Hi friends - hope all good!
Huge thanks from Veryan and me for coming to the Listening Party last night - love the fact we’ve got an awesome crew of regulars and loads of new faces every time, and yesterday was such a wonderful example of this :)
Open, safe and inclusive spaces where like-minded people can get together and be completely themselves are getting harder to find online - these parties, and not just qd ones, give exactly that and have become one of my favourite regular dates on the calendar - it’s down to you all they’re so special so big thanks for being there!
qd22 now the bestselling CD on all of Bandcamp and second overall in any genre/format - amazing and we’re both so grateful :)
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Now Part One of our Q&A - enjoy!
Please tell us a bit about your background and history in music
Whilst I’ve always listened to music, I don’t have a background in creating it, and I’d never made music prior to 2015. It was a particularly difficult year, personally speaking, and I needed to do something totally different to try to preserve my sanity.
I saw some beginners’ music production classes advertised near to where I was working at the time, so signed up for a few of those which is what got me started. I just loved the freedom it gave me and the fact that I could lose myself in this whole new world of sound creation. My sound is quite minimal. I want it to be very open with lots of space. By leaving lots of space, I hope listeners might fill in the blanks with their own subconscious ideas and interpretations.
Please can you describe a bit about your general philosophy and process as an artist?
I’ve said this before, but it’s fundamental to the way I approach music and life in general - always be true to yourself. Never create for other people or try to appeal to other people’s expectations and tastes. If people find you and like what you’re doing, that’s brilliant. But the worst thing an artist can do, in my opinion, is to try to fit into other people’s ideas of what has or hasn’t any merit. I fully accept that someone might love something I release but hate the rest. And I’m totally okay with that. It comes down to being authentic, I guess. And being authentic, to me, means creating music because I love the process, rather than worrying about the outcome and who might or might not like it.
What does quiet details mean to you and how did you use that to approach this album?
When I think of quiet details, I immediately think of nature and my surroundings, but I’ve covered those subjects in detail through previous releases. So, when it came to starting to develop ideas for this album, I decided to look internally, rather than externally.
That led me to various ideas surrounding Tai Chi (an ancient Chinese martial art), which I used to practice myself a few years ago. Although Tai Chi was originally a form of self-defence, these days it’s more commonly practiced as a set of flowing movements coupled with slow breathing and is thought to be beneficial to both physical and mental health.
I wanted to explore, musically, a significant part of Tai Chi practice which is yin and yang. These opposing, yet interconnected forces - opening and closing, increasing speed and slowing down, attacking and yielding etc - true yin = stillness, and true yang = power. That’s what I’ve tried to convey through these tracks and creating it as a continuous mix really helped with the whole idea of flow.
There’s so much there we can likely all relate to, and I think it shows what a natural talent Veryan truly is.
People work for years to get the level of refinement she’s found in a short space of time, it’s an honour to be a step on road that has so much potential. Massive thanks to her for being a part of the series.
Part Two coming next week :)
Remember friends, if you bought the CD message me to get a download of Veryan’s long-form version which, as she says, perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the album.
Always my favourite way to listen x
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Now some shout-outs!
Wonderful words from Shawn Reynaldo on First Floor - “Sitting somewhere between Tycho and Tangerine Dream..” read the rest here
Lovely review by Guillermo on loop.cl
Space is the Place playing a track on their show last night
Foxy Digitalis review coming today so check out over there too
Regular readers will know I say this every time but it’s so important - please support writers, DJ, radio stations, print mags and other independent outlets - by subscribing, sharing, reading, listening and any other way you can.
They put in so much time and effort so deserve our support and appreciation - big thanks to all of them!
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So thanks again friends, enjoy Veryan’s album and have a lovely rest of the week!
Alex
quiet details studios - mastering and audio services
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