Interview: State Azure, Ambient Produzent und Musiker

Dreams, Artwork, Equipment, Motivation: Original Interview

AMAZONA: Hello Pat, thank you for taking the time.

State Azure: No problem!

AMAZONA: As I understand it, you have just moved. Is everything in place again? I see you are uploading videos again.

State Azure: That’s right, I moved a few months ago. I made it a priority to at least get a small desk of equipment ready to go and keep those videos flowing. The main studio took a bit longer, but it’s up and running now and provides me more space than I had before.

AMAZONA: OK, let’s get technical. You seem to have a lot of equipment, but some devices do appear more often than others. Towards which device or device combination do you tend to gravitate to regularly?

State Azure: Probably the Korg Wavestate or Waldorf Iridium and a simple hardware looper like the TC Electronics DittoX4 which I use quite often, usually with at least a couple of effects pedals. This is really all you need to improvise ambient tracks.

AMAZONA: Do you try new equipment or new combinations often?

State Azure: Oh yeah, for sure! Sometimes it even keeps me awake at night, as I imagine combinations of synths and effects, maybe with some eurorack thrown in.

AMAZONA: What is the motivation behind it?

State Azure: Well, I’m always trying to discover that really fun and simple setup which lends itself well to my love for improvisational and spontaneous music creation, especially something that allows me to come up with interesting ambient soundscapes very quickly, that sound good.

AMAZONA: Is a modular system a good compromise? Because every patch is like a new instrument but not quite (Same same but different you know ;).

State Azure: Yes, it can be. I mean, with a modular system you build the kind of system you want, and it’s never the final version. I often like to come up with a combination of eurorack modules for my smaller case that are built around what I want to achieve, it becomes a unique, small eurorack system temporarily. Next time, I may choose a completely different set of modules to populate the case.

AMAZONA: How important is the restriction of tools to you?

State Azure: Good question, and actually this ties with my previous answer. Too many options is a bad thing, at least in my case, but I’m sure it’s the case for many creative people. One of the main reasons I like to remove eurorack modules from my larger system and populate a much smaller eurorack case, precisely to limit my options/tool, to really focus that combination of modules to fit a particular requirement, to make it as efficient as possible.

AMAZONA: Do you mix and master your tracks yourself?

State Azure: I always mix my own music. Most of the time I do master my own tracks, which is not ideal. Some of my more important releases, like studio albums that I might spend months working on, I will try and get professionally mastered.

AMAZONA: How did you come up with your particular ’sound‘?

State Azure: I think this is just something that happens to many artists, whether they really try and force it or not. An artist’s particular ’sound‘ or recognisable style, probably more often than not just happens naturally, and is unique and personal to each of us. I’ve no doubt, at least for those of us who have relied on our ears to learn how to create music, that we are partly a product of years of other music we’ve studied and listened to when developing our abilities, also a taste for certain tones, timbres and frequencies that we like, which are subtle but unique to each of us, that shapes and influences what we create ourselves.

AMAZONA: There are streaming videos where you create whole albums live. Have you been trained in music, piano or otherwise?

State Azure: I’ve had no formal training at all. I’m entirely self-taught, and learned basic music theory purely by ear, practice and studying other artists and some reading. Those videos where I essentially create and perform an entire album worth of music, are really just exercises in improvising and I was probably highly inspired by something at the time! The Korg Wavestate video, where I improvise something like 11 tracks on the spot, was very fun and kind of a proof of concept to show just how great that synth is. I don’t know of any other synth that has so much variety in its sonic palette, but it is sample based of course..it reminds me a lot of Omnisphere (software), and is unbeatable for ambient textures and atmospheric pads..and no, Korg don’t sponsor me at all and never have, I just think that particular synth is a must have for any ambient producer.

AMAZONA: What part does harmony play in your works? And how is it contrasted against texture?

State Azure: A lot of these things are somewhat sub-conscious for me, and rely very much on years of practicing and listening, but also my emotions and mood at the time. I improvise everything, I lay down a new part and listen back, if it feels and sounds right, it stays. For me, creating and improvising music is a very personal thing. Nothing is written down, planned, or calculated. The music and ideas flow from my inner self, shaped by my mood and feelings, and ultimately constrained, realized, and structured by my rather limited theory of music.

AMAZONA: What role is your cat playing in your compositions (I’m a cat person too :)

State Azure: Haha. Cats are awesome. They don’t help all that much in the studio, rather the opposite! But they do seem to enjoy my music. Actually, I’m convinced that all cats just inherently enjoy ambient music. Given how much they clearly value sleeping, I think it makes sense. But if we think about it more scientifically, perhaps the low and constant hum of ambient music is extremely relaxing for them, since it should mask a lot of those tiny natural sounds that may disturb their sleep. We all know their little ears are constantly in ‚hunt mode‘.

AMAZONA: You are also improvising, here’s an example on Soundcloud. How do you prepare for that and where does the improvising aspect come from?

State Azure: Well, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m always improvising. Everything I do is improvised at some point. Even my non-live studio work starts out almost 100% improvised, but then may get a fair amount of editing etc. For most of my live improvisations, including ‚Partly Cloudy‘, I just do it live, without any practice. Before I start, I may just play around a bit and at least get an idea of what key/scale I’ll start in, and certainly choose the initial sounds. But after that, whatever happens, happens..

AMAZONA: In contrast, you are also doing covers like „In the Air Tonight“. How come and what is the motivation behind that?

State Azure: My teenage years were during the 80s, so naturally I love and miss that decade of music, I have so many favorite songs from that period. I always wanted to try some covers of those songs, but wasn’t sure how I would do it. I then came up with an idea to try and create electronic/ambient versions of them. It’s still a project that’s work in progress, and not all songs I want to do really work well in the ambient style, but I’m continuing to work on more of these. They’re really fun to do!

AMAZONA: Is the community helpful in finding new aspects or ideas?

State Azure: Oh, absolutely, inspiring too. I mean, the ambient community just on YouTube alone is amazing, there’s so much great music continually being shared there, but also awesome videos showing and demoing different synths and other gear etc. My own fans are very supportive, and sometimes give me ideas and suggest covers of other songs to try etc. Though, to be honest, my list of covers and ideas for future tracks/projects is already huge!

AMAZONA: I myself am a sucker for what I call „space ambient“, which means there are no or just a few drums involved. That’s the way I got to know your channel btw, the almighty Youtube algorithm brought me there. How did you get involved in creating almost „beatless“ music?

State Azure: I think I myself became a fan of that kind of music ever since I discovered Brian Eno, I think somewhere back in the 90s decade, and maybe some of Jarre’s more ambient earlier works. I’m still a big fan of such music and still listen to it often, so it’s nice to create my own now and again. It’s especially nice not to have to worry about typical song structures, and drums/percussion, when creating such ambient tracks and just focus on textures and atmosphere.

AMAZONA: ’What advice and gear suggestions could you give to someone wanting to get started with ambient music?‘

State Azure: At least for the drone/space ambient, or Eno kind of style of ambient, only minimal gear is needed. But I do recommend at least a way to loop/overdub to build layers and textures, along with a decent reverb. This setup can be hardware, or software, or a combination, but it doesn’t have to cost very much to get started. For those wanting to dip their toes into modular as well, I highly recommend VCV rack, standalone modular software for Windows/Mac. It basically simulates eurorack modules/environment. It’s tons of fun, a great way to learn and free for the standard version.

AMAZONA: A lot of themes seem to have to do with dreaming, do you draw inspiration from that? I myself only dream of music when I’m actively making it in that dream, not that I remember much.

State Azure: Actually, I rarely remember my dreams either. I think my inspiration can come from almost anywhere, but mostly it comes from listening to music other than my own, and also sci-fi movies, and documentaries on space/cosmology.

Q. You’re also absolutely active on other platforms like bandcamp and soundcloud. What is your professional status concerning music?

State Azure: I guess I consider myself semi-professional. I’m not a huge name, and can’t live on soley my music by itself, at least not yet.

AMAZONA: Who is doing the artwork for your releases? I find them absolutely stunning.

State Azure: It depends on the release, some artwork is done by myself (I used to work as a graphic designer), other releases like my most recent ‚To a Distant World‘ are by the artist Brian Sarubbi that I discovered on Pixabay, or Mike Winkelmann, who was kind enough to allow me to use his artwork for my album ‚Edge of Forever‘.

AMAZONA: How did you come up with the artist name State Azure?

State Azure: Oh, there’s really nothing clever about that. When I was first approached by a small label to release my first EP, they asked me to come up with an artist name, and wow that was tough…I think it took me a couple of days of juggling ideas, and words and somehow came up with ‚State Azure‘..I liked it, they liked it, and it stuck!

AMAZONA: What are your plans for the future?

State Azure: Well, I have a ton of things in my list of music projects/ideas to get through, all of which need to be ordered by priority. I started working on a new studio album over a year ago now I think, which I really need to get back to. The move and a lot of other things got in the way of that, so the album got shelved, so I have a large folder full of incomplete and unheard tracks that require a lot of work yet. Other than that, I expect I shall just continue to do what I do, and keep up the regular YouTube content, occasional livestreams, covers etc. Hopefully release a license free album for anyone to use for whatever they want and also aim to improve my music theory!

AMAZONA: Pat, many thanks for that interview and for the music, I’m curious as to what you’ll be coming up with in the future!

State Azure: Thank you so much for the interview!