ADE 2023: Max Cooper to Producers: Separate Technique and Expression

This year was the most attended edition in ADE history, and fittingly enough, one of the dance music heroes that helped to get it where it is today provided one of the most interesting moments of the whole event. London-based producer Max Cooper, a mainstay at ADE over the years, advised attendees at his panel to keep technique and expression separate when making music.

As originally reported by MusicTech, Cooper, when asked by a member of the audience at his ADE panel for some insight into his personal process, explained that he thinks you should wait until you’re feeling strongly about something to make music:

“I’ll be like ‘today, I’m going to learn this new synthesizer or try this new technique’. I’m not going to try and make music, I’m just going to learn something.’ Then I’ll save the real expression for when I’m feeling a strong emotion – whatever it is, some sort of emotional trigger, where I get that urge to express. When I go into expression mode, I don’t want to think about technical things.”

Cooper expounded on this by asserting that the expressive and emotional side of music can be thrown off by focusing too much on the technical aspect of making it:

“Music is about sharing and communication and you increase the chances of that if you can hang on to that feeling for as long as possible and try and align what you’ve got on screen with that.”

Keep up with We Rave You and We Rave You Tech as we recap the biggest ADE to date!

Image credit: Jasper ten Tusscher/Provided by ADE

Next article: Shazam unveils personalized in-app concert recommendations