In The Studio With: The Field

Axel Willner has built a career on looping without ever repeating himself. Si Truss catches up with him in Berlin to talk sampling, modular and new LP, The Follower

At the heart of Swedish producer Axel Willner’s music as The Field lies a formula of repetition and subtle variation. His sprawling, loopdriven tracks are like sonic versions of a sleight of hand magic trick: seemingly stuck in a cycle of static repetition, they delicately build and unfold until the mood has shifted completely without the listener noticing the point of change.

A parallel can be drawn with the path of The Field’s career as a whole. On the surface, it appears little has changed over his run of LPs for influential German label Kompakt, with each album still built upon the same interplay between atmospheric samples and electronic beats that formed the basis of his groundbreaking ’07 debut From Here We Go

Sublime. Yet there have been numerous seismic shifts to the way Willner approaches his music – he’s moved from tracker software to hardware samplers, a three-piece live band has come and gone, and the bright emotions of his early releases have slowly given way to a darker, noticeably harder sound. His recent fifth album, The Follower, sees yet another change, as Willner dives headfirst into the depths of modular synthesis. We caught up with Willner in his synth-stuffed apartment in his adopted home town of Berlin to find out how his new gear is feeding his creativity.

FM: How did the creative process behind The Follower differ from your previous album Cupid’s Head?

The Field: “It started off more or less the same as

Cupid’s Head, with the same gear, based around the Elektron stuff. I made maybe two tracks and then I kind of hit the wall – I didn’t have a feeling for it. One thing that I learned along the way is that one of the best ways to feed your creativity is with new gear. If you get new stuff you can just get lost in it. So that’s when I took a step into the modular world.”

Had you played around with modular gear before, or was that totally new for this album?

“It was just for this album. You can hear it as the album was made almost chronologically; the first two tracks are more like how my set-up used to be, and then the later parts are me experimenting and getting lost in the modular.”

This album sounds more synth heavy in general… Is that fair to say?

“Yes, it’s generally less sample-based. I still always start with samples though. The Field has always been about samples – it’s sample-based music. Even though it’s not so much at the front this time, every track is still based around samples. Although, on the second part of this album at least, it’s less in the foreground than it has been.”

How do you work with samples? Do you always turn to Octatrack or do you ever use software?

“Nowadays everything is done with the Octatrack; it’s been like that ever since I started using it. From

Here We Go Sublime was made entirely with Buzz, the tracker program. Yesterday And Today was also partially done in Buzz, but I also started to use the MPC. I was using that mostly for live purposes, but I’d also feed samples into that and jam around it. That album was recorded out on an island in an old school, with people just coming and going – it was super free and hippy-esque, and the recording techniques on that album were quite mixed. Looping

State Of Mind was quite mixed too, but slightly less so as the Octatrack was in the picture and the MPC was gone. Then Cupid’s Head was made entirely using hardware, with no computer at all. Everything is eventually recorded into a computer, but that’s it.”

Is there any reason you’ve drifted away from the computer? Have you ever tried using Ableton or something similar for sampling?

“I’ve never really tried it for that. I use Ableton but only to record. I should probably use Logic for recording, but Ableton works, and I know that part of it fairly well. I’m always a little bit intimidated when things like that get too complicated.”

How do you go about finding and sourcing sample material to base tracks around?

“It can come from anything. Often I have a certain connection to the sample that I use; it can be a nostalgic thing. It tends to be something that’s connected to me and my life. Then I’ll sit and work around that. Also it’s not a certain sound I’m after when I use a sample – it’s more the atmosphere. That’s what I’ve always liked with sampling; you don’t just take a sound, you take the whole recording – the room it was recorded in and everything. Sometimes that can be tricky too – I’ve even sampled YouTube and things – but everything is so fucking clean nowadays, it’s quite boring. I like it when things are a little bit dirty; it can sound bad but it gives everything a little bit of atmosphere.”

Jumping back a bit, how did you first get into music making and production?

“The first instrument I ever got was a bass. I started playing when I was around 12. Although before that, in Sweden, it’s mandatory to play the recorder in school, so everybody does that so you get a feel for music. Why it’s the recorder I have no idea; it sounds pretty fucking bad when you get a lot of kids playing them together. But the first thing I really tried to learn was the bass. A friend’s father was a musician, so we’d go over to his basement and he’d teach us a little, as my friend was playing the guitar too.

“I was into Punk Rock at the time; playing three chords, having bands and so on. After playing for a little while in a Punk band, the guitar became the instrument I started to play. I played guitar in a lot of different bands for a while. I recorded things, but at that time we didn’t really care about the process at all. There was always somebody else that took care of it, just recording everything to a four-track. Then gradually computers came into it more and more. I also got myself a four-track and I started recording myself at home and doing more experimental things with the guitar. A friend had a Yamaha synth, and I

had a TR-505 and some shitty old Casio synth, plus a lot of effects pedals. At that time Daft Punk released Homework and we were both like, ‘wow!’. We were coming from a guitar-based world and then getting completely swept away by it.

“We started recording a lot of electronic things on the four-track. Then cheaper computers came into everyone’s homes – it wasn’t just a professional thing any more – and so that’s when I got into Buzz and deeper into production.”

How quickly did The Field take shape as a project after you first started experimenting with electronic music?

“We started playing with the synths around ’96/’97, then I think I made the first Field track in 2003, so there was quite a lot in between. During those years I was also into a lot of Ambient, and particularly guitar-based Ambient. Lars Blek was a moniker I had that was completely guitar-based. That’s when I really started to play out and I realised that people would actually listen to my music and enjoy it. It was the time of CDR; that was new so there were millions of little CDR labels – I even started my own. I released a few things that sold out, so it was like, ‘shit, this actually works’.

“Then, on the side, The Field kind of grew out of that, along with a lot of different projects and aliases. I had so many names at that time, but nothing really became professional until I made a couple of Field tracks, and then that kept on going until around 2005 when I sent a demo to Kompakt, and they picked it up directly. That was actually the only place I sent it to, as I admire Wolfgang Voigt so much. It wasn’t so much Kompakt I was sending it to as him, as I love his music and Gas and everything he’s done before.”

Do you think moving from Sweden to Berlin has had an effect on the way you approach your music?

“I moved here after the first album, but at that time I was still recording in Sweden. That was around the time I started The Field band, and they all still lived in Stockholm. As I mentioned, the second album, Yesterday And Today, was recorded in an old school, which we were lucky enough to get for free. With The Field, recording goes fast – almost just the time it takes to build the track. That can take anywhere from an hour to 20 hours, but I’ll still sit there and build it in one go. There’s a lot of recording long takes and then, most of the time, I’ll arrange it directly when I feel like everything is recorded.”

Can you tell us about your process when you started working with the band and other musicians? Would you create tracks yourself and have them play over your arrangements?

“There were two different processes over the two albums I did with the band, Yesterday And Today and Looping State Of Mind. The first was super free and like a classic jam session. People would just come and go, since it was just an hour by bus outside Stockholm; it was all super open. People would come down, play a bit, we’d eat and drink some wine and just have fun. Then, of course, I had sketches I’d already made, but it was also quite free. We even covered Everybody’s Got To Learn

Sometime, as we were just a bit drunk after dinner and it had just come on the playlist. I’d just moved to Berlin in person at the time, but I hadn’t moved all my stuff. I still had my apartment in Stockholm so all my gear was there.

“Looping State of Mind was completely different, I did all the tracks, everything, before and had something of an idea or direction I wanted it to go. Then we rented a studio – from a friend who was a technician in Cologne – and we had five days in there. I’d already decided on a few tracks we’d focus on, and they just added whatever they wanted. I never had to say anything as we were thinking the same way; I trusted them. After those five days, I came back to Berlin, and then I started to arrange. I was forced to go back to tracks, which is something I never really like to do. It was more a classic way of making an album; completely different from what I was used to.”

It’s not a certain sound I’m after when I use a sample – it’s more the atmosphere… the room it was recorded in and everything

To what extent were your live performances with the band improvised?

“The only structure was the samples involved in the track, from the Octatrack or the MPC before that. Then we jammed over the top, me included. There was a lot of eye contact and baseball hand signs behind the desk. We were always trying to push it as far as we could. It’s about communication with the audience – if you don’t get a good response, you know it’s going to be a short concert, but if you get a beautiful response you can just keep on pushing and see where it goes. Of course, there were similarities to all the shows, but they were also all very different.”

What was the impetus for stopping working with the band when it came to making Cupid’s

Head? Was it merely the logistics of them being in Stockholm and you in Berlin?

“Yes. It was the beauty and also the downfall of the whole thing. You couldn’t rehearse; the only times we could take it to another level was when we played live. One of the drummers… I’ve had two… The first time he played with us was on stage at Roskilde; we’d never played together before. But again, I really trusted them as musicians and as humans.

“It was logistically impossible though, and now it’s even worse as people have kids and have to work. For me it became my profession, but they were just live or studio musicians. There’s a point where you have to choose whether to continue on in the day job or take the full step into something, but if it’s not your project then it’s hard to do that, especially if you have a family to feed. We’re not young anymore.”

You’re performing solo now – what live set-up do you use for that?

“I’ve been doing that for about a year and a half now. I use the holy trinity of Elektron gear: the Analog Four, Analog Rytm and the Octatrack. I also use the Eventide Space; that’s it though – it’s super simple. I’m improvising a lot by my self though. It’s essentially the same basic set-up as the band but without the musicians, although I didn’t have the Analog Four then as I had a bass player who also played keys, so that replaced him. The live drums were mostly cosmetic, sitting on top of a steady 4/4, so I just used the same kind of drum machine parts as if I’d been alone – although back then it was from the Machinedrum.

“I’ve just got myself a portable case for the modular, but I haven’t started using that live yet. I haven’t played much since November last year, and at that time I didn’t even consider that I’d bring the modular out live. At the time I’d just bought the Doepfer low-cost cases, which are pretty damn impossible to move.” Has the move to playing solo meant you get booked for more club sets rather than ‘gig’ venues? “Yes, definitely. Back then we’d play more ‘venues’, with gig timings too, but now I’m back to how I started – playing alone in a club at 4am.” Has that influenced the sound of the new album? Is it more of a ‘club’ record? “In a way yes, but at the same time not. It’s kind of the same structurally as the previous albums, so the differences that are there are quite small. This new album has a couple of tracks that really work in a club, but there’s some that really don’t too, depending on what type of club you’re playing. It wasn’t something I had in mind when I was making it, but as the back catalogue is growing there are now clubbier tracks I can pull from every album, and that’s the stuff that I’ll play when I’m playing live.

“Saying that, I did a three-week tour in the States that was all Ambient, which confused people a lot! Even though I told people to be sure the tour was marketed like that, I ended up playing some club nights. People kept expecting a kick drum.” In general, do you think of The Field as a ‘club music’ project? “No, absolutely not. It’s something that’s just happened. I can’t say what I like the most – I really enjoyed the live show/‘venue’ thing, and that would

fit my life so much better right now as I’m getting older, but I enjoy the club sets just as much. Sometimes doing the Ambient things is very appealing too though; it’s a challenge since it’s something a bit different, and it keeps things fresh.”

You’ve a pretty impressive selection of vintage gear… How much of that got used on The Follower?

“The JX3P, for example, is the only polyphonic synth I have, so that is used a lot for laying chords on top of things. The 101 is always used for basslines too. The 808 I haven’t used in a while, as I use 808 sounds from the Analog Rytm. The SH-5 I haven’t used in a long time either, so that collects a lot of dust right now. It’s unfortunate; I love the SH-5 and I used to make a lot of recordings with it, but now I’ve the modular I use that a lot for that side of stuff.”

What sort of sounds is the modular used for on the album?

“A lot of percussive stuff. Also the 303 sound comes from the Acidlab module. There’s all kinds of sounds coming out of there though; basslines, a lot of samples too. The track Soft Streams, for example, is completely made with the modular, except for the drums.

“I used the Nebulae a lot; that’s great for taking samples to another dimension. The Verbos Harmonic Oscillator is really great for deep basses and organic organ sounds. Of course the sequencers like the Metropolis are completely different things but really super for being creative. That’s the beauty with modular, you really don’t know where it’s going to take you, which I kind of like. Although there are pros and cons to that – now when I’m looking to play live it’s like, ‘Shit, how do I recreate this?’. You just have to be prepared to hit record and worry about it later. I think the live stuff is going to be something completely new in the end. Everything will be fed with MIDI from the Octatrack.”

How did you approach mixing the album? Did you do that yourself too?

“I usually mix stuff myself, but I’ve realised – which is quite a sad thing to realise – that my hearing is actually getting quite bad, so if I’m exhausted I don’t hear the highs any more. I felt I couldn’t mix myself this time, so my friend who helped me with the modular, Sam Barker, mixed it together with me. We summed everything down on a Midas desk and used shitloads of the Moogerfoogers plus various delays and reverbs.

“I really left a lot of things to him, and just sat behind him trying to hear everything. I was very satisfied with it though; he has different knowledge to what I have and I really trusted his ear. He’s also my booker so he’s been with me, travelling with me, but we’re also good friends. He also knows how I want it to sound – he understands the project.”