55 - Moon Mist

Giannis Kampiotis
February 28, 2023

Hello music people 👋

Today in the spotlight, Moon Mist

Coming from Canada, he grew up around musicians and learned to play the guitar. While playing and touring with punk rock bands learned how to perform and function as a touring artist. He now records solo music blending genres and instruments 🎶

Read Time: 7 minutes 📰

Studio

Gear List

Recording

Leneovo - Laptop
Novation - Scarlett 18i18
Novation - 8 channel Tube Pre
various mics and effect pedals.

Keyboards / Synths

Guitars

Fender - Stratocaster
Squire - Telecaster
Ovation - Celebrity
1974 Ibanez - Artist

Basses

Fender - Mustang
Hohner P bass clone

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Interview

Who are you and what is your relationship with music?

I am Moon Mist from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I grew up around a lot of musicians and picked up guitar at a young age, learning from my father and uncles. As I got older I started to play with friends and form bands, playing in multiple different punk rock bands playing bass, guitar and keyboard. I spent most of my 20's playing in the band Spirit of the Wildfire with some of my close friends from high school, bringing me across eastern Canada and learning how to preform and function as a touring artist.

During this time I had always made music on my own but not with much direction as my bands were generally the main focus. Once the 2020 pandemic hit and things slowed down I started to release music under Moon Mist. I've always enjoyed blending genres and different instruments to make unique and interesting sounds.

Which piece of equipment in your studio is essential to your production process?

The most essential piece of equipment I have for performing would have to be my Akai APC40. For creating it would have to be my Roland Juno DS, so many great sounds packed into it with little effort.

What is the most budget-friendly piece of studio gear that gave you the most results?

I bought a 200 dollar Squire Telecaster off Amazon with the intention of gutting it and making it a project guitar. Once I got the guitar and started playing it I was amazed at how much it just felt and sounded like a real tele. I did some minor setup but it's become my go to guitar and is probably the cheapest thing I've bought.

Walk us through your process for creating and producing music.

I use Ableton Live session view generally for creating. I will have 8 groups, Kick, Snare, Hats, Bass, Keys, Pads, Arps and Live Instruments. These groups are laid out on my APC40 for manipulation and performance.

I use a mix of Ableton's internal Soft synths and my hardware instruments, acoustic instruments and samples. Using a patch bay I can send different synths and instruments to each group and then I can use my Novation SLMK3 to control either the hardware or different software instruments.

I will start to build the different sections of the song as separate scenes on Ableton Lives session view. Using my APC40 I will play around with going back and forth between the sections getting an idea of the structure of the song. Once I am happy with how it is coming together I will record a couple takes running through the whole song into Ableton Lives arrangement view where I can manipulate it further. I find this gives the songs a more live and loose feeling which I like. I then will edit, re-record parts if need be and start to finish the song.

For preforming I generally use the same process just all within session view, using that as a sequencer to run my performances. I also use a MIDI pedal to loop the live instruments, like guitar and keys.

What is a production technique that you always come back to?

I really like the sound of pads side chained to the kickdrum, I tend to do it in almost all of my songs.

How would you explain your style?

Live instrument based electronic music.

As a music producer or an artist what is a big challenge for you?

Learning to take things with a grain of salt and not really worry about getting turned down, or not hearing back from someone you reached out too. If you let that get to you and you stop looking for opportunities they'll never come to you.

I learned that the hard way booking some of the first tours my bands did, but I also learned if you ask 100 even if 99 turn you down it only takes that 1 person saying yes to get the gig.

Has building a hardware setup changed your perspective on music or life in general?

Getting into synthesizers and actually having a instrument in front of me to manipulate and have that visual feedback made me be able to understand sound design and how to create the sounds that I had in my head so much easier.

I went really far in the direction of building a whole room full off synths and drum machines trying to do the dawless thing, but still loved Ableton so dialed it back and tried to do a hybrid setup. I think I have achieved a good balance now.

One tip on how to spark creativity?

I try to listen to music on my daily commutes and in situations where I don't have the opportunity to actually make music at that moment, I find it makes me crave it and want to come home and make something right away.

A book, movie, article, or album that has inspired you?

I always admired the Beastie Boys album "The In Sound From Way Out". It really showcased them for the extremely talented and diverse artists they were, also inspired me to not stick within a certain box.