Interview: Five minutes with Esofact
Sometimes you need to step out of your own regular creative process and explore new dynamics. Urple Eeple (Peter Farr) and Isturite (Kevin Welch) have been doing this since 2014, resulting in the future bass duo: Esofact. The two have just released their latest single, ‘Blocks’ via Chillage Records (Peter Farr’s own label) on Friday the 13th. The track heralds the approach of their self-titled EP, which will be released early next year.
Esofact aim to defy genres and categorization, wanting their listeners to rather focus on the music itself rather than getting caught up in semantics. The tactic works well for the pair as they don’t limit themselves with production styles, choosing to do what works best for the music rather than what is expected.
Of course, this is the type of unusual forward-thinking that we love to see in the industry. It seemed only natural to follow up with an exclusive interview and learn a little more about the two producers behind the name Esofact.
Which comes first when you’re producing – the sound or the idea?
When we’re producing it can be either. Songs often start from some central idea or inspiration or sometimes come about naturally from messing around. With the latter, we might accidentally stumble upon a fantastic melody that drives the song and gives it shape. The idea for what the song means might develop over time as we are writing it in that case.
Does your material feature any collaborations?
All of our material are collaborations between us.
What’s on your current playlist?
Sweatson Klank – Gold Smoke, Ian Ewing – 17, Hudson Lee – Paper Planes, 92elm – Honest, Geotheory – Cleopatra, Point Point – F+L, Sumthin Sumthin – Mirrors, Joe Hertz – I Owe You
What techniques do you experiment with to get your original sound?
We use a lot of analog synths and found sounds which we meld together. I think individually we have very different approaches to sound design, which can blend together in very nice ways. I think originality in sound generally comes about naturally when you aren’t trying to be anything but yourself. When we make music together it always comes out sounding like ESOFACT. It’s a natural collision of our creative energies.
Was there a specific moment in your life where you thought, “this is what I want to do”?
For both of us, we felt that when we were very young playing guitar in various bands. Making music always felt absolutely perfect and right.
What do you keep close by while you’re playing a set?
Our equipment is about the only consistent thing that we always keep close by. Two laptops, and a few controllers. Otherwise, we aren’t picky. No lucky underwear or anything like that, haha.
What gets your creative juices flowing?
Other fantastic music can really inspire quite a lot. Getting a new synthesizer to play with. Life experiences that need to be expressed through song. I think music is a natural expression of the soul. You sit down at the keyboard and start playing and you start pouring yourself into the melody. The song starts to evolve on its own, and something starts to come out. Usually, it feels like the song should have always been here, and is just now being realized.
Take us through your collection of gear, tech or software that accompanies your creative expression.
We mostly use Ableton but sometimes will pull up Renoise, Reaper or Logic to accomplish certain types of tasks. Different DAWs are well suited for different types of things. It’s so easy to re-wire them into each other that I don’t think an artist should be limited by anyone. We also have a Prophet-6, an Elektron Analog Four, Moog Mother-32, a Microkorg. We have a few guitars we use as well and other instruments in the studio. As for software synths, we’re quite fond of Serum and DIVA. Personally, I think that you’ll always come up with more interesting music when you aren’t staring at a computer screen. That’s a big part of my love for analog synths. You can really dig into it, twist the knobs and play something that comes across very naturally.
Any side projects you’re working on?
Aside from Esofact we work on our solo projects (Urple Eeple and Isturite). I (Peter Farr) also have a side project called Project Royale which is a future garage project with Seapora.
Breakdown the news for us: what can we expect from you next year?
We’re releasing a debut EP that we are very excited about! This EP is a culmination of some of our finest unreleased work to date and is a definite feel-good future beats album.
Follow Esofact:
Facebook – Twitter – Soundcloud – Spotify
