Robert Babicz FWD Interview

2018.04.11

Written Interview with Robert Babicz for FWD.DJ 2018

You’ve mentioned in past interviews that you feel like more of a story teller than a producer. Do you have specific concepts around your story telling or themes that you come back to or does the story happen on a purely emotional level?

I have a specific concept when doing music. For me every track is like a movie scene or a theater scene and every sound is an actor or a requisite. From there I decide what kind of action or non action is going on. drama, love, fight….. and so on.

How do you choose what to compress and not compress when producing? Do most get things get at least a little compression? What ques are you looking for when making compression decisions?

There is no rule to this, its more of a question , what do I want from this sound. what does this sound need. etc. Very often I just use parallel compression on sounds and mix a compressed version of the sound together with the uncompressed. For the parallel compression technique, I use mostly every plugin I have but I really like the slate digital stuff at the moment. especially their compression plugins combined with their pre-amps.

Where do you typically recommend people cut the low and high ends in their track EQ?

I very often have a low cut at 30hz and a high cut at 12.6khz. I really don't like the super strong high freq content produced by most plugins and its funny that when you think of the best sounding recordings of the past - its mostly music from the 60-70s with a very reduced freq range.

You have used electronic music as a tool to “be in the present moment” since you discovered it – is that still the feeling you get? How has that changed over time?

Its part of my philosophy, its the only real thing we can feel - the present moment - anything else is just not real. The past is gone and the future is not here yet.

You have no classical musical background but you are very melodically focused. Did you learn music theory at some point or just keep combining notes until you figured it out?

I just play along in a way that "feels right to me" but in general I see music as a geometric shape inside my head, and harmonic content is comprised of very beautiful geometric forms. So through the years I found my own systems for getting the right melodic content based on this. approach.

I know you use both software and hardware. What are the top strengths (aside from workflow) that these two categories have sonically? Do you make a point to use different digital and hardware sources when producing to take advantage of these strengths or do you feel that concept itself is false?

I think beside the workflow, hardware gives you the opportunity to make happy accidents. Sometimes you push the wrong button and things happen you didn't even know what possible. From this you can learn additional techniques. And, of course, with hardware comes a unique sound as the gear is aging and changing, sometimes for better or worse. Plugins on the other hand don't go through that process and sound the same as the day you bought them.

What place does music have in our world now from a social and political perspective?

I think music, in general, is the soundtrack to our lives. we tend to combine music with things that happen to us. It helps to remember moments and gives us the power take action in our life.

Can you tell us a bit about your mix for FWD.DJ?

I played a lot of music that is not released, or even improvised, and won't ever be released in that format. I don't plan a mix when i am doing it, I just play along.

What do you have coming up in 2018/the next couple months?

I did some cool remixes and releases for labels like Bedrock, Get Physical, Bonzai, and Babiczstyle and I am working on my next album for Systematic Recordings.

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