PHOTO : VALERY GORE
DIGITAL MUSIC
Joshua Van Tassel has built a reputation as a producer and composer of acclaimed electro-acoustic music that is both highly sophisticated and easily digestible . He has performed and collaborated with artists including Sarah Slean , Great Lake Swimmers , Royal Wood , Gypsophilia , and many others . www . joshuavt . com .
Josh Van Tassel
Soundscapes for Sarah The Electronic Elements of Sarah Slean ’ s Metaphysics – Q & A with Producer Josh Van Tassel
CM : Sarah called you a “ sound architect ” and credits you with adding the dreamy soundscapes and textures to Metaphysics . Tell us about what you were initially tapped to bring to the table with your production and arranging work .
JVT : Sarah and I have known each other for quite awhile now . I ’ ve played the drums for her a few times over the years , and we ’ ve talked a lot about music making and the different things we ’ re both into as far as influences .
When it came time to make this new record , she was talking a lot about more textural things – like things you might hear in Peter Gabriel or Daniel Lanois or Bjork records that incorporated electronic elements .
A lot of what I try to do with electronics is incorporate them in a non-electronicsounding way . I want to be true to the song and still make the song the focus , but bring in an element that can set up a slightly less realistic world around it and make for a deeper listening experience without taking it too far into traditional electronic-sounding music , with heavier beats and electronic-sounding drums . I like to keep things more organic , and that ’ s really what she was interested in – building some sonic interest around what she was already doing .
So it was about adding those textures while always keeping the big picture in mind .
CM : So at which stage of the writing and arranging process were you typically entering the fold ?
JVT : She came in with the songs pretty much formed – the melody and lyrics already in place – and she was really open to advice on feel and groove and form , so it was earlier on that we were collaborating . Not everything was set , and that made it super fun – a very creative , talented person coming with something but that ’ s still open to pretty much anything .
In some cases , I had to kind of think ahead to what I thought she might do with her string arrangements , which usually came last . I wanted to make sure there was plenty of sonic space for the strings and also that I was enhancing what she might do without crowding it out .
In some cases , we ’ d follow a path for a while that didn ’ t work , so we ’ d back track and then set off somewhere else . In the end , we got to a really cool place that ’ s still very Sarah Slean , but also takes the album to places she hasn ’ t really gone sonically .
CM : Sarah is a great musician with a strong sense of dynamics and nuance . How did you interplay with her very “ human ” performances and create a synergy coming from the digital domain ?
JVT : Well , first and foremost , I ’ m really a fan . I love Sarah ’ s music and have for a long time . When I first moved to Toronto from Nova Scotia in 2001 , one of the first shows I went to was Sarah Slean , back in the Blue Parade days .
So I think it was being aware of what she ’ s done and her influences , and having known her as a person and a friend , it was interesting to , knowing all that , be true to the music she makes while trying to steer it not in a new direction , per se , but add some elements that maybe she hadn ’ t explored yet .
Whether it ’ s a soundscape or ambiance or even some rhythmic thing , I do like to make those out of things that the artist has done and performed themselves , so if she has a piano part that she ’ s played , even if it ’ s just a scratch piano track or vocal – because with Sarah , even a scratch vocal or piano track is still just so good ( laughs ) – I ’ ll use that as my source material and work with it to turn it into something new .
So if she ’ s played a beautiful , random chord even once that ’ s in the key of the song , I can take that chord and work with it in Ableton and with pedals and basically use that as a palette . I can make a new sound or ambiance out of it that I can use in the context of the song .
Basically , I ’ m trying to take things she ’ s actually created and manipulate them to work with the material . No matter how esoteric or manipulated they are , that really helps it feel cohesive , like it belongs . I ’ m not super reliant on synths in that sense ; it ’ s more working with samplers and effects to get sounds that are a bit unexpected , but often come from a real-world source .
The end result may not sound like a piano at all , but somewhere at the heart of it , it ’ s a sound you ’ ve already heard .
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