Ott

Q

Hello, Ott! First of all, thanks for the great music. And questions:

Do you usually work on tracks sequentially - finishing previous one before starting the next one? Or do you work on them in parallel, having no boundaries at all, and switching between them when you think you're in a mood for one or another?

Also, do you have any technics to get "into the mood" of some particular track you are composing? Or it just happens? :)

Ott responded on 10/30/2018
A

Back when I mixed exclusively on an analogue console I would work on each song until it was finished as there was no way of reliably recalling setup and settings between songs. In some respects this was a good way to work as it created an incentive to get stuff finished. It also meant I would need to be obsessively wrapped up in each song when I actually felt like working on something else.

From Mir onwards I started using a hybrid of analogue mixer and ‘in the box’ which enabled me to switch easily between songs while still keeping the benefits of each approach. I prefer this way of working but it tends to mean that I have 10 songs 80% finished and then they all become ready at once.

I’m driven to a large extent by what I call ‘selective nostalgia’ and I use YouTube as a source of inspiration. So, for instance, I’m currently fascinated by post-war British city planning and architecture, and I’m working through a playlist of videos about the regeneration of Glasgow in the 1960s.