Posted: Fri, 02 March 2007 19:52 Post subject: Interview with Ocelot
Aaron Peacock aka oCeLoT makes music of all sorts. He travels Planet Earth playing his special strains of PsyTrance. Aaron came from a musical family and plays lots of instruments. As a child he wanted to be an orchestra conductor when he grew up. The San Francisco psy scene of the 90's greatly influenced him as did the culture of psychedelics in general. Once "turned on" at age 18 there was no going back. The culture of psy trance provided a home for this bit of star matter we call oCeLoT.
>What does Egnogra means?
Ocelot is a cat. a small to middle sized wild cat with spots. it has excellent hearing, climbs trees, and is somewhat shy. It lives in mexico also...
>What is your ideology?
I believe we humans are capable of change, of changing our selves and our society. I believe we must change from this industrial commercial urban/suburban/factory farm way of living to something more sustainable, that we may survive, the our life quality may improve, and that we may create beauty again instead of ugliness. In my view war, far from being inevitable, is the result of resource competition and represents a disease or sickness in society. Music and Art like Plato suggested a long time ago, have a vibratory nature, as do we.
They influence our aesthetics, our ideologies, and our morals. The violent crap that passes for entertainment today is damaging to the spirit, as are the industrial chemicals we put on our food, but rather than focusing on their negative effects, i prefer to completely throw them away and focus on beauty, goodness, and what I know in my heart to be right and proper. When the media frenzy (that is only designed to sell more products, more plastic, more false reality) is ignored there is space for trying other things. Throw away the television, the video games, find some instructional books, practice techniques of art and technical craft. Build your own sustainable house, study sustainable technologies, develop the next generation of ideas we will need to survive as a species. With this reality in mind, i have no time for pop culture bullshit- there is real culture being made right now- that is the REAL popular culture as it comes from people not corporate think tanks. Have i said enough? Like whomever x-dream was sampling in their track "we created our own happiness, we created our own society..." i could speak for ages on this topic...
>Anyway - how this relates to music?
Well i believe that the art must reflect a state we wish to achieve and not just reflect the shit from society. There is a feedback loop of creating more of the same. I feel that music should uplift the soul to new states of consciousness. They can be quite strange and abstract states of consciousness. There can be a journey from our hidden fears and pains to the pure light on the other side, but there must be an overall care for the human. We entrain to the vibrations of the art we focus on- be it music, painting, movies, etc...
>How do you define your music?
I don't. There is obviously my characteristic flavor or personality involved, but i really try to make new art everytime I make a track or song. I go through periods of this thing, or that thing.
I do tend to make a lot of psychedelic trance music as I'm travelling the world playing my music in a liveset on trance parties for dancing in the context of many other artists or dj's all playing psychedelic trance music. I really make all kinds from chill out/ambient explorations, to drum and bass, to humorous little things, to some freeform jams that do not fit into the boxes but cross many lines... I also play musical instruments when i can. (A bit difficult when travelling...)
I dream of the day when there is a forum for experimental freeform music - like the tranceparties are for trance.
>What is the objective of your music?
This depends upon the music. My objective in making and playing psychedelic trance music is to make people dance in body, mind, and spirit. Additionally I wish to take them on a journey through sensations,thoughts and emotions. There is a story here but only some of it is literal, the rest is open to interpretation.
>How far do you want to go?
I wish to visit the places in the southern hemisphere where I've not been yet. I wish to find my true home and my true love. For artistic development- I will be happy when i've brought people to the ideas behind my ideology and not just brought them some entertainment. I would like to live forever, but I will be satisfied with 300 years. Hopefully I can come to terms with death and the movement of my soul. I want to be everywhere at once and do everything at the same time. To the stars and beyond!
>In all this years what are you missing?
I am missing the ability to kiss-ass, lie for political reasons, and otherwise be a good politician. it would help me get more gigs. I am missing the regulator valve that helps me keep my mouth shut and i hope i dont get injured for this anymore.
>In which platform do you work and what equipment do you use?
I use a normal pc with windows. I use a soundcard, midi keyboard, and studio monitors to listen. I use a microphone to make samples. i use steinbergs cubase currently but have used synapse audio orion in the past because its really clever and fast. i believe in learning HOW each effect or synth works and using the simplest tool to get the job done. i dont use presets because they are not relevant to what i have in front of me. its best to just dial-in the appropriate settings using common sense and understanding what the process you are applying does.
>What’s your composing method?
Well that depends upon the style of music im making. But often i start by looping a few bars, record or make one part, the jam along with it, then another time, etc... and just build up some parts. Then i start to cut and edit and make some synthesis between the parts- make them talk to each other- make a dialogue- so there is not just one thing babbling away on top all the time...
This can be applied to synthetic riffs made with sequencers, arpeggiators, and synthesizers, or to recording the guitar. Its all the same techniques of editing really. check out my website www.psymatix.com for some tutorials on kicks and bass for trance as well as some general tips...
>Do you have another project besides Ocelot?
All my projects are oCeLoT well maybe someday someday when i make cheesy pop music for money it will not be oCeLoT but im not sure... the way i see it- all these microgenres of music are for marketing purposes. my purpose as an artist is to make people question their categorical thinking. I dont really care if the people who only like hard music think im a pussy when i release soft music, and i dont really care if the people who only like soft music are freaked out at something i release thats hard. i like to surprise people and push their boundaries
>How do you see the Mexican psytrance scene?
Well i dont really know what much about it on an intimate level. I was brought to play a party in DF in 1999 before i had made the oCeLoT project. It was in the garden of a large house in Coyoacan for about 500 people. Very fun. Then in November of 2005 I was brought to Tijuana to play a party near Rosarito in Baja del Norte for about 300 people. Very beautiful and lovely people. Those are my only two experiences with the Mexican scene. I hear that the party scene is really getting bigger, particularly for harder styles of music. I hear of parties in many places. Its difficult to know how much of it is Psychedelic Trance per se- whether hard or soft. But like I said, i dont really know anything about this
>What’s your discography
Umm pretty large. I've released over 50 singles and 4 albums as oCeLoT. I first started releasing music in 1995 as Aaron Peacock on a vinyl-only label in the Silicon Valley called Journees
>What’s the best party you have been as an artist and as spectator
Playing: There are many- it depends- some places its quite nice where im the object of attention and affection and its a small party and really rocking and I just feel really spoiled but I also love playing on these big festivals with lots of people and big sound-systems... I haven't played enough of these I feel so I want more more more!!!! Last Years FullMoon Festival was really satisfying for me- about 90kw sound system, a bit of romance on the festival, an interesting new place with some actual terrain (not flat) some nice decor, and some friends I hadn't seen in awhile... As an spectator: I really enjoyed the vibration among the people at the Soulclipse festival in Turkey 2006. I also played along with 200 other artists, and the organization on that side of things was not good, but the festival had this magical vibe that made me really feel alive. I had just come out of a Swiss winter to go to South Turkey as well so it was really amazing. The people were not acting snobby at all, you really could talk with anyone...
>What can we expect from Ocelot this year and what’s your plan for the future?
You can expect lots of touring and gigging. You can expect full power high energy psychedelic trance music. I must sit in one place for some time and work on my new experiment- a double album- one part trance, and one part undefined and top secret. My plan is to either keep doing this trance thing or just go crazy one day and tell trance to fuck off and do something else... I intend to find some ideal place and a peice of land and to build my Earthship house and make paradise on earth for myself
>Anything else you want to add?
Peace love and light for all beings- may we learn to get along. may we learn and grow and evolve and survive.
Posted: Tue, 22 May 2007 14:33 Post subject: (No subject)
Wow, I am truly impressed from this interview with Ocelot. Great man, I can say. I guess that most of the people on this forum have the same or similar inner soul or thinking. Anyway, I couldn’t find any tutorials on www.psymatix.com that were mentioned in the text.
Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 1750 Location: Yellowstone National Park
Posted: Sun, 06 January 2008 17:18 Post subject: (No subject)
pinero wrote:
http://www.psymatix.com/musicproduction.html
Dont kill your bassline- let it live:)
Resist the urge to fuck with your kick and bass too much. LEAVE THEM ALONE!!! Step away from your plugins! I promise you that if you follow these instructions above your kick and bass will have more power than your fellow producers who are using 6 plugins on kick and 10 plugins on bass. trust me:)
good luck!
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