The Producers - Racquel Solier, Maria Moles, Feels.
By Nat Grant. Originally published in Drumscene Magazine in 2018.
Raquel Solier photo by Lauren Bamford
The Producers
Nat Grant
Producers and electronic beat makers who are also drummers bring a special something to the electronic music that they create. Here, three drummer/producers share some thoughts on what drew them to working with electronics, developing their own music, and the influence of acoustic drums on electronic production - and vice versa.
Raquel Solier
Brunswick, VIC born and bred Raquel Solier has been playing drums for 18 years. They say, “oddly that daggy boy band Hanson drew me to the drums as it was the first time I saw kids my age writing and performing music. From there I got into punk and riot grrrl and the idea that anyone could pick up an instrument and play.” Raquel is the drummer in Melbourne band Mod Con (previously Palm Springs), and makes original music with samplers and computers under the name Various Asses (V/A).
V/A began in 2015. Raquel describes it as “abstract electronic music, influenced by unconventional dance music, trap and grime,” using “samples and FL studio to make electronic music, paired with some midi controllers like SPDS and MPDs etc”
Raquel says that writing music has always been “a natural part of learning new instruments for me … I’d generally write on whatever cheap op shop finds were lying around and record them onto a cassette player.” They create all the V/A tracks themselves: “I do everything for my solo projects and have complete creative control,” Raquel says. “It has just worked out more efficient and cost effective that way.” They are also keenly aware of the benefits of collaborating: “working and drawing inspiration from others.” Raquel collaborates frequently with other artists, most recently with Melbourne rapper Sophie Grophy.
When asked about her style of music Raquel says “most of the stuff I’m involved in is rhythm heavy and more experimental than immediately accessible.” In terms of drumming style: “very tom heavy with odd timings and accents … These patterns are still present in my electronic work but represented with chopped samples that can be found in V/A. I could make a whole track of just rhythmic patterns alone and be satisfied and I think that is one of the reasons I’m drawn to electronic music and the different forms of hip hop.”
Raquel says that being a drummer has influenced the kind of producer they are, and vice versa. “Most Various Asses tracks are 90% drums - often in one song I’ll have 40 tracks of drums alone. It's excessive but very satisfying for a drummer to be given that attention.” Her focus on electronic music has also affected her approach to drumming acoustically: “Once you start listening to music that is produced electronically (so to a clink or something) your brain gets more in tune when something is or isn’t perfect.” This means setting a high standard for her ‘regular’ drumming with Mod Con. This drive for perfection can be problematic: “Once I realised how creative you can get with a drum library, and how you can fine tune and effect individual sounds I finally felt I could make the kind of patterns I was hearing in my head that cant physically played, I found it really difficult to go back to just playing drums,” they said.
In addition to a career as a producer and performer, Raquel has been employed in the music industry working at places such as APRA AMCOS, Polyester Records, Shock Records and curating the Melbourne Music Week program for City Of Melbourne’s youth arts hub Signal.
In previous years at Signal Raquel has hosted music production workshops aimed at young people and emerging artists as well as run an inspiring panel introducing and promoting a select group of independent record labels to encourage a connection to new audiences.
Both Mod Con and V/A have new releases due out in early 2018.
Maria Moles photo by Melissa Cowan
Maria Moles
Maria Moles is originally from Launceston, Tasmania, and has lived in Melbourne since 2011. She’s been playing drums for the pat 12 years. “I would always be focusing on the rhythms when listening to music,” she says, "so I wanted to try it out … I also saw playing drums as being therapeutic, getting to go home after school and let loose on the drums!”
Maria is involved in lots of different projects, including with pop band Jaala, Lisa Salvo’s band On Diamond, and saxophonist Josh Kelly amongst others. But her solo project, Mondo Flockard, has been a focus of late. “I’ve always wanted to experiment more with electronics and manipulating the sound of rhythms/textures played on the drum kit with effects,” she says, “so this project came about that way.” Maria began composing and recording for this project 3 years ago, and has been performing live as Mondo Flockard since 2016.
Mondo Flockard “varies between ambient, experimental and pop I think. The live shows are pretty improvised, especially the drumming, while the recordings are more structured and composed.” In her latest release, Maria wanted to “create music that explores the use of textural percussive sounds, while still keeping the listener engaged with tensions created by layering melodies and cross-rhythms.”
This project grew out of Maria’s desire to make something that was her own, because, “I was playing in a lot of other artist’s acts, as a lot of drummers tend to do,” she says. “I also wanted to learn how to use Ableton, so the music came from experimenting with different filters and modulators using the program. I really just wanted to try out new sounds and techniques and the music came from that. It was nice to create music with the aim of learning and experimenting with ideas. I tried out exercises like seeing how many different sounds I could create with one single idea, and it would go on to create a track.”
Apart from an acoustic drum kit Maria uses a Line 6 Dl4 Looper, a Hog Polyphonic Synth Pedal, a Tascam 4track Cassette recorder/player, a melodica, and some hand percussion. “I have a fairly basic electronic set up,” she says: “they are mostly used as transitions and adding harmony to the live set … I use the Tascam to playback previously recorded sounds, it’s great because the 4 tracks can be recorded/played separately and tweaked during playback. It’s also very simple to use. The polyphonic synth pedal freezes what is being played and creates an ambient sound that can also be tweaked. It’s kind of an instrument of its own.”
Like Raquel, Maria draws links between drumming and producing: “I always start with mixing the drums and everything else is secondary. The sound of the drums has a huge impact on the music, so having a strong sense of how they should sound is a useful skill,” she says. In terms of her personal style, “although the projects I am a part of are pretty varied, most of them could be described as experimental. In terms of the sound I bring, I think that after having played in rock bands when I was younger and then studying jazz/improvisation at the Victorian College of the Arts, I have more of a gentle/dynamic approach when playing the drum kit and I bring this to the projects.”
Feels photo by Zal Kanga-Parabia
Feels
Perth based duo Feels are drummer/percussionists Elise Reitze and Rosie Taylor. Both have been playing drums for 14 years. Asked about how they got started, Rosie says, “I saw a school jazz band perform when I was 8 and the girl behind the drums absolutely rocked and I was sold from that moment on.” For Elise: “my brother got a drum kit, started learning and I instantly wanted to be better than him and would practise in secret,” she says.
Elise and Rosie are both classically trained percussionists and producers. They met in high school and after playing together for many years through university music degrees, decided to form electronic percussion duo Feels. Feels blend live percussion and melodic synth patterns to create a unique minimalist style of electronic dance music. They recently received the ‘Best Electronic Producer’ award at the 2017 WAM music awards in Perth.
The duo write music with their live show as a focus: “we are always developing ideas that are going to translate well to our live electronics/percussion set-up. Our approach to writing and playing live is similar in the sense that we want to take the listener on a journey - each track needs connect to the next in some way whether it be an accent pattern or a rhythmic grouping/idea."
Both Rosie and Elise have always been interested in improvisation within their percussion playing. Rosie studied percussion at uni and Elise went on to study composition. They say: “we work with our strengths in beat making and music composition to create a Feels track.” In terms of inspiration for their compositions, Elise says: “I have always been interested in patterns and disruptions of patterns within music, I find this concept to be a huge influence when writing a new Feels track.” For Rosie, “playing drums and marching snare is where I get all my inspiration for writing Feels beats.”
The Feels live set up is fairly electronically focused, whereas the Feels studio set up adds a lot of acoustic percussion instruments. “When we play live, we use Ableton live, Ableton push 2, SPD-SX and auxiliary percussion - mostly shakers and kalimba. When we are in the studio, we use all of this equipment plus marimba, vibraphone, xylophone and piano.”
Rosie and Elise agree that their drumming and producing influence each other, and that being percussionist/drummers influences the kind of producers they have become. “Our history in drums and percussion means that all the focus for our production is on rhythm and making the beats sound good is always our first priority … We will always start a Feels track with the focus on rhythm. It is usually a simple idea that will develop over time through manipulation of rhythmic structure. Being drummers we like to keep our beats locked into a steady groove. We love using irregular time signatures and unusual groupings to keep listeners on their toes, but the underlying beats are always solid. The beats often stay consistent and it is the melodic material that moves frantically around the driving rhythmic patterns.”
The pair also run a community group called WOMPP (women of music production Perth). “WOMPP is a community for female, trans and non-binary Ableton users to share and develop their production skills. We meet every month in our studio for workshops.”
