Your album is divided into three sections. The fi rst one is chaotic, the second one sample- based, and the third one is punchy. Although the three are very different, the album fl ows seamlessly. What story are you trying to tell and what message are you trying to deliver?
All of my favorite records have a division like this. Take for example one of my favorite elec- tronic albums, Chris Clark’s Body Riddle (Warp Records). It starts very chaotic and it cleanses your palate this way, and then continues into a more beautiful setting. I used the same model by clumping together the progressive, synthy, distorted, beat-driven tracks at the beginning so that it could cleanse the palate and wipe out any expectations for Anjunabeats listeners that are more geared towards trance.
What infl uence did factors such as experience and emotion have on you while producing this album?
This album for me is like a personal refl ection piece because I learned a lot about myself while I was writing it. It was like a coming of age in terms of my writing and production. For me it was like giving respect to my childhood and growing up, and discovering that this is what I wanted to do with my life. So many tracks on it are very nostalgic and just really remind me of little bits of music I loved when I was a kid, or little things like my toy piano, which I used to play on when I was three years old and ended up incorporating into the album. The album reminds me a lot of myself.
How would you say that you’ve grown as an artist since you fi rst started working on this album?
The folder in which all the album tracks exist on my hard drive is called Sample Experiment and I’ll never change the name of it. I started out by experimenting with sounds and wanting to teach myself how to sample, since I was envious of all these other producers that did that. I sent the fi rst track I made, It’s Going To Be Fine (originally titled Sufjan Beat), to my friends and they told me that it was really good. It all blossomed and was a rollercoaster from that point on.
You’ve mentioned that musically J-Dilla is one of your major infl uences. What infl uence did he have on the creation of this album?
I’ve been listening to his album Donuts pretty much on repeat for about a year and a half before I started doing the production on my album. The grooves and the way in which the samples are thrown in really dry and MPC style was defi nitely a huge infl uence on this record. His side chaining and his use of heavy compression also infl uenced a lot. His arrangement in Donuts, how he’ll play an A section and then a B section, is amazing too. I worship him (chuckles).
There is certain timelessness to your album that isn’t easily found elsewhere, as most artists stick to the single or EP format. How would you say it fi ts into the currently over- saturated electronic dance music market?
I tried to encapsulate timelessness since all the records I referenced are older electronic records. Donuts was produced during the 90s, so most of the stuff I was referencing were time- less records. I feel like all my favorite electronic records are things I’ve listened to across the years. I defi nitely tried to aim for something more timeless with this album and hope it stands the test of time.
If I’m not mistaken you started producing the fi rst track on this album about 4 years ago. By that time, did you already have a clear idea of what you wanted to portray? How has it evolved since then?
It was a rollercoaster. I started with It’s Going To Be Fine, and it led in its own direction; it was insane. I put together a fi rst beta copy of the records, which was only thirty minutes long, and
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since then I’ve only taken out about one track from it. It just grew by itself from that point on. Right when I sat down and started writing for the album it was almost as if every single idea I was writing just fi t right into it; it was just crazy. I don’t know how that happened. When I sit down to write an album, since it’s my favorite outlet, I feel like everything creatively goes into it and it is such a draining experience that for me almost every single idea I write is useful. In the end, I ended dropping only about two tracks total. It comes together as I go along, and the order might shift around a bit. Sometimes I’ve produced three tracks in a row that will sit on the album in that order.
How do you think this album will affect your live performances?
What I’ve been doing with my more hip-hop, experimental stuff is that I’ll play it at the front and the tail end of my set. Usually when I play these kinds of events, they’re dance events and I’m playing with artists like Above & Beyond and Norin & Rad. I don’t want to just play hip- hop, since people want to dance and party. I’ll play a little bit of my stuff at the beginning and at the end, and mesh more danceable things in the middle. Today I’ll be playing three album tracks. I’m starting out with two I’ve never played before and then closing with the other. I’m also playing loads of new dance stuff that I’ve been producing, a bunch of which I made for my recent Australian tour and I’ve been tweaking since then.
Now that you’ve produced two experimental albums, where will you take your sound next?
I’ve been producing this secretive project that I’ve been working on for ages that I’m really ex- cited about, which is a more traditional band approach to music. I’m already planning my next album, granted I won’t start for a long time since I have so many things going on currently. Even so, I feel like I would love to return to a more traditional, ‘dancey’ sound. I worship This Binary Universe by BT. It has a cleaner production sound; compared to my current noisy and sample based one. Every time I write an album I try to take a different approach with the writing. I think you learn a lot about a new creative process whenever you sit down and force yourself to do something different. This next time I will try to plan the album out and come up with a game plan before I sit down. If it takes me in a bad direction, I’ll just scrap it and start something new.
If you could describe your album with one word, which one would it be? Why?
I would say nostalgic. So many things in the album pay homage to my musical upbringing. Every single track reminds me of some type of picture or place in my life. I’ve been nursing this child for so long and now I’m sending it off to the world.
Rather than blending all the genres of the electronic music spectrum, Bayer reunites all his inspirations to create a particular sound so delicate and complex that the narration of a jour- ney is imminent. While some songs, such as Doomsday are crafted upon a canvas of chaos and obscurity, others such as A Brief Interlude manage to contrast the album’s gloomy tracks with a breath of life and joy. Without a doubt, If It Were You We’d Never Leave is an emotional voy- age fi t for any type of musical connoisseur. Instead of producing music for big-room arenas, Andrew Bayer excels at producing music that isn’t only meant for the heart and the soul, but is capable of delivering a timelessness that is as rare as it is exceptional.
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY MICHAEL MAURER
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