Interview No. 182

Interview By: @The-Great-One

Patreon Post Date: Mar 30, 2022

Today's guest has graced the Audio Portal with inspirations from a comic artist in the Art Portal with the entries, Polymer Sunrise and Lurkers. To participating in the Newgrounds Tankmas ADVENTure 2020 with Fizzy Snow. They are also the winner of Best Audio for Pico Day 2021 with Nechromatic - World Wide Web [FULL EP]. I am most pleased to welcome @ARAMort.

Q: How did you find Newgrounds and why did you join?

A: So, I didn't have a computer at home, right? I was a new kid in a new country with nothing to his name, but I did have one friend that showed me around a local library and imagine my shock when I found out that they had computers! And I could use them for like, a whole HOUR every day??? At the time I didn't really know much about the internet, I just loved fiddling with computers. So imagine how flabbergasted I was when my friend told me that there were HUNDREDS of games online that I could play for FREE????? Seriously, huge revelation to me.

Problem is, it was one of these stinkin' sites that reuploaded stuff from Kongregate, Armor Games, Miniclip and of course Newgrounds. I kept seeing all these logos pop-up in games that seemingly had nothing to do with each other, and I think it was either Madness Regent or Accelerant that made me want to click on one of these things.

I instantly realised that I hit the source, and not only did the website look cooler but it also had CARTOONS???? Somebody hold me!!!

This was a really subconscious thing, but seeing that all these games weren't made by some mysterious 'Newgrounds Corporation' but rather just other people like you and me, it completely turned my life around and gave me purpose. I joined Newgrounds around 2009 swearing an oath that when I grow up, I would make something as cool as the most awesomest coolest people on the site!

In short: thank god for pre-loaders!

Q: At what age did you become interested in music?

A: Basically ever since I joined Newgrounds haha, so I guess when I was around like 9 years old. I wasn't really interested in music that much until I heard Cheshyre's work on the Madness series (pls interview him next thx). I swear to god I thought it was the coolest shit ever, he's definitely one of the reasons I've been infatuated with texture in music from a young age. When I found out that I could listen to all of these tunes on their own, without any of the gunshots or gore sound effects, as much as I wanted, and then put that stuff on my own CDs????? blew my mind. YouTube was blocked on these library computers so I relied exclusively on Newgrounds for music for quite a while. Good times.

Now, music making? Until like 5 or so years ago that was just a pipe-dream for me. I really wanted to do it, but it always seemed so inaccessible. It's a fact that music has a high barrier of entry. All the tools and instruments are expensive, and if you don't have anyone to show you the ropes you'll just keep bashing your head in frustration without making any progress.

I'm glad that this has been changing this past decade though, with tutorials and digital synths and instruments being so easily available and accessible to anyone with a computer. I probably wouldn't have gone anywhere with music if I wasn't able to acquire this stuff digitally.

Don't pirate software tho! Piracy is very bad and very illegal and you'll definitely go to jail! Just felt like saying that for no reason in particular hehe.

Q: What can you tell us about Animal Collective and their inspirations on your work?

A: You see, before discovering them, I only really listened to EDM, Dubstep and whatever I found on Newgrounds, which were great don't get me wrong, but I was kind of closed-off of anything that wasn't rhythmic and electronic. For whatever reason I was very against singing in music as well. Didn't like it at all. I think M83 and some instrumental post-rock bands were as far as it went for me.Damn do I really talk about them that much? There's too many things to say... so if anyone ain't interested in me gushing about my favorite artists y'all can skip this one lol. Seriously, this is gonna be corny as fuck.Now, I think every person that creates stuff has that ONE artist that completely changed some intrinsic aspect of themselves, and for me that's the band Animal Collective.

Then, out of nowhere, 'In The Flowers' comes in on a YouTube video and hooooly shit, I couldn't believe what I was listening to, it was like somebody flipped a switch. After that I devoured their discography, and what these guys ended up doing to my brain is that they completely warped and expanded my perspective on what music and art in general can be. I also discovered them when I was at a crossroads with art, I didn't really know if this was something I really wanted to pursue, I was seriously on the brink of quitting, but their music really reignited my desire to keep on going.

There's so many reasons as to why they are so influential to me. The way they use texture and melody is unlike anything out there, I don't think I've ever heard electronic music sound so alive before, with their soundscapes being so vivid and dense. And with all the details they cram into their songs, I keep discovering new sounds everytime I come back to them. They also keep re-inventing their sound with every single release, and I truly mean re-invent. Seriously, if you have the time take a listen to these 5 tracks in succession and tell me how the hell are these the same people making these songs?

1 2 3 4 5

And all of this without any pretensions of being deep or aggrandized egos, just normal dudes completely in tune with themselves, playing the music they like.

Again, this will sound super corny, but their way of doing things has made me realise that I can do anything and be anyone, without having to box myself into one thing. I work in so many different mediums now, and have so many diverse interests, and it's in great part thanks to their music.

Another fact when it comes to my sound work, I didn't actually start out making music, but rather mixing it. These dudes are super gracious when it comes to archiving live shows, they encourage people to record whatever they can and as such there's a whole community out there doing it. So a hobby of mine was to take these live recordings, mix them in with the album versions and then create my own personal versions of their music, all of this in Sony Vegas too! It was all very sloppy but it taught me a lot about properly EQ-ing and leveling stuff, and through this I also kinda managed to uncover some of the ways that they themselves make their music work.

So here's a tip, if you wanna make music but have absolutely no idea where to start, I recommend starting small by doing something like this, maybe loop that part of a song you like, maybe just slow it down and slap some reverb on it, and if you're feeling really adventurous maybe try making a mashup. Making the music you like your own in that way is super gratifying and you end up learning and connecting things together that'll help you later down the line.

It's kind of a roundabout way of getting into music-making, but hey it worked for me.

Of course Animal Collective aren't my only musical point of reference, far from it. I would love to make a write-up on all the artists that I love, but if I did this interview would be like 20 pages long AT LEAST lol. Join me next time for my dissertation on Za! and Oneohtrix Point Never.

In short: STREAM TIME SKIFFS NOW.

Q: You first song on Newgrounds is entitled Powered Chaindrill where you played around in Fruity Loops. What did you learn when playing with Fruity Loops?

A: That track is complete ASS!!! I don't really remember what I've learned per se, because it was the very first track I made in FL Studio... I guess I've learned that I've yet to learn a lot of things... yeeeah...

Shit, now I remembered, I was so clueless about how to use the damn thing, that I didn't even know how to make multiple patterns, nor how to export a track. If I remember correctly, I think I made that little synth loop and then I recorded the playback in Audacity in real time and put in all the percussion at random, on the fly, while the whole thing was looping every bar. All I remember is feeling completely demoralized after, I honestly don't know how I didn't quit making music haha.

What I did take away from that though is that I really liked playing around with synths. Twisting knobs and faders on a synth and making cool new sounds has to be one of the most fun and relaxing things on the planet.

Q: Primordial Soup, Polymer Sunrise, and Lurkers would be inspired by Amunito by @Hambonous. How did you come across this comic? What about it inspired these tracks?

A: @Hambonous and I have been bffs for a long time now! @Wandaboy and I, we kinda forced him into making a NG account. AT GUNPOINT. He was just ruminating on the idea of making this cool-ass comic inspired by the works of Moebius and the primordial soup. I was in a bit of a creative rut at the time, but this shit was so inspired and compelling to me that I made a batch of tracks in like, I think an hour or two? There wasn't even a comic page to draw inspiration from yet, I just went by his own descriptions. Those 3 tracks I uploaded were the best of the bunch. Hopefuly they are not the last tho! I would love to make something more 'official' later down the line, if Ham ever wants to do that... idk, time will tell I guess.

Q: Why was there a three-year gap between Powered Chaindrill and your Amunito inspired tracks? What were you working on during this time?

A: I was in my training arc, getting stronger and taking my vitamins 😎😎😎

After putting that first track on NG I knew that I had a huge road ahead to improve and learn. Most of this time I mostly spent on learning the tools and principles behind everything and toying around with plugins rather than actually making any music. There were some tracks here and there that I abandoned, and that's something I've learned to make peace with. Abandoning your work for whatever reason doesn't have to be painfull as long as you learn something from it, and luckily for me, that was the case most of the time. The few tracks that I did finish were kinda shitposty and inside-jokey, and I only really shared them with friends. Not really sure who else would even wanna listen to that stuff lol.

I also have a bunch of tunes I recorded on a shitty accoustic guitar. I would've liked to re-record some of them later down the line with a better mic, but the guitar broke and the mic never came. Such is life.

Q: You would be a part of Tankmas ADVENTure 2020. Your track Fizzy Snow would be featured. I really like this song, it gives me a sense of nostalgia of being at my parent's Christmas Party. You said it didn't start off as a festive holiday song, but pushed it in that direction. What was the song's original intent going to be? Why did you make the shift?

A: It's super good to hear that it evokes those feelings! I oftentimes wonder if the intent comes across in my music so it's awesome to hear that it does.

Originally this track was just a little FEZ inspired ditty I made around 2018, and it sounded something like this. Years pass, this thing rots on my hard-drive, and then one fateful night, my good friend @NoMoreChie approaches me and tells me that they needed some last-minute tunes for the Advent collab.

I wasn't sure if I could make something new in time, one of the organizers in that collab told me that I could send 'em whatever tracks I had that sounded wintery-ey.

So naturally, what I did was take this old-ass track that sounded vaguely cold, completely re-worked it and then I said to myself "yup, not good enough" and then just created a completely new part that sounds nothing like the first. All with sounds (mostly) made from scratch of course, couldn't help myself. I think Take Pills by Panda Bear kinda inspired the whole vibe and shift it took in the end with it being a two parter. It's really jovial sounding but you can't quite make out the details. It was a fuzzy year for all of us I think and that kinda reflects on the track

Q: You won the Best Song for Pico Day 2021 with your entry Nechromatic - World Wide Web [FULL EP]. Why did you release a full album for Pico Day? How did this project begin? How did it accumulate into a full album? What were your thoughts on winning Pico Day?

A: Yeah, WWW was kind of an accident lol.

It was really a spur-of-the-moment sorta thing, there was so much momentum on and around NG and that made me super invigorated to try my hand at something. In the beginning I wanted to make a couple short tracks in the style of some Newgrounds musicians that I loved from way back in the day, but I thought that'd I'd kinda be doing those artists and myself a disservice. After that I thought of remixing a couple iconic tracks, but it wasn't really turning out the way I wanted to, so I shot that idea down just as quickly as the last.

I took the risk of doing my own tracks my own way, mainly to take some pressure off. The main idea now was to make tracks that, while not directly referencing Newgrounds itslef, would evoke the sounds and vibes of Newgrounds and the internet from way back then. Leaning into making this a genre pastiche really helped me to get an idea of how the finalized idea would sound like and to not worry too much about it. I only intended for maybe 3 tracks max, but then it went completely out of hand. It went so out of hand in fact that I missed a ton of classes just to finish the thing. Probably the best decision I made that year lmao.

I'm not gonna delve too much into the process since I made a whole write-up that goes over every song, so if that sounds interesting to you then check it out!

As for winning, I'm honestly still suprised.  Not because I think that WWW didn't turn out awesome, I wouldn't change anything about it. It's just the fact that I took the risk to do something more personal and it paying off. I listen to it from time to time and when I do I'm like "Did I really make this? Me? With my own two hands?", almost like an outsider. And my outsider self says that it sounds really fuckin' cool!

I used the prize money to get my first MIDI controller and let me tell ya, that's already changed the way I'm doing things. Seeing tangible change from my work is something I seldom see.

And this interview? Man, that's super awesome too. I mean just taking a glance at your past interviews, a lot of those people are a key reason in why I'm an artist in the first place. I dunno if I'll ever have that effect on people, but man is it cool to have a little corner here next to the greats. 

Also, gotta shout out Elikapika and QueenBoo for making some badass art based on the EP. I seriously do appreciate it.

Q: What is in your opinion, the definition of music?

A: The more I've come to learn about music the more broad that definition's become. In this time and place, I feel like music is just assembled sound and as long as the intent is for it to be music, then it's music. Simple as. Merzbow blasting vaccum cleaners for 2 hours? 100% music in my book. Yoko Ono's dissonant yelping? Absolutely. It's all just as musical to me as The Beatles and The Wiggles. Doesn't mean I like it all, but there's definitely a lot of value to it.

Q: What can we expect from ARAMort in the future?

A: I could honestly ask you the same question haha. School's completely sucked all the creative juices out of me, so it's hard to make any plans rn.

I need to get back to drawing more, so hopefully you'll see more on that side come summer. I also want to finally get into animation, as that's what I set out to do when I joined Newgrounds in the first place. It'd be awesome to finally make some fun shit with my friends. As far as music goes... I mean I'm always fiddling around with stuff. I probably have like 2-3 albums worth of unfinished tracks that'll never go anywhere. Because of that, I'm trying to kind of un-learn and re-learn the way I've been doing things for the past 5 years. I want my stuff to sound more fleshed out and let myself loose, but doing so within the rigid framework of a DAW is kinda hard when you're doing all of this in a vaccum. Hopefully I'll also collab more in that front. I wanna LEARN from other cool musical people!!! I just haven't really had the chance to do so. So if you're a cool musician with cool tricks up your sleeve and u wanna make some cool noise hit me up lol :DDD

Also, here's a lil track for making it all this way (INTERVIEWER EXCLUSIVE!!!). It's not really a sign of anything I might do in the future, I just wanted to revisit and remake one of my very first tracks. Future stuff will be tastier and far different from what you might've heard from me until now, I can assure you that much.

ARAMort is a musician here who is always building upon their craft. The hiatus spent, coming back better than ever. To taking a small project and making a full album. ARAMort is indeed an underrated talent here on Newgrounds. Recognized? Sure, absolutely. They should be taken notice of more though. Here's to seeing what else ARAMort has in store. Perhaps something grand for this year's Pico Day.

The Tank Tribune is a part of Dohn's Desk Productions

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