric Zoo Festival over Labor Day weekend on Randall Island. They certainly came out of the woodwork for this one, and we had a great time meeting a wide variety of people, characters all. The whole crew is hoping this party can become an annual phenomenon… our city needs more events like this. There is absolutely no reason why NYC shouldn’t play host to large-scale dance festivals; hopefully this weekend helped prove that.
At our tent in the vendor village, the crew was giving Traktor, Machine, Ableton and APC 40 demos all weekend, but whenever a break came our way we took off and talked with a variety of artists about their production and performance preferences, and asked them if they had any advice for our students.
Among the artists we talked with was Audion, aka Matthew Dear, who had some specific advice for us that we felt important to share. Getting beyond pre-manufactured beats was at the heart of his advice. Since the beginning, Matt has forced himself to create drums, clips, samples and synth lines from scratch:
“use unique sounds. Bend everything that’s been given to you and never rely on presets or unaltered patches.”
Good advice from a techno mainstay.