Since
what time you make electronic music?
As SYN, I
started making electronic music in early 1996. It will be almost 10-years
now since I begun playing and recording. I am a self-taught musician with
no musical background or training, and I find writing music is a time
consuming process, so I chose to improvise everything that I record, this
makes the music more fluid and unpredictable as to what the final outcome
of the finished track or album will be. Improvising allows you to make
quick changes in any direction, rather than sticking to the usual
verse-chorus-verse of any normal piece of music.
Do you
use mostly analog synthesizers?
I did use
mostly analog synthesizers when I first started out, but over the years I
have moved more towards the digital virtual analog synthesizers, and my
studio has been downsizing ever since. I find having too much studio
gear, that my creativity begins to disappear, so I adopted the stance of
less-is-more, but recently I have added a modular synthesizer system and
some analog sequencers to my studio setup, and the sequences begin to roll
once more.
How many
cds have you released?
I have
released six cd albums so far, my debut
'Soundwave Traveller' was
released by Lambert Ringlage on his EM-label Spheric Music, and my other
five cd albums have been released by Lothar Lubitz on his SynGate Records
labels. I will be starting work on a new SYN album this year. I haven't
really recorded anything new since 2002, these six cd albums are merely
compilations of my big back catalogue of recording that I made between
2000 and 2002, which is just over 150 recordings, quite a lot of these
recordings survived, as where others did not, which were either lost or
destroyed? For a fact I know that Lambert is eagerly awaiting a new album
from SYN.
Current
SYN Discography: 2002 - Present
2002 -
Soundwave Traveller (Spheric Music)
2003 - Thru The SynGate (SynGate Records)
2003 - Synphära (SynGate Records)
2004 - Sonus (SynGate Records)
2004 - Orange (SynGate Records)
2005 - Skyline (SynGate Records)
Whats
your idols (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze)?
Both
Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze were big influences for me from the
beginning, but now find myself moving away from them. I no longer listen
to TD or Schulze now, In fact i have almost sold off my entire TD and
Schulze cd collections. I prefer to listen to Kraftwerk, Ultravox, Yello
and Vangelis more, as well as a lot prog-rock groups like Pink Floyd, Yes
and ELP. The CD album 'Orange' drew on inspiration from Richie 'Plastikman'
Hawtin and Pete Namlook whom I also like very much. I would like to record
with Pete Namlook sometime. I hope he's reading this! ;-)
What
means the Name SYN? Is it a short word for Synthesizer or Synthetic?
SYN is short for the
original alias I used when i first started out in 1996 calling myself
'Synthesis' I decided to used SYN instead and stuck with that, It's
short, simple and easy to remember. Did you know there is a Norse
goddess called SYN. Pete Namlook records under the alias of SYN, and a
couple of members from the prog-rock group YES also record under the name
The SYN!
Do you
play live?
No! I
have been asked by Ron Boots to play at E-Live once in the Netherlands,
Once here in the UK by Dave Law at SMD and once by Lothar Lubitz at
SynGate. But I don't have the means nor the money to travel to any of
them. I am a studio-based musician, and I guess it will be that way,
unless some one stumps up to pay my air-fares etc. As much as I would
like to have a go at playing live, but in the long-term I really don't
think so. I don't really relish over-exposure, it sometimes kills the
effect and your image. SYN is much happier in his studio I think?