![\"mrbill\"](\"http:\/\/www.stylusmagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/mrbill-500x92.png\")
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By Topher Duguay<\/b><\/p>\n
Australian DJ and musician, Mr. Bill has released nine full length albums and has collaborated with dozens of influential members of\u00a0the electronic music scene from around the world. They will performed in Winnipeg on October 29 at The Pyramid Cabaret. We chatted with Mr. Bill over the phone about their tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stylus: \u00a0So what made you decide to come to Winnipeg, anyway?<\/b><\/p>\n
Mr. Bill: \u00a0<\/b>I didn’t decide to come to Winnipeg <\/span>per se<\/span><\/i>. I’ve played there once before with Chris Komus, and I really loved the place – so not coming back for three years definitely wasn’t all my call! Refer to my Facebook post on how tours are developed. <\/span><\/p>\n Stylus: I\u2019ve heard about the worst show you\u2019ve ever played in a previous interview, so what was the best one? <\/b><\/p>\n MB:<\/b> Hard to say, but Lucky Festival in Tacoma with KJ was definitely the biggest I’ve ever played. Somewhere from 4,000 – 5,000 raging kids – yeah, you know it’s big when you’re differential perception is 1,000 fucking people – what’s the next step from there? “Oh it was somewhere between 40,000 and 80,000.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Stylus: I noticed that you said you primarily use Ableton\u2019s native VSTs for composition \u2013 is that still the case and if so, how come? I\u2019ve noticed they tend to have a pretty poor reputation for whatever reason<\/b>. <\/span><\/p>\n MB:<\/b> Really? See I’ve know them to have quite a good reputation, actually. I mean shit Culprate makes almost all his basses with Operator, and he’s one of the best for sure. What’s that old saying? A bad craftsman never blames his tools? I’d agree with that in this sense. Ableton native plug-ins are totally capable of doing some nutty shit if you’re also capable of doing some nutty shit! <\/span><\/p>\n Stylus: Since you\u2019re very into sound design, what are your feelings on subtractive synthesis vs FM synthesis (and additive synthesis, depending on how much you\u2019ve messed around with that)? <\/b><\/p>\n MB: <\/b>They’re different. I would never try to get some metallic bell sound out of a purely subtractive synth (luckily Operator does both, hey? hehe) – and I’d rarely try to make some old Warp Records, detuned synth sound using FM really (although I guess you could actually). I’d say FM synthesis may be more versatile, but subtractive synthesis is probably more functional (depending on your goals). Additive synthesis has kinda become my new favorite thing actually! Things like Razor, Icarus, Lazerbass, etc, they all just have SUCH an amazing sound to them. <\/span><\/p>\n Stylus: Is there any carry-over from your days as a metal musician to what you currently do when you play live electronica? <\/b><\/p>\n MB: <\/b>Absolutely. A lot of the playing on the drum-pad is super technical, and very arbitrary sometimes – and in that way it reminds me of playing metal. You never really improvise in metal, the idea is to just make the most technical thing ever, practice it 1,000,000 times, then play it exactly that way on the day. A lot of parts in my set are like that, but a lot are also kinda improvisable, too. <\/span><\/p>\n Stylus: Do you have any hopes for where \u201cthe scene\u201d (electronica in general) will go in the future? I know you mentioned you liked what Flume is doing right now.<\/b><\/p>\n MB: \u00a0<\/b>I love what Flume’s doing. This is gonna’ sound like the stupidest, and saltiest thing to say – but I’ll say it anyway. I really hope that to get to any sort of \u2018level\u2019 in electronic music, you should have to be doing something that is actually interesting, which sounds stupid, right? Because, what’s interesting differs from person to person. Basically, what I’m sick of seeing is people DJ’ing WAVs out of Ableton, or from USB sticks in CDJs and talking on the microphone every two or three mixes – like, that’s their performance… People seem engaged, and good for them, if they’re having a fun time, and everyone’s loving it, then that’s great! But, I can’t help but think two things: a. If those DJs were forced to be restricted to their own catalogs, how many of their sets would become extremely underwhelming overnight, and b. If the audience really understood what they’re doing, would they still be so engaged? Or is it the mystification of not knowing what they’re doing so much that’s keeping them interested?<\/span><\/p>\n Stylus: \u00a0Can you expand a little further on Corrective Scene Surgery? The idea seems really interesting, although I haven\u2019t seen any of the \u2018adaptive comic book\u2019\u2026 To add to this, how\u2019s Corrective Scene Surgery coming along? <\/b><\/p>\n MB:<\/b> So, the adaptive comic book is in the cover artwork of the tracks. If you go to my SoundCloud playlist and click through the playlist and look at the artwork for each track, so far you can make out a story of a guy that goes to work, gets in a car accident, dies, and is currently based in purgatory I guess. Let’s see where it goes from here, hey? It’s kinda all up to Funi as to what he decides to do with it next. As for the musical side of it, I kinda created it to be never ending as my own \u2018label\u2019 – a safe space for me to release music that no labels want to release, and to have the security of knowing it’ll always be there, and I think knowing that, and having that has really opened my mind to doing a lot of things I wouldn’t usually allow myself to do musically.<\/span><\/p>\n Stylus: Since you\u2019ve done at least two large-scale collaborative works that don\u2019t seem to have much in common with how most electronic music \u201cworks\u201d (The Collaborative Endeavours and Corrective Scene Surgery), do you have anything else like that coming down the pipeline?<\/b><\/p>\n