SUSAN GARDENER

Biography

IN HER OWN WORDS:

I started playing guitar in my early teens as a form of rebellion - I had no money but I stole all my dad's cigarette tokens (remember them?) and found another pile of tokens for £1 in a junk shop and sent away for a cheap trashy acoustic from the cigarette catalogue - the only good that ever came from my dad's chain-smoking. The guitar had a terrible action and hurt my fingers but I was able to learn all the chords in the 'Beatles complete' book and even try a few Led Zeppelin songs. This was the time though of late 70s/ early 80s synth pop, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, Visage, Ultravox, and I coveted my friends EDP Wasp synth - what a great sound from such a cheap plasticy looking beast - classic synth, just a shame about the touch action keyboard. Unfortunately even the Wasp was out of my financial reach. University beckoned and armed with my first grant cheque (yes, these were the days of funded education!) I purchased... a classic synth? ... well no - still somewhat out of my price range, but an electric guitar was a step in the right direction - I have my Yamaha SC-800 to this day - you can hear it on the track 'A Forest of Miracles'. Various student bands followed, I learnt my craft on the guitar, but still found myself coveting other peoples synths - our keyboard player had a Korg Delta - a very under-rated, if somewhat limited, synth with a nice string layer. The rich kids in one of the other bands had a Jupiter-8 though - wow! At least we got to play with a Prophet-5 and TR-808 in our one session in a recording studio. The world of work followed and my first pay cheque bought a Yamaha DX7. I loved that beast, and even reckoned I could program it - I came up with some really cool, if slightly anarchic sounds. Having sold the DX7 some years ago to fund a car, I recently bought a DX7IIFD - more a nostalgic purchase really, as the sounds don't really live up to the expectation of one's memories, but expect to hear it on some of my future releases. Over the years I've slowly amassed a collection of the sort of gear I yearned for in my youth - Korg M1, Octave Cat, Waldorf Pulse, Roland JX8P and JP-8000, Roland S760 sampler with colour monitor upgrade (beautiful piece of kit, but sadly overtaken by computer sampling), Yamaha AN1x, Roland TR-909, most of which you can hear on 'The Forest of Miracles', and I seem to now be amassing a collection of classic drum machines such as the Roland CR8000, Korg Minipops 120, Bentley Rhythm Ace and a circuit bent Alesis HR16 which will pressed into service on future releases. I was proud of my first release 'Music from the motionless picture', but felt I was let down by a lack of computer power - it was recorded pretty much live from the hardware, driven by MIDI from an underpowered PC. The arrival of enough computing power to work 'in the box' has freed me to create the music I'd always dreamt of producing. I love the Spectrasonics Omnisphere synth, and the Arturia V-collection, including the wonderful ARP 2600 and Yamaha CS80 emulations. The trouble is, having now played these, plus the Jupiter-8 and Prophet-5 virtually, it just makes me want to own the originals even more. Ah well - I guess I'll never lose my love of classic hardware. Anyone have an EDP Wasp they don't want? ;-)

THE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

1. Who or what are your influences ?

Anything synth. My first influences were Jean Michel Jarre and Kraftwerk, followed by the 80s synth pop of Gary Numan, Human League, Depeche Mode and Japan. I listen to all music though from rock, indie, through dance to rap, hip hop, RnB, even classical music sneaks in. If someone’s put their passion on record, I’ll listen to it.

2. What modern artists do you like?

The perhaps obvious choices would be La Roux, Little Boots, Calvin Harris and David Guetta, but also Kasabian, Empire of the Sun, MGMT, Killers and Muse. I love Florence and the Machine – Florence’s voice is amazing.

3. If you could choose to record a song with any other artist/band alive or dead who would it be and why?

It would have to be someone to supply a great vocal – someone with passion and individuality who uses her voice as an instrument. Karen Dreijer of The Knife (and now Fever Ray) is a person whose vocal style I greatly admire

4. What inspires you to write your music/lyrics ?. Did you teach yourself how to play ?

I am self taught on the guitar and synth, but I now have piano lessons. I always try to evoke images in my music, but sometimes an interesting sound can spark an entire track – I love sound design and hearing sounds that don’t exist in nature. I always need a theme though, so writing an album around a central concept helps rather than hinders. In the past, my music was written in the isolation of my home studio but the power of the laptop has liberated me. ‘Lunokhod’ was written in Toronto in sight of the CN tower.

5. Name your all time fave track by another artist ?

‘Being boiled’ by ‘The Human League’ – thanks Phil for adding the word sericulture to my vocabulary!

6. What sort of sound can we expect from your forthcoming CD ?

Unashamedly synth based, 80s influenced, modern dance vibes, but with a rock sensibility.

7. What are your ambitions for your music. Where do you see yourself in 5 years ?

Freed from the drudgery of a 9 to 5. I’d love to earn a living making the music I love, but I fear that the way the industry is going we will have to all be either touring performance musicians or be making music as a side line with an alternative source of income.

8. We can hear a very 80's influence on your album and love the synths and sounds you are using. Tell us what synths/equipment you are using and are there any 80's bands in particular that inspired you ?

I love to collect vintage gear. My keyboards are Roland JX8P, Octave Cat, Roland JP8000, Korg M1, Yamaha AN1x, Yamaha DX7, Roland RS202. The album relies heavily on soft synths though: Spectrasonics Omnisphere, Arturia CS80V, Arturia MinimoogV and Arturia ARP2600V to name a few. My inspiration comes mainly from the hardware though – I tend to feel a bit held back by the lack of immediacy of soft synths. I’ve also started collecting classic drum machines: Roland TR909, Rhythm330, CR8000, Korg Minipops, Ace Tone Rhythm Ace and a circuit bent Alesis HR16. Expect to hear these on future releases along with the amazing Korg Wavedrum. I have also just acquired a Simmons electronic drum kit – pure 80s! At school you were either in the Spandau Ballet camp or the Duran Duran camp – I was a Durannie (is that how you spell it?). While I admit to swooning at John Taylor (sorry Simon) I was looking over his shoulder at what synths Nick Rhodes was playing – those Jupiters – wow! I think my favourite 80s band was Japan though – Richard Barbieri’s synth sounds are fantastic. They also worked with Giorgio Moroder briefly – another heavily influential figure in the synth world. I have to mention Gary Numan though – I guess he kicked it all off for me.

9. Where is your forthcoming CD being recorded and who is producing it ?

It is self produced in my rather well equipped home studio – a bedroom with absolutely no room for a bed.

11. In the U.K music and food has combined with celebrity rock and pop stars now appearing and cooking on TV food shows. Please can you give us your favourite recipe ?

I have simple tastes: a salad of lambs lettuce, red chard, shredded beetroot, cherry tomatoes, sundried tomoatoes, red peppers, unsulphured apricots, walnuts and assorted seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, hemp…) with a dressing of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.