Sound

Snipe Likes: S O H N

Tom Jenkins | Monday 5 November, 2012 15:59

London/Vienna-based producer and multi-instrumentalist S O H N releases his debut single today on the fledgling Aesop label – listen and read what we had to say about the swoon-inducing, stuttering, minimal electronica that is The Wheel, here. Snipe caught up with S O H N for a brief chat about London versus Vienna and plans for an imminent live show …

You’ve previously described your time in London, the final months at least, as quite isolating, a time of ‘dark nights’. How has moving to Vienna influenced you creatively?

Vienna is a far more relaxed city than London and the stress, anger and urgency that I feel influences London musicians certainly recedes in me once I’m in Vienna. That definitely has a knock on effect on the music – though from time to time I need that stress and urgency back, so I travel back to London and work at friends’ places on new material. Somewhere between the two cities is the ideal I think. Also the seasons in Austria are far more pronounced, summers are really hot and clear but with amazing rainstorms at night and winters are long, snowy and cold. Not London-cold … real, hardcore cold.

What’s Vienna’s electronic music scene like currently? How does it compare to London’s?

There are some great electronic artists in Vienna and I think they’re less influenced by trends there – Dorian Concept is a great example of a guy just doing something that is unquestionably ‘him’. Of course London has incredible electronic musicians and producers too, really on the cutting edge of the movement – it’s exciting for me to be experiencing both worlds.

You’re a songwriter first and foremost – how does the creative process work for you? Do you put together tracks as a producer and then try and compose melody and lyrics over the top, or do you write songs and then try and fill in the electronic gaps?

It all comes at the same time I’d say, I don’t write electronic productions without vocals but I also don’t write vocal compositions without production. My writing style is very fast and reactive and I’ll generally write and produce the main body of the track on the first day, after that I have my mixer-producer hat on and work on the finer details.

How are plans going for the S O H N live show? Can we safely assume there’ll be no go-go dancers or flame bellowing obelisks?

Ha-ha, you can safely assume that. I’ve started work on a live setup and it sounds amazing. I’m very lucky to have some good friends who are great musicians and synth-experts who I can bounce ideas off of. It looks like the live set will be playable totally without computers, which excites me massively and for me adds a different element to the way a lot of electronic music is performed nowadays. You can take it from me though, the live show will be really, really good. Even I’m excited about it.

Buy The Wheel 12” here, or digitally here.

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