Deceptikon Presidio

This record took me about 3 years to complete, and I feel like in many ways it’s a return to my roots of introspective, mellow, instrumental electronic music, a “home listening” record instead of a club or dance record. I’ve always tried to not pay attention to trends in electronic music and just make what I like, and this record is the result of going strongly in that direction – I’m making music for myself, and am inspired way more by older music than current trends in electronic music or the latest production techniques. My aim is to make music that stands the test of time.

‘Presidio‘ is very organic – I used a lot of real instruments throughout: rhodes, guitar, bass, melodica, and more. Not many overdubs were used: I was after a loose, human, unquantized feel in much of it. However, I still use a lot of synthesizers and drum machines – I love the contrast between perfectly timed electronic sequences and loose, human, even “sloppy” timing.

About 2 years ago I moved to a remote, forested part of San Francisco – the Presidio, and the isolation of living in the forest next to the Pacific Ocean strongly influenced my approach to recording. My home studio is near the ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge, and is surrounded by miles of trails and foggy eucalyptus groves. At night I hear foghorns, owls, and coyotes. I think living in a place like this has made me more introspective, more creative, and more willing to take my music in directions that are very personal.

Fog is a regular fixture in San Francisco, but it’s especially omnipresent the closer you get to the ocean. Fog and reverb are closely related in my mind – I like creating dense washes of sound in my music, where all of the elements bleed together into a beautiful gaussian blur of sound.