Last week I wrote a feature article for Australian music website Mess+Noise about Faux Pas, a Melbourne-based electronic artist whose ‘digital DIY’ approach has intrigued me since Waycooljnr founder Nick Crocker pointed me in his direction.
I’ve since found Tim Shiel - the man behind the Faux Pas moniker, pictured right - to be a great example of an artist willing to invest time in developing his online presence. Besides using his computer to write and record his art, Shiel offers his music openly and honestly with bloggers, and allows fans to buy and share his material with minimal fuss. Below is the unedited interview that I used as the basis for my Mess+Noise feature ahead of the April 2010 release of his new album, Noiseworks.
Andrew: How do you describe Faux Pas’ sound?
Tim: I like the term “future pop” which i read in a Mess+Noise review. I actually like a lot of the new words getting thrown around like “chillwave” and “dreambeat” or “wonky” because they seem to describe a feeling rather than a set of conventions, though i don’t know if any of those words would apply to what i’m doing.
What do you use to create your music?
I have a very simple setup in terms of hardware. I have a computer running Ableton Live and a few Midi controllers that i use to control it. On Noiseworks, I mostly used virtual instruments - there was almost no actual “recording” in the literal sense - though I did play guitar on a number of tracks, and also for a couple of tracks I hooked up a friend’s microphone and breathed into it.
The only thing I’ve ever spent any real money on is my speakers. Nearly everything happens ‘inside the box’ (ie. my computer) - and inside my miiiiiiiiiiind. I basically just sit in front of a computer and play with sound, following an internal logic that I’m almost completely sure only makes sense to me. I play around with things until they sound right to me, then I cross my fingers and hope that other people are into it too.
At the beginning of your career, your friend Wally de Backer [better known as Gotye] adopted a “completely DIY” approached influenced you to do the same, without entertaining the thought of label support. What did you find appealing about this method?
It just seemed to make sense. I got to know Wally back when he was burning CDs in his bedroom and printing covers on his inkjet and making handwritten notes. It worked for him right from the start because he was genuine about it, and really passionate. I could see that he was having a lot of fun managing that side of things, making direct connections with people. It looked like a fun way of doing it. I understand it’s not for everyone, but I actually enjoy it.
You’re fond of distributing your music digitally. What do you dig about it?
Well that’s how I get music. I download, and it’s been that way for me for so long that its just the way that makes sense. It is what it is. I tend to think of the physical product as a bit of an after-thought but that probably says more probably about my own personal habits than anything else.
In your experience, are there any drawbacks to digital distribution?
Some people still want physical things. I totally get that.
You state that you’re proactive about sending your music to blogs. What have you learned about dealing with fellow bloggers - what appeals to them, what doesn’t? Is it just a matter of ego-stroking?
Often its not hard to get their attention, if you are polite about it. My advice to anyone who is considering sending their music to a blog, or a radio presenter, or whoever – just be honest, be yourself. Show that you care. Don’t pretend to be anything that you’re not; that kind of thing is generally more obvious than you think it is.
Is it fair to say that community radio exposure was largely responsible to help you grow your fanbase?
Without question, yes. I don’t play live shows, so radio airplay and internet exposure are really the two main ways in which my music gets spread out there. And the thing with community radio is – and I know this is obvious, but sometimes it bears repeating – in the majority of cases it is the individual presenters who make the call about whether they are going to put your stuff to air or not. So there are a lot of individuals who I’m heavily indebted to. I owe a lot of people a beer.
Where does community radio sit among the Australian media landscape in 2010? Do you feel it’s more endangered now than when you were first introduced to it? ..which was when, by the way?
If anything it feels stronger. I think more people than ever are disillusioned by conventional media, which is becoming more and more homogenised and uninspiring, so people are looking to hear independent voices. Community radio stations are generally populated by the most engaged, most passionate, most outspoken individuals that you’ll find anywhere.
These are people who are deeply engaged with their various communities and they use community radio as a platform to inform and evangelise and give unique perspectives that come unfiltered. Straight from the source. In that sense, community radio presenters are like the best kind of bloggers – they’re largely uncensored, they’re very passionate, extremely knowledgeable often about a very specialised area of interest. But unlike bloggers, they are part of a flesh-and-blood community, a group of people. Community radio stations, whether it’s the obvious big ones or the smallest of regional stations, they are like families. They are real.
I’ve been listening to community radio since I was in uni, and my first experience on air was around that time too, on Plenty Valley FM – which, for those playing at home, is situated on Childs Road, Mill Park, near Stables Shopping Centre - my friend and I did a late night show which was largely about Joel Edgerton and sports poetry. It was a few years later I became involved with RRR.
Is music as a full-time pursuit a goal of yours? Is earning a living from your craft a realistic goal? Do you know of many friends and associates who have achieved it?
I know a couple. There’s a few different ways you can do it. If it happened for me that’d be great, but I’m not gunning for it. I don’t have a five-year plan or anything, apart from “Continue making music”. I think if you get into music having that as your goal, to make a living from it, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Once you start thinking like that, you are bound to start making compromises creatively. That works for some people, and that’s fine, but its not something I’m interested in.
I’m definitely not of the mindset that only struggling broke musicians can make art of any value, and I’m open to the idea of using my music for commercial purposes – but I don’t take any of those considerations into account when I make the music. Its clichéd but I try to just make music that I can be proud of, if it ever led to commercial success – which is extremely unlikely - that’d be a happy by-product.
Your remix of the Paul Dempsey track ‘Ramona Was A Waitress’ appeared on the Ministry Of Sound Chillout Sessions XII compilation. Since this was, as you put it, your ‘first real experience dealing with the corporate side of the music industry’- how’d it go?
It’s an interesting one. I didn’t seek that out, it came to me. Paul Dempsey’s label approached me to do a remix, so I had a crack at it and I was happy with what I made. Then when I handed it over to them I also handed them all the rights to the song. This isn’t out of the ordinary, especially for a low-profile artist like myself, in fact I think its pretty standard.
So, it ended up on a Paul Dempsey single, and then they organised the Chillout Sessions thing, which I found out about later. Which was all cool. It was cool being able to take my sister to Sanity and point at a massive shelf full of Chillout Sessions CDs and say “I’m on that!”
But handing over 100% rights was not really something I was comfortable with, to be honest. I went into it with the understanding that that’s how it would be and I went with it because I really liked the remix I made, and didn’t want to be left in a position where I couldn’t do anything with it, and no one would ever hear it. But I’m not sure I’d want to make a habit of signing my songs away. That works for some people, but not me.
Was it lucrative? Is it something you’ll pursue now, or will you just keep the same ’see what happens’ approach?
I wouldn’t say it was lucrative, no. No way. I tend to approach everything with a ‘see what happens’ vibe. But no, I’m not beating down any major label’s door asking if I can remix their bands for cash.
If you were starting out in 2010, would you make the same choices that you did at the start of your career?
I think so. It honestly never really occurred to me to do it any other way.
Thanks for your time, Tim.
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Faux Pas’ latest release is Noiseworks [pictured above], a full-length album released via Melbourne label Sensory Projects and distributed via Inertia. Check out some of his stuff on Bandcamp, YouTube, MySpace and his blog before buying it directly from Shiel himself, or via iTunes.
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