‘Guys like me that are in their basement making electronic music can do their things live’ — laptop rocker Phonotactic
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Computers have been an essential tool for creating and recording music for quite awhile now. Although their importance in the studio is undisputed, the increasing acceptance of computers as live performance vehicles is a relatively recent phenomenon. Byron Mueller (a.k.a. Phonotactic) hails from the old school of hardware-based musicians as a keyboardist and bassist for songwriter Tariq and reggae acts like Strugglah and Double UI.
His musical background gives Phonotactic’s down-tempo grooves and heady vibes an organic quality that transcends musical genres and breaks down audience boundaries. He’s also more than capable of jamming out on a Rhodes piano or taking a solo on a vintage synth. Mueller dove headlong into the Live PA (or laptop rock) scene about three years ago and has not looked back. Mueller sees Live PA as a tangible bridge between musician and DJ culture. “Technology caught up [to the point that] guys like me that are in their basement making electronic music can get out and do their things live,” he says simply.
New software, such as Ableton GoLive, allows music producers to remix and rearrange their hits while improvising and taking chances in real time, in front of a real audience. Although the musical possibilities are virtually endless, the visual and performance aspect of watching musicians create their art on laptops might strike you as about as exciting as watching accountants create and plug spreadsheets.
That’s where VJ James Finnan comes in. Prior to hooking up with Finnan, Mueller was struggling to make the visuals work and integrate a multimedia aspect into his show. Finnan was in the audience at Phonotactic’s CD release party and he offered his services. “Byron had been working with a number of freelance VJs and — no disrespect to anything the other guys were doing — but it ended up seeming kind of generic, and there was a disconnect between the visuals and the music,” Finnan explains. “Even though I’d never actually done anything like this, I honestly thought I could do a better job and I somewhat arrogantly said so. Byron said ‘OK, come up with some ideas.’”
Finnan acquired some software (Arkaos) and a manual, and a couple months later, he was ready to rock. Similar software advances allow VJs to select and manipulate images in real time, just as the Live PA artist manipulates audio files. A MIDI connection (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) allows the pulse and colour of the music to infect the visuals. Mueller and Finnan discuss specific approaches in theme and style for the different songs. “We get together and discuss what the plan is, kind of like a jam,” Mueller says. “We break it down for the verse, chorus and intro. James tries things to find what works.”
If something isn’t working, it becomes obvious quite quickly. Finnan has built a large library of self-shot video and found footage to play with. He also incorporates text and a live video camera to literally involve the audience in the action. “James and I are like a rock band. It’s a real show now,” Mueller says with palpable enthusiasm. The analogy is somewhat lost on Finnan, who has never actually been in a rock band before. “I love doing this,” he says. “I want to take it as far as we can go with it.”
