Hey, I’m Aldo and I mainly make live performances on Youtube with my guitar and some machines.
I’ve been playing music since I was a teenager but I only started my current live looping project 3 years ago. I currently live in the south of France but I grew up near Paris and lived a couple years in London too.
Q: What are your influences in music?
My influences are quite diverse I think, I’m mostly interested by the actual sounds rather than the compositions or the genre. I like people pushing sonic boundaries. Artists like Oneohtrix Point Never, Bon Iver or quickly, quickly are always giving me new ideas to experiment with. Lately I also felt in love with Dijon’s first album, I really like its rawness.
Q: What is your favourite part in the music creating process?
I like the whole process, from composition to mixing, but performing is definitely the step I enjoy the most, whether it’s with the guitar or with the machines. It’s the part where I connect the most with the music.
Q: Many audiences may find you from your “Random Jam” live looping videos series on Youtube, is there any story behind starting your Youtube channel?
The Random Jam series was actually the second series to appear on the channel, prior to that I made the Musique Automatique videos which focused on weird generative ambient music. There is a story behind this one, albeit a pretty boring one! One night I couldn’t sleep because of the storm. Around 1am I just took my newly acquired sampler (the Elektron Digitakt) and spent the whole night on the couch working on what would become my very first video. I was pretty happy with it and from there I decided to release a new video every week just to get more consistent at making finished tracks.
Q: When It comes to building a liveset, how are you going to plan your performance? In terms of the physical setup and the tech part.
I don’t really make proper livesets, only short performances, usually about 4-5 minutes. Therefore my setup is usually pretty small. Most of the sequencing happens on the Digitakt which I know like the back of my hand. The guitar and the bass are often leading the composition since that’s where I’m the most comfortable. On top of that I usually have some other machines (samplers, synth or effect units) to add textures and give the jam more flavour.
Q: What’s your philosophy in planning a live performance?
I guess the main idea is to create most things live and to rely as little as possible on pre-recorded material. I personally don’t get much from launching a sequence and tweaking the filter knob. I don’t have anything against this workflow, I just have a lot more fun playing all the parts myself, even though it’s often super challenging for me.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you would give to a music producer/beginner who is new to liveset building?
Read the manual! I mean, not like front to back, but have them available somewhere and have a look whenever there’s something you don’t quite understand. At least that works for me. A lot of features are not obviously displayed on the machine itself and can make your workflow a lot easier once you know about them.
Q: Do you have a favourite place where you like to perform? Any upcoming gigs in 2022?
My living room, lol. I never played a proper live show with my current project, that was a goal of mine before the pandemic hit but I haven’t really worked in that direction since then. Maybe next year yeah.
Q: If you could collaborate with any musician, who would you pick?
Probably Daniel Lopatin from Oneohtrix Point Never!
Q: What have you been working on and what’s your next move?
I’ve been doing a few commission works these past few months, mostly for animation projects, it’s pretty fun. For the next move I’m not 100% sure yet but I love singing and that’s something I want to do a lot more in my upcoming performances. We’ll see how that goes!
Q: What’s your music career goal? How do you see yourself 5 years from now?
I don’t have crazy ambitions, I just want to be able to make as much music as I want and be able to pay my rent. Hopefully in 5 years I’ll be a tiny bit less broke than I am today!
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Choose love everyone! Also thanks for having me.
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