A music producer, and YouTuber in San Francisco, YourOpponent creates luscious house grooves instructional videos. His presence on Twitch embraces colorful patch cables in rainbows over modules blinking signals home.
YourOpponent's Twitch streams are often on Mondays and Thursdays and are highly recommended. Also, if you are in San Francisco this April 15th be sure to come see him at Mission Synths for Piqued 43.
YourOpponent first performed at Piqued during the 26th show, October 20, 2021. He, Korey, and TanukiSpiderCat discussed, getting started, music inspirations, and preparing for the live show.
In the following transcript Korey asked YourOpponent how he got into playing music and what brought him to synthesizers?
Oh man, that's a long one. I got into music actually probably initially because my grandmother played the organ, and so I used to have to go do organ lessons instead of playing with my friends, which I was bummed about, but hindsight now, thank you grandma.
Yeah, and so how I got into synthesizers was probably like in the early 90s. I was just trying to figure, honestly, I was trying to figure out how Aphex Twin was trying to make music, because it didn't look like the stuff that I had. And so, I saved up a whole bunch of money, and I got an MC505. I still have that MC505, but that's kind of kicked it off. And then I got a keyboard and then I got some other things too.
Yeah, I used to use trackers back in the day. It's crazy to see them have like a renaissance now, but like I don't know if you could get me to use a tracker again.
Who are your musical inspirations?
Kurt Cobain, Aphex Twin - Richard D. James, uh, who else? Uh, Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie. He's like an excellent writer and lyricist.
Tell us about your setup tonight, what were you using?
Yeah, it's kind of a bunch of stuff. But, the trifecta of Moogs, which is the Subharmonicon DFAM and Mother 32. Then, the Deluge is the brain of everything and clocks everything, and then clocks are going out to clock dividers. There's MIDI out to the Poly2.
But, I actually just really love my Subharmonicon and Subharmonicon through Beads while also having it. I also have a Hex Mixer with a Hex Expander, which is not really on camera.
Usually, and what I was approaching for this, was just to kind of try to figure out how I could do 30 minutes. Because, usually when I'm streaming on Twitch, it's usually like two hours or so. So, I just kind of space it out. So, with this show being a little shorter, I had to set timers on my watches and stuff. So, like a crescendo into some music, some beats, and then just a nice fade out. Just kind of a little stuff.
I almost did like a techno set, but I haven't been doing a lot of techno lately. So, it might have been like false advertising. So, I decided to do something kind of mellow.
What inspires your creativity?
Um, what inspires my creativity? I just really enjoy sound. And, as of lately, especially with the pandemic, I've been going out to like Baker Beach a lot. And, uh, I play disc golf, so I also play disc golf in Golden Gate Park. And just, I like making a mix for myself where I can just listen to it and then be out in nature and just kind of feel inspired and all. You know, that's kind of my inspiration right now.
The conversation shifts to samples and on using samples containing quotes. Korey asks, have you ever tried creating your own?
Yeah. My favorite thing, and I still do it now, is text-to-speech, right? Like, those things are great, and the text-to-speech engines have gotten better and better. And sometimes, you don't want better and better, you want it to sound kind of crappy. So, text-to-speech is killer. And I think, uh, there's a plug-in for, like, you know, VST that, uh, you can do text-to-speech wave tables, which is really sweet. Wow, crazy. And it's free. It's called Vital. It's a free plugin that's great.
Watch the full performance and interview with YourOpponent and TanukiSpiderCat.
We hope everyone is excited to see YourOpponent at Piqued 43. You can let us know if you plan to attend on the Piqued Facebook page or grab free tickets on Eventbrite.
