Fall & Amy Lyon were the winners of our June Unsigned Competition with their ambient, downtempo track 'Broken'. We caught up with both artists to see a little further in to the minds behind this lovely track.

Many producers on SoundCloud tend to post up clips in the hope of getting the full track signed, whereas each track on your page is up for free download. Do you foresee this continuing with your future productions or would record label interest sway you?
Fall: There is so much I still have to learn regarding production/recording/songwriting that getting tracks released is not a priority at the moment. I'm content to keep trying to improve without concerning myself with getting label interest.

Take us through your winning track, 'Broken'. How was it formed and when were the vocals of Amy Lyon first introduced to you?
Fall: I produced the demo of this track around last December/January that had the basic chord pattern, structure & feel. I definitely wanted to feature a vocalist so after stumbling on Amy's SoundCloud, sent her a message asking if she would like to be involved.

Amy Lyon: I got an email from Fall saying he wanted to work with me and after listening to his music I knew that I had to say yes. He fired over the instrumental, left me to my own devices and I sent him over a preview with ideas for the track. I was quite taken a back at how much he liked what I had done as the words have a lot of darkness behind them.

Fall: We got together and recorded the vocal in the studio at my Uni, which was great. Amy has such a nice voice to work with. Afterwards, I recorded some additional parts and reworked a lot of the original instrumentation in order to make the vocal and music more cohesive.

Amy Lyon: The way that he worked my vocals with his instrumental is amazing and he has really understood the meaning of my words and that shows through his production.

 

 

Your earlier tracks appear to source vocals from other tracks, however more recently, you've begun working with vocalists. Can we expect more vocal collaborations from you in the near future?
Yes, now that I'm comfortable getting decent sounding vocals I certainly want to work with more vocalists. If any singers want to get in touch about collaborating then please do so. I tend to prefer vocal tracks to instrumentals. There is something really nice about keeping the focus purely human to contrast all the other synthetic sounding parts. I work painfully slow however, so the "near future" might be a while yet.

What is your studio set up like?
Quite basic really. I use a laptop, Apogee One interface, a couple different microphones and a pair of Adam A7 monitors. I also have access to the studios & equipment at my university which is a big help. I don't use any synths, VSTs or samples but prefer to record things and then process them in unusual ways, stretching, pitching & re-sampling etc. I find this makes things a bit more personal.

Your tracks are beautifully mellow and ambient. What was it that nudged you in this direction when producing?
It's just what feels most natural when I sit down and work. I'm into artists like Sigur Ros, The XX, Burial, Bon Iver and Massive Attack. They are all huge influences on the sounds I try make.

Where can we go to keep updated with your future work?
The best places is my Facebook page or if you would like to contact me about anything email Fallmusicuk@hotmail.co.uk.

Also, Amy has some really exciting projects at the moment, plus more to come soon. Make sure you check her 
SoundCloud page and her Facebook page.

Related Links:

• Podcast 28
• Broken Audio Podcast Ft. Secret Society
• Julien Dyne - Glimpse Competition
• Brixton Fall 2011 Video
• Nu:tone Releases Words & Pictures Instrumentals & Accapellas LP

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