35 - Stegonaute

Giannis Kampiotis
December 20, 2022

Hello music people 👋

Today in the spotlight, Stegonaute

Coming from France, he has been involved in the music industry for more than 20 years. He’s been into bands playing the bass and has also trained as a film music composer.

At some point, he saw the options of having a fully featured computer-assisted production method or a more experimental route with weird synths and tape recorders. He chose the latter 🎶

Read Time: 5 minutes 📰

Studio

Gear List

Arturia - Minibrute
Arturia - Spark
Arturia - Microfreak
Korg - MS20 Mini
Moog - Werkstatt
Novation - Mininova
Fostex - X14 tape Multitracker
Fostex - XR7 tape Multitracker
Amstrad - Studio 100
Redson - EC25 Tape Echo
Revox - A77
a lot of guitar pedals...

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Interview

Who are you and what is your relationship with music?

My name is Francois aka Stegonaute. I'm 35 years old and I live in a small village in the South East of France.

I started music when I was twelve, playing bass guitar. The passion for music came from my father who made me discover bands like Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin.

I played bass and guitar in several rock bands. We toured in Europe and it was nice but the Covid-19 stopped us brutally. At the same time I trained as a film music composer at the conservatory, so i dived into the ambient and orchestral music. I discovered the power of computer-assisted music, but i quickly realized that I prefer tinkering with old tape recorders and cheap synths instead of working with magnificent orchestral banks.

My main influences such as Trent Reznor or Clint Mansell tend more on the experimental side than on the all-powerful orchestral side, so i took this path.

I don't make a living from music yet. I have a half time job.

I released 4 EPs in 2022, and I do a lot of short videos explaining my work process on my Instagram. Recently I started doing outdoor performances and it's very fun, I'll go deeper into this aspect.

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

My stegosaurus figures, a synth and a delay. And something to record, so a computer and an audio interface.

What's your process?

I often start with a loop, and I build the track around.

I love slowing it down or speeding it up with a tape recorder, sometimes it makes me go in a completely opposite direction.

As I am a driver in my day job, I listen to these loops while driving and the rest comes naturally.

I like to work on 4 or 5 tracks maximum, to make coherent EPs.

How would you explain your style?

I like to say that my music is "cinematic" in a way. I always have some pictures in mind when I create it, so I hope it is the same for the people who listen to it.

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

Not in my life in general, but indeed I love the restriction it brings.

It creates homogeneity and consistency in my work, I remember how lost I was when I scrolled through the presets of my virtual instruments. In the end I didn't even make music...

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

Put your phone in airplane mode haha !

A book/movie/article that fueled your creativity?

Oh there are so many...

But if I have to choose i will say "La Horde du Contrevent" by Alain Damasio, or Alien by Ridley Scott. They both have a global atmosphere that inspires me.