“My goal is that every song has a core melody/progression that still sounds interesting played just on the piano. That’s why I write a lot on an acoustic piano.”
The super saw drops that you have in many of your tracks are extremely powerful. They really seem to take the track to a whole new level. How do you go about layering and mixing the sounds for these supersaw drops so they make the biggest impact possible?
They are layered with lots of other stuff, pads built with vocals or other instruments from the track (to give it an organic touch) run through a massive reverb. But it’s always a balancing act, because you can easily overdo it so it will clutter everything or sound too harsh, I often spend much time EQing them and removing layers again.
There are a lot of rhythm/ drum pattern changes in your songs that seem to change just at the right time to give the listener interest and excitement for what is to come. How do you decide what rhythms work and when to change these rhythms so the listener is not confused by the change?
It’s a bit the same procedure like the synth sounds. I often go totally overboard and think that it is absolutely brilliant. Then I save the track, go to sleep and listen again in the morning and it’s just a total mess, so I delete most of the stuff but some interesting fills and changes actually work well and stay in the track.
When arranging you song it can be difficult to keep listeners interested from start to finish. What are some ways you can keep the listener engaged in the arrangement and have it flow smoothly throughout the entire track?
I think listening to the track with other people really helps, you’ll listen totally different when there are other people present and you can see when they lose their interest.
“I think listening to the track with other people really helps, you’ll listen totally different when there are other people present and you can see when they lose their interest.”
The drums sound huge in your tracks. How do you go about choosing the sounds and mixing them?
I often work with a temporary drum track, which I put quickly together just to get the feeling while composing. When the track takes form, I exchange the drum samples so they fit the track and also the key of the track. Sending all the elements of the drum into a bus and compressing and saturating it a bit glues the drums together.
What are your go-to effects and processing chains?
I like the FabFilter stuff. They have really clean interfaces and sound great. I’m not a big fan of photorealistic GUIs where you have to turn a virtual knob with the mouse. The Native Instruments stuff is fantastic as well. I bought the Komplete package a really long ago and always keep it up to date. The instruments and samples you get with it are incredible.
What’s next for Faux Tales? An EP, another album?
I just released a brand new song called „Beacon“ and I’m working on a live-show with awesome visuals, really excited for that. I also feel like working on a longer EP or even an album again.