Jason Dungan – Blue Lake

1. Favourite knob or fader or switch on a piece of gear and why?

In the spring, I sold almost all of my pedals (channel switch, looper, EQ, some other things) so that I could first buy a 12-string guitar, but also because I decided to lean in to having a very minimal, nearly no-pedal setup. I used to use a compressor and an EQ on my guitar, but now I plug it straight into the amp. I remember seeing Fugazi play many years ago, and got my mind blown by seeing they played their guitars straight into the amp. This has a hands-on, active element to shaping sound that I find compelling.

Freeze pedal by Electro-Harmonix

However, I still use one pedal: a Freeze pedal by Electro-Harmonix. I send my zither through this pedal, and use it to occasionally freeze chords on the zither, turning them into drones. Because there are several strings being struck, the captured tone is quite dense harmonically, so the pedal “struggles” a bit, creating a beautiful-sounding but slightly varied, unstable drone. I use this playing live, and particularly when I’m playing solo, it’s an important extra sound in parts of the set. So my favorite knob is simply the fader knob on that pedal, which I keep up next to the zither, since I need to manually fade in and out while continuing to play. The fader is very sensitive so it allows me to do this in a very fluid way.

2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?

Since my zither is self-built, working on finding an amplification solution took a lot of trial and error, mixing different piezo and mic setups. Some were very prone to feedback, and others created a very boomy sound. I finally found a great double-piezo and pre-amp setup made by the Oregon-based company K&K Sound. They produce a piezo mic for banjo, which has twin piezo heads wired in to one plug. So this allows me to cover more surface area of the instrument, thereby picking up a wider variety of sound.
If I could improve it, it would be to include a little instrument mic, perhaps inside the instrument.

K&K Sound piezo pickup on zither

3. What setup do you bring on holiday or tour or commute etc.?

On tour, I’m usually bringing two main instruments (guitar and zither), which is already pushing it, gear-wise, so I try to bring as little extra as possible. I usually bring the Freeze pedal, and then a small wind, either the clarinet if I have space, or an alto recorder. Often if I’m spending some days on holiday and I want to work on music, I’ll bring my Roland 606 drum machine – it allows me to work on ideas, even make demo recordings that have a little more “band” feel.

Roland 606 drum machine

4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?

I loved recording on four-track tape machine when I was younger, for its hands-on feel and ability to create a sense of magic in the process, and also because it had a lot of limitations which could be creatively stimulating. If I could get my wish, it would be to somehow combine the workflow of Protools with the hands-on, low-fi feeling of a Tascam tape machine.

5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?

In the last 10 years, I think I bought 2 (or possibly 3) looper pedals, only to realize that I didn’t want to use them, and sold them again. I’ve now fully leaned in to playing direct and using no loopers.

6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?

Seagull acoustic guitar

This is possibly a slightly square answer, but it’s my guitar. As a teen, I saved up money mowing lawns and bought a Seagull acoustic guitar, I’ve probably had it since I was 13. I’m still playing it as my main instrument, and it has carried me through so many eras of interest in music. To still be working professionally on an instrument that I played as a kid does something semi-profound in my head, and I think it’s also just this feeling that the instrument represents what I love about music, that the instrument is this thing you have to meet with your body and mind and see what you can pull out of it. When I was 13 I sat and tried to play Jimi Hendrix songs on it, and now I use it to make my records, so that continuity is quite fascinating to me. It’s still my go-to instrument for working, thinking about new ideas, and to just play and see what comes out.

7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?

I went years without having a decent amp, just borrowing them from people to play and record. I now have a Fender Blues Junior, a relatively small but great-sounding amp that I really love. I would go back in time and get one of those as soon as possible.

Fender Blues Junior

8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?

This would have to be the zither. I made several versions myself over the past 5 or so years, and then in 2023, I had Jens Erik Larsen build a 36-string zither, based on an improved design of the previous versions. It’s got bridges on the soundboard, so that I can play with each hand on a separate section of the strings, giving a whole range of sounds and possibilities. It wasn’t insanely expensive, but it definitely cost something, and it took a few months to make. It’s really intrinsic to this extra dimension of the music, which is in dialogue with the guitar, but because this instrument is played in a very different way, it really creates a different sound world. Why is it annoying? It’s got a solid travel case, which is good for the instrument, but I tend to travel with both the guitar and the zither, which can really be murder sometimes.

Jens Erik Larsen built 36-string zither

9. Most surprising tip or trick or technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?

This is quite basic, but I never really used a capo on the guitar, until recently. It was suggested to me by Carolyn Goodwin, who is the bass clarinettist in Blue Lake, but is also a very good guitar player. I often play in my own tunings, and these tunings create relations between the strings that I quite like. Using the capo more recently has allowed me to maintain some of these interval relations between the strings, but work in different keys, bringing more variation to the tonal material in the music, and I’ve found this quite exciting.

Guitar capo

Artist or Band name?

Blue Lake

Genre?

The first albums were made by me in my home studio, playing acoustic guitar, clarinet, various bits of percussion, keys, and a series of self-built string instruments that are related to the zither, but have some unique elements. I would connect the music to various strains of American music (country, folk, guitar soli) and is also reflective of my 10 years in Scandinavia, listening to local experimental music, jazz, and contemporary classical music in Denmark and Sweden. In the past few years, Blue Lake has expanded into a band, featuring Carolyn Goodwin on clarinets, Pauline Hogstrand on viola, Tomo Jacobson on double bass, and Oliver Laumann on drums.

Selfie?

Jason Dungan aka. Blue Lake

Where are you from?

I grew up in Dallas, TX, and have lived in Copenhagen since 2015.

How did you get into music?

I grew up in a very musical household, in the sense that my parents were very into live music, and really loved things like Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Joni Mitchell, Talking Heads. My father had a big record collection and was always making mix tapes for long car drives. The experience of listening to these tapes while the Texas landscape unspooled out the window was definitely a formative experience for me. I started playing guitar and cello from around 12-13, and then when I was 15 I moved to Switzerland, to a school with no music program. At that point, I started to write and record my own music on cassette, getting deep into the guitar and thinking about the recording process itself. I didn’t think so much about releasing this music, but I fell in love with the recording process itself at an early point.

I returned to the US for college, living in Vermont, where I was very active at the college radio station and played in a few rock bands, making my own songs that I would probably describe as noisy country-rock. At that point, I felt both deeply obsessed with music, but also felt like doing it professionally was somehow impossible – I think I imagined that I would do other things in life, and would somehow play in a band on the side.

I then moved to London, studying art, and I began to work as a visual artist and teacher, focusing on making films. I then was part of starting a band called Squares and Triangles, with 4 other London artists. This became a very active project, where we recorded regularly and played when we could. This was a lot about improv, group dynamics, and experimentation. I learned a huge amount about music and recording through this project.

And then, in 2015, I moved to Copenhagen and got immersed in the scene here, and decided to fully commit to making music, and started to put out records as Blue Lake. The early records were made at my home studio and at Christianshavns Beboerhus, as well as a summer house in Sweden. I was using guitar, cello, zither, and also building percussion instruments, finding objects to use in the music. The music kept evolving, and now I’ve been releasing the last 2 x LPs with Tonal Union, a British label.

What still drives you to make music?

I think it’s a way of thinking and working that at this point comes very naturally and on some level, feels necessary or unavoidable to me. The first couple of Blue Lake LPs were made as kind of mini-pressings of something like 80 copies. I didn’t really have an expectation that the records could travel beyond Copenhagen, but I felt that I needed to collect and document the music. For me, each record represents a way to gather together what I’m working on at the moment, and also to push forward and build from the last record. In that way, there’s always more to learn and more to discover, so it feels like a landscape that has endless possibilities, which I find very compelling. I still get a huge amount of excitement from working on new music, from recording, from playing live.

How do you most often start a new track?

In the beginning, I would often do some improvising while recording, and then go back to things that were interesting and revise them.
Increasingly, I am using more of a writing process, where I start to write elements on the guitar or the zither, and just get used to playing them and working out a structure before I do any recording. If it is something that keeps my interest over a period of time, I will then start recording it to get a sense of the wider arrangement, and to see if other elements or instruments can come into the mix.

How do you know when a track is finished?

Sometimes it takes a while… I recorded the most recent Blue Lake LP in the Village studio, in Vanløse, Copenhagen. This meant that I had to book studio dates, and you have to be extremely conscious of time and money. There were gaps of a few weeks between each session so I was able to evaluate the state of each track and work out what else I wanted to add, or if I wanted to re-record certain parts. I’m always asking a question of a track, which is: is there anything else it can do? Does it have more potential? I like to use the recording process to fully explore the possibilities of a track, while at the same time, I want to keep the immediacy and spontaneity of the performance. So I work at not overdoing things or over-layering them. Working at the Village was really useful in that each element is very well recorded, so it has a lot of presence and power. This encourages you to use as few elements as possible, and keeps the recordings focused.

Show us your current studio

Home studio piano and bass
Home studio zithers
Home studio drums
Home studio zither and acoustic guitars

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

I read an article once which featured Steve Albini recording a band in his studio. They were talking about keeping in an element, but pushing it down low in the mix. Albini simply told them: “Feature it or fuck it”, which is to say: if it’s going to be in there, make sure it has a strong reason to be there, and that it’s doing something special in the track. Otherwise don’t bother.

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.

Blue Lake put out a mini-LP called Weft in January of this year on Tonal Union.

https://bluelake1.bandcamp.com/album/weft


Teitur – Lassen from Faroe Way

[Editor: Oh, yes. It’s really Teitur! Equal parts singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist composer. Bridging nordic pop-folk and artful soundtrack music. It’s quite exiting to be able to bring you this interview … Enjoy!]

1. Favourite knob or fader or switch on a piece of gear and why?

The Q-link knobs on MPC X are super satifying to use, especially when zooming in on samples points.

Studio desktop and Eurorack and Akai MPC X

2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?

I wish computers weren’t so… computery and so… fingers and mind only and that I didn’t have to work with constant digital issues and being a programmer. Like this morning spending 20 minutes trying to find a digital output inside a program, going on forums, just to lower a volume and then the next 20 minutes you are back working and the computer is like a wizard, doing actual magic.

Studio Mac Desktop

3. What setup do you bring on holiday or tour or commute etc.?

When travelling it’s just my iPad Pro or laptop if I am in the middle of writing something in Sibelius. I find it nice to get away from all the gear. If I am in the middle of a recording project I might bring an Apollo Arrow. Always bring a pair of SONY MDR 7506 headphones too.

4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?

I have seldom befriended software synths in my DAW, somehow drum machines and synths are best hardware for me, even though I love what you can see and do with them in the software programs. I guess it’s just a tactililty and digital vs analog audio thing. When I tour I wish pianos didn’t weigh a ton and cost a fortune. I have tried owning a digital piano and I just can’t play them. It’s like cooking with thin plastic utensils for me. I will rather break my back with a Rhodes or play in venues with pianos.

Studio backroom with gear

5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?

When I was seventeen I helped my friend sell his TR-808 for 2000,- kroner (270 euro), I regret not buying it. Today I try to get rid of what I don’t use after two years, so I only have what is useful. For me creating is a lot about learning to use what you already have and when you get something, make sure it’s a great version of it and not an almost-good instrument and then really learn it until wizardry.

6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?

I think it’s my two acoustic guitars Arlo & Betty – a 1968 Gibson Hummingbird and 1964 Gibson J-50 and my Yamaha U-3 upright piano.

The Grand piano

7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?

I (now) think the right creative mindset is way more important than gear. Knowing what, why and how you want to create. The gear is for your motor skills and to practice with and it’s good to start there early too. To start over, I would first study music, culture and people, practise a lot, learn my DAW, learn to play piano and an additional instrument.

Api mixing desk and Revox reel to reel and other outboard hardware

8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?

Apple lightning (or USB-C) to 3.5 mm headphone adapter. I mean, the people who decided that headphones should have several connections should be sat on a chair in front of a screen and watch all the footage of the world’s population one by one needing them, looking for them under beds, not having the right one, wedding receptions delayed, children crying etc.

9. Most surprising tip or trick or technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?

Silence in music. The voice and shutting up.


Artist or Band name?

Teitur

Genre?

There is no bad music, only bad musicians.

Selfie?

Teitur Lassen

Where are you from?

Tórshavn, Faroe Islands.

How did you get into music?

It started with goosebumps.

What still drives you to make music?

The path to learn and discover is neverending, the reward is meaningful and in my priviliged part of the world we live in a musical golden age.

How do you most often start a new track?

I try to know what I want to do and achieve first and then I allow anything to happen. Often it’s best to start with a pause or walking my dog instead of pulling up a preset or hammering on a piano (that’s called practising). Write a form on a piece of paper, what, why, how, when and then have fun.

How do you know when a track is finished?

When it’s satisfying to listen to or when there are too many tracks and it’s finished in the sense that you know it’s time to start over.

Show us your current studio

Studio overview. Note hammock
Studio doggie and drums

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Simpler is always an improvement!

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link

https://ffm.to/kvaedi


Linus Valdemar – Synthing & Guitaring

1. Favourite knob or fader or switch on a piece of gear and why?

Peavey PA-600 mixer

The “reverb” knob on my old Peavey PA-600 mixer. It’s big and it’s beautiful. As the name suggests it’s an old PA mixer but It sounds amazing in it’s own way, and I run a lot of stuff through it. It’s brilliant on electric/acoustic guitar, vocals and drums. The preamps in itself are great, but that spring reverb on electric guitar or a snare drum –
WOW! Only problem is that weird enough it’s mono so wouldn’t work as a real mixer in the studio. I need to find someone who can make it work as a stereo mixer! 🙂

2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?

As I’m a guitarist I have a lot of guitar pedals and my favourite one has to be the Strymon Deco. I recently traded my old version 1 to the v2. The v1 didn’t have a tone knob on it and no midi – it does now! To me it’s now perfect and I wouldn’t change anything as it now has the tone knob. Nice and smooth, crunchy and fat tape saturation on one channel and great wobbly tape modulation on the other. Great on guitar, but definitely also on synths, bass and even drums! It’s a Desert Island piece of gear to me! Guitar pedals in music production in general can be mind blowing!

Strymon Deco

3. What setup do you bring on holiday or tour or commute etc.?

I’m originally a guitarist and songwriter so I tend to always have a guitar near me,
whenever I’m away. But holiday sometimes is a weird state of mind for me as I try to relax but often end up feeling restless and guilty about not working and sometimes feeling more creative when I’m away and not able to work. Having a guitar around sometimes only makes it worse, as I’m supposed to be on holiday with my family – not working!

4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?

Almost all the software that I use are some kind of emulation of old outboard gear. Hmm.. Fabfilter plugins wouldn’t be that sexy as hardware would they? Maybe the good old ValhallaVintageverb would be fun to have as an outboard gear! I would love to have more reverb outboard effects in general!
Although I don’t own one myself, It would be great fun if Chase Bliss Audio made their pedals as plugins as well. On second thought… that would maybe just make you craving their guitar pedals even more…

Chase Bliss Audio Mood

5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?

I’ve had a lot of guitars in the past – and present. Two comes to mind. I sold a Gibson Melody Maker from 1965 which used to belong to Kashmir’s Kasper Eistrup. That guitar was used a lot during the recordings of their last album E.A.R. I actually didn’t buy it because of him, it just really spoke to me and I just had to get it. I used it a lot in the studio and live, but sold it in a weak moment to buy something else.. Can’t remember what really… The other guitar that comes to mind was an all original white Fender Mustang from 1966. A really great guitar, but I sold it to buy the most precious guitar that I own, my all original 1965 Fender Jazzmaster. I do miss that Mustang quite often, but I know it’s in good hands.

Pedalboard of goodies

Regret buying.. Hmm.. I tend to buy nice things! Haha! Well.. I remember when I was a kid I had a Strat and an okay transistor amp and then I bought a Korg multi effects pedalboard. I never really learned how to use it and I kinda hated it, but I used way too much time with it. Should have stuck to pedals from the beginning. I did have some nice ones that I skipped for a long time. Had i just stuck to them I think I would have dug into the pedal world much earlier and developed my playing, musical style and songwriting much more and at a younger age.

6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?

Gibson J-45 acoustic

About 10 years ago I bought a 1967 Gibson J-45 acoustic guitar. That guitar made me write stuff so easily. Songs in me were waiting to be written on that guitar. It was quite amazing really, and somehow I always knew that I needed to get that guitar model at some point.
These days I find my Jazzmaster through my newly acquired 70’s Vibro Champ
pretty inspiring as well! Amazing studio amp.

7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?

As a producer you can’t live without your computer. Sad to say.. But what I’ve
learned over the years is that it’s not the expensive preamp or the vintage
microphone you record with that’s the most important thing. Of course it helps
indeed! But in the end it comes down to the instrument and the performance. So if I was to start all over and had the money, I would skip the bad decisions of buying cheap and bad quality instruments and get some nice ones from the beginning – and then find an inspiring teacher and start a band 🙂
Also I would have loved to learn how to play the drums! I love playing drums but I never really took the time to learn it.

Synths and keys

8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without

The most annoying is when something doesn’t work. I am NOT a great technician or a computer tech guy – AT ALL. I wish I had the skills to repair my own gear but I don’t, and I don’t think I’ll ever have the time or mindset to learn it. Computer problems must be the most annoying part of music production.

9. Most surprising tip or trick or technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?

I have definitely underrated the power of hardware gear. When I first started
recording music with my own band I didn’t really think too much about outboard gear.

Outboard and studio gear

And when I started off producing and recording music myself, I didn’t have much more than a laptop, a cheap interface and one microphone. And that’s all I used for a long time, but at some point I found out that just because the technology is so good now that you can hardly tell the difference between vintage outboard gear and plugins, doesn’t mean that I don’t need the hardware gear. I do. Hardware is so much more inspiring. Turning knobs on a synth while playing, running guitar through my PA mixer or Space Echo with worn out tape that keeps jumping around. There’s the magic. It’s inspiring. That’s the trick. That’s the technique. Don’t underestimate the power of the outboard gear!

Peavey PA-600 mixer

Artist or Band name?

Linus Valdemar

Genre?

Alternative pop, Indie, Folk, Britpop, Shoe-gaze and organic, nordic music.

Selfie?

Linus Valdemar

Where are you from?

I grew up in Lynæs (Hundested), a small town in the north of Sjælland, Denmark, but have lived in Nørrebro, Copenhagen for about 18 years now.

How did you get into music?

My dad was always a singer/songwriter and played his own songs in a local band, so I picked up the guitar at a young age because of him, learning from him and the local music school.

Also I was fortunate to have a few good mates and we made our first band before we could even play really.. We were 11-12 years old.

My mom has definitely influenced me as well, while my dad was the executive musician, my mom had a nice vinyl/CD collection and the knowledge about music in general. This combination made me fall in love with music.

What still drives you to make music?

Over the years I’ve only been more and more curious about new music. Discovering new great artists and producers and how they do it really inspires me. Doesn’t have to be new upcoming artists, as long as it’s new to me it’s inspiring. When I was younger and frontman/songwriter in a rock and roll band, I was definitely more narrow-minded and thought I knew exactly what I liked and disliked – what a fault that was! You can find inspiration and drive in any genre really.

Also new gear or new ways to use gear definitely drives me. And as my studio is based in a complex with other studios and great colleagues, we’re constantly talking and exchanging experiences which helps you and drives you on to the next project with new approach and ideas.

How do you most often start a new track?

It changes from time to time. Sometimes I have an idea on the guitar or piano, and
sometimes I try to make a drum beat and play some bass on it. I like messing around with the Logic Drummer – haha! Today I entered my studio and instantly sat at my upright piano and just started writing – before having my morning coffee! So yeah I don’t have a go to way to kick things off really.

A selection of instruments

How do you know when a track is finished?

I don’t. It’s really tough. I will always find things in my mixes that I want to change and edit, but working with deadlines can be a nice way to get things done. Also working fast is a nice way to get it done. I’ve composed some scores lately that I almost started and finished the same day. I’ve learned over the years that being in a flow and working fast is nice. Get it done and move on! Don’t dwell too much. In the end you are your own biggest critic and the audience can’t tell if you think it’s done or not.

Show us your current studio

Linus Valdemar’s studio
Linus Valdemar’s studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Here’s one phrase that just came to mind: “Stay curious”. That’s what I intend to do! I keep searching the internet, talking to fellow producers, trying to find new methods to record stuff, write stuff and so on. Music is universal and can still feel different to each of us and hopefully I will never get tired of finding new ways to produce it.

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link

It’s been a while since I’ve released my own music but here’s a track I produced last year by Marie Fjeldsted.

Also please visit my website to see/hear my portfolio, thanks!

https://www.linus-valdemar.com