Visionist

London-based artist Louis Carnell might have emerged from the city’s instrumental grime scene, but his recent work has grown into something far grander and more conceptual. 2015’s debut album Safe was a sonic interpretation of the concept of anxiety, and the follow up, Value, focuses on the relationship between artist, artwork and audience, across ten tracks of minimalist beats, twisted vocals and sharp-edged synths. FM caught up with Visionist to find out more... When did you start making music, and how did you first get started? “I started making music around the age of 15 originally. This quickly moved into MCing and I spent my latter teens making grime, garage, funky etc. I’ve always been introduced to new sounds, but the initial attraction to another artist’s work was their story and how their music could relate to my world emotionally… I guess this is the process I take today.” Tell us about the studio setup behind Value? “I work from my rented home in South London, and I’ve been here around five years now. My setup is very simple – PC, Akai keyboard, Focrusrite Scarlett 8i6 soundcard and ADAM 5X monitors. All the synth sounds I create from VSTs, I download loads of found sound off various websites, and for this project I actually recorded my own voice to create a lot of the vocal melodies. Plugins allow my process of creativity to flow easier.

“I like to learn a select group of plugins for each project and stick by them throughout… I almost like having less to work with as it doesn’t distract me and I can really explore the possibilities of these tools. When it came to mixing the record, I worked with a mixing engineer and sat with him on every track.” Value sees you incorporating your own processed vocals for the first time. What was the impetus behind that? “Well, all my music is experiential, so it only felt right that I should actually add my voice to the process considering this is one of the main stylistic approaches to my work. I guess with a singing background it is almost allowing part of that history I have with music to come to show again, I give something personal in my work and this was the next step.” Atmospherics and negative space play a significant role in your music – how do you go about creating the right atmospheric feel? “For me it’s about understanding sounds and their capabilities; exploring dynamics and the sonic interaction between electronic and human… it’s also about key and how notes come together to create different feelings. I work in conceptual contexts that aren’t always resolved, so I try to create this back and forth of emotion, sonically bringing together extremes but showing there can be resolution from stressful situations. I feel it’s really important to treat each sound as the most important in a composition, as all the elements are needed to create the overall atmosphere even if some of the details are missed on initial listens because of the way other sounds grab your attention.” Both of your albums have been quite conceptual – at what point in the creative process do you come up with these concepts? “I start with a concept and think about how I want to execute that. This is why I need time between my records as it allows life experience. My first Album Safe worked on one theme, so it was about creating tracks that took you on a specific journey, whereas my new album Value works around different themes that all interact with each other. In this process, though, each track almost is its own story, and then it’s about creating a piece of work that sonically fits together to show the relation between all the of these.” What DAW do you use, and why did you choose it? “I create all my music on FL Studio. It was the program that was most easily accessible when I started and though I’ve worked with other DAWs they all slowed down my process. I’ve also discovered I can create most anything I want in FL so have no reason to leave it. I always set myself new techniques to learn on each record.” What’s the latest addition to your studio? “My monitors - I think it is very important to have good monitors they say half of your budget should go on these.” When approaching a new track or project, where do you start? “I like to gather a lot of sounds for a project and then work from them multiple times, this keeps a sonic consistency… Depending on what I want to the track to represent determines whether I start with drums/sound design or melody… But starting point is gathering and making sounds.”