In this Meet the Minds feature, we sit down with the versatile electronic music producer and DJ, Transistor Rhythms. Based in one of the UK’s most prominent musical hotspots, Bristol, Transistor Rhythms’ eclectic productions touch all corners of underground music.
From breakbeat to ambient, to techno, his music works as well on a dancefloor as it does on your morning commute. He sat down with us to discuss self-releasing his debut album, and creating a soundscape for the most-renowned music festival in the world.
So, who is Transistor Rhythms? And what has he been up to?
“My name’s Pete, I’m a DJ and producer working under the name Transistor Rhythms. I had quite a busy year this year, which has been really cool. Coming off the release of my debut album in June, I’ve worked on a few other interesting projects, including creating a soundscape for Arcadia for Glastonbury Festival.”
“My entry into the music world was playing the tin whistle in primary school”
We’re always eager to understand an artist’s route into music, and speaking with Transistor Rhythms was no exception.
“Hilariously, my entry into the music world was playing the tin whistle in primary school. The nursery rhyme Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star was the first thing I learnt. I briefly learnt violin too, but then got more into sports rather than music. Years later, I went to an event in uni which I was basically dragged to, which completely changed my musical outlook.
“It was a night called Seedy Sonics in Birmingham. Sub Focus was DJing, and I was just blown away. I had never seen anything like it. As soon as my next student loan came in, I went and bought some decks. Over the next four years, I got more and more into electronic music, then realised that I wanted to start making my own.
“I got myself a Novation keyboard and a copy of Ableton Live, and things have rolled on from there. I’d say I’ve been seriously producing for the past five years or so to get to the point where I'm at now. In terms of my education, I’m fully self taught, apart from the tin whistle lessons. Funnily enough, they haven’t done that much for me in the electronic music world, but there we go.”
“I came up with this track and felt that I'd never written anything as good before”
Transistor Rhythms’ debut album, The Art Of Being Yourself, came out in June. He tells us all about the album’s inception.
“I had a really strong idea of what I wanted to do with the album. The first track I wrote was Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. I don’t want to hark back to this, but I wrote it two years ago during covid. I was alone in my flat for 10 days with nothing to do, so it was the longest period of time I’ve ever been able to spend working on music.”
“I came up with this track and felt that I'd never written anything as good before, so I spent some time trying to get that signed. After a few rejections and working on more tracks, I realised I actually had quite a big bank of productions which was starting to take shape into a bigger project.
“I started seriously thinking about it as an album in January 2023, and built it up from there. I’m really pleased that it came about that way, as it gave me the chance to think about the album’s flow. I could build lots of different moods and movements, something that tells a story. If you listen to the album, you'll hopefully get that flavour.”
“He thought it sounded like a Floating Points track, which is pretty high praise”
Writing The Art Of Being Yourself was a solo effort, but what about the mixing side of the project?
“I worked with two people on the mixes, predominantly with Rob Lindsay, who's absolutely brilliant. I took a mixing course with him which really took the project up a level. His advice helped me to shape the album’s sound and to get it to where I wanted. I love the idea of putting things into spaces, and having the sound envelop everything around you, and his advice on achieving that was priceless.”
“I also worked with the Techno producer edetto, who helped me with the mix of Hyperborea. I sent him the track and he thought it sounded like a Floating Points track, which is pretty high praise. He was like “can we work on this?”, so we worked on the mix together. So yeah, I'm really pleased with how it's all turned out in terms of the sound.”
“I want to remain selective and make sure that what I put out is really good”
Alongside the creative and technical aspects of any project, there’s also the less glamorous logistical side of things. We asked Transistor Rhythms about the release and distribution of the album itself.
“As I mentioned before, the album got some interest from some record labels but I didn’t quite get the bite that I wanted. I decided to self-release the album in the end, giving me complete control over how it looks and how it’s released. It’s been an effort for sure, but I’ve learnt a lot from it.
“It’s really exciting because I can put out a track if I want to. It gives me the freedom to just get stuff out there. Saying that, I want to remain selective and make sure that what I put out is really good. You’ve got to maintain a high standard for yourself and your music.”
“I've always had a massive connection with Glastonbury’s Arcadia stage”
Aside from his solo debut album, we wanted to know more about the recent soundscape that Transistor Rhythms designed for the new Arcadia stage at Glastonbury Festival.
“On a personal level, I've always had a massive connection with the Arcadia stage. This year, it entered its newest iteration and they brought the new dragonfly structure, which I was lucky enough to be a part of. Essentially the reason for the track is to bridge the gap between performers during equipment changes. With up to 50 thousand people in the crowd, you don’t want dead silence.
“Arcadia are really big on storytelling, and there’s a real reason and concept behind the stage so they wanted a soundscape to help progress the story. The stage itself was built from a Sea King, which is an old military helicopter. The idea was that they took this symbol of war and turned it into something where it's beautiful and it's a place of unity, where people actually celebrate being together.”
“That was something that was really key to the message that they wanted to express. I essentially remixed The Grid from the album, adding in various sounds from different sources which helped to reinforce the concept and the narrative of the piece. I took sounds from videos of the Arcadia build, such as power tools and so on. I used sounds relating to the original helicopter itself, like 1940s Sea King adverts and promotional material. I also used voice-over audio from nature documentaries discussing the transformation of dragonflies.
“I must have gone through about a hundred videos of dragonflies and old military content to find audio that worked. It took ages to find these clips and distil them down into something that actually made sense. They’re all unique clips from different sources, so piecing them together is a challenge in itself. The fact that there are so many real-world audio sources helps to give the stage a sense of place in the real-world too. I’m really pleased with the effect it had, the team seemed to enjoy it and I’m really proud of that project.”
“I couldn’t have completed the project to the same standard without it”
We asked if there were any particular tools or resources that helped him source and process the various pieces of audio that work together in the final soundscape.
“The main tool I used during this process was LALAL.AI, which was absolutely crucial. I couldn’t have completed the project to the same standard without it, because the recordings I used weren’t taken in a studio. They had background noises like helicopters, narration or music. Even the voice overs from the nature documentaries had a bed of ambient music behind it, so LALAL.AI helped me to isolate the bits I needed.
“The tool had so many uses throughout the project, and allowed me to get clean snippets of the recordings. Otherwise they would have been a mess! If you've got lots of other bits of sound underneath the thing you need, it might clash or be out of key. You want the cleanest possible recording and it's absolutely brilliant that LALAL.AI can achieve that level of clarity.”
“The project meant a lot to me personally”
While there are parallels between Transistor Rhythms’ recent album and soundscape projects, namely the storytelling aspect of them both, we were interested to find out how sound design work differs from solo projects?
“First off, the project meant a lot to me personally, which made it more exciting. I really wanted to nail it and get it right. Also, with sound design work, you’ve already got the concepts and you’re quite directed into it. It's not like you're having to make decisions for yourself where you're like, oh, I could do anything. It's like, this track has a clear purpose, so in that sense it’s nice because you’re very focused on what you’re doing.”
“I was working with feedback from Pip Rush, the creative director of Arcadia. I was trying to get the sonic representation of his idea of the story, which was interesting because you don't really get that with your own music. That side of the process was really interesting. It was nice to put out an idea I like, and he can just say “yeah lets adjust this a little bit” or “maybe that recording doesn’t quite make sense for what we’re trying to say”.”
“I really enjoyed the idea of having a concept and then writing something for it”
Sounds like the Bristol-based DJ and producer has had a busy summer, but we wanted to know if Transistor Rhythms had any other projects on the horizon?
“It’d be really nice to do more sound design work like the Arcadia project. That is something that I’d love to get into more. I really enjoyed the idea of having a concept and then writing something for it. In terms of what I’m doing right now, it’s mainly album launch parties. I did one here in Bristol, the next one is in Manchester on 19th October, and I’m planning one later in the year in London too.”
“I’m also working on music videos for the album after being approached by two independent film studios who want to work together. There's going to be a full music video for Caresses, and another for The Art Of Being Yourself. I’m really looking forward to getting to work on those in the coming months.”
You can listen to The Art Of Being Yourself on all streaming platforms now. In the meantime, follow Transistor Rhythms on his socials to see what he’s up to.
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