JAMES LYDNSAY / Provided by Night Swim Agency
Grammy Winner Tourist Embraces Minimalist Music Production
Tourist, the Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter recently sat down with MusicRadar for an interview. One of the highlights of the interview is his new streamlined approach to music production. Tourist explains how he is cutting back on his music production gear, specifically his synthesizer collection.
“I’ve just sold a [Sequential] Prophet-6, I’ve just sold a Moog Matriarch, I’ve sold loads of stuff that I just didn’t use, because I think I really love a knob per function,”
His simplistic approach to his gear collection and subsequent writing process allows for his ideas to flow without getting bogged down in the technical side of music production. Tourist offers a perspective in this interview that is often overlooked.
“I don’t want any overlap in my synths. They all serve a specific purpose for me. If I need a bass sound, it’s the Moog or the Juno, if I need a mono pad sound, it’s the Moog, if I want a poly pad sound, it’s the Juno or the Prophet. They all feel different, they all have loads of different character.”
Musicians of all experience levels can take key insight from this interview. The idea of “less is more”. While collecting synthesizers and equipment is a fun and exciting part of the music production journey, limiting one’s collection to a few key pieces allows for creativity to cut through in new ways. Streamlining your array of synthesizers essentially forces musicians to know the gear like the back of their hand, and to get creative with the tools that they have. Often times newer producers get trapped in the idea that “if only I owned this piece of gear my work would be so much better” – the grass is always greener. Tourist’s interview provides a counterpoint to this mindset that simplicity can be just as powerful as a vast collection of equipment.
Watch the full interview with Tourist here.
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