Welcome to Issue 5!
One of the best things about having a music project such as Signal Source Unknown is discovering other interesting music artists along the way. Previous issues featured Glass Pavilion who explained why he has learned to make guitar music without guitars, up and coming singer-songwriter Martin Mullady and ambient composer Westheart. This issue has an interview with Anouâr G. an ambient post-rock artist currently resident in China.
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Can you tell the readers a bit about yourself and your music?
I've always felt like a bit of an oddball in my little hometown, with a name very different from those of my classmates (in case you're wondering, it's Tunisian Arabic – as am I, from my mom’s side – and pronounced un-WAH). I was born in Germany some 34 years ago (which I don't remember, obviously, but that's what they keep telling me). When I was fourteen, my parents and I resettled to China, which is where I have been living ever since. I have been making music since childhood, learning piano from a young age and picking up guitar later along the way. It soon became clear that, though I was resisting most of my teachers’ efforts to train me classically, I enjoyed composing and improvising a lot. After making music in different forms for many years, including playing in bands in Shanghai as a college student and recording an instrumental soundtrack for my sister’s fantasy novel, “Anouâr G.” emerged as a simplistic name under which to release my music. Instead of building a huge brand with a dashing identity and a brilliant marketing strategy behind it, I decided to try and stick to the bare essentials and something I could live up to.
What are your ambitions for your music?
First of all, I should note that I have no fixed plan for what I want to do with my music. I make music partially because I can’t help it. And so, instead of something like “get featured in Rolling Stone” or “get one million followers”, I should say that my ambition is just this—to keep making music. Although I have a lot of respect for artists who give up their full-time jobs to dedicate all their time to their craft, I have made a point of never turning my music into something I need to rely on financially. At the same time, I am trying to stay in a position where I have enough time to spend on practising instruments and recording new projects. In order to “make it” in any endeavour, you need to have a clear definition of what “making it” actually means to you. In my case, I guess, beyond what I just said, I would envision my music to reach more people who have a positive experience listening to it.
What is the biggest challenge of being an artist?
I can really only speak for myself, since I don’t know for sure what other artists are struggling with. For me, I think the biggest challenge is being patient and trusting the process. This is true especially for times when my music seems to sound generic and meaningless. It takes leaving things for a while, getting away from recording, coming back with fresh ears and a fresh mind, revisiting and sometimes changing everything in order to get music that feels “real” to me. Giving up on ideas, erasing a whole day’s work because it still sounds wrong or unfinished—those can be hard. In the end, though, I find that even when I start from scratch, every erased recording and each revisited note was an important part of the process necessary for arriving at the final product.
Tell us a bit about your recording process and the sounds/instruments you use in your recording.
My creative process starts somewhere between the head and heart. I usually go about "sketching" my ideas with the aid of a guitar or piano. Oftentimes, I let ideas sit for a couple of days or weeks and revisit them later with a fresh set of ears. I use a Korg SP-250 to record synth or piano parts through plugins such as Steinberg’s The Grand or other VSTs. For the guitar, I try to focus on capturing the sound with as much fidelity as possible using minimalist technology. I mostly play a Mexican Fender Telecaster plugged into my pedalboard, and from there into my old 30W ARIA Amp I've had for over 15 years. The pedals I use most frequently are an RV-6 reverb, a Carbon Copy Analog Delay, CE-5 Chorus and OS-2 Overdrive Distortion. I also use an RC-3 Loop pedal for trying out and remembering ideas. Most of these pedals were gifts I received from friends and family over the past years, so my pedalboard is really a bit of a time-travelling device for me. My recording setup is also simple, I have two mics on my amp: an old MXL condenser mic (that's also been around since my teens) and a Sure S57. They run into a Roland Quad-capture interface. As for recording software - I don’t think it really matters what DAW you use, as long as you stick with one long enough to know your way around - I use Cubase.
Your latest release is the EP In the Abandoned City. Can you tell us how these tracks came together and how you recorded it?
Most of the tracks were recorded in winter 2021/22 and inspired by things as banal as thoughts about sunlight and memories of past periods in my life. The album’s title track had existed in different variations throughout the years, but somehow, I had never been quite satisfied with it. The recording methods I used for all the tracks are pretty much in line with what I just described. I also made use of some samples I had recorded on my phone a few years earlier while I was a primary school teacher and another that was available under the creative commons licence.
Is there a story behind the tracks on the EP?
If there wasn’t a story behind them, the tracks most certainly would not exist. Which piece of music would, really? The underlying themes can be interpreted quite easily from melodies and titles. However, I think there is a little bit of magic in not knowing exactly how a track came into being when you’re listening to it. It leaves open some space for the imagination and, possibly, for finding out how the track fits into your own life story. And hence, I’d rather not go into more detail.
How would you describe your style of music?
That’s a really tough question. I commonly refer to my music as ambient post-rock on streaming platforms and social media, but to be honest, I am not sure if that’s a good description. I can picture a lot of post-rock and ambient fans getting heavily disappointed when they click on any of my tracks for the first time. If I am completely honest with myself, I would probably have to say that the style is a mixture of classical leftovers, every post-rock / neo-classical / ambient or other track I’ve listened to in my life, as well as all the pop music that has somehow made an impact on (or impaired) my cognitive aesthetic abilities.
Which artists inspire you?
Cryptically, most of the artists that come to mind at this question are not musicians, but writers. The more I think about it, the less strange that seems, though. I think my music aims to mirror my perception of reality, and that just happens to be influenced most heavily by books. At the same time (being a huge TV crack) I have to give special credit to all movie and TV score writers. In a sense, I think my music serves as a kind of TV score for life as well. As I mentioned earlier, all the awesome musicians whose music I’ve listened to have also inspired me. To narrow down the scope for the sake of this interview, here are a few artists off the top of my head that have had a major influence on my instrumental music: Mono. Balmorhea. Kashiwa Daisuke. Matsu Takako. The Chieftains. The Piano Guys. Enya. Vangelis. Dire Straits. Van Halen. Jimi Hendrix. Leonard Cohen. Faye Wong. Beyond. Xu Wei. The Beatles.
Mono
What is the most surprising fact you’ve learnt about yourself?
I was surprised to find that, with the proper amount of persistence and enthusiasm, it is possible to make things possible that used to seem impossible.
How do you structure your week?
As a language teacher, currently employed full-time at a local university, my week is structured around my work. I try to make time to practice every day and record mostly on weekends or during the holidays.
If you could record your music in any studio with any producer, where would it be and who with?
It would be at Abbey Road. Simply because I don’t really know any other famous recording studios around the world. For some reason, I also can’t think of any famous producers right now. Daniel Radcliffe. Whatever.
Is there another artist you’d like to give a mention to for our readers to check out?
I would definitely suggest you give a listen to Seasonal, a one-man post-rock project from Poland. “Orchard of Rotten Apples” on “Loneliness Manual” is one of my favourite instrumental tracks of all time.
What’s next for Anouâr G.?
My next project is under way and will probably be available in August. I am going for a soft, natural vibe with this one, although the final tracks might vary.