Jonti's Endless Outdoor Possibilities
Sydney's beat-maker extraordinaire leaves the tools at home
One of Australian music’s favourite collaborators, Jonti is known for studio wizardry, a mastery of many instruments and Brian Wilson-esque harmonies, which don’t usually square with time spent outside. In fact, he says he hasn’t ever really been on holiday in the past decade, aside from when he’s landed somewhere to play a show (a similar vibe we picked up from Chloe Kae last month).
With a suite of forward-thinking records under his belt, writing with everyone from Odd Future, Mark Ronson, Sampa The Great and Flight Facilities, not to mention touring with Gotye, The Avalanches and Genesis Owusu, it’s easy to see why it’s difficult to get this legit genius to switch off. Jonti’s always got something on the boil, but it turns out getting out into the wilderness was just the ticket.
“I usually feel like I need to get my laptop out and make music whenever I have spare time,” Jonti says over coffee at his parent’s place, whose basement garage he often uses as a studio. “My body just acts like it needs to constantly be doing something.” While he brought a MIDI keyboard and computer with him, he found he mostly spent time playing old Beach Boys tapes and hanging out with his brother while he waited for the sounds to come to him.
There’s something exciting about the idea of a portable studio anywhere. The possibilities are endless; I mean, to record vocals in the sunshine...
He didn’t have to wait long; Fern is famous for its cicada choruses, and Jonti was quick to get them down on tape. “I noticed the sounds changed a lot during the day, so I recorded the cicadas at different times.” he says. “It reminded me of that Soundcloud phenomenon from like 10 years ago, where they’d slow down audio by like 10,000 percent. Once you slow it down, it’s really intricate and orchestrated - especially cicadas where there’s so much information you don’t hear until it’s at that pace.”
You’ll hear that experiment underpinning the groove of ‘Summer’s Golden Blade’, the track born from Jonti’s self-enforced time out, as well as some other audio nuggets - “things like leaf crunching, even boiling the coffee on the stove, they sounded really ASMR!”
“Recording nature sounds is something I always wanted to do more of,” Jonti says. “I’m a big fan of freesounds.net, where everyone just uploads their own field recordings from around the world. I felt it was really cool to just create some of my own and be in that world.” Strangely enough, it turns out fresh air was good for his creativity, too. “When I did the Tokorats album I was downstairs in a garage space, so it already felt like a huge luxury,” he laughs. “There’s something exciting about the idea of a portable studio anywhere. The possibilities are endless; I mean, to record vocals in the sunshine...!”
It felt like I had a window wiper in my brain, like I could be there for ages!
As someone frequently tapped for his unique approach to sonics, Jonti says he appreciated the space to find the right sound. “When I was on the Gotye tour many years ago, where I recorded something so perfect that I ended up using it on a song - but it was completely random,” he says. “It’s like a photographic element. You never know exactly how it’s going to work.”
“I would like to go out and write next time,” he says. “I thought the setting was so conducive to it. It felt like I had a window wiper in my brain, like I could be there for ages! It would get to like 10pm and I would be like, ‘Wow, big day.’ But all I did was sit around and stare out the window!”
Since this interview, Jonti’s spent more time getting Unyoked, making good on his promise to spend more time forgetting what time it is. “In the city, you really only have an hour when you can get into that zone. I felt time go slow out there like I hadn’t in a really long time. There were just no distractions at all.”
Cheers for taking a break from the garage, Jonti. We’re here to wipe that metaphorical windscreen anytime.
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From river-inspired funk to cicada-drive electronica, there's more musical goodness where that came from. Check out everything Field Recordings here.
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