'ANTHER' / OK EG
Fusing hardware-based electronic music production with installation art, OK EG offer an immersive experience which naturally plays with expression and emotion.
Comprised of Naarm-based producers, Lauren Squire and Matthew Wilson, their recent release ANTHER (via Steeplejack) draws inspiration from natural sounds and forms.
Known for their dedication to the underground arts community, OK EG challenge our perceptions of sound and simultaneously foster an immensely warm space for varied interpretation. Expect to undertake a state of hypnosis, as you delve into a spiral of contemplation and movement.
Showing Matthew Wilson (left), Lauren Squire (right). image by Natalie Jurrjens.
How are you two feeling at the moment?
L - Feeling good! Some days are more challenging than others, especially from the perspective of creating art. However, we’re incredibly lucky to be surrounded by a lot of supportive legends in our community who give us the motivation and support to keep going. We’re taking this pause as an opportunity to focus on our creative endeavours so there is a lot of new music coming out of our studio at the moment.
Glad to hear that. Navigating this all is proving to be pretty overwhelming, hey, but it is an interesting opportunity to slow down and focus on creative outlets.
So how did you two meet and did you ever expect to create with each other?
L - We met through a mutual friend. Our relationship has always been centred around our general love for music and the community that goes along with it. Prior to this collaboration we were producing electronic music solo in our bedrooms. Matt was focused on hardware and I was making tracks in Ableton. One of the first times we hung out he showed me some tracks he had made using his hardware setup and I was really blown away. It opened me up to a whole new world of possibilities and got me into analog synthesis and sampling. We have always encouraged one another to try new methods of music making and as a result have grown together as producers. There’s a huge amount of mutual respect in the collaboration.
M - Lauren’s early tracks were really impressive to me as well. She was recording and layering vocals using the built in mic on a MacBook, and recording synths that way as well. Despite the simple recording process, she was creating these really beautiful and evocative tracks. I think we realised pretty early on that we have complementary strengths, and we’ve taught each other heaps along the way. Lauren has a natural musicality that now comes out in her drum sequencing, sound design, synth work and vocal arrangements. We just really enjoy the process of working together and sharing the music with others.
It's awesome that you both hold the community that you’re contributing to as something that’s central to your ethos and why you enjoy working together. Can you please give us a run-down of how you both contribute to OK EG? I’d also love to know a little about your set-up!
M - The basic setup is Lauren on the Octatrack, which is an 8 track sampler and sequencer, and a 4 voice analog synth called the Vermona Perfourmer. I use a sequencer called Cirklon, and a Eurorack system which has drums and synth voices. We both have some effects pedals, and we use a MIDI clock to sync the machines to Ableton and tie them all together in musical time. In the studio we also use some old Roland synths like the Juno 60 and SH-101. When the track calls for it Lauren records her own vocals and layers them. We usually start with a pretty fluid process of improvisation to lock down the core rhythms and harmony, then we go through the more meticulous process of working out the arrangements and refining.
L - We both contribute equally to the collaboration. Every sound is carefully considered and we spend time before each set or record developing sample libraries that are then resampled on the Octatrack and computer. For example the Steeplejack release incorporates a sound library we built from recordings of found materials like sand, shells, grass, glass and plastic. I also work at Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (MESS) and am privileged to have access to some amazing synthesisers that have featured in our work through sampling.
“When we’re producing, we like to think about what the crowd might feel or how they might move, and then try to create and maintain a trance-like state on the dance floor.”
image by Natalie Jurrjens.
I love how your work walks a fine line between the intersections of ambient and often complex rhythmic experimentation. In that sense, a lot of your music feels very remedial and hypnotic to me, is there any intent behind this?
M - One really important moment for us was seeing Donato Dozzy together, and hearing how texture and rhythm can be just as evocative and expressive as harmony. This really led us into exploring polyrhythms and trying to create those more abstract and hypnotic sounds. When we’re producing, we like to think about what the crowd might feel or how they might move, and then try to create and maintain a trance-like state on the dance floor. The more ambient elements bring a warmth to the sound, like a sonic space for the rhythms to move in. We do hope that our music has some therapeutic benefit for people.
Where do you see the interplay between live instrumentation and electronic music?
M - We’ve just finished working on another record with Phil Stroud on percussion, Adam Halliwell on flute and Jack Doepel on keys. We asked them to play using natural environments as references, and we had some music prepared with plenty of space for other sounds. Then we’d improvise on the idea, layer it up and edit the takes in Ableton. Lauren often takes samples for further manipulation on the Octatrack, and the final mix is a highly stylised version of what was played on the day. We think of this process as like developing a palette to paint with. We might artificially tighten certain sounds or process them through the Eurorack, which helps gel the acoustic instruments with the more machine-like elements and gives the mix an extra hypnotic quality.
L - There is a physicality to working with an instrument and I find that with synthesizers too. I think that’s why I love synthesis so much, it’s real time manipulation that can result in surprising and exciting outcomes. In both live instrumentation and electronic music there are so many opportunities to make mistakes which can lead you down a path you weren’t planning to take.
“That feedback stage of producing records is my favourite part when working with labels and I like to think that the final result is a rendering of multiple brains.”
We’re incredibly excited about the release of ANTHER on Steeplejack – why did you decide to work with this label?
L - I met Harrison, who heads the label, through a party called Pleasure Planet in 2015 which was my first gig as solo artist. Harrison was really supportive and encouraged me to keep pursuing music. After the first OK EG record came out he started booking us for Steeplejack gigs, which gave us a platform to workshop ideas and find our sound.
ANTHER is really a collaboration between ourselves and Harrison. There was a lot of back and forth between us when we were realising the tracks and he encouraged us to expand our thinking on alternative approaches to rhythm. That feedback stage of producing records is my favourite part when working with labels and I like to think that the final result is a rendering of multiple brains. It’s very exciting and inspiring.
It’s so lovely to hear about the ethos of those behind labels we love! Did you work with a specific concept when creating this EP?
M - The earliest versions of these tracks were for a live set at the final Pleasure Planet in early 2019, during those closing parties at Lounge. I guess we just wanted to make tracks that felt steezy and powerful, and we were trying to push outside of our comfort zone with higher tempos and harder sounds. One concept that Harrison introduced was not using any 4/4 kick drums on the EP, which really pushed us to develop the drums and create momentum in different ways.
The cover art images are photographs we took of flowers through an old Zeiss microscope, and we used flower anatomy as a naming convention for the titles so there is an aesthetic through line with all the tracks.
Sick! And have you collaborated with anyone else for this release?
L - We’re super stoked to include a remix of Filament by Melbourne producer / engineer Greg Steele aka Tackle. The mastering was done by Corey Kikos from Sleep D / Butter Sessions. Both the remix and mastering brought fresh energy into the release and I am so happy that we could collaborate with such a talented crew.
M - Greg and I went to audio school together, and we’re big fans of his track Benzedrine so we asked him to do a remix for us. His version of Filament is really fun and takes a lot of surprising left turns, always focusing on hard edged rhythms. I’ve worked with Sleep D before as a live sound engineer and we’re both fans of their work and label. So it was really nice for us to just keep it local and work with people who inspire us.
Damn. Such an inspiring scope of people to work with.
Image: Natalie Jurrjens
We’re are all feeling affected by the current situation of Covid19, particularly as people who contribute to/work within the arts community. As creators, how have the circumstances of Covid19 impacted your thought processes surrounding creativity and releasing music in this climate? How do you hope your release will impact the community?
M - As arts sector workers we’ve lost most of our employment for the time being, but the lockdown has opened up a lot of time and space for us to finish music and focus on self care. It’s been really heartening to see the solidarity in the music community, and I hope we can keep building on that in the post-Covid world. I think the pandemic offers an opportunity to realign our priorities as a society, hopefully towards a more egalitarian and sustainable future.
Releasing music in this climate means you really need to think of creative ways to present ideas online, which is resulting in some interesting audiovisual work and streams. I think the biggest challenge for the dance music community is that streaming can’t really replicate the intimacy and connection that can be found on the dance floor. That will have to wait until the lockdown ends. In the mean time it’s important that we keep contributing to our community and supporting the artists, labels, festivals and institutions that we love.
You can follow OK EG’s music on Facebook, Instagram and Soundcloud.
You can also follow the label Steeplejack on Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp and Soundcloud.
Interview by Stella Schiftan