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/
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/
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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