11 - A-Aye

Author

Giannis Kampiotis
September 27, 2022

Hello music people đź‘‹

Today in the spotlight, A-Aye

Located in East London, a chef that likes contrast in his music. Although his studio is far from, he tries to keep the process minimal 🎶

Let's see how he handles all this gear in his home studio 🎛️

Read Time: 3 minutes đź“°

The Setup

Gear List

  • OXI Instruments - ONE

  • Synthstrom Audible - Deluge

  • Ableton Live / Logic

  • Teenage Engineering - OP–1

  • Moog - Mother-32

  • Moog - Subharmonicon

  • Moog - DFAM

  • Roland TR-8S

  • Roland SP-404MKII

Eurorack:

  • 4ms - Ensemble Oscillator

  • 4ms - SWN

  • Knobula - Poly Cinematic

  • Knobula - Kickain

  • Noise Engineering - BIA

  • Qu-Bit Electronix - Bloom

  • Qu-Bit Electronix - Surface

  • Qu-Bit Electronix - Data Bender

  • Qu-Bit Electronix - Cascade

  • Strymon - Magneto

  • Strymon - Starlab

  • Make Noise - Maths

  • Make Noise - Morphagene

  • Make Noise - QPAS

  • Make Noise - Mimeophone

  • Instruo - 1047

  • Instruo - Harmonaig

  • Instruo - Saich

  • Instruo - Ceis

  • Instruo - Arbhar

  • Instruo - Lubdahd

  • Rossum Electro-Music - Assimil8or

  • Rossum Electro-Music - Morpheus

  • Rossum Electro-Music - Panharmonium

  • Endorphins - Golden Master

  • Endorphins - Cockpit

  • Endorphins - Ground Control

  • Endorphins - Queen of Pentacles

Plus... lots of pedals and CV controllers, Moog ipad modules and, NI Maschine and Kontakt

Who are you and what is your relationship with music?

I'm A-Aye and I am located in East London but originally from Scotland.

I studied acoustic science and sound tech at university and was a sound engineer in my 20’s and in bands as a teenager. So I got into it then but didn’t do much during my 30’s.

I do music only for fun.

I’m a professional chef and tour doing BBQ cooking and have owned a few restaurants in London. I now have a fermented food business selling plant based food to restaurants.

What's the one thing in your studio you can't live without?

This changes regularly but recently it’s the Hologram Microcosm.

It’s something I’ve only recently grown into despite having it for over a year. I used to use it for adding gentle ambiance and irregularities to sounds but now I’m fully into the Arp and Sequence modes. They instantly give interesting breaks and changes at the flick of a switch. I send whole mixes including drums though it and it just does cool shit, every time.

What's your process?

Depends on my mood...

Sometimes I just sit and play piano or a synth in Kontakt and hit something that gives me a vibe, but I prefer random sequences in the modular to come up with something unique. Usually with Qu-Bit Bloom.

Then I build on that one voice and look for complimentary sounds.

I try and keep it minimal but I get more satisfaction from building big layers which if I record, I’ll probably delete half of them.

My other method is offline tinkering with the OP-1 or chopping up a loop in Koala Sampler. I do this on long flights or train journeys. Boredom is the best inspiration.

How would you explain your style?

I switch styles a lot but I always like hard and crunchy hip-hop style drums and breaks. Ι use a lot of guitar pedals to manipulate everything. Pedal chains are always a big influence on the sound.

I also go for a lot of classical loops, piano loops and instruments which I love pairing with insane and out of control modulator noises. It’s the musical equivalent of getting punched in the face during a foot massage.

Has this journey of building a hardware setup changed the way you think about music or life in general?

It’s given me a hobby which is something I’ve been missing.

My professional life is in food and that gives me more stress than comfort so it’s nice to build something and watch it grow without the need for it to give back.

It’s also given me lots of flashy lights which is fun too.

What’s your ONE tip on music-production or creativity?

Less is always more if you want to sell records but more is way more if your just playing for fun.

That and don’t ever see it as a chore.

Music should always be an escape. That’s when the good stuff happens.

Anything else you'd like to say?

No other than that it’s a nice community. Being online had become something of a vibe killer for me so it’s nice safe space. I hope it stays that way.

How can people find you?

For jams, knob-twists and pad hitting videos go to G.A.S. Instagram

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