Artist Interview | Mike Honcho | Glitter

It’s not a bad haul at all!

And look at that cable management! I have never been one for cable management and always envy the crap out of people who seem to ‘have it all together,’ in that sense.

Some Background

Mike, like me, is a film nut. He attributes time enough to take in a good 5 a week. I admire his ability to plan to watch a solid number. I have a watch list a mile long that I aspire to get to, but actualizing that plan is far too much commitment, so kudos for falling asleep to 80s sci-fi/horror flicks. The best way to learn to be a multi-disciplinary artist is to, and few realize this, watch your goriest preferences when attempting to rest your brain and recharge. Personally, I do not know how someone relaxes and eventually drifts off without watching the brain-explodey end part of Scanners (David Cronenberg, 1981).

He also loves pickup basketball. Naturally, I asked him about his baseball leanings. Before he answered, I feared the worst. I was impressed to learn he played ball in College. He is a Red Sox fan, but we won’t hold that against him.

Then, as I looked further down his CV, I noticed he was also an avid concertgoer. A man truly after my own heart. He is coming toward my neck of the woods to catch Shlomo in NYC and TAGABOW a few days after. I’m very much looking forward to reporting back in the blog about some good stuff coming soon, like my birthday Portugal. The Man extravaganza. Naturally, we shared some stories about our past concert shenanigans.

When I asked him about some of his favorite concert experiences, Mike had this to say, “My favorite show was most likely the first time I saw Modest Mouse in…Damn… I’ve got to say 2016? Transcendent experience, and one of the last shows they played as their original trio. Modest Mouse is my favorite band, and I went to the show solo. It was a very special experience for me that I still remember. Their Lonesome Crowded West show was also incredible because it’s prob my favorite album of all time, and it was special to hear that live. I also saw LCD Soundsystem a few years ago, and that performance is up there as well… I've got a lot of favorite shows that are favorites for different reasons, if that makes sense.” - It makes TOTAL sense!

The Interview

As an icebreaker question, I always ask each person I interview about their native instrument. I usually assume it was piano, since most are synthesizer artists. However, hardly anyone I’ve ever interviewed actually got their start there. When I posed this question to Mike, he said, “He began making beats in 8th grade with no musical training at all.”

Seeing people doubt their ability can be painful at times, leaving me to respond with, “How can you say you have no musical training at all if you started in the 8th grade, which I am guessing is at least a little while in the past for you? Were those beats, made at that time, influenced by anything, or why did you one day say, “You know what, this is the shit! I’m going to do this all the time.”..? What was the ‘beatmaking’ instrument you first got going with and any particular reason for choosing it?”

I loved Mike’s answer of

"I guess when I say I have no musical training, it is because I just started by messing around on Garageband. Specifically, I would manipulate samples on Audacity that I downloaded from freesound.org. I eventually graduated from Audacity to a torrent copy of Ableton. What I really meant to say is that it was a process of learning by doing. When it came to using a keyboard, or some sort of MIDI riff/groove, I was going off my ear along and it was trial by fire. Some early influences on my desire to make beats were sample-heavy artists like J Dilla, Madlib, and, eventually, El-P."

Mike continued, “I’m now 34, so 8th grade was a while back, but I am still very, very much going ‘by ear' when coming up with MIDI lines on my Keystep/Beatstep. It's a frustrating approach at times, especially when I have a groove in my head that is giving me a hard time when trying to put it down on the keyboard. However, flying in blind has greatly influenced how I make music, so I’ll take the frustrating parts all day to maintain the style I have built up for years now.

Chuck: Can you name 3 influences that inspired your newest release, Glitter?

Mike: Shlohmo and Andy Stott in terms of textures and layers, and El-P bc his style of beats is prob most influential on me overall.

Chuck: What is your favorite track on this release and why?

Mike: My favorite track seems to be most people’s least favorite - Drown. I think it evokes a really raw emotion that is amplified upon the entrance of a high, echo-laden synth line. I’m preferential to how that particular synth line meshes with the rhythm of the track. Objectively speaking, I happen to find that synth line rather beautiful. Something that draws me in but could skew things for the listener is the overpowering bass. I’m sympathetic to this notion and, in the future, will pay more attention to the mix job on such low-end-featured parts.

Chuck: Did you employ any unique techniques or cool production elements that helped shape the sound of the final product?

Mike: I recorded a few of the full tracks and stems through a shitty tape machine. Then I would play that tape through different effects pedals to layer it onto certain other tracks. I also used a lot of found sounds I recorded with my H4n, layering them with other samples and drum machines to create unique percussion sounds. During the production of Glitter I became obsessed with how the timing for certain things could fall. Having unique percussion or unexpected rhythmic elements certainly became something very important to me while recording this album. As a matter of fact, these rhythmic elements are among the things I enjoy most when creating or recording music.

Chuck: How do movies influence your music? Any in particular that come to mind as far as influencing Glitter?

Mike: WELL…beyond just the musical influences I mentioned above, movie soundtracks have probably the most important effect on the melodic and harmonic aspects of my music. The emotional, and often unemotional, feelings that sort of drive the sounds of my music are very visual. I often imagine a scene or visual atmosphere when making a groove. I'm not sure if any movies directly influenced Glitter SPECIFICALLY, but, like, Blade Runner, Sunshine, Brazil, Cannibal Holocaust, Fincher movies, Carpenter movies, Ridley Scott movies, are a few I can think of that I love that also inspire my music. They're all so wonderfully synthy, how could they not influence me?

Chuck: Favorite John Carpenter film? I’d ask Cronenberg if only I didn’t mention Scanners already

Mike: The Fog is my favorite Carpenter movie, at least I think. My favorite Cronenberg flick has to be Videodrome (Which I just snagged on 4k Bluray and am pretty fired up over that!)

Chuck: Favorite film ever and why?

Mike: Favorite film ever is Sunshine. It is so criminally underrated and has a little bit of everything: Sci-Fi, Action, Horror, just a touch of cheesy. It has that great cast, with a script by Alex Garland and was directed by Dany Boyle, with a soundtrack by John Murphy - I mean COME ON!!! I also have some personal nostalgia for the film from watching it numerous times with some of my closest friends. In fact, I think I have seen it over 40 times. I’ve made many others watch it. But most importantly - STILL WAITING ON A 4K RELEASE, Y’ALL!!!

Analysis of Chuck's Favorite Songs from Glitter

I originally dove deep and analyzed every song for this article. Then, Mike and I realized we’d be throwing way too much at you to list a full nine-track analysis. Instead, I’m going to tell you why I liked the two songs I liked best.

Track 3: Neon

Neon hits with my favorite kind of rhythm to start things off with: poly. I’m a sucker for polyrhythms, so I’m interested to see where this tune goes from the get-go. This song is a much darker vibe than the preceding two tracks. Darker by no means is synonymous with lacking in any way, though.

By 1:15, my synth nerd arm hair is standing on end, tingling. You will have to listen to the song to find out exactly why. Up until about 1:47, you get lost in where you are being brought in the best of ways. Then, at 1:48, old parts meet new in a solid mesh of callbacks and an 8-bit sound I don’t think I’ve ever been able to pull off as interestingly.

Did I mention the cowbell use throughout Neon? Neon is definitely a song that requires a few listens to absorb everything, but it is really solid and serves as an excellent bookend to the first two tracks.

Track 6: Disconnect

A jaunty funk line with some claves unexpectedly jolts my attention back front and center with the start of Disconnect. Drown left us a bit hazy, a bit stoned, and confused. While we may not be any less when entering Disconnect, it hits in a different way. Rather than intently shoving your ear closer to the speaker to hear what is going on, as in Drown, Disconnect is, as its name promises, a separate thing entirely. The bass line that follows the first section really carries us through after the initial claves get the audience bopping. Around 1:30, some clever toying with filter cutoffs is heard on the synth, reminding us we were still somewhere weird and not out of those woods yet. A way to aurally say 'stay tuned' ⅔ of the way through this listen.

Wrapping Up Our Time With Mike Honcho

At times, you might call this music lo-fi or downbeat, but that is an oversimplification. Attitudes without a pre-defined genre are just as important a categorization as calling something pop, or R & B. Attitudes and feelings like anxiety, paranoia, and generally dark-sounding vibes that Mike shifts through before you really know what you are thinking about the material are in control. They will definitely keep you engaged from the first to the last track, that’s for sure.

I cannot recommend checking this out highly enough! It is a solid effort from front to back, employing all manner of different approaches, styles, and instruments. This whole record by Mike Honcho is a downbeat, lo-fi pleasure. It represents an artist playing through the chaos, while taming it at the same time. You can sit and put it on as awesome background music, or choose to engage with it for a more in-depth listen. It plays both sides equally well. If you are looking for some new tunes with some great hooks and excellent use of rhythm, don't sleep on this album by Mike Honcho. It's called Glitter and is out on Ingrown Records right now so go listen to it already!

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If you are a musician on the cusp of releasing new material who would enjoy a chance to discuss your project on the ChuckW.com Blog, please email me at chuckw@chuckw.com - Thanks!