I have always written and recorded songs for myself. That’s how I learned synthesizer programming and some basic audio engineering, since I didn’t have the money to hire anyone. Most songs I made for myself and not for a specific outside project. But sometimes I played those ideas to somebody and they wanted to release them for their own album, or they liked what I did and hired me to do something similar on their own songs. That kept me quite busy and I made a living from it in New York City but didn’t have much time for my own music. But this year I can finally afford to focus on Null + Void and go play the album live.

I think having a well-rounded musical vocabulary is a great asset if you want to make electronic music. You have a deeper understanding of a melody from being a cellist and playing with people in that capacity. Then as a bassist, you learn about chords and inversions and rhythm. When not to play and how to leave enough space. I think that shaped me the most. To learn how long one needs to hold notes and when to shorten them, and also, when not to play at all. The synthesizer then, of course, brings in the sound design aspect and sonic landscapes and how they affect the music and the mood/message of the song. It all hopefully ends up shaping a pretty well-rounded musician.

I am very much into current electronic music production technology. I try to keep it interesting from a sound design standpoint but much more importantly, from a compositional angle. The hardware I have in the studio helps me capture ideas easily. I react mostly to chord changes, melodies and song structure. I know, it sounds quite traditional and maybe a bit old-fashioned but it’s just what speaks to me the most and is therefore what I wish to create. I made those songs for my own pleasure but I do hope they connect with other people.

I think it might be because I separate the creative process into two parts. First, the writing part, where the actual sounds created or chosen on the instruments are not that important. I focus on the actual composition – chords, bass, melody and drums. Then, in the next phase, I worry about actual sound design and refine drum fills and add more parts. I think that enables you to not be tied to the choice of instruments you have available but you are able to hopefully create a solid composition before focusing on minor details.

I prefer to collaborate with singers. The names mentioned above were all people I have admired for a long time and with whom I had the pleasure to work with on their own projects. The voices of the singers on the album were very familiar to me so I already had song ideas ready that would fit them well. As far as what they have contributed, it was always the lyrics and the vocal melody but there were also some melodic synth lines and even some sonic suggestions. We worked on song ideas that I prepared beforehand as it’s hard for me to come up with good, original things on the spot. That’s the tough part with collaborating or co-writing. You might resort to the easy ‘tried and true’ chord changes or beats and not take risks because time is limited and you don’t want to look like a fool. So I have pretty detailed musical ideas ready to present to the singers and they take it to another level from there.

I mainly plan on playing live as much as I can. Dave is on tour with Depeche Mode for another six months, and after that, I am sure he will want to rest for a bit. So this year I will be focusing on Null + Void but I am sure Dave and I will work together again in the future.

I love playing live, the challenge of bringing my songs onto the stage and working to keep them interesting. I bring out gear that enables me to keep things improvised. I try to leave the performances loose and a bit risky without losing the essence of the song. If it sounds slightly different to the album that’s fine for me as I love going to see acts that take risks and create something new rather than just perform the album note by note or actually just play backing tracks. I pack as many synths and controllers as I can – without going over the airline’s luggage restrictions!

Yes, my favourite band is called Sound Of Ceres. They’ve created very beautiful atmospheres on their new album and have a great live show. Really alien-like and unusual.