Behind The Scenes with: landtitles
In this week’s blog post we head behind the scenes with Grant Gard, the Canadian artist behind the electro-acoustic Ambient project landtitles,to explore the inspiration and creative process behind his Whitelabrecs debut 'geographic beings, phosphorous mountains'. Once again, Ryan Watts, AKA Akira Film Script, takes the interviewer’s chair, guiding another thoughtful conversation.
Throughout the interview, Grant reflects on his musical journey from punk, emo and post-hardcore through to the immersive world of Ambient music, discussing how years of experimentation eventually shaped the sound of landtitles. Ryan and Grant delve into the album’s unique blend of acoustic instrumentation, synthesis and field recordings, the importance of place and nature within his compositions, and the creative processes behind both his music and evocative album titles. The conversation also explores Grant’s recording techniques, favourite listening recommendations, and why the project remains firmly rooted as a studio endeavour.
Scroll down to read the full interview, where you'll also find photographs and embedded Bandcamp players. As always, at the bottom of the page you'll find links to learn more about landtitles and to explore geographic beings, phosphorous mountains for yourself.
Hey Grant, first and foremost, thanks for sitting with me today to chat about your new Whitelabrecs album, "geographic beings, phosphorous mountains" as well as all things landtitles!
Out the gate, you've been creating music for quite some time, even predating the landtitles project; can you give us a bit of the history behind your music - what you were doing before ambient music, and what brought you to your current project and output over the last few decades?
Grew up listening to punk and hip hop, gradually got more and more into punk, emo, post hardcore; that kinda stuff.
Somehow though, I slowly started getting into more types of stuff and eventually some electronic things, and then into Ambient as well.
I tried playing guitar in some bands in my early twenties, but being in a band is hard for so many reasons. I was working with a couple guys who were both into recording at home, and I was super into that idea, so I bought a PC, and downloaded some cracked software and made lots of bad music for a long time.
Haha, yeah, I know that path - the years of bad music on cracked software days...thank everything we came around in the end, no?
While "geographic beings, phosphorous mountains" is your first release on Whitelabrecs, you've released a number of projects across other labels prior; how do you view your growth on this release when looked at amidst your prior output rooted in texture and sense of place?
I think I’m still doing the same thing, lol. Even though every time I start working on something new I’m thinking to myself, this record is gonna be super different, but it still comes out sounding like me which makes sense. Trying new instruments, recording techniques, site specific field recordings were key for this record. I really worked hard on the mix as well for this record.
The effort is not in vain - it definitely shows in your final product; I adore the inability to know where analog instruments end and synthesis begins across the project.
Getting a bit technical, I understand you used a combination of synthesis (traditional synthesizers and modular synths) in conjunction with analog instruments. What was your instrument setup like for this album; what instruments and synthesizers were your go-to items for this setlist and why?
Wanting to explore new sounds and maybe a different sound palette as well, clarinet was the main instrument; recorder, bass recorder, bass clarinet, acoustic guitar, accordion, and piano were most of the acoustic instruments that made up the record.
I did use the modular a lot for processing sounds, but I have sold most of it off now. Not too many synths are used on this record, but I likely would have used Ableton's operator and wavetable for bass sounds, which are really hard to achieve acoustically in my home studio.
I also recorded lots of samples at my mother-in-law's house in their yard which were used for percussion and various textures.
That's fun! I recently saw a colleague's video where he was in an abandoned warehouse drumming on things for samples that became percussive elements across his releases - that's fascinating to me.
If my ears didn't deceive me it sounds like you also used some field recordings on the album - as we're currently in a month of Field Recording-focused content within the Inner Echo community, what does your field recording kit look like, and what/how do you decide what fields to capture when you're out and about? Is your approach more intentional, or more found-in-the-moment?
Lots of field recordings here for sure, I don’t think you could really call it a set up, but I used the Zoom HN1 and my iPhone for all the field recordings. But I have since upgraded to the Zoom H4N Pro which is quite a bit nicer. The phone and H1N worked pretty great, once you eq and start messing with them, those tools are totally fine.
I'm a huge proponent of the iPhone for fields - it's saved my butt a few times (when batteries were nowhere to be found, or something happened and I didn't have my Zoom H5 on me).
From a conceptual perspective, my understanding is that your early recordings for this setlist might have been a bit more Jazz-leaning, however things settled into a more spiritual drone styling; was there a reason for the shift towards deeper listening that came from within, or was it external factors of life that transitioned the final setlist to the forms we hear them as today?
Once I started recording stuff, a lot of the sounds naturally fell into a more loop based structure. But that might also come from my compositional process as well…
I love how it was more organic - wonderful.
I'm to understand a local park was a big source of inspiration for the album's recordings; can you tell us a bit about this park, and what draws you back to it?
The majority came from a park that I love that’s really close to my house. It’s full of Garry oaks and is quite lovely. Even though the city I live in is surrounded by the ocean, more or less. There isn’t a lot of ocean access weirdly, well, ok, there is, but it’s also a lot of big houses and private land at this point, so it’s not accessible. But I love green space, being able to go to Summit Park is a natural escape, and a great place to reset.
Isn't it wonderful how the outdoors can totally be that reset button?
"geographic beings, phosphorous mountains" seems to be a very inspired album title for this setlist; what brought you to this naming, and is there a deeper meaning behind the title?
I have a folder in my notes app which I’m constantly adding to editing and arranging.
Words, phrases, ideas...things I think about, sometimes from books (sampled if you will) and reconstructed. Then when I’m working albums I go through and see what works, compile, edit and edit some more.
I think this title was an amalgamation of said process, and it just seemed to fit the work.
That's wonderful! I have a good friend who has a similar notes-in-phone, found-and-reworked process, and I admit, I should try it myself someday - thanks for sharing that with us.
Artists all have different approaches to album building - some go in for the songs and have few leftovers, others make a pool of material and start to whittle away; what does your process look like, and what do you do with any items that may remain after your final selections are chosen/created?
Hmmm, I think at this point I could say I have few methods for starting things. One Is how this record started where I have a general idea of an instrument I want to work with, or maybe a piece of kit, and build up around that one idea.
Then the other, repurposing old songs or even unfinished/thrown albums or songs, and just rip them apart and use them to make something new.
Reduce, reuse, recycle, right? Haha.
I work in the wine world, and we're always talking about terroir, or a sense of place with each wine and each vintage - you work frequently within the realms of a sense of place within in your music; what does a sense of place mean to you sonically, and do you find yourself seeking the place, or does the place find you?
With the world becoming increasingly busy and complex (geez), I find myself feeling like a stranger, seeking calm and connection when I can get closer to nature, so if I can bring that into the music, that’s a process I can really enjoy. That being said, I’m also working on a few projects as well that are more or less completely digital, and "friends with the computer." So both are valid. I guess this is where balance comes into play.
Yeah, the world is a very loud place nowadays - it's great you seek to reduce the noise with connection to what really matters: our natural environment, not the made up one we're supposed to subscribe to.
Now, we're all big music nerds in the Inner Echo community, and the greater Whitelabrecs, Driftworks, Evergreen Music and Elm Records family; what are you listening to nowadays that has captured your ear and attention? As well, what are some undeniable classics in your book?
Oh jeez, records...
Well for classics, "Northern" by Taylor Deupree; I still really enjoy a lot of the early 12k catalog: Sogar, Motion, Sawako; good stuff. Really loved those first few Tim Hecker records, maybe the first ambient record I heard was "Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do It Again."
3 cool records i’ve been listening to over the last few weeks/months
"Meidän täytyy valvoa jottemme nukkuisi, sillä maailma on liukas" by Pietu Arvola
"OASY" by Stefan Schneider Monti
"Cyan Music" by Atte Elias Kantonen
I also enjoy the "geo...being...sss" playlist by mr hosc on Spotify
Thanks for putting us onto all of that - I'm familiar with the early 12K catalog (as I'm sure many are) as well as Hecker's works, but admittedly your current listening is new to me. As well, the "geo...being...sss" playlist is STACKED with essential listening in my book - great callout on that one.
Before I let you go today, are there any live shows on the horizon you'd like to let folks know about? Any other upcoming releases that you'd like to highlight?
Ha, no live shows. At this point landtitles is pretty much a studio endeavour only.
No worries there, I always want to inquire.
I greatly appreciate your time today Grant; all my best, and until next time, sir!
We hope you enjoyed this interview! To explore more about landtitles, you can follow the links below...
'geographic beings, phosphorous mountains' is available in a limited repress of 100 vinyl-effect CDrs, as well as a digital options in a range of high quality formats. You can take a listen to the album in full HERE!
