#synthesizers
7E Interview with Artist/Musician Dan McPharlin
Few weeks ago, we posted an article about our favorite Sci-Fi Artist Dan McPharlin. We had an opportunity to interview him about his process of art, science fiction, music, synthesizers, and gear.
7E- What is the earliest sci-fi you remember being exposed to? (Do you have a library of your favorite pasttime books, sleeves, material you could kindly share with us?) (See photo above that Dan shared with us!)
DM-When I was growing up in the late 70s, early 80s there seemed to be a lot of sci-fi around. I think many kids of that era just soaked it all in. The enthusiasm generated by the Apollo missions was still fuelling public fascination (and optimism) about space exploration and then films like Star Wars kicked things along nicely. My earliest cinematic memory was seeing Empire Strikes Back in the theatre, and I definitely remember being obsessed with Dr. Who. Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker era episodes were a nightly fixture on Australian public television for a number of years. The windswept quarries, medieval British towns juxtaposed with strange aliens and sci-fi hardware fuelled my imagination. There was something about the quaint Britishness of it all that I connected with. Then I began to discover the artwork of artists like Chris Foss and Roger Dean and there was no looking back!
7E- How do germs of ideas for new artworks usually emerge?
DM- Ideas usually emerge from an emotional rather than a technical inception. My art is about juxtapositions of the familiar and the strange, the natural and the manufactured. I try to imagine how it would feel to inhabit a particular environment, to set foot on the soil of a distant world. The figures in my pictures are a stand in for the audience (and myself) so as I’m painting I’m really exploring the landscape at the same time. I like to depict moments of quiet contemplation rather than action or violence and I don’t shy away from mystery or ambiguity.
7E- We’ve read that you primarily work digitally using Photoshop and Wacom. What are some tools you can not live without? Do you create an isolated color palette for each artwork or do you improvise your color choice as you go?
DM- Photoshop is the main software I use. I’ve worked hard to create a set of digital tools that are as analogous to traditional painting as possible. Facing a blank canvas is always daunting so I have a lot of ‘prepared canvases’ that give me a starting point. I usually come up with textures using traditional media which gets scanned in and chopped up in Photoshop. For example, with a series of pieces I just finished I created many of these textures using acrylics mixed with dishwashing soap. Sometimes I might even begin with an older piece of work and start painting over the top. The colour palette will tend to evolve as I go. I use the Photoshop colour-picker a lot, using the painting itself as my colour mixer, constantly switching brushes, opacity etc. The ‘feel’ of mark making has become more important to me over the years and I often place textured papers over the Wacom to simulate different materials.
7E- Could you list several musicians/artists you’ve been listening to lately while illustrating.
DM- Hector Zazou, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Steve Reich, a lot of the old BBC Radiophonic Workshop stuff, a bit of Krautrock and early 90s Warp releases.
I often put together playlists or mixes of favourite tracks to listen to while I work. I’ve recently started collecting these together and releasing them: https://soundcloud.com/cosmonostro/sets/transmissions-a-mix-series-by
7E- Which synth(s) do you currently own?
DM- I have a Synthesizers.com modular, Roland SH-101, Roland MKS-80 + Programmer, Ensoniq SQ-80, Nord Modular, a few digital things, Roland TR-808, Roland MC-4, Roland SPV-355, various samplers, analogue outboard, tape echoes. I think I could probably make do with just the modular, although I have something of an addiction to outboard effects units. My favourite way to make music is just to turn off all the computers and bounce voltages around the studio for 4 hours.
7E- Was there ever a “synth that got away”, or a piece of music gear you regret selling?
DM- I remember when a Moog Sonic 6 came up for sale for a really good price about 10 years ago. I probably should have jumped on it but at the time I was only buying modular gear and couldn’t really justify owning another monosynth. I’m a bit of a collector by nature (perhaps hoarder is the correct word!) and at the time I remember thinking do I really need this to make music, or do I just like the idea of owning it. I’m sure that inner struggle is familiar to many.
7E- What inspired the papercraft series?
DM- I suppose it was a way to express my love of analogue technology while trying to imagine an alternative timeline where digital synths like the DX-7 had never come to be; if analogue synths had continued to develop unchallenged, what would they look like? It was also a way for me to explore the aesthetics of technological objects using a non-technological medium like cardboard or paper. I wanted these objects to exist in the world and the only way for that to happen was to build them out of the materials I had around me.
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7E Interview with Artist Dan McPharlin - Coming Soon.
Next week, 7E interviews with Artist Dan McPharlin on surrealism, electronics, sci-fi, and of course synthesizers.
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7E Guest Artist Dan McPharlin
Inspired by Sci-Fi Illustrators and Artists from days gone by, Dan McPharlin creates surrealistically styled sci-fi illustrations in addition to miniatures and original music. He resides in Australia and is often commissioned for the album cover artwork of various musicians. Dan is also an electronic musician and synthesizer enthusiast with a love for vintage computers to boot. Check out his synthesizer and analog computer papercraft miniatures! Amazing.
Originally, we discovered McPharlin along with Kilian Eng through the Moment’s Lost project. I love sci-fi illustration and synthesizers so I’m ecstatic to be able to show Dan’s work.
-Terry
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@roland_jp Jupiters are now closer |️|
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Back on the Beat ‘82 ||
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A Digital Planet
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Back in 1973, Sesame Street had Stevie Wonder on for a live performance of ‘Superstition’. The sound quality on the mix is pretty decent, every instrument is relatively discernable and clear. There’s this moment at the 5:41 mark where the bassist picks up the song and gets the band running again for a spontaneous jam with Stevie singing “Sesame Street!” It’s pretty wonderful.
Stevie Wonder pops up throughout that episode of Sesame Street too. He sits with Grover, does a voicebox number, and (again with Grover) demonstrates the difference between loud and soft.
For some additional Stevie content, here’s a few articles:
1. Stevie Wonder and his Dream Machines (which is about his pioneering use of synthesizers and the wider effects on the music industry, “from the development of guitar pedals to sampling”, Wonder’s use of synthesizers really cascaded out into every corner of the industry. Crazy.)
2. TONTO: The 50-Year Saga of the Synth Heard on Stevie Wonder Classics (from Rolling Stone magazine, the title pretty much tells you what you’re getting). Here’s a snippet:
“The core keyboard sound of “Superstition” was Wonder’s electric keyboard being fed through TONTO. The famous bass line was all TONTO. The song demonstrated for the first time the potential of the synthesizer being something mainstream, a keyboard-controlled instrument that could add an entirely new sonic palette to popular music. Wonder was playing most (sometimes all) of the instruments in the studio himself anyway, and TONTO now allowed him to also control the final arrangement.”
