Inspired by the vibrant and brimful coasts of east Australia, Andy McMillan’s live electronic music project Doppel thrives on rich, intricate textures anchored by emotion, but always with the dancefloor in mind. After locking down in his studio for the better part of 2020, he now kicks off the new year into gear with the release of his highly anticipated debut album ‘Eucalyptograph’.
Beginning its creation in a closed, isolated city surrounded by fire and ending on flooded ground flung wide open by rain and dance, ‘Eucalyptograph’ represents a triumphant step forward for one of Australia’s most exciting artists of the modern era.
Doppel’s debut album, ‘Eucalyptograph’, is out now via Open Records. Today, he shares some of his most important creative tips for music production:
1. Grab onto something unique
Start your tracks by trying to create something unique. A strange percussion loop or distinct melodic motif. Hi-hats, snares, kick drums, etc are a dime a dozen, but having a strong, unique idea at the beginning will inform the rest of your track.
2. Recycle
Try to be creative with less. Resampling/effecting/bending existing elements in a tune to create dynamics and layers rather than loading in another instance of a synth can make your tune more cohesive and reduce bloat. Try this if you’re in the habit of scrolling through presets when you get stuck working on a tune.
3. F*ck that shit up
Break stuff. Use stretched/bent samples and tools like waveshapers, saturation, gates, and granular synths to give sounds edges which can then be left exposed or smoothed over with reverbs/delays/filters, etc. to give common sounds a bit of texture. I love using samples in weird ways for this reason, so many unique flavors.
4. Avoid fatigue
If you have a spare midi fader on your desk, map it to filter out the low end of your kick/bass. If you are spending time working on something else I’ve found it can help focus and reduce fatigue if I have the option of just taking out those bottom frequencies temporarily. You can always slam it back in whenever you need to to make sure things are sitting properly.
5. Know the limits
Know when to move on. Be focused and disciplined about finishing things, but be wise with how you use your time. Don’t spend hours stuck on a loop trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. If something’s not working, scrap it for parts, attack it from a different angle or move on to something else for a while.
Doppel’s ‘Eucalyptograph’ is out now via Open Records. Stream and buy here.
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