Sonic Router

SR Mix #106: Pedestrian [Push & Run]

Posted in Sonic Router Mixes   

Emotion is the root of everything. It dictates how we react to any situation, whether we pay full attention to someone or something and whether we care to look or listen in to stuff in the first place. It’s an essential part of life, let alone the music we choose to spend time wrapping our heads around. Music that moves you in some way is vital. Whether it disgusts or pleases you; annoys you or gets you excited, it’s the music that provokes a response that you should pay attention to.

In a scene that’s focused around making a dancefloor react it can be hard to apply any kind of emotional response to tunes, bar the one you had when you were 70% cut and reaching for the nearest metal surface to bang on in drunken appreciation to. Some people, like Floating Points, Gold Panda or someone like Four Tet, manage to unite the two things, making music that works to encourage and provoke movement that also pulls at the headstrings with a nagging melody or an underlying kind of melancholy. Don’t let me be misunderstood, I’ve got time, hours in the day in fact, for tracks that make you want to cut loose and violently shake your appendages but some of the music I’ve connected to most recently has been a little paler in hue; a little grainier and a lot more sensitive to my own mood.

Much like his Push & Run label mate Ifan Dafydd and Gang Colours, who introduced us to his music in the first place, London based producer Pedestrian’s music is probably more concerned with weaving itself into the fabric of your day than it is anything else. Whilst it uses the same kind of drum sounds as a high proportion of producers operating currently and ‘Hei Poa,’ the A-side of his debut 12” for Push & Run, plays out at an easily digestible, mix friendly speed, there’s something incredibly organic about all of it. Flecked with vinyl crackle, reams of decay and reverb and that woozy sepia like hipster filter on his synthesizers, Pedestrian’s music is unobtrusive but wonderfully constructed.

It’s not so much subtle, his kicks punch holes in the mix just as well as anything released on Night Slugs might, it’s just that it’s all pensive and calm. ‘Led Astray’ is pure thought making music. Keeping his mixdowns brittle there’s space for all of his little flickers and layers to interact and poke themselves out at their designated marker. More importantly perhaps, he lets you fill in the gaps between the washes of tone and the drum lines and that’s probably the overriding reason why it can create such a strong response. Whilst he’s not alone in employing these kind of tactics, Pedestrian’s Sonic Router mix, one he named Dance Music For Home Listening Vol. 2, kind of runs with the idea, layering club tracks against their antithesis and creating a sound world that engages you but ultimately lets you veer off as far into your own head as you want.

A week ahead of the physical release of ‘Hei Poa’ b/w ‘Led Astray’ we caught up with the producer before he left to spend a couple of months overseas…

Sonic Router: So, let’s start with an introduction. Who are you? How did you get into making music?

Pedestrian: Hello, I’m Jack and I produce and DJ under the alias Pedestrian. I got into making music when my Dad gave me a free Norman Cook eJay give away CDROM he got with a magazine when I was about 12. I spent hours messing with the loops and found it fascinating how many variations you could get with the relatively limited amount of loops. After messing with that for a while, a friend said his older brother used this software called Fruity Loops where you could make your own loops… I remember being so excited because I didn’t think that was possible without a massive £100k studio! So I got on that, then over the years messed with different DAW’s and ended up mainly working in Logic.

What are some of the things you heard that inspired you to start making tunes?

I’ve always been infatuated with music for as long as I can remember and always been quite a creative person, so I guess it just kind of made sense.

How would you describe the music you make?

Predominantly dance music inspired stuff, I’d say. I am really keen on keeping the melody in my music and also mixing up the more ‘organic’ sounds as well as electronic elements. I try to keep my music quite progressive throughout and try to avoid obvious structural repetition that you hear so much.

Pedestrian – Midsummer’s Common

Where does your moniker come from? What does it mean to you?

Well, I was always a hip hop head, then I got into drum & bass when I was 14/15 and started going to raves (a little bit underage)… So that introduced me to rave culture and dance music in general. After thoroughly rinsing d&b for a few years, it started to get a bit stale for me, personally. It was when I was living in Cambridge that I was introduced to stuff around the 120-140 bpm mark. I used to walk around Cambridge listening to it on my iPod and loved how it was the perfect speed to walk to. So I guess Pedestrian represents how I fell in love and was introduced to the style of music I make today. I also love songs going on their own little journey, starting off somewhere completely different to where it ends up. Like walking somewhere; seeing different things along the way and not going round in circles. This is something I try to incorporate into every track I make.

The EP for Push & Run sounds very mature, like it’s very aware sonically – the little vinyl textures, background static and that. What makes you want to build up the layers like that?

Thanks, I pay a lot of attention to atmosphere in my tracks. It’s just one of those things that you don’t notice so much, or it doesn’t stand out like some other elements, but when you remove them, the track feels kind of naked. It also helps the track feel more human and like real life, there’s always something in the background in everyday life and I’ve always been interested in the variations they come in.

What are your production processes like? Do you sample alot?

My production processes vary a lot really, the only sampling I do is of field recordings or other recordings I make myself. I rarely ever sample something from another record; I like the sense of satisfaction from finishing a track where every element is your own. I actually recently did an hour long lecture about my production techniques and inspiration etc for a ‘Digital Labz’ seminar in Bristol with Octane & DLR and others. It’s actually an awesome idea and refreshing to have a relevant electronic production seminar for aspiring producers, shouts to James for putting it together.

There are video’s available of all the talks in the day and previous seminars at http://www.digitallabz.co.uk/video-tutorials

For me you’re part of this Gang Colours type movement where the beats are built of much more musical components. I guess it’s just a mood thing, more than an instrumental prowess… Would you say you fit in with that type of music?

Yeah I’d say so; the music that has grabbed me has always been more ‘musical’, if you know what I mean? I love it when you can feel a mood or situation from a track or like Brian Eno said “you close your eyes and almost smell the air of the scene that the music creates.” Mood in music is so important for me. Will (Gang Colours) is a don of creating those immersive atmospheres and heart wrenching chords that really get you deep down.

What do you think the ‘Hei Poa’ 12” says about you as a producer?

I don’t know really, I guess that’s for you to decide! I guess it’s a good example of my musical infused dance music style that I’m making at the moment… They were actually some of the first tracks I made as Pedestrian nearly a couple of years ago and I’m glad they’re finally getting a full release! Massive shouts to Ash and Fawaz for all the endless support and effort they’ve put into it.

Pedestrian – Hei Poa/Led Astray & Remixes [Push & Run]

Apart from the EP, what else have you got coming up release/gig wise?

Well I’m actually just about to embark on a trip for couple of months to India (lots more field recording opportunities!) so no more gigs until next year now, but there are a few in the pipeline that I’m sure I’ll be tweeting about at some point. Release wise, I’ve got a couple more remixes that will surface soon and whilst I’m in India I’ll be finishing off an EP for 2nd Drop Records on the long train journeys and I’ll be starting a new EP for Push & Run, both will be out sometime in 2012.

Can you tell us a bit about the mix you made for us?

I made the mix using 2 CDJ’s, a 1210 and a Kaos Pad 3. I had so many tracks of different styles and speeds that I wanted to get into the mix; so I decided to approach it as more of mix-tape style lay out rather than a typical club DJ mix. After it was recorded I threw in a load of excerpts of a conversation my friends and I had with a drunken professor in a pub garden in Cambridge. It was one of those crazy random conversations you have with a stranger that come around every now and then, luckily I had my wits about me, got out my iPhone and recorded it all. Such an intelligent guy; he was saying some really deep stuff along with a healthy dose of drunken nonsense…

Any words of wisdom?

Don’t follow the crowd, do what you feel. Try not to get caught up and waste all your time and energy on the bullshit and unimportant stuff that everyday life brings.

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DOWNLOAD: Pedestrian – Sonic Router Mix #106

Tracklist soon come.

Pedestrian’s ‘Hei Poa’ b/w ‘Led Astray’ 12″ is out on 7th November through Push & Run.