AeTopus (Bryan Hughes) Interview - The Final On Vinyl Podcast

What a great conversation I had with Bryan Hughes, the creator of AeTopus.

We discussed his music, process, equipment, and other music-related topics.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

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Transcript

Speaker 2 0:14

Hello everybody, Keith MuzikMan Hannaleck with the Final on Vinyl Podcast, and today we have a guest that is into ambient electronic music and has a new album now that was released actually February 21st. , and the artist behind that name is Brian Hughes, and the album is called IOTA. Welcome aboard Final on Vinyl Podcast, Brian.

Speaker 0:42

Hi, Keith. Thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 2 0:46

Well, I appreciate you coming on board to talk, and uh I definitely have some questions for you in regards to after you know looking at the artwork, you know, the title and going to all the tracks and writing about all that. Um questions like uh how did you come up with the name of you know being the artist Aetopus and Iota is in um not capital letters, and there's some reason for that, I'm sure. So I would love to hear what you have to say about those two subjects.

Speaker 1:22

Sure, sure. Um I guess I'll start with um with uh my my moniker name, uh topis. Um atopus, uh it's it's just kind of a word that I made up a long time ago. Um it's a a compound word. Uh the AE kind of suggests uh time, and uh topus suggests place. And it it's not like, oh, I'm I'm trying to be all Latin about it or you know, tricky. It's just it's a word I came up with that I I like the way it sounded. And the reason I decided to go with a kind of a pseudonym like that uh was because I I do come from a band environment, you know, where my band mates and I would sit around at three in the morning and brainstorm uh you know names for our bands. And there there are also a few other Brian Hughes in the world that are kind of well known. Like I think there's a uh uh uh English soccer player, footballer named Brian Hughes. There was a Texas politician about two decades ago, and so I didn't want to be confused with all that. So anyway, I just decided to name my project A Topus. It was just the best brainstorming idea that stood out. Um yeah, that's uh the the theme of the album is I I try to kind of keep things abstract with uh both the music. You you have to name it something, and you know, there has to be some sort of uh tie-in with uh with the the the the cover art and you know uh song titles and everything. And you know, after everything was starting to to uh gel together, um I the the music is is sort of uh the the theme is uh like a very nuanced, small detailed uh kind of elements of communication that Iota just kind of steps out of the right.

Speaker 1 3:49

And of course, like you know, not capitalizing the eye uh the the I.

Speaker 3:57

There there was there was a main idea behind that, which was you know, it it's a small thing, you know, there's no need to be bombastic or uh huge about the the title of the album. Um but also every uh font that we used, um, and when I say we, I I mean uh myself, uh Daniel Pipotone, the graphic designer from Spotted Packers Music, you know, it everything looked like an L when you when you use a capital I. So we just decided to go with the lowercase I.

Speaker 2 4:35

I see. Well, what is that a picture of on the cover exactly?

Speaker 4:42

That is something that uh Daniel and I came up with. Um it's kind of cool how uh how Daniel works, you know, and and spotted peccary music in general. They do uh they welcome and accept a lot of input from their artists um in in all aspects, including the the artwork approach. And so I I made a few sketches and you know threw out uh a color scheme that I thought would be appropriate. Uh and and Daniel just takes these ideas and works with them. Um like I sketched all these all these little icons and rooms um and scann them and send them to him, and then he kind of messed around and we kind of agreed that uh an old kind of 1950s, 60s Soviet era uh like a space panel on a on an old wall would would uh get the idea across. And then of course underneath all that is that vast technological expanse behind the behind the rotting old uh facade.

Speaker 1 6:08

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6:10

I know, and you know, uh honestly, uh sometimes you just keep these things abstract. I mean it it it doesn't uh the nature of uh wordless electronic music is it's probably one of the most pure uh forms of abstract uh uh creativity there is, you know. But I'm I'm really not one to just have a you know like a blue canvas or you know, something completely unrecognizable. So that's uh a lot of it uh ends up being up to the listener's imagination.

Speaker 2 6:51

Oh I totally agree with everything you said there. Um the music is really relaxing, spacey ambient. And one of the questions I like to ask for the people out there that actually make music themselves too, is is interesting to know what kind of equipment you use. Are you using vintage equipment and newer equipment or just newer equipment? What's your your process and what do you use?

Speaker 7:19

Yeah, my setup is kind of funny. Uh it's it's I I consider it a kind of a hybrid approach. I I do have, I've gotten rid of a lot of my uh clunky hardware from the the 90s and early 2000s. I'm not the type that that has the space or the patience or the budget to keep a room full of fancy vintage synthesizers, but I do have some some uh older rack mount things. I've got an older Oberheim, uh an Alis Quadra synth. Um I use an Evo Proteus 2000 uh and and these are these are like I said, they're rack units, and I use keyboard controllers to get the sounds out of them.

Speaker 1 8:09

Um and I I use a DAW, a lot of soft synths.

Speaker 8:15

Um I I find uh uh environmental sound samples. I have a a high-res uh stereo recorder that I take with me when I go to someplace I think I'll get some good sounds. Um I use uh you know I collect uh hand percussion instruments, so I've got uh an array of microphones that I can use to uh you know if I feel like I need some uh like a more organic texture. Um so that all goes together. I also uh work in Ableton, but um and for the uninitiated, you know, that's just uh that's a live uh program that kind of allows you to goof around with uh music in ways that maybe you wouldn't if you were just uh sitting in a studio and and and I have a bunch of controllers. So it's kind of a a a hybrid of old and new, I guess you would say. But I'm not a fancy I'm not a fancy studio person. I don't I don't surround myself with like you know tons of keyboards and stuff. That's just uh like I said, I don't have the room, I don't have the budget to fix those things and maintain them.

Speaker 2 9:37

So and I'm not an addict, you know, I'm not a gear addict. Thank goodness. Well, you did an amazing job considering uh what you had to work with then. You know, I mean there's people that have all that and don't even come close to what you have for an outcome, you know.

Speaker 9:54

Uh oh, I appreciate you saying that.

Speaker 2 9:58

What genuinem amazes me is uh the rhythm that I'm hearing in these compositions. Now, your ability to do that, is that because you are a trained piano player? You know, are in classical mode? I mean, did you start playing piano when you were six, seven years old? I mean, how did all that develop over the years?

Speaker 10:20

Yeah, well, you you hit hit it on the head there. I I did uh my mom did uh get me into uh piano lessons at a pretty early age, and I did that until I was maybe 15 and you know was able to play uh at a pretty I I would say at a pretty good level uh you know, classical pieces. Um but you know, and that that's just stuff that gets hardwired into your brain. And you know, as I later in my teenage years and twenties, I kind of got crazy and I was uh played in uh you know funk bands and metal bands and uh punk. Uh so yeah, you know, and all it all kind of came together, but as as far as the rhythm rhythms, um a lot of that uh comes from almost a more modern exposure to uh uh what's you know what's been going on in the past ten years in the electronic world. And I I'm not a big electronic or EDM or rave person or anything. I I couldn't dance to save my life, let alone you know be up there with with turntables and that stuff. But uh I like what is called uh in recent years, unfortunately it's called IDM, intelligent dance music, which is probably an insult to people who just like plain old dance music.

Speaker 2 12:01

Um but oh you have to be intelligent to dance though?

Speaker 12:04

You have to apparently be intelligent. Yeah, it's it's one of those those those uh industry things. I don't know who comes up with uh with these things, but and and even the artists who who do this kind of music hate it, hate the name. Uh but um a lot of it uh uh centers on beats and rhythms that are not 4-4, you know, they're not really terribly danceable. Um you know, I work in 5-4, 7-4, 9-4, 11-4. Um, and it when you can see all that and rearrange things in uh an audio workstation, you you come up with patterns that you never would, you know, that Mozart would have never dreamed of. You know, it just gets kind of crazy.

Speaker 2 12:59

Yeah, that I was gonna say that. You took the words right about my mouth. That's crazy. It's like very progressive.

Speaker 13:06

Yeah, but at the same time, you know, as as a creative person and as someone who wants to listen to, you know, music still has to be human. You just can't have this mathematical insanity going on and and call it a song. You know, you have to listen to it and go, you know, you know, that that that really doesn't work.

Speaker 1 13:28

It does.

Speaker 13:30

And so, you know, what what I do is, you know, plus, you know, I'm I'm dealing with um with recorded audio uh a lot of the time. And so I can't just call it good. I uh everything has to fit together like a mosaic, like a like a quilt. Right.

Speaker 2 13:47

So like all the layers, the layers of music that you put together, right? Right, for sure. Definitely a lot of that that I recognize in the music. And uh what I find very interesting as well, and you might feel the same way, um, is how new age music has developed over the years. I mean, there was a certain sound that it had, say, in the 80s, and it's blossomed into all these other subgenres, which is where you're at, you know, ambient electronics, uh contemporary instrumental, there's jazz in there, there's world. I mean, it's just really expanded over the years. What are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 14:32

Definitely. I mean, I mean, like I I like I mentioned, I I got into you know some kind of harder uh music uh as a teenager, which I think a lot of us did. And um, but at the same time I was exposed to um things like Guitaro and uh Ray Lynch and uh I never pronounce his name right. Andreas, is it Bolinweder or Bolinweeder?

Speaker 2 15:02

Bolweider. Bolenleiter.

Speaker 15:05

Yeah, that it's yeah, you rarely hear it actually said. I I read it more than I say it. Um, you know, in the in the older the 1970s and early 80s tangerine dream, you know, I I was exposed to all that because my uh grandparents were in that into that. And um all over the years, all this sort of combined, you know, eventually I got into industrial music and uh kind of goth. You know, I was a fan of the project records label um uh a couple decades ago, and it all kind of congealed, you know. Uh and what I found is uh even though I liked all the all the Windham Hill stuff and all the things that we we call called New Age and still call New Age, it definitely has branched out a lot. And and uh you know, I almost feel at this point I'm more of an electronic artist than a like a new age artist, even though I was kind of included in that in that group 20 or so years ago with my first couple of releases.

Speaker 2 16:22

Right, and that's how I got into it too. You know, George Winston, was it Alex de Grasse?

Speaker 1 16:28

Right.

Speaker 2 16:30

Just a whole bunch of those artists that caught my ear and thought, wow, how different is this compared to you know, throwing a KISS album on or whatever. It's just so different. And I I loved to see how music develops and all these subgenres pop up. Because you can't put anything, you can't put anything in a box that way.

Speaker 16:54

Yeah, oh I I I looked really quick at at some of the recent reviews that you did, and I was I was like kind of smiling at some of them. I was like, oh, rock and roll of Judas Priest. I had that I had that out of the cellar by rat. Although I I wouldn't uh I wouldn't say I wouldn't be too proud of that. But you know, gotta admit I was I was running around in spandex with jet black uh hair down to my lower back.

Speaker 2 17:27

So I want to see a picture of that.

Speaker 17:36

Well one of the problems with that is I I I'd have to like find a negative and scan it, you know. It's like it exists.

Speaker 2 17:46

Well, we all come from someplace, especially when it comes to music. And as far as I'm concerned, I I'm pretty much wide open. Um, you know, rap or or um um operas. That's so those two are probably out, but everything else is, you know, I'm I'm open to listening to. Yeah. That's what I try to do as far as the my listening experiences and my reviews. Get a little taste of everything in there to bring in an audience that is exactly like that, looking for something new or different, or looking to compare or contrast between genres, you know.

Speaker 18:25

Yeah, and it's easier to, you know, in in your position, you know, as a reviewer and uh you know a podcaster or an announcer and everything, it's probably uh I mean it it's just so valuable having all that exposure. I was a uh college radio DJ, you know, uh for a while, and boy, that just did so much for my my understanding of music. You realize that there's there's actually good stuff in every single genre like across you know, I ever since recorded music started. So and and it influences you, you know, it informs your tastes, and you know it's great.

Speaker 2 19:12

Subconsciously too. It's not like you're actually thinking about those certain things that that come up when you're listening to different kinds of music. It's I imagine for somebody who actually creates it, there's all these things in the subconscious mind that are initiating thoughts and feelings and making those fingers move a certain way.

Speaker 19:32

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I I actually, you know, in in recent years I've I've been on this sort of personal quest to like figure out, okay, where, you know, what uh where does do these ideas come from? Like where what is the origin? And I I came across this YouTube video of a few weeks ago. It was fascinating because it was true. Um, this guy was like, okay, you know, instead of trying to figure out what genre your music fits into, and you know, to instead of trying to make something up so you know, so that you can understand who you are when you're you know doing an interview or trying to write an autobiography piece for a press release or something, all you gotta do is think of your ten favorite songs of all time, like ever. Don't worry about who it's from, don't worry about what genre it's from, and then just write down, write those down and write down a few words that uh uh uh of why you like these songs. And I I did that, it only took a couple minutes, and it was interesting what I came up with because uh there was uh a couple of moody soundtracks in there, the uh the Dark Crystal soundtrack, uh the Star Wars soundtrack, but also uh one of my favorite songs of all time is Thieves by Ministry. It's just the hardest, most angst-ridden song, you know, hard industrial song. And of course, mixed in there is is like uh uh some Tangerine dream and some old Kitaro, just really gentle stuff. And so you roll all this, you roll all this stuff up uh into one thing, and it actually does end up being a topus. It's fascinating.

Speaker 2 21:42

You know, it's funny you brought up tangerine dream because I don't know how many of my my reviews you took a look at with, you know, like maybe on my new age site, but um I reference tangerine dream and craft work a lot, and I just can't help it because I hear it. I hear it in all this music, especially the tangerine dream.

Speaker 22:02

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's pine pioneering. I I think a lot uh it you you almost have to be either a a certain age or you have to be such a huge collector or listener of music. I mean almost like a hundreds almost. And and so my my my uh my influence as far as Tangerine Dream goes just boils down to three albums. You know and they're they're the ones where I can listen to it and identify the songs you know Green Desert, Phaedra, and uh Sorcerer the Sorcerer soundtrack from I don't know, 1982 maybe Phaedra is definitely a classic yeah yeah so so when I say Tangerine dream and you know I'm I'm I I like craft work as well it it it speaks of an a a a slice of time rather than rather than a band or a a genre.

Speaker 2 23:19

That's true because they were on for so long. Well La Parque is my favorite tangerine dream. I absolutely love that album.

Speaker 23:26

Yeah yeah yeah I mean it's all it's all amazing it's just like so much well this has been great fun talking to you um I I love your viewpoints and your music and uh I hope that what I said about your music was satisfying to you and and hit some good points for people to want to seek it out.

Speaker 2 23:54

And I really enjoyed uh your review it's it's it's just fascinating to me to hear uh uh uh other folks uh standpoint uh you know how how they're hearing it yeah and it's not designed to all come across exactly the same to everyone I really appreciate everybody's different right yeah really appreciate and typing well I appreciate your time and your music sir I hope we can do this again sometime soon and uh everybody out there ladies and gentlemen that are looking to hear some fresh ambient electronic music look for a topis and uh Brian Hughes is the creator of ATOPUS and we released his album IOTA in February of this year and I thank you so much for your time sir and thanks for uh for giving me your time and uh we'll talk again I appreciate it. Okay Brian you take care.

Speaker 24:56

Have a great year okay same to you thank you.

Speaker 1 25:00

All right bye bye bye bye