It’s only right that Nick Zammuto would find a kindred creative spirit in our own Wally De Backer, better known as chart juggernaut Gotye. After all, both apply an avant-garde, outside-of-the-box mindset to a style of music that erodes the artificial barriers erected between the worlds of rock and electronic music.

In order to get an insight into one of the most singular musical and visual minds operating in music today, we stole some time from Nick Zammuto himself, who took us through his unique collection, and history with, gear, which at different times has included everything from PVC pipes, to mechanical reverbs.

Aussies will be able to see Nick Zammuto’s singular creative vision for themselves when he embarks on his first Down Under later this month. The dates kick off during Sydney Festival on Wednesday, 14th January, before moving onto MONA FOMA in Hobart on Sunday, 18th January, and Melbourne’s Northcote Social Club Wednesday, 21st January.

Enter The Tardis

“My shack is like the Tardis in Dr. Who. It looks small from the outside, but inside it’s huge, at least for a short dude like me.

“I’ve got a main swivel chair from where I can reach almost everything: computer, interface, master bus comp and EQs (overhead), two 16-channel analog desks (one for input and one for output), a three-tiered keyboard rack, guitar pedal board, turntable, a mostly analog rack of stereo processors and effects, and a patchbay that allows me to hook it all together however is needed.

“I’ve got a kramer bass, acoustic and electric guitars, and a drum kit in the opposite corner.”

Breaking Records

“I used to take records out of the public library when I was a kid, and that’s how I discovered a lot of artists I still love, like Kraftwerk, Weather Report and Ornette Coleman. I was always amazed by vinyl and how such a complex sound could be imprinted on such a maleable surface.

“The auto-return on my parents’ record player didn’t work and I would always wait at the end of a side for the needle to spiral into the center and get stuck in the ‘locked-groove’. Every record seemed to have a fingerprint there and the little noise loops really triggered my ASMR (I was also watching a lot of Bob Ross at the time).

“It wasn’t long before I started making little scratches in there to alter the loops. I was taking geometry in school and I had a litle protractor, so I started measuring out angles for different beat patterns. I bet a lot of those library records still hafe my little scratches on them.”

Becoming A Gear Head

“For many years all I had was a computer, two microphones, and an acoustic guitar, since I worked mostly with samples. Recently, I’ve become much more of a gear head, as well as a student of production.

“Rather than counting on sampled juju, these days I’ve been much more interested in creating my own. My favorite pieces of gear these days are recent aquisitions… a B.K. Butler Real Tube Stereo 12 spring Reverb rack unit, the Electrix Filter Factory, the Kush Audio Electra Transient EQ, and the Dave Smith Poly-Evolver Keyboard (potentiometer edition).”

Unwanted Feedback

“Unwanted feedback is often the biggest problem [when experimenting with unconventional equipment], especially in a live setting. It’s impossible to mic something like a PVC pipe and play it into a room with a decent amount of volume… the pipe favors certain frequencies so strongly that everything turns to mush.

“I tend to abandon ideas that get too fussy, in favor of more robust systems that seem to ‘want’ to work.”

Ones and Zeros

“I’ve got a PC-based rig with an I7 processor and Focusrite Scarlet Interface. I edit mostly with Sony’s (formerly Sonic Foundry’s) Acid DAW. It’s very transparent and very fast to work with, especially when pitching individual notes within the timeline (which I often do to write melodies).

“I don’t use VST instruments because they lack the outboard character I’m after. I also don’t use plugins very often, with the exception of Izotope’s Alloy and Ozone. For reverbs, I prefer to put hardware units on analog auxes so I can EQ reverb seperately from the source and mix them back together in an analog way.”

Going Live

“The studio is like a microscope for sound, and I’m a detail hound when I’m in there. Live shows are more about power, band dynamics and human performances. The players in my band are incredibly talented so the live show is about them first.

“I find that live video is often the best way to bridge studio process with the live show, since I can get the ‘microscopic’ effect visually, where I can’t achieve it with audio (given the natural amount of chaos that comes with big amplification into a different space every night).”

Mixing Weird and Solid

“Years ago I built a plate reverb using a 1.5-meter circular steel plate. The impulse was a mini-subwoofer bolted directly to the center of it. I’m attempting to rebuild it now… I have a real soft spot for mechanical reverbs.”

“When I’m in sketch mode I use the gear as inspiration, and when I’m in finishing mode I use it more as a tool to acheive a sound in my head. The two approaches are mutually beneficial, since you get to know the ‘weird side’ of the gear as well as its more utilitarian function.

“‘Great Equator’ is a good example of this. It’s a good mix of weird and solid.”

“The Poor Man’s Laser Show”

“The video can do a better job than words, but basically it’s a small subwoofer with a flexible mirror bolted onto it. A laser point bounced off the surface of the vibrating mirror projects an image of the sound in that instant, as interpreted by the idiosynchrosies of the resonating mirror which is cut into an odd shape to maximize the difference between X and Y axis motions.”

Spoonboxing

“[As for other interactions between the aural and visual], here are a bunch of old pieces I made, the most notable being the Spoonbox.”

Zammuto Australian Tour Dates

Sydney Festival
Wednesday, 14th January 2015
The Aurora, Sydney
Tickets: Via Sydney Festival

MONA FOMA  
Sunday, 18th January 2015
Hobart, Tasmania
Tickets: Via MONA

Wednesday, 21st January 2015
Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Tickets: Via Northcote Social Club

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