"Inspiration just keeps coming and I'm grateful for it!" - interview with Andrew Huang
Illés HalászThere is hardly anyone in the audio world, who hasn't come across his name.
As a magician of sounds, an incredibly humble and talented artist, and just an all-around great conversation partner, we're delighted and proud to have Andrew Huang in the Buso Audio family.
Thank you very much for 'sitting down' with us, Andrew!
Let's assume for a second, that we have only this one paragraph, how would you introduce yourself to those readers who don't know you already?
I started out as an artist and would also write/produce for others. Over the years, so many more things have been added to that - writing a book, scoring commercials, creating music hardware and software and, of course, what I'm best known for is my YouTube channel where I make videos that explore something interesting about music or music creation, whether that's producing, songwriting, gear, music theory, etc., or just doing weird experiments like boiling a microphone or making music with balloons.
You’re one of the first generation of heavy hitters on YouTube. What lead you to that path in the good old days, when it was still a fresh phenomenon?
It's funny because when I started taking it seriously, I thought I was late to the game. There were all these well-established channels with tens of thousands of subscribers and I never dreamed I could get to that level, let alone where I am now. But it's also not what I was focused on when I started posting videos - I just thought it was a great idea, and lots of fun. We take the concept for granted now: Put a video on the internet, and anyone else in the world can watch it. Only twenty years ago this was absolutely novel and the infrastructure was barely even there to support it. Sometimes it would take longer to load a video than to watch it!
Tell us about your musical roots and upbringing; what brought you to the audio field?
There has always been something in me, from when I was a tiny child, that was fascinated by music and sound. I would gravitate to anything that was remotely related, whether it was cassette tapes or early MIDI software or just banging objects together (which later became one of my greatest revenue sources when brands would hire me to make music this way). My mom raised me with classical music and made sure I practiced piano, and as I grew up I fell in love with every new genre I was introduced to and wanted to learn about every instrument and recording technique. So it feels inevitable that I ended up doing something with music and audio.
What kind of music genre are you mostly drawn to, what styles do you prefer working on in the studio?
I love a great melody or a great groove, but there seems to be an extra something that excites me about finding great sounds that support them. I'm drawn to music where there is some experimentation in the production - finding unique and unexpected sound worlds. So, in that sense the genre doesn't really matter. This can happen in pop, rock, hip-hop, jazz, EDM, film scores…
What are the projects you're most proud of?
Doing my best to narrow my discography down into a personal top 3:
Wow, these are three wildly different songs! What was really interesting for me is that these days I really dug deep into the early Genesis records, and Cloud Collapse sounded like a direct descendant of that style. Were you influenced by 70’s progressive rock, while making that song?
I really just follow my interests and inspiration and it means a lot of different things can determine the style. I might start with a concept, sound, melody, playing technique, line of lyrics - but all of it gets mixed up as I explore and bring additional ideas in, and I love such a huge range of music there are a lot of approaches to draw from. For instance, with Cloud Collapse, I wasn't thinking about prog rock and I actually haven't listened to much of it for about two decades, though I'm sure there's some influence there as in my early twenties, I did some deep dives on Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes, etc. I just kept writing and shaping the song until it felt like it had a good arc.
Sticking to the topic of your most beloved projects, you also mentioned some works on the plug-in and book writing side as well...
Oh yes!
Transit 2 is a plugin I conceptualized, and it turned out even better than I thought it could. It's a multi-effect that has some unique ways to interact with it and people have been finding so many creative uses for it.
I'm also tremendously proud of my book, Make Your Own Rules, in which I share my story and tried to distill as much as I could about being creative, and being creative for a living.
The book does seem like a great read, we'll make sure to add it to our wishlist!
Diving a bit deeper into the plug-in, it really feels like a sneak peak into your musical mind and way of thinking. How did the idea of making your own plug-in come up?
I never thought I wanted to make a plugin until I had a good idea for one - there are just so many out there already. So many that I love and am happy with, and so many that are bland and don't bring anything new to the table! So when the idea for Transit came to me it was sort of like "Well, I really want this to exist so I guess I need to make it." I considered hiring a developer but ultimately it just seemed smarter to partner with a company that was already making plugins I love, and amazingly it worked out with Baby Audio, my top choice and the first and only company I brought the idea to. The concept itself came out of my frustrations with fine-tuning multiple layers of automation to create dynamic transitions, which led me to thinking about putting all the effects in one place with these triple-combo knobs that can set start and end values as well as the slope
between them.
I'm almost afraid to ask, is that all the projects you're most proud of?
Far from it!
One of the most recent projects is actually a childhood dream come true: I recently got to work with Blue Man Group!
That is really something else! How did you land that gig? What can we expect from that collaboration?
I feel like every gig I've ever gotten has come from posting weird stuff on the internet. Blue Man Group left a comment on a video where I was connecting food to a modular synth, and we just kept chatting from there!
I also made a 'behind the scenes' video about this adventure here.
Which type of Buso desk are you using, and what brought you to that decision?
I have an Artist Rise Pro 88 which is the perfect desk for me - a setup and an aesthetic I was searching for for a long time and had even started on plans to commission something custom before coming across Buso. It's a solid amount of rack space and desk space, the rack platform holds my monitors so they no longer need stands, the keyboard tray was important for me, and I've also been doing sit/stand for about ten years, so I wanted to maintain that option.
After the overview of such a wide array of projects, one might wonder, what are your main musical influences?
It's truly all over the place but some heavy hitters are Beethoven, Chopin, Miles Davis, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Prince, Bjork, Radiohead, Aphex Twin, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, SOPHIE.
An impressive roster! Is it expanding these days? Do you have any new discoveries? What do you think of the contemporary music scene?
Overall I feel like there is ever-increasing acceptance for weirdness and genre cross-pollination which is the world I want to live in! I have to admit that after having kids, I haven't been able to keep up with as much new music, but some newer artists I really love are Madison Cunningham, Remi Wolf, Fred again..., Lyrah. Also, want to shout out some friends who are doing mind-blowing things and not getting nearly the attention they deserve! Undulae, Dresage, Chuck Sutton, Alexander Panos, Kilamanzego, Rachel K Collier - all of them making super creative stuff that is some of my favorite music from the last few years.
And what about the influences in the audio world?
I think several of the above artists would be on this list as well because they seem to get very involved on the production side. I would add a few names that are probably not surprising at all - George Martin, Quincy Jones, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Rick Rubin, Dave Pensado, Nigel Godrich, Mark Ronson, Shawn Everett.
Could you give us a quick peak at your working method regarding gear?
I'm fully in the box for mixing and mastering, though I have a bit of outboard I like to track with. I basically use a lot of UAD and Ableton stock. My favorite thing about mixing is actually leaving the studio. I'll do a pass, bounce it, and then throw it on when I'm next out walking or driving. Suddenly you hear much more clearly what a song needs and can come back to the session with a bunch of intentional notes. And I find I also just enjoy the song more! Or if I don't, I know what I need to fix.
One can easily step on deceiving ways indeed, when stuck in the studio, so this is absolutely a solid piece of advice. Being an extraordinarily busy man, how do you keep organized and maintain inspiration for so long?
It's hard to answer about inspiration - it just keeps coming and I'm
grateful for it!
Regarding organization, I'm not going to pretend like it's not a challenge to juggle it all, but one thing that's really helped me that I don't see a lot of musicians using is spreadsheets. There are so many areas where you need to track multiple related items, whether it's an album or upcoming videos or social media or just making a to-do list with sorting and filtering options. I have a sheet for capturing stray lines of lyrics that I tag with categories, a sheet for tracking where I'm storing music gear that's not currently set up in my studio, etc. At this point I don't know how else I could function.
How does your Buso Audio desk helps fighting against chaos?
In the rack space in my Buso desk I'm prioritizing my interface, patch bay, and LA-610 which is my primary preamp. I'm someone that's always experimenting with interesting new gear so the desk surface itself always has different things moving on and off it, but they all need an easy way to be plugged in!
I also use the desk for top-down filming of gear and the sit/stand setup is great for that - one more way that I can adjust framing and it's faster than changing the height of a tripod.
Something I love about the keyboard slider is that it can hide a mess. It's like a drawer of things I want quick access to but also want to be able to chuck away just as fast. I probably use it more that way than actually playing the keyboard that's on it! I keep a few containers for things like SD cards, charging cables, hex keys - they can be right there but completely out of sight.
Where do you stand on the analogue vs. digital debate? How do you see the future of analogue equipment?
I love both! With how digital emulation is advancing there are fewer and fewer reasons to be into analog for the sound, but I think there will always be benefits to some of the workflows and commitment it forces. And when dealing with really knob-twisty or audio-rate modulation stuff, you can feel the difference when your latency is truly zero!
Andrew, thank you very much for being here with us and as we're starting out a new tradition with these interviews, we'd also like to put together a Spotify list with one song from each of our interview guests. Take a pick!
I will point to Cloud Collapse again!