Bedroom Production: LWS on eight-bar loops

The Skinny: Back in 2018, you said making tunes was your favourite thing to do. Is this still the case? 

LWS: It is. There's nothing else I really do. I enjoy DJing a lot more now, but it's not the same in your bedroom. Whereas making tunes, you can do it all the time. 

How have you come to enjoy DJing more?

My releases are getting more attention, so I’ve been playing lots in different places. When I went down to London, I'd never stepped foot in Corsica until five minutes before I was supposed to play. Sometimes not knowing what to expect can make you panic, but I feel like I'm getting comfortable quicker now. I also started paying for music. It makes me a better DJ by paying attention to what I'm buying rather than mass-downloading EPs from Soulseek that clutter my rekordbox. 

I liked your recent NTS show. 

More people have messaged me about my mixes lately. It’s reassuring because I'm a less confident DJ than producer. But that's just down to how much time I've spent on it. 

How long have you spent producing? 

I've got 1200 Ableton projects. Some I spend 10 minutes on, some 24 hours. I figure that’s around three hours for each on average, which is only 3600 hours. 

What is your approach to being consistent? 

I force myself to open Ableton, but not necessarily make anything. If you contrive a banger, it will probably be shit. But if I treat it more like a B-side, I can have a four-on-the-floor festival slammer in an hour. 

The video of Ben UFO dropping your B-Side at Dekmantel is impressive.  

Ben didn't even email me back. I thought he didn't like it... then I saw that video of him b2b Joy O. 

Joy O seems to nowbe playing it too? 

Yeh... I was sitting at my tent in Houghton and suddenly heard it playing in the background. I soon heard from Call Super that Ben had passed it on to him, so he took me on stage, and we all drank champagne together. It should be out mid-November as part of a compilation on TraTraTrax. 

Aside from moments like this, what motivates you to finish music? 

To say I’ve achieved something in the day. I’m passionate about this and want to do well, but I know it will require a lot of work and am unsure if it will work out. I can tell you it 100% won’t if I don’t finish things. I currently have five projects on the go, but I'm in a self-imposed producer jail. I’m banned from making changes for three days. I was getting upset about mixdowns, needed to take a chill pill, and now I’ve been called up for jury duty. 

Not too far from real-life jail.  

I think of myself as an efficient person, but you're not maximising efficiency being on Ableton all the time. My rule is to make four tracks a month to send out. But for every pack, there's another two I won’t share. It’s like Aussie gold hunters... I metal detect until I hit my target. 

What does your workflow look like? 

First, it’s fleshing out eight-bar loops; a fun evening activity after work –  no pressure to do anything more. Once there’s enough of these, I’ll sketch a rough arrangement... that's where most tracks get ditched. It helps to move on quickly rather than holding onto something in a pit of despair. Finally, I return with fresh ears, open a notepad, work through the notes, and instantly exit Ableton. I don’t like noodling. The idea is already there... you just need to commit to it, if it was good enough for you yesterday, then it's fine today. 

Where do you source your sounds? 

Most of the time I’ll record mundane things around my room using my Tascam. When listening back in isolation, you can’t remember what you were recording, and you hear it in a different context. I’m always looking for happy accidents. I use the Moog DFAM in every song... I twist all the knobs and see what comes out. Also, the Hydrasynth has a randomise button. It's like playing slot machines… but you’re the one who decides if you win. 

Like problem-solving? 

Yeh. I work at a hardware store. Customers always come in asking for a solution, but they don't know the problem – it’s my job to figure it out. Maybe someone wants a white finish for something they can’t paint over, so you sell them white electrical tape. It’s about finding alternative uses for things.

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Palloon is out now via can you feel the sun