By Keith Walsh
The music of California’s PREGNANT is imbued with creativity and spontaneity. It’s no wonder then, that band’s creators follow unconventional means to get craft their tunes. I spoke with vocalist/instrumentalist/songwriter Daniel Trudeau and producer/instrumentalist Luis Gutierrez about their techniques and their gear.
The sounds of PREGNANT flirt with commerciality, in tunes that break away from convention with unorthodox arrangements. Pleasing melodies play amongst odd meters, riffs and loops that catch your ear. I needed to find out more about how they make that happen.
Hands On With Teenage Engineering
Aside from the restless energy of the artists, a lot of the band’s inspiration comes from their gear. Trudeau told me how writing songs using Teenage Engineering’s OP-1 and Critter and Guitari’s Organelle frees him up from the processes involved in creating with DAWs like Ableton and sparks new ways of creating. “Lately I’ve been using all these boutique electronics,” Trudeau said.
“I’ve been using the Ableton for so long, to create sample driven music, that’s my main interest — making music out of samples, essentially. It’s nice to have the OP-1 to have the hands on kind of thing. Where instead of using a mouse, clicking around to specific places, the OP-1 obviously has a totally different interface. When you’re recording something in, you’re kind of limited to the knobs, placement, of where you going to put something, but it’s been really fun creating music with only those types of little synthesizers instead of using the computer all the time.”
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I suggested that the limitations of portable sequencers let you create on the fly while setting creative guidelines. “Yes, exactly,” said Trudeau. “And my problem with making music in DAWS most of the time is that I don’t know when to stop. So I have really dense music most of the time. So when I’m using these it limits me a little bit. But it makes it so I’m making songs that might be a little more cohesive.”
Listening to PREGANT’s latest album 100% Beef, one gets the sense that the music is informed by permutations of a variety of styles, from classic rock (Senator), to progressive rock (You Will Not, Wind Plus Can) art rock (Leave Me Alone) R and B (Big Red Rose) and African pop (Axis)– and Trudeau confirms that the bands members are what he calls ‘eclectic listeners.’ The sound of the band is enhanced by the production of Gutierrez, who employs vintage gear and analog synths.
Studio Secrets
100% Beef was recorded in Logic on Apple Computers in Gutierrez’s studio, with the twist of using vintage mixing boards. Gutierrez explains: “For the reverbs, (to get) 70s sounding drums and everything, we used a lot of 60s and couple of 70s mixers …There’s a Shure one and Yamaha one I like….They’re all solid state, but they have some nice spring reverbs on board, and they kind of cut low end just enough to make it sound old.”
Gutierrez’s studio in Oakland is a creative space that brings the best out of PREGNANT. “We still record on computers and use computers,” Gutierrez said, “but for the most part we route stuff though a lot of analog gear, compressors, and use a bunch of different instruments. At my studio it’s just a giant playroom essentially, with every instrument, a bunch of toys.” Included in the gear is a Korg MS-1, an Arp Odyssey, and a vintage Yamaha DX7, Roland String Machine and Arp Quartet. The rare VST shows up, in the case of recent work, one emulating a Mellotron.
The differing approaches of Trudeau and Gutierrez in creating lead to a synergy that’s very effective. Where’s Trudeau prefers to come in to the studio with loops, Gutierrez says he doesn’t use loops “too much. I’m not a fan of it. I will do it. Daniel does it more so. That’s more his style. I’m more a ‘take it from the top and try it, take after take.’”
Analog Synths
As Trudeau explains, “Luis likes to go, well not Fleetwood Mac style, where everyone at once just going for it at the same time, but he likes go for it, run it all the way through when you’re doing takes, kind of thing.”
At the end of the day, analog synths have a lot to do with the creative process and how the music of PREGNANT comes out.
As Gutierrez said, “We’re both ADD as f%$k, we jump around a lot but, having it be analog synths kind of paces us. And slows us down to actually get stuff done. To be like, ok, we’re going to plug in this synth now. Lets’ see what we can get out of it, what we can write with it. And then were’ like okay that’s it. Let’s move on to another one, another idea.’ I mentioned again that having limits can spark creativity.
“Absolutely,” Gutierrez said. “Limits are good and as far as the new stuff, we’ve recorded a couple of songs and they’re a lot more minimal. Way more minimal. For those songs (we’re pushing) for being able to hear the layers really well, and having them shine.”
The current iteration of PREGNANT, in addition to Trudeau and Gutierrez, includes Ben Lewis on bass, keyboards and backing vocals and Nicholas Cowman on drums.
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More of my interview with PREGNANT
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