Fwonk Monday (belated)

G'AH! It's Tuesday. And we're doing a Fwonk Monday. OMFG. I just hope the space-time continuum survives this Marty McFly-style jiggery-pokery.

Anyway, this week we're talking to the mighty Tomaz, aka Gross Prophet, aka half of Errorhythm.

His most recent release on Fwonk* is, to continue our time-hopping theme, actually a re-issue of his first album, previously only available on CDR. Shane Carruth would be proud.



Combining frenetic, glitched breaks and acidic squonks with catchy melodies and humorous samples, the Gross Prophet EP is a great intro to GP's style.

If you like this, why not listen to his other works: Ethic and Protero. You can also check out the Errorhythm album 1996, here.

We caught up with the insane breakbeat scientist and asked him a bit about his sound.

How would you describe the your music?
That's a difficult one... I always struggle with this. If you use genres, it makes people just think of other artists they've heard in the genre, which isn't exactly effective. To do it any other way is far too long-winded and useless. After all, talking about music is kinda like abstinence - It's useless and wanky.

Which of your Fwonk releases are you happiest with and why?
That's a hard one, too. A lot of my releases are in different styles, and have different "purposes". So it's hard to compare them in terms of aptitude. I believe the most well produced is Gross Prophet's Protero. The most fun is a toss up between Gross Prophet's self-titled EP and Errorhythm's 1996. 1996 is definitely the greatest achievement out of those two, being a collaborative effort, which I find very hard to do.

When and where do you make music?
In my bedroom, or Greg's (the other member of Errorhythm). We live in a shared house, with several other people, so all the equipment is kept away from the public domain, and safe from party-goers, etc. When? Err... rarely, these days. I seem to have found less and less time for it lately, but it used to be at any given moment that I wasn't working/studying. Weekends are rarely spent on music, though. Weekends are for partying!

What inspires you?
I know a lot of people get inspired by other music, but I'm just the opposite. Just about anything but music can. The way someone composes a sentence; a piece of visual art, or sculpture; a book (or an entire series, as by which the current Errorhythm focus has been); smells... you name it! It will always be the feeling that these things give me which is the focus of the piece they inspire, though.

How does your creative process work?
It changes wildly from song to song. Sometimes it begins with a bit of sound-design work, if that captivates me I might just do that all night, then come back to the pieces at a later date and arrange them. Other times I'll load up my trusty, old, home-made breaks & synths patches and just go nuts and make a piece in an hour or two (those tracks are easy to pick). One time I wrote an entire "classical" piece out of strings and whatnot, to which I've recently come back and completely transformed it into a more modern piece.

What hardware / software / instruments do you use to make music?
Okay... that could take all night to answer... I'll just mention the key aspects...
Software:
Programmes:
FL Studio for most of it. I love the interface, versatility and proprietary synths & effects!
Audacity for recording
Live for live shows
VST(i)s:
Synth1
Kjaerhus Classic series effects/dynamics processors
Various Tweakbench effects and synths
Arcane Developments ET-200 (it has bugs, but it's like tape-delay sex)

Hardware:
Cassandra (my laptop)
Roland SP-202
Novation Remote SL Zero
A very comfortable chair
Whatever keyboards I can borrow

Who are your favourite bands / producers / DJs?
Right now I'm right into Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Textures, Nam Shub of Enki/Monster Zoku Onsomb, Sensational Alex Harvey Band & Master Musicians of Bukkake. I have this problem where I keep expanding my taste in music, but I find less and less time to listen.

Whereabouts in the world do you come from? And is that where you live now?
I'm from Brisbane, Australia. It's been a bit of a black-hole in terms of any kind of "scene" for the music I produce in the past, but it's beginning to expand. There have always been wicked producers come out of Brissy though, but they do exactly that... come OUT, then never come back. I'm still here, but only for a couple of weeks before I travel around Europe for a couple of years (yes it's a tour, but more of a holiday, and a poorly organised one at that!)

What's your favourite noise?
Well... it would be a combination of noises... several combinations. I like dissonance, texture and punch. In order to be effective though, it has to be contrasted with melody & subtlety. So... everything?

What's your least favourite noise?
Poor production in electronic music, over-production in rock music, poor and ineffective "genre crossing", cheese without a tongue in the cheek...