Well as another new year has been thrown upon us, so does the desire to change, something we only really like to face yearly if we can help it. One person who’s not afraid to take frequent risks to bring about change and thus improvements and advancement is electronic music’s constant innovator and Persona label-boss Stewart Walker.
ITM’s Semone Maksimovic caught up with a very talkative Walker, as he checked, then double-checked his suitcase list and finished up some final studio edits, as he gets set for take off over the weekend, Australia-bound.
From the very moment a young Walker’s consciousness was touched by the force of electronic music, he knew that there was something he had to do about it and that was the start of something major. After a few years of toying around, experimenting in the techno-pop field struggling to exist solely as a musician at home in the states, Stewart decided to take the plunge and move to the minimal techno, electronic music haven of the world Berlin. It was an easy decision for Walker, who’d become drawn to the creative community attitude he’d encountered over there on a brief holiday. It was also the only solution to his current problem of not being able to exist without at least one or two side jobs to make ends meet.
“This is the city that has a stronger feel of opportunity than any other city I’ve ever lived in and the cost of living is quite cheap here. So it’s really easy for young people to come here and get involved in their own artistry. In the States I was having a lot of difficulty living as a functioning musician, cause the cost of living was so high and the number of venues and record shops was diminishing on a monthly basis” expresses Stewart sadly. “Then when I made the move, I see that it’s not just musicians who are succeeding over here, it’s also young fashion designers and photographers, the whole creative community!”
As difficult as anybody would find the concept of moving, not just states, but countries, to a whole host of new friends, acquaintances, cultural practises, scenes and leaving everything they’d ever-known behind. It was the obvious conclusion and Walker was determined to make it work, as he left behind the badness of the American tall-poppy syndrome for the embrace of a more peace loving community in Berlin.
“In America the scene really trashes young artists, until they get some kind of European affiliation. Whereas here in Berlin, everybody is able to function in their own micro-areas and so they don’t feel the need to tear other artists down. So first of all people aren’t trying to destroy other people and secondly, they’re often happy to collaborate and give each other a helping hand” explains a pensive Walker of every artist’s dream community. Is there a secret we haven’t been let in on? Is there a reason why this sort of support of new artists from the industry is able to exist in Berlin but never manages to stick quite so well, whenever we try to put it into practise elsewhere?
“I think when the wall fell, 50% of the city’s government buildings were like no-man’s land at that point. Cause, cause there was no government to guard these buildings, so you got this whole new DIY party scene and it went on so strongly for so long, cause there was no government infrastructure to smash it.”
The move has inspired Walker to indulge in larger palette of music than he’d previously been listening to, as he found himself reaching back into the rock catalogue to draw influence from.
“I’ve been listening to a lot of Iron & Wine and Elliott Smith, and feeling quite inspired from that direction of music lately. I’ve definitely become a little more experimental with my musical direction here. Cause minimal techno music is so pervasive that you hear it everywhere you go, so it doesn’t really feel that exciting to work on in my own studio. I often look at what I can add to the scene or genre, that hasn’t already been done and I feel like there’s just so many excellent producers who already have that scene well-covered, so I don’t really feel that it’s interesting for me to compete with them in that area. What my music is about, is to add a bit more personality and a bit more emotional depth” enlightens Walker of his new well-rounded musical tastes “Emotional depth is what I am really looking for with music, not just something to smoke weed or relax to.”
As I talk to Walker, he’s excited about the work I’ve just interrupted him doing in the studio and keen to preview the newly designed tracks on the dancefloor at his upcoming Australian shows. He’s only just made the switch from hardware to live software in the last few months and has been busy digging into his back-catalogue. Finding old gems that have been neglected on the live front in the last few years and re-writing and working them, to have a new life on the dancefloor.
“I’m much more eager to try out some of the old tracks I never really got to play live in their original incarnation. It was just such a difficult task to translate them from my recording environment to my live environment. Cause a lot of the music I was making three years ago, wasn’t quite as custom-set for dancefloors, so right now I’m just trying to find out what’s working and what’s not” chirps a happy Walker on the subject, the switch between his old trusty hardware to the new software set-up, has been a headache to say the least, but now that it’s said and done, he has no complaints.
“It wasn’t something I really wanted to do. But I found that I had to make the change, cause all of the hardware I used to use has become obsolete and out of production now. Things were breaking on me all the time, so in order to remain professional and having reliable working equipment for each show I had to make the change and now I’m happy I did.”
But has the change brought about an obvious change in sound that Walker had to deal with?
“I don’t find that the sound is so much different, I mean a lot of aficionados go on about how computers don’t sound as good. But my general take on that is that the hardware I was using was digital anyway, so when you’re using digital equipment, it doesn’t really matter what sort it is, it’s all in the same line. What’s important is the digital to analog converters and I think I’ve found a solution that works quite well.
A lot of people have told me that they think my live show sounds as good and tight as a dj set sounds live, sometimes hopefully better, cause it doesn’t have the ‘old record’ sound, it’s just pure audio” explains Walker of his new live sound.
“I think computers sound fine, there are a lot of artists and producers who primarily use analog equipment, but I think it comes down to patience more than a sound decision” he concludes.
Catch the Stewart Walker on the following dates:
Wednesday 25th January, Glitch in Sydney
Friday 27th January, Blow Your Own Way in Melbourne
Sunday 29th January, Rainbow Serpent Festival in Beaufort, Victoria
Check ITM whatson for further details.
