Well, this is the first of what I hope is a series of many articles focusing in on innovative Melbourne Electronic producers. And one extremely hard decision that had to be made was, well who would I interview first? After a day or two of tossing ideas around in my head, the name Steve Law (Zen Paradox/Mr.Suspicious) came to mind.

Playing alongside Steve at Hardware 18 last year gave me the opportunity to hear his music for the first time, and I wasn’t disappointed. So, who else would better suit the role of kick starting the “In the Studio” series of articles than Mr. Law himself? Here is the words conversed with Steve Law InTheStudio…

ITM: First up, what styles of music do you enjoy listening to?

Steve: I listen to a huge variety of music, from all kinds of electronic and techno music, to avant garde classical music, experimental music, jazz, vocal artists like Robert Wyatt, David Sylvian , Tom Waits, electro-pop, ambient – and a lot of stuff that it would be pretty hard to classify!

ITM: In your own words, how would you describe the style of your work?

Steve: Just as I like listening to a wide range of music, I like to experiment writing and recording in various styles. It would be hard for me to pin down a particular style for my music, other than simply electronic music I guess.

ITM: Who, where and what do you draw influence from and have you found any other artists similar to yourself?

Steve: I guess I have had a large number of musical influences over the years, and there are still new artists that I am discovering that perhaps influence me in some way. The influences on my music aren’t just related to other musical artists though – I’m just as influenced by books, nature, people, personal experiences and life in general.

ITM: When did you begin tinkling with electronic music and why?

Steve: I first began experimenting with electronic music in 1983 after having discovered it on public radio, whence I developed an intense interest in these fascinating electronic sounds. I eventually found out that these sounds were produced by synthesizers, and decided that I must somehow get hold of one of these machines!

ITM: What gear did you start out on?

Steve: That first machine that I bought in 1983 was a copy of a Moog Rogue synth made by Realistic that I purchased on sale at the local Tandy store! I messed about on this synth incessantly over the next year or so, teaching myself the basics of analogue synth programming along the way. I then began to hire other bits of gear from Troy Music, and my knowledge of recording and producing electronic music slowly increased.

ITM: What was your first release, when and how did it get released? Did you have to push it yourself or did a label get behind you?

Steve: My first release was a cassette that I did with an early project of mine called Guild of Fire (a duo with my school friend, Reynaldo Tan). We released a limited edition cassette album in 1987 called Primitive Prophecy, with hand made packaging etc. There weren’t too many labels releasing electronic music in Australia back then! I did a number of independent releases over the following years with various projects, but the first release with a label was in 1993 when I released the first Zen Paradox album on Psy Harmonics, which was then quickly licensed to KK/Nova Zembla in Belgium.

ITM: What gear are you using now and how do you use it to write your own tracks?

Steve: The main equipment I use in the studio these days consists of a Macintosh computer, a Kurzweil K2500, a Yamaha O3D mixer and a bunch of analogue synths. I’m generally writing and arranging stuff with Logic Audio on the MAC, then using the other machines and a bunch of DSP software to get interesting sounds happening.

ITM: What’s your favourite bit of gear and what’s your most anti-favourite bit of gear?

Steve: I still really like my Kurzeil K2500. That machine is always full of surprises. And my old Arp 2600 beasty is always fun to play around with! And for my live sets, the good old Roland SH-101 can be an incredibly expressive instrument. It’s hard for me to say what my most anti-favourite bit of gear is, as I find everything comes in useful at some stage.

ITM: If you were forced to go either 100% hardware or software, what would you choose and why?

Steve: I guess if I absolutely had to choose one or the other for all my future composing, I would probably go with software, since that is where most of the exciting new development potential lies. But having said that, I would never want to be without my favourite bits of hardware, as I find they always have something useful to offer.

ITM: How do you go about playing live?

Steve: I generally start out by programming grooves in the studio using Logic Audio, which I then transfer to the K2500 sequencer. This results in a series of framework loops consisting of a number of different sounds separated onto different tracks on the mixer, which I can mix in and out and process independently at any point. I then have a number of analogue machines and rhythm machines with which I am able to program rhythms and sequences on the fly. This is where the really improvisational aspect of my live shows comes into play. The live rhythms and sequences combined with the total freedom of being able to mix all the digital sounds from the Kurzweil independently, means that I am literally able to create new tracks on the spot during my live performances.

ITM: Do you think half the people in the crowd know the difference between the ways you play live opposed to someone ‘miming’ off a dat or pre-sequenced set?

Steve: There is probably a large percentage of the audience that has absolutely no idea of what I am doing on stage. I guess in the end I’m doing it just as much for me as for the audience, and I would see no point in standing behind a DAT machine on stage. I perform live to communicate spontaneously with the audience, to express myself through music directly and right at that moment – it’s simply not possible to do that if everything has been pre-recorded to DAT, or even totally pre-sequenced on a computer.

ITM: What about the public awareness of live acts as opposed to DJs?

Steve: I do think there is a considerably lower public awareness of live acts than there is for DJs unfortunately.

ITM: Personally I’ve found that majority assumes I’m just DJ’ing when I’m up there, as with most live acts unless they see you playing a keyboard or something. What do you think about that and have you had any funny experiences during live sets?

Steve: Yeah, that can be pretty frustrating sometimes. I don’t know how many times people have requested me to play a record in the middle of one of my live sets! I guess it is up to us as live performers to educate people. I do try to answer questions from curious on-lookers after a set, and try to give a brief explanation of just what is going on during my live set.

ITM: Have you got any disaster stories? Like with gear breaking or being treated badly by airline staff?

Steve: Since I have been performing for quite a few years now, I guess I have been lucky as I haven’t had too many really bad things happen. One thing that comes to mind was having a glass of beer spilled into my sync converter 15 minutes before I was due to perform – managed to fix it by opening it up and applying a hair dryer! The first time I took my Kurzweil overseas it was inspected and unscrewed from the rack by customs at a stop-off en-route, then stuck back into the rack without screwing it back in. When I arrived at the final destination, I found that the machine had been banged about inside the rack case, and had managed to wedge itself in there on a really weird angle, which required me to dismantle the entire rack/flight-case to get it out. Luckily, apart from a few scratches the machine was OK.

ITM: So tell us a bit about your overseas gigs! How did it all go?

Steve: I did a fair bit of touring overseas between 1994 and 1996, mainly across Europe, but also some gigs in the U.S.A. The crowd reaction was really positive in Europe, largely because there weren’t too many other live acts performing with the kind of set up that I had at the time. It was quite unnerving at times having so many people crowding around the stage closely watching what I was doing. I performed in quite a variety of venues, from large warehouse parties to small clubs, large clubs, and theatres and even at an old fashioned hotel in the Swiss Alps!

ITM: To finish up, any words for budding producers out there on how to get started?

Steve: There are so many options as far as equipment goes these days. Really, all that’s needed is a computer with a few software packages to begin with, which is probably the simplest way to go for most people starting out nowadays. Honestly though, it really doesn’t matter enormously what kind of equipment you begin with. Just ensure that you experiment intensively, and really learn what the machines can do – concentrate on a minimal set-up at first, so you can really get to know a few machines and/or software really well, rather than just dabbling with a whole bunch of stuff. And of course, try to push things as much as possible – don’t be afraid to go with wild ideas that don’t sound familiar, as this is when you are on the track to creating something really unique. Always try to create and sample your own sounds, rather than just ripping stuff off CDs or using presets etc. Experiment with different rhythms; try combining stuff that may seem out of context – anything that could lead toward something that sounds unique.

Steve Law will play live as Mr. Suspicious in the Planet Hardware room from 10:30-11:00pm at Two Tribes this Sunday 10th March 2002 in Melbourne.