EAR CANDY - Build Buildings Interview by Justin Roth
Since 2001, NYC-based musician, Build Buildings (AKA, Ben Tweel) has been turning out tracks that emphasize the complex intermingling of nature and technology, creating a meticulously scattered and minutely textured soundscape that fills a room or pair of headphones like a forest of mechanical insects. His newest co-release, an EP called Isomers,is a cross-mixing collaboration with Belarus native turned Milwaukeean, artist Marlo Bright. If the Build Buildings familiar, you’ve probably seen the name on the music credits of the Dosage movies (Volumes 2 and 3) from Big UP Productions. Like a bustling metropolis of the 21st century, Build Buildings’ music breaks down boundaries between the technological and the organic — a perfect score for our modern times.
Where you representing? New York City and Columbus, Ohio.
What inspires you? I try to make music that's minimal enough that it can incorporate those ambient noises you encounter going about life, those little percussive sounds and noises that come up throughout the day.
Describe the typical process you use to make a track. I like to find familiar noises and take them out of their normal contexts. I'll record a tiny sound, like a light switch flipping, and magnify it -- that sound is a totally different thing amplified through headphones. I try to hold onto sounds that would otherwise be lost. A pencil dropping, the oh-so-satisfying sound of peeling two Clementine wedges apart, a staple remover clicking against itself. A lot of these end up as the basis for the percussion tracks in my songs.
What’s your favorite piece of hardware for making music? Software? My favorite hardware would be a toss up between my Rode NT1-A microphone, which hears pretty much every sample I record, and my 12 string acoustic guitar. You’d probably never know there was acoustic guitar on my albums, but I use it a lot as a sample source because it's got such a rich sound with so many overtones. The heart and soul of my software setup is an audio editor called SoundMaker, for Mac OS9. It's old -- I've been using it for at least ten years. Pretty much any sample, or any instrument I record, gets manipulated and rearranged in SoundMaker.
What instruments do you play? On my records I play guitar, Rhodes piano, mbira, melodica, accordion, pretty much any keyboard instrument I can get my hands on, pencils, coins, scissors, plastic trash cans...
Which musicians live in your iPod [Google these... trust us] Toumani Diabate
Black Uhuru
Scientist
Main Sequence
Lil Wayne
Dizzee Rascal and a lot of the UK grime scene
Jan Jelinek
Opiate
Dub Tractor
Sono Oto
Young Dro
Clipse
Timbaland
Hall and Oates
Do you have any long-term musical goals? Like any self-respecting electronic music producer, I'd love to collaborate with some singers or rappers.
Where can all the music-lovers reading this get their ears on your work?
"Isomers" is out now on Standard Klik Music (standard-music.net) as a free download, and I've got a song on an upcoming compilation on Neo Ouija, due out later this year. But I've always got new downloads on my website (buildbuildings.com) and my MySpace page (myspace.com/buildbuildings). And the eager listener can find my last full-length, "there is a problem with my tape recorder," on iTunes and cdbaby.com.
Technology: good or evil? Good. Technology has brought us so many things to better our lives. Vaccines, refrigerators, the Internet, electronic music... Oh, but also the curse of killer robots.
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