Pieter Gyselinck
from Belgium
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biography
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Interview: 10 questions
1. When did you start making music, what is/was your motivation to do it?
I started probably fifteen years ago, but it has been there my whole life. My childhood was an experience of ‘prevention of being creative’. Society made my destination and it wasn’t music. But you can’t escape the itch and eventually you start anyway. The motivation is just the fact that it is there and that you have to do it. There is absolutely no explanation only a feel, a calling.
2. Tell me something about your living environment and the musical
education.
I life in something you could call countryside. A dead end road, a bit separated from the rest of the world. And that’s perfect. It is ideal to sit back in your own therapeutic space and reflect on things going by or the feelings you have experienced in your weird interaction with the rest of the world. By in my opinion, any good room or any place in the world you can call home, would fit the requirements. Education is mostly self-study, a lot of listening, not only to albums but also to the sounds going around when you are walking around or travelling into any exciting place in the world. Step back and observe the noise the world makes!
3.Is making music your profession? What is the context in which you practice music nowadays?
O, I wish it was. I would be a very happy person. But I’ll settle with a few days in the week too. For me it’s my profession, but I don’t get a lot of time-room for doing it. The context is the ongoing inspiration and the urge to do it.
4. How do you compose or create music or sound? Have you certain principles, use certain styles etc?
Nah, principles and styles are not so important. Altough I would be placed mostly in the world of ambient. But why shouldn’t I use a pounding rhythm if I want to? Writing only for commercial purposes is not really my thing. I would like to see it in the opposite way if it should happen. There are some basic rules I think you could follow but these are mostly rules of feeling in stead of rules out of a textbook.
5. Tell me something about the instruments, technical equipment or tools you use?
Mostly anything happens on the computer today. You have to look at it as an instrument or a big box of instruments and not as a computer. Once you get there, you can start creating. For making soundscapes, any synth that modulates sounds that you put through, is a handy tool. And then off course, convolution spaces. It’s a kind of a motto: ‘Imagine being in a dark room with four speakers in every corner of the room’.
6. What are the chances of New Media for the music production in general and you personally?
Thanks to the New Media, a lot of independant artists get now at least a place where they can show what they are doing. The main issue in this New Media is really the fact that you have to get visitors, or audience, to your space on the New Media. That’s the tricky part. What always strikes me is the fact that everybody has al the modern tools to be ‘reachable’ anywhere anytime, but if you try to really speak to them, you don’t get any answer. I think that is one of the great diseases of modern times.
7. How about producing and financing your musical productions?
Nothing much to say here, I’am into other jobs to get the money. But if somebody out there wants to be a sponsor, he will get music a full year around!
8. Do you work individually as a musician/soundartist or in a group or collaborative? If you have experience in both, what is the difference, what do you prefer?
There is no preference, as long as everybody involved is able to but his big ego aside. Collaborating can be fun, really. It’s funny to see how a certain creation goes sometimes in a completely unexpected direction, due to the fact that you are working together with somebody els. It’s a nice feeling. It opens up your perspectives.
9. Is there any group, composer, style or movement which has a lasting influence on making music?
Time to name some people, I guess, Biosphere, Steve Roach, Amir B aghiri, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, The Future Sound Of London to name a few which do/did some very interesting soundscaping. But there is a lot of influence out of the electronical scene in general and even some good classical works. Why not?
10. What are your future plans or dreams as a soundartist or musician?
I would like to pursue this direction. There are plans to release this music on our netlabel www.c-o-l-o-u-r-s.com
out of competition: Add a brief bio of yours (no longer than 300 words in English) Can works of yours experienced online besides on SoundLAB? Where? List some links & resources Deadline for
http://www.myspace.com/musicforinstallations
http://www.lounasan.com