Hey Up – Where are you right now?

I’m in London right now looking out my window drawing some inspiration from the world and what I see and feel to write more material.

What are you early experiences with music? How have they led you to where you are now?

The first time I ever sang was in a church when I was 14 for a couple school friends who played in a band at their local church in South London. I was handed a mic and was told to just sing and freestyle over the soulful jazzy R&B-type vibe they were playing at the time and yeah, I’ve been singing ever since. After some time, I went on to sing in an R&B group inspired by Jodeci, Dru Hill, H-Town and a lot of 90’s HipHop & R&B artists. After that, I went on to sing in multiple electronic bands which is a style of music I love, having grown up in London where electronic music was always big over here. Everything from drum n bass to house music was always around when I was young. To this day I’m inspired by old school garage and based my early style on Groove Chronicles who made both of my favourite garage tunes back in the day: ‘Stonecold’ and ‘We Get Down’. When I heard them sample Aaliyah or Mariah Carey over that London sound that Groove Chronicles had back then, I knew that soulful 90’s vocals work smooth over electronic music – like ‘Talk to Me You’ll Understand’ by Ross From Friends.

You’ve now released singles ‘Better Tomorrow’ and ‘Songbird’, what influenced the sound and song writing here?

My writing as well as producing comes from nothing but feeling and deep emotions that are sometimes buried deep at the back of my heart and mind. ‘Better Tomorrow’ was written on the basis of the title, wishing everyone and everything a brighter future through the dark times we go through in life. ‘Songbird’ is about love of course and sharing that special moment with the one you truly love. For me there is no better feeling than true love.

What does it mean to you to be able to share your music since your debut?

Through my previous experiences in music being in bands and groups it’s quite scary at first releasing anything because I’m solo now. But through the love I’ve been receiving and the support… it’s a beautiful feeling.

Can you tell us a bit more about your recording and production process?

I use Ableton Live to produce and usually base my production around a warm pad or melody that makes me feel like I’m flying. Ha! Growing up my favourite superhero was Silver Surfer so whenever I’m producing music, If, it makes me feel like I’m Silver Surfer and I’m gliding through the galaxy across the universe I know I’m on the right track. Then yeah, I punch it all in and then the drums come last for me. Same for recording vocals, I like to sit and be relaxed with dimmed lights to set the mood while I record. 

Who are your influences and who are you currently listening to? Is there anybody you aspire to?

I’ve been inspired by early N.E.R.D., Tyler the Creator, Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Curtis Mayfield. From Roy Ayers to Sampha, from James Blake to Frank Ocean, I can go on and on… I’m currently listening to a lot of Sade, as well as Janet Jackson, Saba and a new artist called Jenevieve… her track ‘Medallion’ is my favourite song of hers. Oh, and just a lot of early 90’s hip hop, that stuff is always on rotation. 

Is there anything else you like to do away from music?

Outside of music I love to skateboard… I mean street skate, no skate parks just yet, I can’t do tricks and all that. I just like to cruise the streets. 

What’s your plans for the rest of the year?

My plan for the rest of the year is to continue writing new material for my first full-length album for next year. I make music every day and also do a bit of writing for other artists. I’m forever working on my craft and trying to evolve into the artist I’ve always envisioned myself as.

Tell us something interesting about yourself, that people wouldn’t know.

I was an academy football player when I was a kid. I played for Watford for 3 years and Fulham for 2. I got released after 5 years of some great memories of my life and now I still coach kids and teach them everything I know and learned when I was playing.

Anything else you’d like to share?

In addition to the singles, I’m releasing on streaming platforms, I finished a 14-song mixtape called ‘The VagueTape’ that I’ve been drip-releasing on my YouTube and Soundcloud channels, one track every 3-4 weeks. The Tape is all new songs I wrote over some of my favourite Hip Hop & Lo Fi House beats spanning the past 20 years. It actually started out as a kinda joke, but I wound up vibing out 75% of the songs in one evening. I just dropped the latest instalment ‘Trust In You (Aquamarine)’ last Friday.

Where are you currently based?

I live in Melbourne. 

How did you first start playing music?

I started playing Violin when I was 3 years old and then picked up piano when I was 4 (my parents are musicians).

What’s been happening recently?

Well I’ve just been really focusing on releasing this single for the last couple of weeks. But prior to that my other band Juno Disco just put out a new song called ‘Dreamin’, and now the film I’ve been working on is in post-production so I’ll be working on finishing up the score. So a lot to keep me busy! 

Your new single ‘Think It’s Time To Get A Job’ is out now, what influenced the sound and songwriting?

The song is primarily influenced by the Aphex Twin track ‘Iz-Us’ and ‘Older’ by Australian band Parcels. I was playing around on this synth and found a sound very similar to the one used by Aphex Twin. Once I found the sound, the chord progression of the song just wrote itself and I’d finished it in five minutes. I often find that a particular sound will really inspire me and is generally the basis of how I write music. 

I had been really into Parcels earlier this year and loved their vocal harmonies and found they were very influenced by one of my favourite bands ‘The Whitest Boy Alive’ (who are sadly no longer around). You can definitely hear the Parcels influence in the ‘What Changed, Just Stay The Same” response in the chorus.

How did you go about writing the track?

Lyrically I was a bit intimidated by my previous record as the lyrics were super revealing and I was unsure how to follow that up. I found that being super revealing worked really well and I had produced my best work by doing that. So I decided to dig a bit deeper into my past, to a time where I wasn’t releasing Albert Salt music and decided to get a full time job. This really crippled me artistically. I found having so much free time and putting out a record again last year completely re energised me and gave me focus on what I should be doing. But yeah the core of the song is really about that moment that so many people have where they question their dreams and think to themselves “Maybe it’s time to get a real job?”

Where and when did you record/produce/master and who did you work with?

I track everything at home in my studio, then I send it to my Juno Disco bandmate/production wizard Nick Bond to mix and play around with. He then sends the mix back and then it goes to industry legend Joseph Carra to be mastered. And while that’s all happening my stupidly talented filmmaker/photographer/artist/writer friend James Vinson creates the artwork. James has also done all of my press photos for the last few years and is directing the film I’m working on. 

It’s the same approach as what I did with ’25 Not Doing Alright’ and I just love how it works. I’m extremely fortunate to work with these incredibly talented people that elevate the material to another level. 

How did you approach the recording process?

A little bit differently, I don’t do this very often but I wrote the core of the song before recording it. Like a real songwriter. It’s always fun to mix up songwriting and recording processes as it generally gives you an alternate perspective on things. 

What programs/equipment did you use?

I use Logic as my DAW to record everything. I use a Neumann TLM 103 into either a Scarlett 6i6 or Apogee Duet interface to record Vocals, Violin, Percussion. The Aphex Twin synth was done on the Arturia V Collection CZ V (I actually have the synth that this is based on but needs to be serviced). And then most of the other synth parts were recorded on my trusty Prophet 08 and the bass was done on the Behringer Model-D (controversial). Oh and there’s a bit of Juno-106 in there at the end and some Arturia V mellotron pianos and clav thrown in there as well. The drum parts are all done with Sequential Circuits Drumtrax samples. And I think that’s pretty much it. 

Who are you listening to at the moment?

One of my favourite Australian band’s I’lls have reunited with a different project called Armlock. They’ve put 2 tracks so far ‘Power Of A Waterfall’ and ‘Turf War’ which are amazing and I’d highly recommend checking out. Let me have a look at my Spotify history. MF DOOM, Ravyn, Lenae, Boards Of Canada, PJ Harvey, Bibio, Beastie Boys, Steely Dan, Tribe Called Quest, Kings Of Convenience and of course my favourite podcast ‘The Weekly Planet’.

What do you like to do away from music?

Watching movies, cooking, having a bloody beer and going for a run. 

Please tell us about working across both your solo project, side-project Juno Disco and scoring your first feature film:

A lot of work! It’s really great being able to do so many different things musically.

You produce your own film clips, how did this come about?

I started doing this in lockdown last year, making videos for covers I was doing and then eventually videoclips and ads for my music. 

I absolutely love it! I approach it very similarly to how I make music and the fact that filmmaking tech has advanced so much means I can kind of experiment and shoot things and just airdrop it to my computer in a second and play around with it in Final Cut while I’m still shooting. I find it an extremely creative process almost like painting or something as it’s all kind of happening at the same time there’s no traditional pre-production/production/post-production period.

What’s planned for 2021?

Finishing the film is next on the Agenda, there’s a Juno EP on the cards and of course put out more Salty music!!!

Favourite food and place to hangout?

Leonard’s House Of Love hands down.

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