How are you doing today?

Pretty great, little tired, mostly excited.

What is something about you that people wouldn’t know just by looking at you?

I’m a meditation practitioner, can recite the hebrew alphabet and my favorite color is green.

What inspires your music?

Ideally? What I’m feeling, or an emotion that I can feel that I want to capture and explore. That’s been my focus lately, to sit down and before I decide to get all technical, pause for a bit and just look at what I’m feeling and explore with my mind what would be cool to express. In the past I’ve written stuff because I’ve been overwhelmed with what I’m feeling- “The greatest lie” was one, and I’ve had people tell me it’s almost uncomfortable to listen to because of what it expresses (it’s about great disappointment). That’s when I know I’ve done something right.

Describe your music in three non-words.

wub-wub-wub, eeeeeeehhhr, puh-keet

What really grinds your gears?

Four to the floor house music, or rap music that’s essentially repeating the same four bar loop. I dig rap, don’t get me wrong, but I really think artists should always flex their creativity, though I think in some cases even that can be done creatively.

You’ve been playing violin since you were a child, how did you make the transfer from such a classical instrument to electronic music?

It didn’t feel like such a huge leap for me and I think that’s because I kind of still keep my snooty classical attitude towards writing. I call myself an electronic composer, that’s essentially what I aspire to be. I’m going to school now for commercial jazz and taking the harmony stuff I learn there and integrating it into what I do. I’ve always been a big music theory nerd; I’m also a big fan of breaking rules and doing it my way. I guess the lack of a huge transition was due to that I’ve only considered myself “just a violinist” for a very short amount of time, before I started learning music theory. At that point and since I’ve always looked at myself as a composer who happens to play the violin. Even now, I definitely spend more hours in a week writing music or making licks on the piano than I do playing my violin.

What is the very first type of music you created electronically?

I first started composing a kind of baroque-esque music via electronic means when I was in middle school. A family friend had some software-Cakewalk Express, which you could only write on a staff with and use MIDI emulations of instruments- that I put a good amount of time in. I didn’t know anything about music theory or harmony or chords but I’d just work it out. I don’t have any of those files, unfortunately- I’d love to look at them!- but that was my first exploration into writing electronically.

Your music pulls in samples from a wide array of electronic music genres, if you had to, what would you classify your music as?

That’stough. Some of it I think fits in the idea of IDM, or what I call “mind dance”; some stuff is more electro acoustic, where I use instruments and synths; some other stuff, like on my Bluelove EP,di5_oriental- I don’t know what that would be classified as. A lot of the Bluelove stuff was really just exploring sound- I had never used a synthesizer before that. I usually just leave it at “electronic /electroacoustic / IDM” when I have to choose genres on websites.

You’re standing in the middle of a field with no one around, what do you yell at the top of you lungs?

Wake up!

Any regrets?

Oh sure. I haven’t really done any performances and that’s some thing that’s always nagging at me. I love playing stuff for friends but I either haven’t had the guts to just put myself out there or, more recently, the time to put together a live set. Though now I’m working on a key / synth set that’s a bit more accessible so I can do that live. Honestly, I think the coolest place to find myself would be in some grungy dark basement doing noise sets and glitched beats and live melodies.

You’re self taught on piano, did you have any help getting into the digital realm of music?

As far as what I do electronically, no, I’ve been completely self taught up until very recently, as I started going to school with an audio concentration. No one showed me how to use a synthesizer- I don’t think anyone should, honestly. That’s really important exploration to do on one’s own though I’ve looked at many many a help file or manual. Generally when I don’t have a certain skill or want to know how to do something I find a way to figure it out on my own.

You’re stuck on a deserted island with plenty of food and water, but can onlychoose one thing to create with… what would it be?

Since I’d probably go crazy anyway, a Roland TB-303, which is an infamously known wacky sounding acid bassline synth (also, it runs off of batteries )

What’s the first thing you thought when you got up this morning?

nonononono, I want to go back to dreaming!

Who is the first artist, which after hearing their work for the first time inspired you?

Flashbulb, hate to say it.

Favorite superpower?

Be able to change into anything.

What has been your proudest moment?

I’m a very proud person so that’s tricky to answer. Maybe finding out my Airborne EP got over seven hundred downloads when it got released on fature.net. I was a no-name there, I hadn’t been on any of their compilations.

Where do you see yourself in 7 years?

Maybe composing music for films, it’d be cool to conduct an orchestra-performing regularly, living in the city or maybe somewhere on the westcoast, or even in europe.

If you had one wish….

I wish I had taken the blue pill.

Say something to inspire the people who want to create electronic music.

Sure! My advice is to focus on what you’re feeling, and love what you’re making! Hating it will come naturally, so enjoy what you’re doing! Do it for the process, do it all the time, never stop, don’t be afraid to make it your own little world. Give everything meaning! Be a perfectionist. Create your own style and be bold- your style is probably the things you’re sick of hearing yourself do but that everyone else will love because it’s original and because you’ve beenbold enough to put it out there. Just never stop- make obstacles lessons, not things in your way but things that make your way. Never give up. Even if you’re really bad at first, just keep going- it’llget better eventually if you give it attention. You can do it! That’s basically what I tell myself.

You can check Trait out at...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Trait/270153799533

www.01014.org

Thank you Max!

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