TALKING SHOP MOULLINEX
Across the course of three albums and numerous singles and remixes, Lisbon-based producer Luis Clara Gomes, aka Moullinex, has developed his own distinctively deep, hardware-driven take on classic house flavours. He returns this month with his latest LP, Requiem For Empathy, released on his own Discotexas imprint. We caught up with him to talk synth favourites and workflows.
When did you start making music?
“My dad had a small studio setup at home with a few sound modules, arranger keyboard etc, but I wasn’t really allowed into the studio, so it was kind of a forbidden fruit. I managed to get my hands on a demo version of Fruity Loops (now FL Studio) and since it didn’t let me save a project I’d work on it for a day and then bounce it to a tape deck – literally committing to tape.
“I was deeply into Squarepusher, Luke Vibert and Amon Tobin, so my first tracks were my attempts at achieving their sound. A friend got me a copy of ReBirth, the granddaddy of Reason, which was an emulation of two 303s, an 808 and a 909. We’d work on tracks at home, record them to tape and play them to each other with our Walkmans. We had no template for what we were doing then, just trying to impress each other.”
Tell us about your studio/setup.
“I share my studio space with my label partner Xinobi, in downtown Lisbon. We’ve been here for eight years, but as gear piled up, we ran out of space, so we started planning a new studio, built from scratch.
“We track everything in the control room, even drums. I find that having everything available, patched and ready to go, really helps when you’re in that ‘flow state’. The worst thing that can happen to me is being excited about a part I’m working on and having to switch gears and fix a MIDI issue or finding an adapter. I’d rather tickle my OCD by making music, not fixing something.
“I admit having access to a lot of hardware synths is a luxury, but I really believe they are my unblockers when it comes to finding inspiration. It’s not really about the sound – I believe we’re living in a golden era of digital audio processing and emulations are on par with most analogue tech – but for me it’s about the tactile experience of using a machine designed, engineered and produced with passion.”
What DAW do you use, and why?
“Ableton Live, since version 5. It felt immediately intuitive to me. And though I’ve tried all kinds of setups live, I keep coming back to it as the most comfortable and streamlined. I
“I use Max for Live a lot in my projects, usually to give things some unpredictability. The only thing I didn’t do on it was multitrack recordings and comping, which I’m able to now, finally.”
What one piece of gear in your studio could you not do without, and why?
“Louder than Liftoff Silver Bullet. It’s a stereo pre, a Pultec-type EQ, Neve and API transformers/saturation stage in a single unit. I utilise it for both tracking and stereo processing purposes on mixdowns.
“As for synths, the Roland SH-1000. Nothing comes close to it when trying to get an immediately beautiful-sounding synth part. I love its quirks and limitations; they always sound very musical.
“In software, anything done by u-He. Diva and Repro are incredible pieces of engineering. Often, I write a synth part on the go using them, thinking ‘this will sound great on a Moog at the studio’, only to then choose the original demo sound.”
What are you currently working on?
“I’m very happy to be releasing my new album soon. I named it Requiem for Empathy, in 2019, even before
2020 happened, and the title seems to fit even more. I’d just wrapped up the mixing sessions with David Wrench when the pandemic hit, so you can imagine how bad I want it to be out after one year in the drawer. This album was like therapy to me, it helped me deal with several losses and scares I went through, so I really hope it can do that to others.
“I’ve also been working with AI tools for generating visual pieces. I find these technologies inspiring, especially in visual arts. There’s a familiarity and unpredictability in them I really like.”