Getting to Know… DiipSilence | Interview 🎤

For the incredibly intriguing 62^nd interview on The Musical Hype, Chinese electronic artist-producer DiipSilence provides the ‘411.’ 

“I do believe there’s no ‘bad’ sound in the world, every sound has its unique voice, every sound can be made into music.” I’d totally agree with that as DiipSilence, sigh.  More often than not, the interviews in the Getting to Know… series have been geared towards bands.  But, for Interview #62, we totally change things up, bringing the Chinese electronic artist-producer, based in Los Angeles, California, into the fold.  Honestly, DiipSilence provides some of the most thorough answers ever – he’s quite brilliant.  No need to reveal any more things by the artist influenced by the likes of Coco Rosie, Massive Attack, Sigur Rós – read the utterly superb Getting to Know… DiipSilence: Interview #62 for yourself!

Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype (Faulkner): Let’s get this started off right. For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes you distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

DiipSilence: Hi, this is DiipSilence. I’m a Chinese electronic artist-producer based in LA. I love to make music with field recordings and Foleys, which usually means there are not very many acoustic instruments. Instead, I create my own sample and sound design them into different instrument patches. For example, put a keychain sound into wavetable synth, then make the sound completely unrecognizable, such as a drum, pluck, synth lead, pad, etc. I do believe there’s no “bad” sound in the world, every sound has its unique voice, every sound can be made into music.

Faulkner: That’s fascinating, plus, I totally heart the ‘no bad sound in the world’ statement! Exploring some juicy backstories, how did you ‘get your start’ and what were some of the goals or the visions you had early on?

DiipSilence: As a solo artist, my early stage was actually working as a mixing engineer. I graduated in math and tried to make it into the music industry by taking audio engineering class at LA, and then worked as a mixing engineer and film post sound designer. This experience changed a lot in my music production when I tried to combine the sound design skills into making music. Lots of my sounds are from the field recordings while traveling or just wondering in the city. My vision, for now, is to create my palace of music that [are] made from all location sounds… Yes, it’s electronic music, but it’s also organic and authentic for sure.

Faulkner: Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

DiipSilence: To be honest, my perspectives haven’t changed a lot since first starting out. I love listening and playing music, exploring the sound world, it’s quite a simple thing. I do have goals, small and practical goals like keep releasing music every month, keep learning music every day, keep thinking every day, etc. If somebody is listening to my music and can feel my emotion just like I’m talking to them, even [if] that’s only one person, I feel blessed.

Faulkner: Very insightful. Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

DiipSilence: I love trip-hop music – Coco Rosie, Massive Attack, Sigur Rós are some of my biggest musical influences.

Faulkner: Ah, the fun stuff. What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

DiipSilence: It’s an interesting question. I was on stage and suddenly expelled out of a venue because the venue can’t afford [the] electricity fee. It’s like I literally need to get out “right now.” I know this is not crazy but more like a sad story, but on the other hand, it was quite a wacky moment, I’ll remember the moment that there was no sound, except my voice coming out, which was a bizarre experience.

Faulkner: Definitely a distinct answer in my book. Continuing on, up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

DiipSilence: My favorite song is “Fury Tail,” it’s a Chinese song that I wrote in the form of ancient Chinese poems, which inspires me a lot in lyrics writing, I love the minimalism of ancient Chinese language. Sound-wise, this is the first time that I combined western electronic music style, like Trap, Electro, etc. with Chinese ethnic music, it’s enjoyable to put an 808 along with a Chinese bamboo flute. During the bridge of the song, it’s me reading my favorite ancient Chinese poem. It’s fascinating for me to explore how different elements can be mixed together without boundaries. After writing this song, I realized that music should not have any limit, music is freedom.

Faulkner: Awesome! Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

DiipSilence: I’m a die-hard fan of anime LOL!

Faulkner: Closing this thing out, what is you/your band currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

DiipSilence: My latest release is an EP titled Reticent Path. It’s a six-song EP that contains my acoustic instrumental tracks wrote during the past two years. I’ll have a full-length album coming up in the next two or three months.  This is very unique to me because I am usually releasing singles or EPs. On the new album, most of the songs also have lyrics, which is quite a challenge to me as well coz most of my music are instrumentals. Stay tuned at http://smarturl.com/diipsilence!

Faulkner: Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.

DiipSilence: Thanks very much for preparing these questions!

Photo Credits: Brent Faulkner, DiipSilence, The Musical Hype