John Tejada FWD Interview

2017.12.19

Written Interview with John Tejada for FWD.DJ 2017

What’s the musical philosophy/vision that’s served as the primary underlying inspiration for you over time? How much does the music culture matter to you vs how it influences people on an interpersonal level? How much does imagination impact your approach to music?

It really is just about feel. I’ve never pondered the things questioned here. Making music is just something that’s a big part of my life and makes me happy. The feeling of when it starts to come together. Music culture definitely matters less and less for me now. I would say it’s largely imagination when I’m making music.

How much does music theory influence your melodic composition? How strict or experimental are you when it comes to the relationships between various notes, chords and progressions?

At this point I’m going mostly by ear. There’s a hint of theory still there on a conscious level, but a lot of what I do is just by ear and feel. I suppose some years of training have stuck with me as I can hear something in my head and I know how to get that down and express it properly. I wouldn’t say I’m strict about anything. Especially messing with alternate and microtunings now, I think if it sounds good, it’s good.

I would love to know a bit about your signal chain in the studio. How much does it change depending on the sound source you are treating? Do you tend to treat analog sound sources differently than digital and how so for both?

I tend to try to get things nice on the way in, meaning if I choose to use some kind of effect or saturator to really define the sound. That way once it’s in the box it doesn’t have to be messed with much and there isn’t so much to do mixing wise (hopefully). If it’s a hardware source, whether it’s digital or analog the process is the same as I mentioned. With digital sources in the box I find some color of saturation can enhance things in a nice way, but that can also quickly become a smear and build up of harmonics, so if it doesn’t need it, it’s better without. Less is more generally. I’ll level match processing and close my eyes and turn things off and on whether in hardware or software. Lots of times the bypass wins. Your eyes will lie to you. Use your ears. Lots of these plug ins can mess things up quick.

I read you’ve been using an SLS summing unit for a while as the last step in your mix down. What does this unit do to the sound that would be missing without it and do you consider it critical to your sound? Do you have any other pieces of hardware that you use to positively color or effect the overall sound?

(SSL) It hasn’t been in the chain for some time. The newest version of the UAD plugs finally totally matches it. But it’s not my go to bus processing. I try to stay away from compressors. It’s generally known for glue. What it does to my ears is with the right attack and release can emphasize the transients a bit, gives the mix and overall midrange smack and bite and tames the wild low end a bit. That’s when you hit it only say 1 to 2 db. Sometimes it’s still usable. But I find a lot of other processes a lot more interesting at times. Again, I find slight amounts of saturation color more interesting at times. If it doesn’t need compression then why just automatically slap it on? I’ll try to make sure my channels are controlled so I don’t need to use that as a crutch.

In 2015 you were working in Renoise a lot. Is that still the case? What incarnation of production processes are you using right now? Also what post processing did you like to do to your Renoise tracks once you got them out of the computer?

I still use Renoise a lot. I find there’s nothing like it. It makes you realize that really all audio in your daw projects are samples. Meaning there’s no “tape” style audio tracks, etc. You can just manipulate every single track/sample and that becomes really powerful creative wise.

Renoise sums the same just as any other daw. Let’s you use vst and au plugs so there’s no difference mix wise.
When it comes to mastering if I were to do that myself, I tend to want the mix to be pretty close. I again find less is more. The more I experiment with mid side, or multiband processing the more things get fucked up even if they temporarily seem better. I usually need to find a process that gives me the required gain without compromising the sound.

I know that you practice your craft regularly to hone your abilities and expand musically. How do you approach this? Do you have a written plan? What strategies would you pass on here to other artists looking to better their craft?

I started trying to figure out how to make this music in 1991 so it’s been a really long journey. At it’s core was just really a desire to figure out how my favorite artists did what they did. I think that still largely drives me. There’s always something new to figure out.

What technical principals would you give to a new producer who is inspired by your work and wants to become an electronic music producer? What are some tried and true suggestions that have worked for you and saved you time because they are go-tos?

There's a lot of talk now about limiting your options which is sort of difficult to do in this day and age. Back in '91 it was not an option, it just was this way. You had limited sample time and maybe a synth or two. But that really gets you to learn what everything does and how to squeeze the most out of what you’ve got. I still believe this is where the magic is. Unlimited options can really be the worst thing for being creative.

So can’t help but notice in the last couple years you got in great shape. I’m sure that was a personal process/decision but it seems to be the case that health is not really addressed in the dance music world. Any insight you can provide on the importance of health to you and your journey?

Same with learning how to do all this music production, you learn things over time about health and how you want to feel. There’s lots of mistakes along the way but eventually you learn what works for you. At some point it became a priority again and I just changed my lifestyle in a way that was sustainable. Same as music production, I think different things work for different people when it comes to being and staying healthy.

You said in a couple interviews that you don't like endless possibilities when working on music and at the same time you are a big user of modular synthesis which seems as endless as it comes. How do you use modular equipment in your production so that it's tamed enough to fit into your flow?

Even though modular synths are so open ended, there’s still an intention there to make a sound, so I wouldn’t compare it in the same way. In fact I would say a modular system is quite a focused instrument if its a central part of your set up and workflow. Having endless possibilities would compare more to say having a giant modular system in every format wallpapering the room. Then maybe it’s too much and hard to decide what you might do. It would be too much for me anyway.

At the moment my modular experience is really condensed into just a tiny amount of modules. Even though I don’t have a huge collection it does start to drift out of focus for me. I’d like to put all the important modules into a nice 2 row 104hm case and just swap things out. I think for that reason I haven’t been using it a ton lately. So it will be nice to get that back in a nice focused place.

You have a collaboration coming out with the very talented Reggie Watts! Can you talk a bit about this project? What should we anticipate coming out of this seemingly unlikely and very intriguing pairing?

We have a new collaboration called Wajatta. Our first single “Runnin” is out now on Comedy Dynamics. We started collaborating almost a year ago. The idea was that it really showcased what Reggie did on his own and what I do, rather than either of us guesting on the others work. We’ve made a lot of music with much more to come, possible shows and who knows what else. We both really enjoy it and feel we make a great team.

Any other shows or projects you think our listeners should know about?

There will be a new John Tejada album on Kompakt early next year and much more Wajatta music.
This NYE I’ll be in LA at Union and February 17th I’ll be in Tokyo at Vent.

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