Hot off the back of his first release on Mixing Mates Tyvion Valentine speaks to AMF about his production process and he gives us a 70-minute mix of break, house, and techno.
Get Tyvion’s EP Who Ever Said on Bandcamp now.
Catch our interview with Tyvion below.
Hey Tyvion, thanks for being a guest on the blog. I hope you’re good. I always like to kick these interviews off by asking my guest to tell us a bit about themselves. When did you start producing music and why?
Hey, thanks so much for having me!
I was in my first year of Uni when I got my hands on the trial version of Ableton Live 9 (around five years ago) but the catch is you’re not able to save any projects. I dabbled in and out of the software maybe two or three times every six/seven months or so. It was never something I actually took seriously. I remember If I made something I thought was half decent at the time (it was probably awful) I’d make sure my laptop wouldn’t run out of battery as the project would be deleted and nothing would be saved which is funny to think back on now.
I properly started producing around two years ago when I was 20. I finally got my hands on Ableton Live 10 and it felt like such a treat having access to all of its features compared to how bare the trial version was which definitely made everything a lot more exciting.
For me, the most drawing aspect of producing music is how it never ends. I feel I’ll never understand everything about music production which makes me want to learn more and more. On top of that, opening a blank project and having endless combinations of sounds, chords, effects, whatever it is, it’s just so exciting turning a blank project into something you become obsessed with. Of course, the more time you put into it the better you become so it’s really rewarding to hear yourself improving every month or so. For me, it was like I could hear my tracks getting slightly better and better which became even more of an incentive to keep doing what I was doing.
So yeah, what got me into music production was definitely the desire to learn more about it as it seems so daunting but exciting at first and also how much fun it is to see what happens when you sit down in front of a blank project.
Do you have any producers, artists, or collectives you cite as influences? Who do you look to for inspiration?
Yes, of course, my friends who are reading this already know the answer cause I’m such a fanboy. My two overall favourite producers are George FitzGerald and Bonobo. I go through phases over who I prefer. I actually won a signed copy of George’s ‘Fading Love’ album and was lucky enough to meet him before a show. My excitement took over and I just hugged him straight away haha he was probably like ‘why is this guy so excited?’
Aside from them, I used to be really big into bands when I was younger like Nirvana, Led Zeppelin and Foals. Over time I started getting more and more into electronic music through the likes of Jacques Green, Eliphino, Bonobo and George FitzGerald. Most of my favourite artists all come out of London.
Production-wise, I definitely draw the most inspiration from George FitzGerald especially his earlier days. I think it’s that filtery kind of metallic lead sounds, strong smooth sub-basses and arpeggiated ascending/descending wide melodies which I take much influence from. It’s funny cause I don’t mean to copy that sound but it’s just what I like so it’s what naturally comes out.
I also really love how Bonobo manipulates and shapes vocals. Any dance track that incorporates vocals throughout really makes it more exciting and elevates the track to another level. It gives the listener/crowd something more to engage with.
Your productions have a definite garage vibe but you’re also a guitarist. I’d be interested to hear what your studio setup looks like. Do you have a room packed to the rafters with hardware or do you work more digitally?
My studio is actually very bare, so bare that I can’t even get away with calling it a studio. I have a set of Yamaha HS5’s, a pair of audio technica’s and my laptop. That’s it. I do want to get more into hardware for sure but I’m still indecisive about what to get. The dream is the Moog Subsequent 37. I’ve messed around with it once before and I fell in love straight away. I really use my laptop for everything though and I use a lot of plugins. I recently got Massive X which is great for so many different reasons.
I also got the Audio Realsim ALB3 which I’m really fond of. You can get really cool acid phrases that sound really really crisp. I think that’s the best thing I’ve got in my setup. I find myself using it for every track I make now.
I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to making my tracks sound clean. I’ve got loads of plugins such as, the Fab Filter bundle and the Valhalla bundle. Ableton’s stock plugins are also really really good; you can get really high quality sounding tracks without any third-party plugins.
To-date all my tracks on SoundCloud have been produced with only Ableton sounds and a few sample packs. There’s so much you can do with the software, it doesn’t take much to build a track from what Ableton gives you.
Recently I’ve found myself getting bored with using only software so I think it’s time to bite the bullet and dive into learning how to use hardware properly. Even with Massive X and the ALB3 the sounds are so much fuller and really stand out in the mix. Moreso, I feel like getting hardware could really speed up my workflow.
What is your creative process when you’re producing music? How do you go from idea to inception and then completion? Do you build a track around a sample, hook, idea?
So I mostly always start drums, then a bassline and then I don’t really know what happens next to the track just builds itself depending on what sample pack or plug-ins that I recently bought.
I know I always start in session view within Ableton and create an eight-bar drum loop. I usually try to pick different drum sounds that I think compliment each other. Once I’ve got a simple drum pattern down I’ll then make a melody or a bassline (usually a bassline) then I’ll move into arrangement view and that’s when the track really starts to build.
I’ll start to find some more drum samples and chop them up accordingly so they fit the track. I usually use around three or four different samples and join them together so it sounds like one pattern which complements the drum groove I’ve already made. As the track gets longer and longer I either have it done and then I move to the mixdown or there’s a bit in the session that I really like so I’ll delete the rest and develop that particular section.
A lot of the time I can tell if I have something solid in the first twenty/thirty minutes of the session. If I sit in front of a project for around an hour and nothing’s flowing I delete everything and start again.
To be honest a lot of my favourite parts in tracks I’ve made are by complete accident. Vocals, for example, I really love chopping up vocals and elevating the track (it’s probably my favourite section to work on and I always do it last once the main motif of the track is established) I find myself duplicating one section into another but sometimes there are some small vocal chops that have been left in the section that I have just copied into, so then I’m left with something I had no intention of making which can sound really really cool as the rhythm of the vocals is changed. The same goes for melodies, by accidentally joining two different parts of the same phrase you can be really surprised.
There’s definitely very distinguishable aspects of my sound which I feel represent me. That’s because over the past two years I’ve saved a bank of sounds that I like and use them again and again in various ways. Also, every track that I’ve made is in a minor key so there’s automatically an emotional connection to the track.
The main source of inspiration I get comes from the type of sound that I chose. Once I establish a really clean sounding melody, bassline or vocal loop the idea really starts to flow quickly and all of a sudden I have a track by the end of the session. That’s not always the case, of course, sometimes the sounds I pick naturally compliment each other so it’s easier to fly through tracks. Other times I find myself staring at Ableton trying to force nothing out of nothing.
Are you excited for your release on mixing mates? How does it feel getting your music released via a label?
Yeah, I was so buzzed! Kerry is an absolute legend for picking up the EP and giving me so much confidence about my music. It’s such a nice feeling getting such a great response from people that aren’t my mates and having a platform to release music on rather than me just sharing it on my SoundCloud/Social Media.
The fact that Kerry was so nice about everything and confident in the release really made me feel great and also gave me more of an incentive to keep on producing. Having music released on a label makes everything look more official. The fact that some highly well respected SoundCloud Pages such as Halcyon Wax and Moskalus premiered both tracks felt so surreal and getting my music out to a wider audience was something I found difficult to do myself so yeah big up Kerry and MixingMates for putting out the EP!!
Can you tell us about the EP? ‘Who Ever Said’ is a lush exploration in breaks and melody. I’ve had it on constantly since you sent it over. What were the best bits about producing it? What was the most difficult?
The main sidechain type synth sound is actually an Ableton preset once again. I remember finding it last year I’d say and for some reason, it just popped into my head to use it when I was working on the drums. I was actually working on an old project and I made that melody and I knew straight away that I could make a really nice sounding track.
The small breakdown in the middle which then leads into the melody was something that I had in a previous project and I tried incorporating it into the track and it worked so well. The best thing about producing the track was definitely turning an old project that I had no hope into a finished project.
The most difficult aspect was probably listening to it over 100 times as I was mixing it. It’s so easy to start hating a track just cause you’ve listened to it over and over again. I like working on two projects at once so that doesn’t happen but as I’m still learning about mixing it’s inevitable that I’m going to get sick of a track during the mixdown process.
In saying that, once I sent the track off and it got picked up by Mixing Mates I loved it again.
Let’s talk a bit about your mix. Can you tell us a bit about your track selection? How did you put it together? Was it an organic process or do you approach your mixes very methodically?
There were definitely a handful of tracks that I wanted to play so in saying that I fit tracks around them accordingly so yeah I’d say the mix as a whole was methodically thought out. DJing is something that I don’t actually do very often, especially at the moment so it’s nice to hop on the decks and play some of my favourite tracks.
Are there any standout tracks in the mix you can share with us?
Yeah for sure, I have two unreleased tracks of my own in there and the one played at around twelve minutes im really really into. I’m not sure how to go about releasing it but I can’t stop listening to it at the moment, it’s actually not finished yet I still have some bits to tidy up.
Other than that there’s a track called ‘Cosiin’ by James Shinra which I play around forty minutes in. There’s so much going on in the track yet it’s so clean. The use of the 303 is so catchy as well. I remember the first time I heard it I listened to it over and over again. Also ‘Tru Luv’ by Portara0000 is something that can be played anytime and anywhere and people will get up and dance. It also mixes in with any sort of genre. Lastly ‘Who’s in Charge’ by Ansza is another one of those UK gems.
Lastly, what’s on the horizon for Tyvion? Do you have any more releases planned or are you back in the studio?
I have a few mixes lined up with some labels/collectives but the main thing is to make as much original material as possible and start getting into live sets!
I have two tracks pretty much good to go so I’m focusing on putting out a four-track EP out so that’s the project I’m working on at the moment. There are a few labels I have in mind so hopefully, over the next few months, there’ll be another EP on the horizon!
