Music Editor Barry Fenton sits down with ubiquitous local DJ in Stoneybatter.
What do Addison Rae, Mark Fisher and Tanzanian music all have in common? When I tell you it is an influence over DJ/Producer Rory Sweeney you may be as surprised as I was.
You’ve mentioned Mark Fisher’s hauntology as an influence on ‘Old Earth’?
I think the thing with Mark Fisher and hauntology is this idea of “lost futures”. It’s something I took really to heart which I think happens a lot with music. People are still trying to rehash this ecstasy of nostalgia and pretty much everyone does it. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone that isn’t into some pretty intense nostalgia. With this apocalyptic thought process it’s kind of cathartic to try to imagine - in the musical sense - what a new future would look like. That Bjork album (Utopia, 2017) is actually really cool for that where the lyrics and music try to create a new future. It made a really big impression on me.
Do you think the music today is sort of just a mishmash of what has come before or is there still “new music” being created? Let’s say I was a grumpy old cynic saying there’s no new music coming out anymore. Where would you suggest new music is being created?
There are certainly new things, they’re just not as mainstream compared to how new music used to be received. A lot of the Baile funk from Brazil and Singeli music from Tanzania is really really fast, I've never heard anything like it and it would make sense if things go in that direction. But I think it’s interesting that there’s a lot of TikTok music being made that isn’t really being critically appreciated. Like Milan Core, where they’re sort of like jerk tunes but rammed full of synths. That stuff is really interesting and it feels really new.
Why do you think people aren’t taking that music very seriously?
I think there is some positive critical writing about artists like Playboi Carti or Ken Carson - this really blown-out trap music. As low effort as it is - I think it’s still really good. It basically has nothing to do with the rappers and more the producers. It’s these trap beats with crazy instrumentals and bright synths. It feels very exciting and suitably over-stimulating for the information age we live in now.
What sound do you think will define this current era of music?
There’s certainly a lot going on. I think the last eras in music that were actually era defining were dubstep and grime which came in around 2004. That was obviously a long time ago, but they were so futuristic that they carried on their influence for ages. Wiley’s Devil Mix still sounds so new and fresh today. But the realms of possibility for music - even for really out-there music - still probably could have come out in the 90’s. They’re still in the same realm as Aphex Twin and Venetian Snares, but there may be space beyond that.
Was it a conscious effort to transmit these ideas into the album?
I had helped my brother on a film about Ireland during the Celtic Tiger on how things had really shifted toward secularism and globalism. I think those ideas were definitely playing in the back of my head in the production of ‘Old Earth’. I was trying to capture somewhere between that apocalyptic, empty “lost future” and a mystical other-worldly thing. So on the track with Emby (Ether), you’ve got a really deconstructed but pressurised instrumental with these technical synths and sub-bass, but the outro comes in with these lush and dreamy synth pads all about the experience of dreams and being under water. That contrast was a very conscious thing.
Well it definitely works as a record. You kind of just get thrust into this experience and you have absolutely no idea where you’re going. Does uncertainty play a large role in your writing style?
I’m usually just trying to land in a place where I’m making decisions and I don’t know why - where there isn’t a reference point. References are great, but often it's just a matter of saying “I absolutely have to do this thing and I don’t know why” - that is the test.
Every tune on Old Earth was a song that I wrote and made most of the decisions on without even realising it. Happy accidents basically.
Is that methodology something you’re going to carry forward?
I think just firing stuff out is really good for me. Just speedwriting loads of ideas really quickly. I’m in a weird space right now though because I have an idea how I want the next record to sound like and I’m kind of achieving that at the minute. Something about the certainty is making it difficult. Old Earth was pretty chaotic so I’d like to do something more cohesive.