IXA or Matt Rudge has been a long time collaborator. We’ve all worked together on films, events, book launches and he’s crew. Last September he spoke about relocating during the pandemic, now we’re slowly into 2021, we caught up again to see how it’s all going!
You’ve recently relocated to Amsterdam from HK? How come?
Hong Kong was my home for nearly 10 years but due to a combination of city’s continuing political and freedom of speech problems and a deepening recession caused by the protests and COVID-19 outbreak, my partner and I figured this also might be the last time we can live and work in Europe with relative ease and Amsterdam was the best fit for us.
Makes a lot of sense! But it’s tough moving to a new city and getting integrated. How has it been connecting with people and getting yourself out there?
Right now I feel like a stranger in a city I’ve lived in for 6 months. When I’ve moved to new cities in the past I’ve always immersed myself in the local scene as quickly as possible to meet people and make connections but for obvious reasons this time has been very different. Without no social activities happening at all just finding a scene to get into has been a challenge and contact has mainly been through social networks which I’m not a massive fan of. We had a couple of months just after we arrived when Amsterdam was in a very light lockdown and I was able to meet and work with a few local people who have all been lovely and I hope to meet more people as we come out of our current lockdown but for the next few weeks at least I’m isolating as much as possible and working on music.
How did you come to work on Sodo Express?
I’ve known Shaz and Ryo for ages and we’ve worked on a bunch of projects together over the years. It’s always great to work with people who you respect creatively but for me it’s mostly that I am a fan of their work and I’m excited to see the film as much as be a part of making it. For this project I think we al want to push boundaries a bit and make something new and progressive so when the guys asked me to join in it was a no brainer.
What are you looking to bring and how do you go about doing what you do?
I’ve been working on creating new sounds from scratch using my synthesisers alongside stuff I’ve recorded out in the streets. One advantage of the current situation is that Amsterdam is super quiet and I’ve been able to setup and record around the city without interference from strangers. Some of this audio I’ve processed to form the general background sound bed of the film and others I’ve sampled to create instruments and drones that have a more musical tone.
The overall soundtrack is a mix of digital, analogue and found sounds alongside the foley and effects I’ve recorded and processed all of which help describe and shape the atmosphere of a scene so something that begins as a more abstract or drone-like texture can quickly become a more obvious or musical and vice versa. For this film in particular sound plays a very important part in eluding to the sometimes fleeting and erratic emotions that Ezra’s character is going through so balancing the mix between music, foley and effects is my biggest challenge for sure.
How’s 2021 looking?
I’ve just launched a little clothing company for electronic music nerds like myself called “All The Gear And No IdeaS” which I’m hyped on. Theres a couple of Ts out now with more new stuff coming later this year.
Moving country and being forced to spend a lot of time indoors has been pretty good for my creativity so once SODO Express is finished I’ll be getting some new IXA (my techno production pseudonym) singles ready for release and then maybe an album?
I’ve got lots of less dance floor orientated tracks with no real place for them at the moment so possibly an album or a series of EPs. We’ll see where everything ends up but hopefully next year brings with it more films, games and interesting things to work on while the world resets and if all goes well a few DJ gigs or dare I say it, a festival would be a great way to polish off 2021.
We’re all hoping this year pans out really well. Do check out IXA’s IG, Soundcloud and if you haven’t read his previous post, check it out here.
