Talking Sounds & Inspirations with Rory Green

"I’m Rory Green ‘DttØ’, from Glasgow and I make experimental electronic music with things I find lying around and synths and stuff."

What’s been your best experience playing a gig?

I like travelling down to London; I was playing this retro video games convention’s after party. I don’t know much about gaming but the people were all really nice and it was just a super fun crowd and just like actually playing in different cities and branching out of Glasgow has just been really good. Also, I guess the response from the ‘Botanics’ album has been really sweet, like ‘Synth Glasgow’- who have now unfortunately folded- featured me in their ‘Top 10 albums of 2016’ which was a really cool moment for me, yeah, just getting some gratification which was awesome.

Have you ever turned down any gigs?

Eh, I think so but just because I’ve been busy with other ones. Like I’ve never been offered a gig that I’ve said no to because I didn’t like the setting, you know, I’m generally quite up for just playing anywhere. But I guess you’ve got to be kind of careful that you’re not playing to a room that totally hates you, but then again people tend to be quite open-minded, especially when you’re doing live stuff, people are all just a bit interested like ‘what’s this guy doing that’s not DJing?’ which is good.

So, how did you learn to use electronic decks?

Yeah, I mean I have quite a lot of apparatus. I don’t know man, I mean, it’s been quite sporadic, just like one thing at a time. I got ‘ableton push’ which is just a midi controller and that really was just the catalyst in working with ableton and since then I’ve just been incorporating one thing at a time. I’ve had a lot of fun just learning about synthesists and synths basically, it’s really quite addictive and you’re always on the prowl for what thing you’re gonna buy next. You just kind of buy it and then work it out one step at a time and it’s quite interesting finding your own way to use the equipment. I think part of the thing for electronic music is that everyone uses their stuff completely differently from the other because most of them are self-taught. It’s not like an instrument where you have to really study it, you kind of develop a ‘sonic pallet’ as they say haha and you develop your own relationship with your equipment.

Do you think that equipment defines an artist?

I’ll say no, I mean, for me my equipment effects what I’m writing quite a lot and I think it’s the same with a lot of producers. But then, for example, my friend Phonic- who is actually ‘Misty’ who I did a collab EP with- literally just uses a laptop and headphones and the software, he doesn’t have an midi stuff, he does it completely using software and he’s fantastic.  When you get a juicy new piece of kit you do really wanna get stuck in and mess around and see what you can do but as I said I think a lot of people nowadays just have very minimal equipment and it can still be totally amazing so `I don’t think it’s that important its more of like a fun side-line.

What do you think makes your sound unique?

That’s tough man, to be honest I wouldn’t even say my sound is that unique, it’s definitely a hodgepodge of my favourite producers. I mean I guess me using foley sounds and stuff and trying to create individual sounding synths doesn’t sound like anything else but in this genre nothing sounds like anything else, everyone is trying to create something unique, It’s kind of the whole premise of electronic music.

What is your process of developing a track?

It definitely changes all the time. I rarely start with drums to be honest, I usually want to get an interesting melody down and then develop the sounds around that and then build rhythm on top of it. I don’t know that much about drums so I usually start with other stuff and bring that in later. I know that some people always start with rhythm first, like set up a drum machine and then build it on top of that but I kind of do it the other way around.

Have you ever finished a project completely and then scrapped it?

The vast majority of songs I write I do that with, there’s so much shit on my computer. Part of it is that you’ve listened to the tune a hundred times, like if I listen to songs I really like a hundred times I’m sick of them. Sometimes I’ll stay up all through the night and think ‘this is amazing’ and get right into a song and then you wake up the next morning and listen to it and you’re like ‘why did I spend 6 hours on this piece of shit?’

Where do you get the names for your tracks?

That’s a weird one man. All over the place to be honest, I actually have a little list of notes on my phone because a lot of the time you’ll finish a tune and you’re like ‘what am I gonna call it?’ and you sit there staring at your computer screen, mind goes blank. Sometimes I just note things when I’m out walking… (Loud interruption from drunk men in the street shouting ‘oopa’ which briefly interrupts our interview)… Please keep that in there. What were we talking about? Names of plants I quite like, just random stuff, I find it better when I’m not working on music to think of titles and always try and jot them down and come back to them later.

There’s a clear aesthetic to do with plants in your album, what inspired that specifically?

Honestly it was actually the Botanic Gardens where we’re going. My grans lived near there so I spent a lot of my time in that glasshouse as a kid. I love going to tropical countries as well and kind of jungley type places and I tried to capture that feel in the sounds of the album as well. Not sure how successful that was but it was an aesthetic and a sound I thought went well together and appealed to me.

Would you say you prefer natural or artificial sounds in your music?

Definitely a balance of both and it’s quite difficult to get the right balance. I suppose I have some songs that verge on the more synth and electronic drum sounds and then some that verge on the more organic sounding stuff but I think my favourite- not only in my music- is when people blend the two together seamlessly.

Would you ever venture into other genres of music?

Yeah! I play in a band and I definitely think that I’m trying to progress a bit with ‘Ditto’.  On the EP I did with Misty there’s like a UK garage tune, actually that EP just has all these weird… like there’s a bit of a song that’s verging on techno, one with house and one hip-hop and stuff but I think the whole premise of this kind of music is a big amalgamation of lots of genres which gives you a lot of freedom to do what you like.

Is there someone you’d like to collab with or feature in your music?

Yeah, my friend “Glassmaster’ and I, there’s a collab in the books and his stuff recently has just been amazing so I can’t wait for it. It’s such a unique sound and I think it will be really interesting when we do.

Do you ever freestyle or improvise with your music?

Sometimes live yeah, there’s certain bits where I’ll trigger a load of loops and I’ll maybe have a melody in my head but it often depends how I’m feeling on the night. Like if I’m feeling adventurous I’ll just start pissing around and throwing in random licks and stuff. So occasionally yeah but most of my live sets are quite set-in-stone.

What’s your dream gig location?

I think just festivals man. Festivals abroad I think would be amazing or like “Lost Village’ in England would be fantastic. Festivals just because there would so many artists there that I really look up to and think are amazing and it would be great to share a stage with them. Also just everyone’s frame of mind at festivals is like ‘we’re here to have a total wail of a time’ so everyone is really enjoying themselves which is always good, you’d bounce energy off the crowd.

Do you get nervous before gigs?

Yeah definitely. Less now a little bit, especially if I do a few gigs over the course of a month the last few I’ll be less nauseous about. The first one or two songs I’m a bit like ‘oh my God, what am I doing?’ but you do settle into it. It’s weird but it totally changes by the end of the set, by the time I’m finishing I’m kind of sad to be finishing but at the start I’m like ‘get me out of here.’

What do you feel when you play?

As I said it’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, at the start total angst but after that it’s a weird mix of concentration but also having fun. I don’t really stop to think, especially when I’m playing with a full rig because you’re like switching from one synth to the other to other bit of gear. It’s definitely some of the most fun I’ve ever had but I mean I don’t really step back and think ‘oh this is amazing’ because I’m just really going for it and making sure I don’t screw up haha.

Where do you see or hope to see yourself in the future?

I always try to set myself like small achievableish goals, like my first one was to just do a live set, one was play the art school. My next one is to do like a little run of shows across the UK, so just get a van and pile all my stuff into it and organise a sort of small tour thing, I’d really like to do that. But I mean, apart from that I really don’t think about down the line, I’m really just seeing where it goes I suppose. To do this for money would be amazing, if it would support surviving that would be the dream but it just depends whether people are into it or not, it’s quite a fickle business.

Check out Rory Greens music