For greater than 15 years, Eprom has been delivering a number of the dance’s sphere’s most heavy-hitting, left-of-center experimental digital music. This textural, nuanced and infrequently very exhausting output has positioned him alongside friends together with G Jones and Alix Perez, scored him slots at each main festivals (Electic Forest, EDC Vegas, Electrical Zoo) and status golf equipment (Los Angeles’ Low Finish Principle and Hamburg’s Golden Pudel), grabbed the eye of designer Rick Owens (who’s used Eprom’s “The Cat” to soundtrack advertising supplies and style exhibits) and impressed Aphex Twin sufficient that the digital icon opened a 2016 present with Eprom’s “Samurai.”
A lot of this music has been created within the yard studio from which the Portland-based producer, born Alexander Dennis, speaks with Billboard by way of Zoom on a sunny Might afternoon.
The event is his new LP, Syntheism. Out as we speak (June 9), it marks the primary Eprom album in 9 years and finds the producer on the top of his powers, with the 15 tracks taking shock left turns, typically embracing melody and typically ditching it fully in favor of distorted, rapidfire beats that hit the neocortex like a sledgehammer.
The album is conceptually tied collectively by another historical past that imagines what actuality could be like as we speak if the drought that preceded the collapse of the Akkadian Empire — the primary historic empire of Mesopotamia, positioned in modern-day Iraq — by no means occurred. Via this psychological train Eprom has created his imaginative and prescient of techno-utopian society, with its personal tradition, languages and beliefs, and with every monitor on the album named after a hypothetical group that fostered the achievements of this hypothetical world.
“All my earlier initiatives had been very dystopian in intent, reflecting all of the ills of the world,” Eprom says. “I felt prefer it was time to supply another.”
If this all sounds heady, belief that it’s going to get even headier when Eprom performs a one-night-only present, Syntheism Robotics, at Denver’s Mission Ballroom on July 29. The efficiency — a collision of music, expertise and utopian visions — will lengthen the themes of the album and, naturally, contain custom-built robots.
Right here, Eprom talks about his love of The Prodigy, Primus and Haddaway (sure, Haddaway), the consolidation of the dance music house and extra.
1. The place are you on the earth proper now, and what’s the setting like?
I’m in Portland. I’m in my studio, which is a constructing in my yard. And it’s a pleasant day. That is the place I do most of my work, and that is the place I made the album and constructed the present I’m doing now.
2. What was the primary piece of music you obtain for your self, and what was the format?
I purchased Weapons N’ Roses Use Your Phantasm II on CD. I used to be actually into it. However my mother labored on the Music Library at Dartmouth School in New Hampshire. So at that time she had already made me a number of cassette tapes of stuff I used to be into. I may go in there and take a look at data and hearken to them on their good Hello-Fi setups. After I was 9 or so I used to be listening to the Beatles and Michael Jackson and Queen. After I was 10, I acquired actually into 9 Inch Nails. Main shift, and simply that type of shift in perspective of being a child to being a tween and desirous to distance your self out of your mother and father’ aesthetics and tastes. That hit me exhausting, and I began moving into punk rock and Minor Menace and different bands like Primus and Nirvana and stuff like that.
3. Did the Dartmouth library and Primus and Nirvana, or did you need to go elsewhere?
Oh, yeah, they’d the whole lot. They’d an enormous cross part of each sort of music. I bear in mind testing the Stravinsky’s The Ceremony of Spring, which remains to be a majorly influential piece for me. And you possibly can get the sheet music too, so I’d learn the sheet music and hearken to the piece. I used to be actually into that piece as a result of it was within the film Fantasia, within the dinosaur half. So I used to be obsessive about it. It was so discordant and gnarly and scary. I simply love that about it. In order that was a serious formative musical expertise rising up, having that library to go to after faculty.
4. That segues very nicely to my subsequent query, which is: What did your mother and father do for a dwelling while you have been a child, and and what did they consider what you do now?
My mother labored at that library. She additionally labored on the Dartmouth English Library. She was persevering with schooling all through that point, going for a grasp’s diploma. My dad was a stockbroker, and he nonetheless is. He has additionally performed bass in bands just about his complete life, and nonetheless performs. That was one other main musical contact level for me — the truth that my dad was all the time enjoying gigs and rehearsing round the home.
They’re pleased with what I do. My dad loves funk and soul and blues and stuff, however he additionally has a style for experimental music, and he has a fairly robust understanding of what I do. He’s come out to a bunch of the exhibits.
5. What’s the first non-gear factor you obtain for your self while you began earning money as an artist?
I used to be a full-time graphic designer and net designer and likewise doing exhibits. So I had cash on the time from working at this startup firm, and music was a passion. It was type of a smooth transition fairly than “swiftly I’m making a bunch of cash in music.” It was extra, “I’m making much less cash now as a result of I wish to concentrate on music.” I didn’t run out and purchase new toys or something. I spent a lot cash on gear. However I went out and purchased a very dope fixed-gear bike after I was like, 25, to trip round in San Francisco. I used to be driving on a regular basis, and I simply had a beater and wished a very nice one.
6. Should you needed to suggest one album for somebody seeking to get into digital music, what would you give them?
That’s a very exhausting query. I feel a number of the spine of my sound could be encapsulated in The Prodigy‘s Expertise, which is from like, ’92 I consider. It simply nails that complete rave aesthetic of the time. Not all my stuff seems like that, however it’s all the time been a serious affect on me.
7. Syntheism is your first album in 9 years. Why has there been a lot time since your final LP, Halflife?
I made a bunch of EPs throughout that point. I had a sketch for an album round 2015, and I scrapped it and principally condensed it into an EP, and people tunes ended up in numerous releases. Now I’ve simply had the chance to place it collectively due to the pandemic — I had a lot time proper right here within the studio throughout 2020. I may simply do stuff that wasn’t particularly geared in direction of the dancefloor and felt higher on an album.
I feel that’s the case with a number of music popping out nowadays. There’s a little bit of a broader vary of the sonic palette on a number of the releases I’m listening to, as a result of folks generated a lot stuff for themselves, or let go of a few of their expectations — whether or not they be self-imposed or externally imposed by what works on a dancefloor. It was liberating for me to have a lot free time and a lot artistic freedom.
8. The album additionally has a very attention-grabbing, I don’t know in the event you’d essentially name it backstory, however mythology, concerning the Akkadian Empire. Inform me about that?
I got here up with that in collaboration with Jackson Greene, who’s my artwork director. He and I had some conversations concerning the first tune, which is basically a sequence of emblem drops such as you would see firstly of a film — just like the twentieth Century Fox emblem drop has an related sonic id with it. I made these as sketches, after which tied all of them collectively because the intro to the album, prefer it’s a film.
Retroactively, we have been like, “What may these imply? What may they symbolize?” And we got here up with this utopian different actuality, wherein the the empire of Akkad, the Akkadian Empire, by no means perished and have become the probably the most dominant cultural drive on the earth, in a method that the Roman Empire is for us in actuality. What in the event that they gave us the evolution of writing? They have been probably the most influential political drive for a very very long time — what would the world appear like now [if it had stayed that way?]
It’s another actuality, however it’s additionally a utopian future constructive aspirational actuality. It’s asking what company aesthetics would appear like in the event that they weren’t so pushed by capitalism and greed. That gave us a very fertile floor for creating all of the visible parts of the of the album. The one covers symbolize merchandise on this different actuality … and many of the visuals within the reside present contact on numerous points of that world too … I didn’t write the album with all that stuff in thoughts, however it’s helped tie the whole lot collectively aesthetically for the present.
9. Do you have got a longstanding curiosity in historical past? Was this already in your repertoire of information?
I’ve a longstanding curiosity in artwork historical past. I minored in artwork historical past. Till lately I’ve by no means actually delved into that rise and fall of empires sort of stuff. Now I’m discovering it actually attention-grabbing. I’m within the historical past of language particularly, and particularly letter types and typography and design. I’m additionally concerned with drawing parallels and discovering connections between the previous and potential futures, and studying from the previous and drawing on the whole lot we have now.
10. Does making these parallels, and even doing a history-based undertaking like this, provide you with hope for the long run?
Yeah, that’s the purpose. I’m imagining what [reality would be like] if we actually internalized the teachings of historical past. How would our world enhance? So yeah, it’s a utopian imaginative and prescient. That felt essential to me, as a result of the world felt so dystopian on the time, and all my earlier initiatives had been very dystopian in intent, reflecting all of the ills of the world. I felt prefer it was time to supply another. In order that’s the place I went with the album and the background aesthetics.
11. The Denver present seems to be insane. What was it like placing all of it collectively?
We discovered this robotics firm in Portland and simply beloved the stuff that they have been doing. We hit them up, and we’ve been constructing the technical facet of the present for a very very long time. There’s an entire visible part to the present. Programming the robots, every tune has its personal sequence of maneuvers the robots do. It’s a number of transferring elements, and lots of people got here collectively to make all of it occur.
12. Are you taking this all on tour, or is it simply the one present in Denver subsequent month?
We did one present in Portland, and that was the proof of idea. Now we’re gonna carry it to Denver and probably as many locations as we will. It’s tremendous costly and exhausting to placed on, so we will’t do it all over the place. We are able to do it the place it may be supported. However Denver is ideal, as a result of there’s already a fantastic group and a number of followers, so it looks as if the subsequent logical step.
13. Discuss to me about Denver. I really feel just like the scene there’s so distinctive and type of singular in its tastes. What you appears very nicely fitted to that metropolis, as does music by artists I think about you’d think about friends. What’s occurring in Denver that you just maybe don’t discover elsewhere within the U.S., or globally?
I feel there’s a confluence of forces there. One is simply having a number of younger folks there. Lots of them are right down to exit and celebration. I’m probably not certain why that’s, however it’s simply true. [Laughs.] And so each present does nicely in Denver, irrespective of who it’s. And there’s additionally a number of good golf equipment there. After I began enjoying exhibits, I lived in San Francisco, and the primary metropolis I flew to to play a present at was Denver, and so they have been simply very receptive. It’s all the time been a killer scene there.
14. Within the day after day work of protecting digital music, a lot of what comes throughout is home and techno, tech home, crossover pop, and so forth. However bass music doesn’t essentially pushed as exhausting or mentioned as a lot. What’s your tackle the place bass music is at in 2023?
I feel it’s having a renaissance There’s a number of curiosity on this genre-defying taste of bass music that’s taking place proper now, and I feel that’s actually nice. There’s a number of experimentation. I undoubtedly think about myself bass music, and I come from that world. But in addition a number of the stuff on the album is simply pure digital music and doesn’t actually match into that scene precisely. However I do assume that scene is healthier than it’s ever been. There’s a lot cool stuff taking place. Should you look slightly below the floor of mainstream EDM, there’s so many gifted producers and a lot cool music proper now.
15. Do you have got any responsible pleasure music?
Yeah, sort of, however I don’t really feel responsible about it. I actually like pleased hardcore and the cheesier facet of ’90s dance and Eurodance stuff. Stuff like mid-’90s dance pop crossovers, like Haddaway, that sort of s–t. Completely satisfied Hardcore, I may by no means get away with enjoying at a present, however I like that s–t.
16. Probably the most thrilling factor taking place in digital music at the moment is?
The democratization of expertise is thrilling to me. Computer systems getting cheaper, youngsters with the ability to make the music they hear of their heads with like, a $500 laptop computer is thrilling to me. Music is simply going to get higher due to it. And the accessibility of information is thrilling to me — YouTube and tutorials and the collective information all of us have is thrilling — as a result of it’s simply going to supply increasingly attention-grabbing iterations of those concepts which have been on the market for a very long time.
17. Probably the most annoying factor taking place in digital music at the moment is?
I imply, I strive to not be a hater about stuff, however I feel that there are some actual issues within the scene. The consolidation of festivals and venues is a giant downside. And these aren’t aesthetic issues, they’re issues rooted in capitalism, and so they’re issues of individuals not getting the shine they deserve — or of recycled lineups, due to issues getting too huge and small promoters getting pushed out and small golf equipment and bars not with the ability to maintain themselves.
Typically these issues create aesthetic issues. A recycled lineup means the whole lot’s going to sound the identical, or a much bigger and greater pageant means the sound needs to be increasingly bombastic and increasingly lowest widespread denominator and there’s much less room for experimentation. These are issues within the scene, however they are often overcome. And people issues do type of create their very own little aesthetic whirlpools. You’ve gotten all these things the place individuals are attempting to make pageant bangers and that’s their focus, and so as to get on a giant stage, you need to make a sure sound. You may hear it within the music although, and you’ll inform when somebody’s being genuine or when someone’s chasing clout.
18. What’s been the proudest second of your profession to this point?
I feel Aphex Twin enjoying my music was probably the most personally validating factor.
19. What’s the perfect enterprise resolution you’ve ever made?
Hiring a supervisor. I like my supervisor. He’s the perfect. I resisted the trail of getting a staff round me for a very long time, as a result of I’m such a management freak and so impartial, and it felt like capitulating to the calls for of the market. Then I lastly acquired one and realized how a lot strain it takes off me as an artist and the way a lot I don’t need to take care of all of the day-to-day stuff. It’s so significantly better.
20. What’s one piece of recommendation you give to your youthful self?
Work tougher. I’ve by no means had a lot of a piece ethic till I used to be older. I met G Jones and I noticed his work ethic and labored along with him. I used to be like, “Oh my god, that is how you actually get some artwork made on this world. You simply need to grind.” If I may inform my youthful self that, I’d. However , I wouldn’t take something again. I’m who I’m as we speak due to what I did then, and I’m pleased.