For our debut showcase we bring to you the man behind the label Dot Dot Records and a resident at Vancouver’s internationally recognized after hours club Gorgomish, who recently went on tour in New Zealand to show them how we do! We take an inside look on the early stages of Joel Armstrong’s career, how he came about to getting where he is now, and fresh updates on his current projects.
If you haven’t heard of Joel, it’s because he is one of the most under rated producers here in Vancouver. If you are farmiliar, then you can already distringuish his pure, organic sound. Many industry heavyweights have noted Joel for his mad scientist-like knowledge of software synths, being able to pinpoint the sound that he imagines in his head.
To make this a bit more personal, Joel was actually one of the first to lend me his wisdom when I had told him I’d taken up producing. Probably sensing the same eagerness to work harder than the next guy, he sat me down in his studio and gave me an idiot’s guide to making things go boom! It is an honour now to return the favour and uncover to the local scene one of the surest underground movements.
Below is the entire interview, followed by some links for you to stay tuned on his music, gigs and projects. Weeeeeeee!
:So Joel, not very long ago you were on a tour in New Zealand.That must have been exciting!Can you tell us something you learned from your experience?
: Touring is not all it’s cracked up to be!Well, I shouldn’t say that...seeing as it was my first tour, there were a lot of things i didn’t expect; I didn’t know what to expect.You try to walk in with no expectations but hoping it will be amazing, but you might have a show that wasn’t awesome.Then the next show totally blows you away.
:How did you get the gig?Who was the promoter that hooked you up?
:My main contact down there is a guy named Tim Richards.He’s kind of a local hero who’s been DJ’ing since he was 15, and he’s younger than I am!He has his own label and runs a club night called “Signature Sounds” with a radio show under the same branding on George FM.I met him online, we’ve been friends for about 2-3 years now, I did a remix for him on Kinky Vynil and he is regularly played by people like Dubfire.
: You say he’s a bit younger, so how old does that make you?
: Twenty nine years old :P
: These days thirty is the new twenty!So it’s actually quite interesting where you were born and raised.Can you tell us a bit about it?
:I was born in Winnipeg, but when I was 6 months old my family moved to Indonesia and we lived in the jungle for almost 15 years.My parents were doing missionary social work and there was a time limit for expatriates to stay in Indonesia so we had to move away.
: And why Vancouver, not back to Winnipeg?
: I did go back to Winnipeg :P, well close to it.I did high school there and bounced around in places like Alberta, Vancouver, Malaysia, and Singapore.
: Were you always musically inclined?What kind of music did you listen to before electronica?
: I liked electronica fairly early on, because I came from a conservative Christian background.There was always tension between my parents and I about “lyrical content” in music, so my form of rebellion was listening to music without any words!
: Haha awesome!When did you start DJ’ing?
: In about 2005’ish.My first show playing at an actual club was Hush in Victoria.In Vancouver the first club I played at was called Cyber back in the day, I think it’s called Mint now.It was on a Thursday, so dead.
: At which point did you decide to progress from DJ’ing to producing?
: It was the complete opposite, I started producing first.That’s how I got my first shows because people already knew my music.In 2001 was when I began messing around with Fruity Loops, then got really serious about it in 2005.I had 3 official releases that year: one was on Proton Music, a track called “Serenity” that hit top 10 on Beatport under “Chillout/Breaks.”The other two were released on Vinyl under Babylon Reconds in France.
: Tell us about your label, Dot Dot Records.What made you decide to start such an ambitious project?
: Originally I started because I wanted it to just be music that I could release.I had a certain Idea of music I wanted to play out and music I listened to.Trying to marry those two together, not always successful.I wanted to have an outlet for music that might not fit with other labels that just want a club banger.Down the road I got a bit tired of running the label because of issues with management and distributors, so there was a bit of down time. Now I am totally rebranding the label completely, and it’s growing :).
: What kind of software do you use to produce?
: Cubase and Logic.
: So this begs the question, which do you prefer?
: Well the automation and midi control are much better with Logic because it’s more intuitive, but with Cubase the in-sequencer audio editing is much better.You can actually zoom into the audio file and edit it really quickly, making it easier to micro manage.
: Can you name some of your favourite VST’s?
Joel: The built in sampler in Logic is great.It’s fast and allows you to build your own libraries very quickly.My go to synth would be a little known VST (little known to me too :P) called Serge.Trillian is great for a bass synth.
: Working on a PC, I’ve tried to counter Logic’s sampler with Native Instruments: Kontakt.
: Kontakt is really good because you can set the sample start points and edit them quickly, whereas with Logic’s sampler you have to literally open the file and set the start point.
: If you could choose a motto that you live by in terms of music or life in general, what would it be?
: Just be honest.There isn’t much more to it.
: It is evident that what you see is what you get with Joel Armstrong, and it’s what sets you apart from the flakes in this industry.So what kind of projects are you working on at the moment?
: I just finished two remixes for a Label called Perceptive, a sub label of Nordic Records. Nordic records usually releases sort of pop music in full albums, and Perceptive releases electronic remixes of those tracks.They also run “Oslo Nights” on Di.FM and because of the remixes I’ve done for them (which will come out in the next 3 or so months) they have asked me to host that show every month with a new mix to promote their label.
: Thank you very much Joel, for sharing your experiences and wisdom.Lastly, would you be able to show us what your studio looks like?
