First of, just want to thank you for participating in this edition of Infidel Interviews. Could you start off by giving a little information about both of you to the audience? Whatever you feel comfortable with, but name, age, what instruments you can play, and where you live would be pretty standard?
Okay, I'm Joel Bisson, I've been doing music my whole life as a melody maker and lyricist until the Royal Ontario Conservatory of Music to learn Guitar, I learnt 5 notes and the first 2 bottom strings the High E and B, just that I wasn't good at it, then in 1999 got a Quest Stratocaster electric guitar with a DOD Corossion Effects pedal, it's a distortion stompbox and in 2000 learnt how to play on my own after I was then in 2002-2003 using a midi editor to write and playing guitar, I played twice in the school talent show to 200 people also this time I was meandering my musical talents writing for other people instead of myself, a person who helped me to realize this will go un-named but he was my highschool teacher who help me write my screenplays and get lyrics and music to bands, a number of failed projects happened between 2002-2008 as most of them were a pissing match of egos which mine was hurt.
What would you say are your biggest influences when it comes to art and music? Are there any bands that you would say struck you with the chord that inspired you to peruse your current path of musical aspirations?
The first time I noticed music I was 1 years old crawling down the stairs because the radio was this old grammophone style vinyl player with a radio inside a huge cabinet with studio speakers but my dad had set it to a channel called the CBC Radio channel which has classical and baroque music and I believe it was Brahms lullaby that was my favorite song and after a year later heard the coolest bands, I mean you couldn't even turn the station without hearing warm leatherette which was one of my favorites at this age because it was un-like any i heard the previous year hearing only R'n'B from the 1960's to 1980s and Funk, Soul, ect. Hi NRG was also big and i owe a great deal to these genres for my musical upbringing where my parents listened to classic rock and country, i had different music taste's as i like latin freestyle with diamond girl a past favorite, I liked Heavy Metal and in the 1980's Pantera were a hair metal band and one of my favorite songs was Nothing on but the Radio which seen quite a bit of radio play where i lived and listened to.
What would you say are your favorite themes and topics to write about? What draws you to those themes?
I don't chose themes or lyrics messages but I improvise and write down. I never plot a song's lyrics.
What would you say would be you short term, and long term, goals for your band? What do you see in the future for your creative output?
It depends on the project, I have two people I work with Yanni K for Kings of Noize and Emerson for everything else, I don't see into the future that far, but I had once and I saw me doing keys and Emerson singing in USA in some bar, maybe that is an aspiration to live up to, maybe we even need to put old projects to rest and start news ones for this to be, but I don't look to the future but live in the moment. At the moment I'm working on various musical venues for my music output, most recent one Schizophonieraum was just seen success as it has a song on an up and coming godhatesgod records compilation and someone paid for my first schizophonieraum album a few days ago, so the moment that happens it's called success in my book. Kingz of Noize is waiting until we can get together and kapital and terrosekt the two projects I do value the most out of all my creative output are on leave for now, my situation is do work and remix work while this gets to somewhere normal. I mean we're not in the great situation these days so we skype less then the first 4 years we met.
Is collaboration something that is actively important to you? Do you have any individuals you are particularly successful, or unsuccessful, in collaboration with? Has there been any collaborative based songs that you would say stand out to you?
Only thing that makes sense for me to answer here is all and none, I wouldn't be here if I have had or had not done anything musically with anyone in the past. I've always looked for people to jam with and it's hard in this city. We're not known for much here but David Wilcox is from here or this area and I though deadmau5 was from niagara falls other than that it's mostly wanker punk bands in this area and their punk is pop punk garbage, I like hardcore punk that I grew up with deathrock and gothic rock type punk music, crust punk also was one of my favorite styles the D-Beat.
What sort of processes do you go through when making music? Do you have a formula(s) that you follow, or do you feel it out as you go along? Or is it more of a mixture of the two?
I always have bass in mind first or drums then lead, everything is created in my head and it's a matter of repeating into midi notes that every DAW can read.
Would you say that your choice to pursue music has changed your life since you started? Would you say that creativity has evolved you spiritually, emotionally, or logically? What are some of the biggest challenges you have had to overcome in your musical career?
Biggest challenge was to use my own name on any written piece of media, I've always been used to others taking credit. Other than that nothing has changed since I heard baroque music which I still want to make but...maybe this is the thing i want to overcome is my fear of staff notation I mean I can read it almost fluent because of Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge and Face the two sentences to remember learning staff notation which is repeated up or down but i tend to make mistakes reading because of natural notes and sharps and flats sometimes throws me off depending on the book publisher of the staff notation.
Do you spend a lot of time crafting your own sounds? Or do you value song crafting and effects tweaking more? Or do you find it's a balance between the two? What's your relationships with presets?
I've been making my own presets from scratch since 2004 and am planning on opening a soundware company, I won't use presets, I make my own and tend to give them away for free but that ends here and now as I won't be able to open a soundware company if I give all away for free now would i. So yes I use only my own presets but what i do is when i compose a new song i modify any of the presets i load into what ever daw and vst is loaded. I sometimes mod factory sounds but as for third party sounds i do buy them but i never used them ever.
When you make music are you primarily a hardware or software oriented musician? Or do you do a fusion of both? Are there any particular instruments, programs, or effects that you would say are vital to you making music?
I do all inside software because of the fact that I'm not equiped to do gear only recordings, I mean I can i have a 4 track tascam recorder but other than that multitrack is out of the question unless i were to record into my audio interface one track at a time, drum part by part. this way i can control the over all output of the stems for each recorded track but i don't think I've even this this once, I only did VST Based music or noise music with found sound samples which I would like to thank my friend Adam who help me record a lot of those early sounds which only 15% out of 100 were able to be saved it was a gigs worth of sounds but i didn't know which way to save and lost them.
Are live shows an important part of your career? Do you feel the most home in the live performance or in the studio? How come?
No, not really, I mean a release party would suffice but I'd like to tour brazil, north america with Emerson someday but not likely unless I win the lottery.
When it comes to non-musical media, what do you find yourself most inspired by, and what about it draws you to it as a source of inspiration?
I actually was big into art and i consider all mediums different so nothing inspires me, I improvise lyrics and write them down and I write music on my guitar and play keys, I don't get inspired except the sounds in my head which sometimes I can recreate.
Thank you so much for participating in this episode of Infidel Interview. Any parting words for your fans, or my audience?
Nope, just have fun.