Yo, welcome back everyone, to yet another episode of Particles
This time with my good friend Jonathan Emano, formerly known as Signal
Hello Jonathan
Hello Martin, what's up?
Hey man, yeah not too much
Thanks for taking the time for doing this
And, as I just mentioned in the introduction
You used to have a different name
Maybe you can tell us something about the whole name change thing
Yeah, so as you may know, I used to go by Signal
Yes
Which was a name that I chose five years ago, I think
Right
Or maybe even six years ago
You know, I was making drum and bass
I actually, Signal used to be a duo
Oh really? Is that true? I didn't know that, wow
Which almost nobody knows because it was very short lived
I kicked the other guy out
I was about to ask, what did you do with the other guy?
Very swiftly
Right
Yeah
Yeah, you know, we were just making drum and bass
I mean, I was making drum and bass
He was doing some DDJing
Right
I found out he was doing sets under Signal without giving me money, so
Really? So it came down to this? That's awesome
Horrible
Yeah
Lovely
So I was like, goodbye
Okay
Yeah, I then also, you know, I started making
Really techy drum and bass inspired by the likes
Of you and Emperor and Noisia, those guys, Hybris
Right
I was like, yeah, I need a name that's like, you know
It sounds techy, you know, technical, whatever
Right
And I'm like, yeah, let's go for Signal because I didn't care
About making a living off it or making money or whatever
Yeah
I needed a cool name and I had a cool name
I still think it is a cool name, man
It's awesome
But yeah, maybe you can tell us something about what
Made you switch and what was the decision for that?
Well, so there's a couple of reasons
The main reason being that the name is very hard to work with
If you're not very famous, like it's a very
Hard to look up word, it's a very generic word
Yeah, true
I felt like it was making it hard for me to market myself
I don't know, it felt like very
I don't know, just generic or something
Yeah
And second of all, I kind of wanted a change in my sound, in my music
And I personally thought that a good way
To do that was by just changing my name
And it was like two birds with one stone, I guess
Right, yeah, it makes sense
I mean, I get that it's a very bold move as well, I think
And I was very like, I was really hoping
You know, it's going to work out for you
And it clearly did
I mean, you just dropped a wicked EP on Vision
Maybe you can talk about this for a second there
It was a nice, very varied EP as far as I'm concerned
And the title, although the main
Track did really, really well, nonplus
Yeah, maybe you can share some light on the whole EP, just quickly
Yeah, of course
So the EP is called Ego, which means "I" in Latin
Like, not to be confused for like an ego, you know
Nice, nice
Which some people think it meant, which is not true
Yeah, the EP for me was like, I wanted to do some other
Stuff in drum and bass on there for sure, which is what I did
But funny enough, the track that is the least drum and bass
Actually the oldest track, I started like two or three years ago
Right
With Sarah Hazen
It was a draft that I made a while ago because I've
Always been wanting to make other stuff in drum and bass
And I just never found a purpose for it until I started talking to her
And, you know, she laid down those vocals
And yeah, the other tracks, I mean, yeah
Yeah, there's like three drum and bass
Tracks and three non-drum and bass tracks
I thought it was like a nice balance to make
Sure that I don't piss off my drum and bass
Nice, yeah, I get that
I found bass, I don't know, what can I say about it?
I don't know, I personally feel like it was a step up in production
Level compared to the last EP I did, which was Solitude on Invisible
Nice, yeah
And also, like, I felt like it sounded more mature
Yeah
Someway, like, not just like
Yeah, I think you showcased a broader spectrum
Of what you're able to do, which is great
Yeah
And I think it was received quite
Well and everyone is still playing it
I'm still playing it as well, it's great, great, great EP
And yeah, it's cool, man
So that was a little bit of a background on
Your person and, you know, the whole transition
And I think you were killing it with the
Transitional thing as well, with the new name
Everything is looking good, feeling good
And even before you were talking about changing
Your alias, we started a check together
And maybe this is how we find our loop back to this Particles episode
So I think it was in 2018 even, when you came over for a quick session
Yeah
And we started a little track and it's funny, I still
Have this sound here, the one we used as the main riff
Let me just quickly play it for the audience
As wellSo it's very, it's very simple, but um
I think that sound inspired us both to, to, to um
You know, base a track around that
So maybe you can um, talk us through this sound quickly
Because it was taken from your sound pool
Yeah, it was funny, um I, I was like okay
If I'm going to Martin's place
I better have some samples ready, right?
Haha, nice
So I just made some samples and uh, I remember
This was literally the first loop in the bass folder
Yup
And I dragged it in and I was like "Oh cool, that works"
And we just never even checked out the other ones, I think
The different sounds, yeah that's true
Yeah it was good man, I really, I really enjoyed it
It was, you know, it's one of those really um
Intricate loops but it really works
And um, I think in the beginning we
Were trying to work with the sample
But then sort of hit our, our, our um, limits quite quickly
Because um, I'm a big fan of keeping, trying to keep the project
As flexible as possible to the very last stage, really
So I think at some stage we were loading your serum patch
The original patch into the pro, um, project
And then we went from there
And um, I have to say, I mean
This track is, you know, it's been quite a, quite a b- to finish
To be quite honest, and we had multiple versions
And um, I just looked at the, at the file names here
And um, the original, the original file was called "Hang"
And um, I don't even know why we called it that way
I think because your bass sample was called that way
Yeah, yeah, um
For some reason
I don't know why it was called "Hang Loop"
It's just like, if I make bass sounds
I just give them some sort of name
Right
So I can recognize, like, other than just calling it like "Bass 13"
'Cause I'll never know what "Bass 13" sounds like
But I know what, what "Hang Loop" sounds like
That makes a lot of sense in a weird way
I like that, I like that
Yeah, the second session was a pain in the ass
Yeah
Like um, with the sound card failing all the time
Yup
Oh my god
Yeah, yeah it was horrible, I remember that as well
It was um, with my old studio computer still
And it was, it was just physically um, on its limits
It was, it was just annoying
And uh, for a while then I was like "Oh f
- Me, this track is so hard to finish"
Because of the physical, um, you know
Um, problems I had with the computer
But then bought a new machine and uh
The project was running smoothly after that
And then we were able to finish it quite quickly
Um, maybe there's one more thing I wanted to add towards the um
The, the title finding sort of um, inspiration
As you guys all know now, the track is called "Transit"
And um, I just really, I always really enjoyed the intro theme
That we had with the original demo
Let me just play this quickly as well
So yeah, that was uh, the intro of the original demo
And um, if you compare it with the um, actual released version
There's, you know, a little bit of a difference
But still, that musical theme in the intro was really nice
And I remember you, you laid it down um, just using a few MIDI notes
And like "Yeah this sounds good, that sounds good, dadadada"
Still bearing in mind the progression of the riff
And then we just sort of made, made
Soundscapes with that, with that um
Chord layout of yours
And um, for some reason the, the whole vibe of this intro
Gave me a sort of sci-fi, um, space
Even though it sounds corny and, and cliche
But it sort of gave me like this sort of vibe
And um, I think at the end of the day that's
Why we um, went with that track title
Yeah
Also I wanna, uh, give a shoutout to uh, Uno, our graphics designer
And also Nick, uh, from Noisia
Who is sort of um, the uh, the, the mastermind
Between, behind, behind the artworks
And he's sort of coordinating the creative process
And um, it's, it's not always easy
You know, there's um, there's Dutch people
Austrian people, Russian people involved
Sometimes there's like a lost in translation somehow
But at the end of the day, um, yeah, Uno and Nick always
And us obviously, we always find a, find a nice compromise
And uh, yeah, big up you guys for um
For killing it on the artworks every time
Big up to Nick, big up to Uno
Yeah, 100
Gang from day one
Yeah, absolutely
Uh, Jonathan, again, thanks for taking the time
Really appreciate it
And um, good luck with your future endeavors
And um, I'm gonna see you around I
Guess, uh, pretty soon at some shows
I reckon, right?
Yeah, shows, festivals, etcetera, yeah
Exactly that
Okay, nice one John, uh, yeah, talk to you soon
And you guys, thanks for tuning in to this episode of Particles
It was Matthews and Emano, "Transit" on Vision, out now
Big up!