Community Spotlight: Aspetuck
Los Angeles based Aspetuck opens up about his new album, Emanate and shows us all his wisdom.
Tell us about yourself?
My name is Griff & I make music under the name Aspetuck! I’m from a small, quiet state in the Northeastern US called Vermont & am currently based in Los Angeles, up in the cozy hills of Laurel Canyon.
I’m an independent artist manager for a bunch of lively, talented & inspiring artists who are some of my closest pals. I only just started releasing music last year after quietly watching from the sidelines until I felt like I had something to say.
How did you get started in music production?
It’s a long story but my brother & I found ourselves working in the music industry right out of college. I was the manager, he was the artist & we got swept up by the wave of EDM which was a wild ride & a once in a lifetime learning experience.
I started taking on more artists for management a few years ago after deciding to go fully independent which has been another invaluable learning experience. I’ve always had this feeling that I could make music if I actually allowed myself to take the time & energy to just dive right in. The biggest challenge for me was shaking off the manager-becomes-artist stigma that always existed in my head.
A very special trip to Amsterdam back in 2017 was the catalyst I needed to get out of my own way & try. I’ve been working with producers for such a long time that I’ve been lucky enough to just observe & absorb a ton of stuff from them which is an experience most people don’t get to have.
It was a little unsettling at first, just like any small leap of faith can be but eventually the fear just disappeared altogether & it feels incredible to be focused pursuing on something I’m so passionate about in addition to continuing to help my artists grow & evolve.
And how did you learn how to produce?
One of my friends Axel (Conformal) was kind enough to give me one of his extra Ableton licenses so one day I kind of just sat down & decided to start spending time learning anything & everything I could. My fiance Hannah has been INCREDIBLY patient with me because I’ve been pretty glued to my laptop for the last couple of years.
It takes a long time to really feel like you have a strong grasp on how to turn ideas in your head into reality in a way that you feel proud of & I don’t think you ever stop learning. I’m a tinkerer & don’t really like to follow rules / do things the way you’re supposed to do them right away so I kind of just started messing around with various Ableton stock plugins & various free plugins I found for a while until I felt more familiar with the program.
I played drums as a kid and played a few instruments in middle school but other than that I’ve never devoted a significant chunk of time as an adult to playing instruments so I just have always done things 100% by ear which I really value, it feels more spontaneous & I love the endless happy accidents that just pop out.
Some of my artists started to give me plugins & recommended the best ones for various purposes & that honestly really kickstarted the process for me. For example — Gordon aka Belle Envie is an incredibly technical producer & has blossomed into a real mixdown guru with a vast amount of knowledge of many tools, techniques, etc. If he hadn’t recommended FabFilter & a couple of the Waves plugins & showed me a ton of tricks I never would’ve thought about right from the beginning, I don’t think I would’ve been able to get to this point so quickly.
It also really has helped just going to a ton of parties & obsessively listening to as much music as I can possibly listen to; I knew what kind of music I wanted to draw on for inspiration right from the start which has kept me pretty hyper-focused I’d say. I can’t stress that part enough, having a wide range of musical references & inspirations to draw on is probably one of the most important aspects of being a producer.
What other creative outlets do have to get your juices flowing?
I love this question because for many years, I didn’t really have any creative outlets. I had all sorts of strange hobbies & creative outlets as a kid but it all kind of just came to a halt after high school. I recently tapped back into that childhood version of myself which has given me a sense of purpose I’ve never felt before.
I think of creativity like a shy wild animal — if you’re patient with it & just have fun, it’ll just hang around as long as you’d like but if you try to force it, it’ll just disappear. Balancing one creative outlet with others has been my way of staying excited / not feeling burnt out. In my experience, various creative outlets kind of just complement each other for some reason. You’re essentially just flexing the same mental & emotional muscle but through different mediums. I have been super into photography for the last 4 or so years & that has been so helpful for my music which is something I never really could’ve predicted.
I also have been finding myself more & more interested in graphic design which has just been me manipulating my own photos in weird ways to see what happens. There’s something special about being really in the zone with music-making until you reach the point of feeling a bit frazzled where you start to resent some of the ideas you’ve made and then just stopping yourself to focus on another creative outlet. It allows yourself to have some distance from what you’re working on which can really help you see things objectively.
What is musically exciting you at the moment?
Tough one! Everything, all the time honestly!
There is a lot out there to take in, whether it’s contemporary stuff or old stuff I never got a chance to hear / wasn’t in the right headspace for so I feel like I have this steady drip of really exciting music in front of me constantly which is just such a comforting feeling. I think the most exciting stuff for me has to do with an artist’s or label’s intent. In terms of music right now that’s super exciting, here’s one artist, one label & one genre that stand out: Sebastian Mullaert, Nous’Klaer & Krautrock.
Sebastian Mullaert is a Swedish producer I’ve been following for a while now, he was in a group called Minilogue which had a big influence on me a few years back while I was living in Brooklyn & he’s just an incredibly inspiring person who embodies all of the artistic morals & beliefs I am also trying to live by. He recently started a project called Circle Of Live which is a live-based collective where he & a rotating roster of other electronic artists pair up for live performances & play improvised, extended sets.
It’s in my opinion the best live electronic experience out there right now & it’s just really nice to see Sebastian seeing a path for himself & going for it. He is one of the few out there being recognized for truly pushing the boundaries of what is possible within electronic music & not just drawing on nostalgia / being confined by existing formats of performance.
Nous’klaer is a record label based in the Netherlands that is releasing some of my favorite music right now. They’re super classy & tasteful & have a really specific sound that just hits the nail on the head for me, it’s hard to put it into words. I went to their showcase at ADE this past fall & was completely blown away.
I’ve been on a Krautrock obsession / kick for a few years & just can’t get enough of it. There is a sea of music and I feel like I’m finding insane new stuff on such a regular basis without ever feeling like I’ll reach the other side. It has a very carefree / improvised character that I think is the reason I’m so drawn to it. For those not familiar, Krautrock is a style of rock music from Germany that started in the late 60s / early 70s which was a response to pop music & cultural changes happening in Germany / the world at the time. It heavily influenced a lot of music that is highly regarded today such as ambient music, house, techno, David Bowie, Brian Eno, etc etc etc.
Tell us about “Treehouse at Yuma Place”, what was the inspiration behind it all?
Treehouse at Yuma Place is my attempt at a debut ‘album’. I wasn’t planning on doing an album this year at all but have always wanted to be able to express things musically with bigger bodies of work.
The idea of an album always seemed super daunting but I guess it doesn’t need to feel so forced! I live in this really quiet, beautiful, nature-filled neighborhood of LA called Laurel Canyon.
It’s just up the road from the insanity of Hollywood but it really doesn’t feel like you’re in LA at all when you’re up there. The album is inspired by the contrast between peace & solitude at home and the thriving underground party scene in downtown LA.
I have the amazing ability to be downtown in a dark warehouse on the weekends hearing some of the most talented DJs in the world with incredibly kind, open-minded people and then I can be home in the woods in 30 minutes with owls, coyotes etc.
It’s incredible, definitely one of the most inspiring places I’ve ever lived. The album is also about a lot of big life changes, getting older, getting engaged, becoming my comfortable with myself, embracing creativity, appreciating what I have etc. I am not very good with words so it’s easier to just make a ton of music that sounds the way I feel :)
It came together really naturally, I wrote a bunch of stuff in November & December of last year then one day was just on a hike in my neighborhood listening through them all and thought ‘well hey! I guess this could just be an album?’. I have a very carefree approach to releasing music and want to try preserving that for as long as I possibly can.
I’ve seen a lot of people lose sight of the reason they started doing music in the first place and they eventually found their way back to the love of it but it’s a really delicate thing and I’m just trying to learn from what I’ve observed.
How have you seen the electronic music scene grow and change especially with emerging artists and producers?
That’s a tough one to answer because I think of the electronic music scene as a collection of many different scenes rather than one big one & they’re all very different. Everything is changing all the time! I think from my point of view, my own tastes have changed so much over the years that I find myself paying attention to completely different parts of the scene that I don’t even realize things have changed in a scene I used to be super absorbed in.
That being said, technology is changing all areas of music right now. More and more people are putting out their music independently or starting their own labels & it’s so inspiring to see. I definitely am also seeing the EDM world & United States become way more open minded to some of the deeper, mellower & more experimental corners of electronic music finally which makes me very hopeful for the future.
I’m also seeing the underground world start to finally embrace the digital world. The transition from vinyl to digital has been VERY slow but more and more artists & labels in that scene are realizing that vinyl is just too expensive, too slow in terms of turnaround & terrible for the environment. I love vinyl & buy a lot of it but I think vinyl releases should be less frequent & a bit more special. There is a lot of reluctance towards working with the streaming giants in that scene but I think once people start to see what companies like Emanate are doing, it’ll be a much smoother transition.
Do you self release your music?
I do! I have a very hard time being patient with labels deciding whether or not my demos are a good fit for them or not. I run a couple of labels & understand how specific label’s tastes are so I’m trying to just not let myself get caught up in the pitching game.
I also like to have the ability to have my own vision & do things myself. I’m so used to it by now because I’m helping a bunch of independent artists so it’s just always the way I expected to approach things with my own project. I’m making music as a form of therapy I guess so for me, it feels a lot better to just put songs out there when they feel ready & move onto the next.
What do you think is one of the most difficult things emerging artists go though?
The transition between finishing a new release & getting it out there to the world I think can be especially painful for new artists. When you’re just starting out, you’re SUPER excited and just want people to hear your music but you don’t have an audience yet so it’s pretty easy to get disheartened by the process of waiting for labels to hopefully put your music out.
It can be distracting for artists to have to rely on labels they haven’t worked with before or have a relationship with to hear, like, understand & commit to releasing their music.
The process can sometimes take months, even years. It doesn’t need to be that way anymore though, if you’re willing to be patient. It will be harder to grow at the beginning doing things yourself but I think that’s a good thing because time is incredibly important in developing your vision and your experience as a producer.
Labels can give you an instant fanbase and can cover expenses but gone are the days where distribution & marketing is shrouded by smoke & mirrors. We’re entering an era where anyone & everyone could & should release their music themselves.
The tools are becoming more widely available but I think a lot of people just aren’t aware of how easy it can be to own your music & release it yourself or they’re just afraid.
If you have the drive, just go for it! I think I can speak for many artists out there when I say the best feeling is finishing up a new song, EP or album & releasing it as soon as you possibly can. The added bonus is if the music finds its way through the noise to an audience & you start to see royalties hit your pocket directly.
How do you think Emanate will evolve the music industry particularly the independent artists and labels?
I think the sky is the limit for Emanate. That sounds cliche but it’s true! You guys see a solution for a lot of the archaic & frustrating issues plaguing the music industry and are going for it in the right way, full speed ahead.
Emanate will be able to empower artists of all sizes to do exactly what I’m referring to above. The ability to be independent & have all possible tools available to you through one company / community is the future of the music industry, whether people like it or not. I’m really really excited to watch things unfold & take advantage of the tools you guys have to offer!
Listen now!
Want to get on Emanate?
Jump in the Discord and ask how to get started! — https://discordapp.com/invite/dznxyW3
