Andrew Henry circa 20XX
Bryan Santizo: Why ambient music? What is the major appeal of it as a genre for you? As a listener and as a musician who makes it?
Andrew Henry: The "why" of ambient music is a thought that comes up a lot for me, and I can't really say I have a solid answer. I don't ever remember making a conscious decision where I said "I'm going to make ambient music." But I can't imagine any musician does that for their respective genre. I remember being really interested in William Basinski and Brian Eno in 2012-13 and discovering that you could mimic Eno's techniques in Ableton Live and make tape loops from cassettes. I just kept experimenting with those formats until good results started developing. Finding Celer - which I will address in more detail later - was the last aesthetic push from that time to put me into making "pure" ambient music. It brought about the visual element that the music lacked.
The appeal, as both a listener and musician, lies in the bizarre dynamic of repetition and freedom. My favorite ambient music is very repetitive, but it is morphed enough or has a good enough loop that you can find different things to hear. You can let the music go in and out of your consciousness - both while listening or sitting focused at your mixing board. Ambient music is also just really relaxing, which is something I have trouble with. So perhaps it all goes to the simplest explanation: I make ambient music because it helps me relax.
"The appeal, as both a listener and musician, lies in the bizarre dynamic of repetition and freedom."
BS: Surely, since ambient is a music genre that is known for its length and build up of sonic textures, it must be a difficult to assess when a piece is finished. How do you do it?
AH: I suppose there is two ways of looking at this. If the piece is based on a loop, I'll know the loop is finished when it has a flow that is either timed perfectly or where the awkward cut and overlap gels together. The loop also needs to be pleasing, of course.
I know an individual track is finished when I've had enough of it, really. The majority of my recording is done through a mixing board and effects processing, so I'm not just dragging out a loop in Ableton up to a certain marker and saying "Okay, done." I'm listening as I'm making, so once I feel that the loop or my amount of effects variance has reached its limit, I stop. Lately I've had many tracks under 10 minutes, where in the past I had stuff of 30+ minutes as the norm. This is a result of me paying stricter attention to what I'm doing. In the past I would just start the loop and put my attention to something else while occasionally adjusting the delay/reverb.
Tools of the trade.
BS: Longing and nostalgia is very apparent in your ambient music titles. Is there a consistent theme in your music?
AH: I would not say there is not a deliberate consistent theme in my music. But since ambient music is very intimate for me, it will always lead back to my personality traits, habits, and lifelong desires. So my sensitive personality is always going to shine through. I do try to keep a consistent aesthetic, and I do have a very cinematic sense of space that I touch upon with my music, so I can see how a theme comes through. So, in short, the consistent theme(s) of my music is just my personality coming back again and again. But I'm never really saying "Okay this one is about nostalgia or this person and that event." I'm never trying to tell a full story.
BS: The majority of your work is ambient, but the rest of your work that is not seems to be written from a different perspective and not as personal. Is this intentional?
AH: There's not a lot of intention there. In a musical sense, I don't view the ambient and non-ambient stuff differently. I mean there's an obvious genre and sound difference, but to me it's just "making music" and sometimes a very ambient loop or idea turns into a full fledged song. But in terms of perspective and meaning, my personal life does seep into the ambient stuff more, and that's because of the ambient music being a recreation of the visuals and moods that pop into my head. Something like "Iridescent Lovers" certainly means something to me artistically, but samples of squeaking saxophones is not what I'm trying to create and insert into my personal life. It's a reflection of what I feel all the time.
The ambient music is what I'm trying to make my life like. The non-ambient is how I feel all the time. And that comes about naturally, not because I'm deliberately trying to make those statements.
AH: I would not say there is not a deliberate consistent theme in my music. But since ambient music is very intimate for me, it will always lead back to my personality traits, habits, and lifelong desires. So my sensitive personality is always going to shine through. I do try to keep a consistent aesthetic, and I do have a very cinematic sense of space that I touch upon with my music, so I can see how a theme comes through. So, in short, the consistent theme(s) of my music is just my personality coming back again and again. But I'm never really saying "Okay this one is about nostalgia or this person and that event." I'm never trying to tell a full story.
BS: The majority of your work is ambient, but the rest of your work that is not seems to be written from a different perspective and not as personal. Is this intentional?
AH: There's not a lot of intention there. In a musical sense, I don't view the ambient and non-ambient stuff differently. I mean there's an obvious genre and sound difference, but to me it's just "making music" and sometimes a very ambient loop or idea turns into a full fledged song. But in terms of perspective and meaning, my personal life does seep into the ambient stuff more, and that's because of the ambient music being a recreation of the visuals and moods that pop into my head. Something like "Iridescent Lovers" certainly means something to me artistically, but samples of squeaking saxophones is not what I'm trying to create and insert into my personal life. It's a reflection of what I feel all the time.
The ambient music is what I'm trying to make my life like. The non-ambient is how I feel all the time. And that comes about naturally, not because I'm deliberately trying to make those statements.
BS: You named Celer/Will Long as a great aesthetic and musical influence. How did you come into contact with his music? Why do you enjoy it so much? How do you incorporate his influence?
AH: I came into contact with his music by browsing a forum thread about William Basinski and seeing a user suggest Celer as a similar artist. I enjoy his music a lot because it's just well done! He has excellent loops and is very skillful with incorporating field recordings. He also doesn't make music that has that weird "spa music" vibe of piano melodies and cheap pad synths, and he also doesn't do a lot of jagged noise music stuff. It's just very clean and peaceful, and that's exactly what I want from ambient music.
I'd say I incorporate his influence by trying to keep an ongoing visual aesthetic and a diary-like approach with liner notes and meanings. The sonic influence is probably obvious!
"Most of the time I just open Ableton and see what happens."
BS: You shift between genres consistently, is this difficult or more of a spitballing (see what works) type of creative process?
AH: I never see it as difficult. I like a lot of different genres of music, and I want to work in all of them as much as I can. I don't even view it as a "see what works" process either. It just happens, really. I'm aware of the genre shifts, but it's not something that's so conscious that I say "Okay, this is gonna be a dance record, this is chillwave, this is free jazz. I need to do another ambient album soon, though." Most of the time I just open Ableton and see what happens.
BS: Film is clearly referenced in your work, and you yourself have been involved in short films and even music videos. Are there any outside influences to your work you are totally enraptured with besides music?
AH: Film is definitely a huge influence, because certain film scores, or even just shots or cinematography styles pop into my head and guide what the music will do. Like I said before, I have visions or moods in my head when making ambient music - even if its not a complete image that I can describe. It's just like a shot from a movie - maybe a florescent street lamp on a summer night with a car coming in the distance. It doesn't really mean anything, but it's something I would pull from seeing Palo Alto or Paris, Texas, and I'm trying to create more context around and within that. But besides film and music, I can't really say there are other outside influences that I'm enraptured with. Maybe minimalism and asceticism. But my work is mostly about that synthesis of image and sound.
BS: Film is clearly referenced in your work, and you yourself have been involved in short films and even music videos. Are there any outside influences to your work you are totally enraptured with besides music?
AH: Film is definitely a huge influence, because certain film scores, or even just shots or cinematography styles pop into my head and guide what the music will do. Like I said before, I have visions or moods in my head when making ambient music - even if its not a complete image that I can describe. It's just like a shot from a movie - maybe a florescent street lamp on a summer night with a car coming in the distance. It doesn't really mean anything, but it's something I would pull from seeing Palo Alto or Paris, Texas, and I'm trying to create more context around and within that. But besides film and music, I can't really say there are other outside influences that I'm enraptured with. Maybe minimalism and asceticism. But my work is mostly about that synthesis of image and sound.
The music maker.
BS: You have done faux-soundtrack in the form of Waiting for Contact I and II, how did you form these concepts? Why did you do these time-consuming projects that were so outside of ambient music?
AH: The path of coming up with "Waiting for Contact" is so wacky but I'll try to keep it condensed. I also hope I remember it correctly!
The first "Waiting for Contact" came about because I wanted to make something like that utilized retro synthesizer sounds and Philip Glass-like compositions. The album just started as some sort of beat-less "synthwave" project but as it went on I just found myself making stuff that sounded like a film score. When I was close to done, I realized that I could morph it into some sort of weird sci-fi movie score. I'm also a pretty big fan of alien abduction stories and The X-Files, so I finished the album with an influence from the Allagash River Incident in mind.
The album then sat on my hard drive for a while until I felt that it should be released. I thought the deliberate cheese of the first album fit in well with vaporwave, so I sent the album out to a label (which fell through), and then the album went to a sister label where it got released. I regret that decision now.
The sequel came about because the label asked me if I would do some sort of sequel. It was "commissioned", I guess. But I did these albums because the first one just developed naturally, and the second one let me flex some retro synth and orchestral ideas that are representative of where my music is currently heading.
Waiting for Contact II
BS: You are outspoken for your love of Frank Zappa, projects related to The Mars Volta, and more experimental and loosely created music, is this something that you feel you can do with ambient music? Is this something that may influence your works of fluctuating genres?
AH: Stuff like Zappa or The Mars Volta, when being connected to my ambient music, is only an influence in terms of just, you know, "doing it." Zappa and Omar Rodriguez Lopez are great artists, and they push my desire to make art (and lots of it). Those guys are a way bigger influence on my non-ambient stuff because they both jumped around to different genres, or (in more cases) blended them seamlessly. But I think it's weird to put those two artists in the same space because Zappa was a very rigid musician who composed everything and rehearsed musicians like crazy. The Mars Volta is a lot of vamping and cobbling riffs and jams together - very cut-and-paste prog. But my ambient music is more like Zappa: more rigid with a clear focus and lots of rules regarding what can't happen. I'm more in line with The Mars Volta on everything else. So I don't really view my ambient music as experimental or loose, which I can imagine is surprising.
"There are always albums to be finished or started or changed. I definitely have lots of ideas I can execute on as well, and those would involve getting into a studio and recording other musicians."
BS: When will the Pinheads, your experimental garage rock music project, return? As a drummer do you have any special influences?
AH: I don't think The Pinheads will ever return. The whole gang of people that is involved with or connected to The Pinheads always seems to be in flux, and we all have conflicting schedules, but hopefully something comes together soon. The duo of The Pinheads will essentially be absorbed into the result of this collaborating group, and maybe it will inherit that name. But there doesn't seem to be anything coming soon, I'm afraid.
With regard to drumming, my biggest influences are Deantoni Parks and Carter Beauford. I'm a little ashamed to admit that Beauford is an influence, but I listened to a lot of Dave Matthews Band as a teenager and fell in love with his drumming. It's hard to deny his skill though. Parks is a more important influence, though. He's able to deconstruct drum kits or use traditional kits with a ridiculous style that sounds like programmed drums. Syncopated and funky drumming has always been my go-to style, and Parks just pushed that into the next dimension.
BS: What is after this? Any upcoming release plans as a solo artist or as part of something else? How do you prioritize between film projects and music?
AH: I never really know what's next, and it's not something I worry about. I have plenty of things I could release, but I have terrible habits with releasing stuff and get sort of careless or uncertain. I'm always doing something, though. There are always albums to be finished or started or changed. I definitely have lots of ideas I can execute on as well, and those would involve getting into a studio and recording other musicians. That could start happening soon. But I recently moved and the past year and a half has been very frustrating for me, so I've felt very weird and disengaged toward my art. But now the frustration has turned to anger, so something good could come from that.
And I prioritize film projects and music by not having any film projects anymore! But in seriousness, I never have to think about balancing them. I just start them when I'm ready to roll on them and I just pick away at whatever I feel like working on. I think I have a pretty quick turnaround (which can be bad sometimes), so most projects don't just dangle and have to be scheduled and balanced with others. It works better if I don't think about it too much.
George Constanza: "It was more like a full-body dry heave set to music."
Listen to Andrew Henry's music HERE
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