PhonoTactic

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.

http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/music/music-previews/software-solutions/

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 Live], 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
- FFWD

Check out this article in the photo gallery. It's saved as a JPEG - WestEnder

http://www.ffwdweekly.com/Issues/2005/0915/mus4.htm

MUSIC
by MD STEWART

Wired for sound
PhonoTactic’s Byron Mueller helps demystify computer music
>>PREVIEW
PhonoTactic
Friday, September 16
Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Centre
Computers. Love ’em or hate ’em (or love hating them), there’s a pretty good chance that they’re going to be around for a long, long time. It’s hard to think of a single area of life that they haven’t touched, molested or completely overtaken. While some use computers to retreat from the real world, others have managed to use this powerful technology for positive, productive and creative purposes.

My first encounter with local electronic act PhonoTactic was at Cantos Music Foundation during Jazz Festival Calgary. Hardworking guitarist Jeff Drummond and his Gibson held centre stage while Byron Mueller serenely surveyed the crowd from behind his Mac laptop. "I asked Jeff to come to give the audience something real to relate to," says Mueller, "because for all you know I could be playing Donkey Kong up here." While I was reasonably certain he wasn’t playing Donkey Kong, my curiosity was piqued. What exactly was he doing up there with his mouse and mini keyboard?

Mueller is a classically trained keyboardist, bassist and generally affable fellow who has played with the likes of Tariq, Double UI, Strugglah and Difference Engine. He readily agrees to allow a relative Luddite into his studio-laboratory to shed a little light on his passion and the tools of the trade. PhonoTactic’s down-tempo, drum and bass, dub and deep house groove is the first project where he’s been completely in charge. "If I’d known this would have been this cool, I would have done this when I was 25 and not 35," he says with palpable enthusiasm.

Years of sideman experience come in handy on PhonoTactic’s new EP, Use Your Talent (If You Can). Such local singers as Andrea Revel, Bubba B and Iwango Jahfire share tracks with airy, open homemade beats and grooves. "I’m fairly mainstream – the stuff I do is traditionally based," he says. "I’ll take a rootsy bluesy Rhodes piano line. I come up with a verse or a chorus and I’ll build beats around that. Sometimes it’s centred around a vocal and sometimes it isn’t. It’s semi-instrumental, but it’s traditional rather than some wigged-out instrumental guy."

He’s forthcoming about sharing his trade secrets. Where did he find that killer Rhodes sample on "Listen 2 the 808"? "I get that question all the time – ‘Where’d you get your Rhodes sample?’ and I go, ‘Well, I walk over to my Rhodes and I play eight bars.’"

Mueller’s basement studio is neat and orderly. The trusty Rhodes shares space with a fine collection of vintage analog synthesizers, a Kurzweil sampler and a few cool toys and accessories that dominate two adjacent walls. The computer sits, relatively unimposingly, off to the right. While using computers to create and record music is nothing new, the ability to perform live and spontaneously before an audience of actual human beings is a relatively recent phenomenon. "Software’s kind of caught up with that whole concept instead of being destined to being stuck in your bedroom studio, there’s software out there that allows you to improvise mixes based on what you’ve created, and not only that, but to add to it all in real time which, to me, is exciting." Mueller explains. "You’re not just up there pressing play, but you’re taking chances, improvising like you would in any other performance situation."

Software allows MIDI (numbers that can be turned into music) and digital audio (music that has been turned into numbers) to live peacefully, side by side in perfect harmony. Several software synthesizers and virtual drum machines are only a few clicks away. Digital tracks appear as little pink squares of real estate on the LCD screen, where everything is laid out clearly and methodically. I watch and listen in awe as Mueller creates and layers beats in real time, adds an array of effects, brings tracks and parts in and out while noodling along with his free hand. It’s probably not as easy as he makes it look. All this suits Mueller just fine. "Technology caught up to where guys like me that are in their basement making electronic music, can get out and do their things live."

From his basement lair, Mueller plots and considers his next move towards global domination. He summarizes his philosophy and work ethic simply. "It’s about figuring out how you want to work and getting on it."




- FFWD Weekly

By Angela Anderson

When I think about keyboard music production I get a pang of nostalgia, and the Sanyo keyboard I had when I was 10 comes to my mind.


And I have no doubt my parents remember the pure enjoyment they felt hearing the simple beat-sample play repeatedly while I “mixed” in various sounds and noises the different keys made in random order.


Byron Mueller, a.k.a. Phonotactic, started out making music pretty much the same way (only different, because my musical career and my interest in my keyboard lasted approximately three months before I neatly tucked it into a closet, only to give it away, covered in dust, to a cousin years later).

“I’ve always been a keyboard player, I started making beats with my M1 Korg Workstation,” Mueller explains. “It was really limited though.”

Unlike myself, Mueller expanded his musical production career into something truly artistic and, I dare say, genius.
Currently he performs live p.a. (performance art), a technique in which the artist uses pre-recorded material played from a sequencer — in Mueller’s case, on a laptop — and the artist affects the resulting sound using a variety of computer manipulation techniques or live instruments to enhance and complete the music.

Mueller chooses to add other sounds to his pre-recorded beats via keyboard, guitar, drum kit, or sometimes a live vocalist.

A live p.a. show is unique because the artist has the advantage of tried and true beats, as well as the ability to use the audience’s reaction to guide his set, much like a rock musician or a DJ might.

And, also unlike my 1990 three-month long music endeavour, Mueller’s live p.a. show is relaxing, impressionable, and overall enjoyable.

Mueller is a born-and-raised Calgarian who got started in profession production, post the all-in-one keyboard days, in 1999.

“Finally the software got to where it needed to be, so I decided to start getting into production on my own,” he remembers.
Before 1999 Mueller played keyboard with Strugglah, a raggae/soca band, which would explain the Rastafarian lyrics by Iwango Jahfire, featured in Chant Aloud.

“It was fun playing with Strugglah, as was it with all the other bands I’ve played with but I divested in playing with bands full time about a year and a half ago,” Mueller says.

It appears that was a wise decision; Mueller has travelled the country on his most recent CD release tour, the Use Your Talent (If You Can) tour.

The realm of Phonotactic’s musical landscape spans the terrain of down-tempo, drum ‘n’ bass, dub and deep house.
His inspiration comes from overseas, from places like Germany, where electronic music production is huge.

“Going and watching these guys work is amazing,” he says about the Montreal Music Technology Festival [MUTEK], where he met electronic music producers from Spain and Germany.

Meeting many like-minded people made Mueller realize he was not alone after all, something he previously was uncertain of coming from Calgary, where the professional electronic music production scene is comprised of a handful of people.

“The place was full of guys who do what I do now, and they were all saying, ‘silly Canadian, we’ve been doing this for years!’” Mueller remembers, laughing.

He recently played at the Calgary Jazz Festival, as well as many local venues.

He has become involved with Electronic Music Calgary, an organization that promotes the success of electronic musicians (not to be confused with DJs, EMC consists of a collective of people who make electronic music, not play it).
Mueller’s choice software for production is Ableton Live, less complex than well-known Protools or Logic Audio, but it has its advantages.

“Ableton lets you use it in real time, its like the next wave of the MPC 2000 which is the tool of choice for hip-hop producers like DJ Shadow,” Mueller proclaims.

Whatever its advantages, it definitely works well, as Use Your Talent proves.

One of my personal favourites is track two, “Listen to the 808,” featuring Andrea Revel. It’s a dubbed-out, down-tempo tune, perfect for chilling out after work.

“Everything I try to do, I try to create a mellow mood, and hopefully make you want to kick back with some buddies and listen and make cocktails.”

Well, Byron, I say you’ve done it. Mix me up a cocktail and let’s make a toast to our old keyboard players, gone, but not forgotten.

While a date in October in Calgary has yet to be confirmed, keep checking his website for the listing at www.phototactic.com. - Beatroute