Smigonaut
by Mister Mime
6th August 2021
Smigonaut’s latest EP ‘New Escape’ brings a pleasing melodic melange and a nonchalant swing into bass music - a rather unique sound that the Boston-based electronic artist is well-known for.
Striking a highly refined balance between the experimental ingredients and a solid 2&4 stomp, this three-track trip combines exciting sonic elements in a manner that will send you shimmying across the floor and at the same time, never leave you lacking for low-end. Intelligent, sensitive, groovy and energetic, ‘New Escape’ is one of the hottest EPs to drop in the left-field neuro bass sonic sector this year.
MM: Why did you call this EP ’New Escape’? What is the theme/concept of the EP?
Smigonaut: I keep a doc on my phone of song/album title ideas and whenever a cool sounding combination of words crosses my mind, I'll add it to the doc. New Escape was one of these, so I used it for the name of the third track, as I thought the name kind of matched the mysterious, dark vibe of the tune. Out of the tracks on the EP, I felt 'New Escape' sounded the best for the title of a full EP. I think the phrase 'New Escape' ultimately comes from the idea of escapism, and that the obstacles of everyday life are always pressuring us as humans to find new forms of escapism to distract us. For better or worse, the title took on a whole new meaning for me during the onset of the COVID pandemic. I think we were probably all trying to find new ways to keep ourselves distracted from a harsh global reality while also having to stay isolated during a lockdown.
MM: What about the track names… What do they mean to you? {Council One, Fidget Cube} Are there any stories or interesting incidents behind the making of the EP that you would like to share?
Smigonaut: Same as with 'New Escape', these came from the doc of names I keep with words or phrases that cross my mind that I think sound cool, depending on where my thoughts take me. Council of One I think was inspired by the idea that when we make decisions we treat our thoughts leading up to a decision almost as a separate entity, like we're bouncing our ideas off an imaginary 'council'. 'Fidget Cube' has a less specific meaning, I just thought it was a phrase that best embodied the energy of the tune. Chris Karns’ performance was so groovy and energetic, and I was inspired to process and edit it further into these sort of manic, exciting phrases within the tune that sounded kind of 'fidgety' to me, hence the name. The name itself comes from this thing I bought once called a fidget cube, which is literally a cube that has all these weird knobs and buttons to press and mess around with, kind of an alternative to the stress ball made for fidgety people like myself.
Image Courtesy: James Coletta
MM: Can you tell us about the album artwork & how it complements the music according to you? Also, give a shoutout to the artist.
Smigonaut: A huge thanks to Ashton Jones (you can follow him on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/laughing_cynic/) for the incredible artwork. I'm super hyped about how this art came together. I really enjoyed Ashton's work on previous releases from my homie Wessanders, who eventually put us in touch after I inquired about the artwork on one of his recent tunes. I've been really intrigued lately with a more classic 2D art style, reminiscent of some of my favourite cartoons and video games growing up, and I've been wanting to do some album art in that vein for a while. Ashton and I had a lot of discussions about the general direction of the art but ultimately I wanted a sort of post-apocalyptic scene but in Ashton's style, and he nailed it. I love that the character in the artwork is just sitting there with a sea monster looming below under the ocean surface. There's a lot of tension in the scene which I just fucking love in the artwork. Like, 'how're they gonna get out of this jam'? It's really evocative and I think complements the tension and darker qualities of the music quite well.
MM: Can you briefly walk us through your music production and creative process? What are some workflows, techniques, plugins, instruments, etc. that you believe are essential to your sound?
Smigonaut: Oh boy, where do I start. I've been producing for over 10 years now so it's obviously been a continually evolving process over the years. I use Ableton Live 11 to produce, so that's central to everything. Learning key commands in Live 11 has been immensely helpful for workflow and has made me a lot faster. If you use Live 11 to produce, take the time to learn key commands! It will make your life easier. For plugins, tools that offer good metering have become super helpful. I use Fab Filter Pro Q 3 on pretty much every track, not just because it's a great EQ but because it has excellent spectrum metering, which helps inform how I EQ a specific track. Pro L-2 (also from Fab Filter) also goes on my master bus in pretty much every session. Additionally, I'll throw iZotope Insight on the master bus in pretty much every session; it's a super-comprehensive metering plugin that gives you info on your spectrum, stereo image, levels, and loudness, so it's a great thing to refer to throughout the process.
Learning how to interpret various audio meters like spectrum, spectrograms, levels, and anything else has also become super integral to my workflow; they don't just look cool but tell you valuable info about your audio and how to act on it. For synths/instruments, my bread and butter is the stuff that comes stock within Live; Operator is one of my favourite sounding software synths, and I've become so used to how it’s laid out that it has become my go-to for everything. Also, Simpler and Drum Rack for sampling and creating drum kits. Outside of this, I've been leaning on the Kilohearts bundle a TON; those plugins are super powerful. Phase Plant has fully replaced Serum for me as my wavetable synth plug-in go-to; in my opinion, it sounds better, is more fun and inspiring to use, and is more flexible. Serum is still great, but to be honest I barely use it anymore since I got Phase Plant and the Kilohearts bundle.
Image Courtesy: James Coletta
MM: Can you tell us a bit about your musical background? What are your earliest memories of listening to music? How did you get into electronic music and music production?
Smigonaut: My earliest memories of listening to music are hearing my Dad play classical guitar. That's something he's done since as far back as I can remember, and he still keeps it up to this day! I'm sure that's had a huge influence on me pursuing music, ultimately. I'm grateful to have grown up being exposed to music constantly by my folks; there was always music playing either in the car or at home, growing up my parents played a lot of classical music, flamenco, and oldies. Eventually, I took classical piano lessons for many years when I was younger but didn't practise enough to get good and I still suck at piano/keys.
In my teens, I started getting into metal and was interested in guitar, so my folks got me a Strat copy for my birthday and a small guitar amp. I started playing along to Metallica records and ended up playing in a couple of different bands throughout high school. Eventually, I applied and got into Berklee College of Music in Boston. There, I met a ton of peeps who exposed me to the likes of Tipper, Noisia, Amon Tobin, and everything in between. That's around the time where I got the bug for music production; I had a copy of Logic that I got through school and started making beats using the sounds I found there. Eventually, I got into the Electronic Production and Design program at Berklee, which is where I learned a lot of the basics around synthesis and mixing. That's around the time I made the switch from Logic to Ableton, and the rest is history as they say.
MM: Who/what are your biggest musical influences for this EP and otherwise?
Smigonaut: For the EP specifically, probably Shades, Monuman, Mickman, Mad Zach, Copycatt, Shield. My biggest influences overall in this sphere of music are KOAN Sound, Tipper, Noisia, Culprate, the whole SLUG WIFE gang, and I think artists like that still inspire everything I try to do.
MM: Who are some artists, people, things from other disciplines and walks of life that inspire you?
Smigonaut: I could answer this question for a while. I love so many other disciplines like film/TV, writing, art, games, and at the end of the day these all inspire me. I have favorites in each, for example Martin Scorsese is one of my favorite filmmakers ever, and I often think about the mood/tone that he sets in his films. As cliche as it sounds, I've also been inspired more lately by the beauty of nature, and have been trying to spend more time outside, and hope to travel a lot more once this pandemic settles down. Additionally, going to museums and checking out various artwork and exhibits is super inspiring. It's good to check out all of the amazing things going on in every artistic medium; as a musician/producer, limiting yourself to only music as an inspiration is a big mistake in my opinion.
MM: What do you like to do apart from making music?
Smigonaut: I usually just zone out and stare into space when I'm not working on music, but other than that, I enjoy videogames, film/TV, running, weight training, reading, good food/drink, socializing, sometimes cooking when I'm not feeling lazy, and spending time outdoors in any capacity. I am so ready to be as outdoors as possible over the next year.
You Can Follow Smigonaut on:
https://smigonaut.bandcamp.com/album/new-escape
https://www.instagram.com/smigonaut/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/smigonaut/
https://soundcloud.com/smigonaut
All Images Courtesy of Smigonaut & the Respective Photographers
