European Indie Music Interview with Defiantbutterfly
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
My earliest memory connected to music, my mother had a record player and a collection of American folk music, jazz, and pop rock albums from the 1960’s and 70’s. She showed me how to use the turntable when I was very young, and I used to listen to those albums all the time. I’d sing along and daydream about the lyrics and songs.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
My passion for creating music started whenI took guitar lessons when I was 12 years old. I liked learning the songs my guitar teacher had assigned for practice, but I liked creating my own songs and chord changes even more. We also had a piano in our living room, and even though I really didn’t know how to play piano, I’d sit there and create my own songs and fill that room with the sound of the piano.
What is the story behind your current music project?
I am currently writing songs about life in our modern world that are mostly kind of stripped down 3 piece indie, alt rock combo arrangements: guitar, bass, drums and vocals. I wanted write and record songs that I can play in a combo, or solo, in either an acoustic or electric setting. I want to be able to sit in your living room or in a coffee shop or on a street corner with a guitar and play and sing these songs straight up. I think its important to create music that is real, real instruments played by real humans with vocals that are up front and honest and not buried behind a bunch of autotune filters that make anyone sound like a robotic everyone in pop music. I think its important to keep music honest and real and connected to the human experience, especially in today’s environment with AI sites where people simply type in a prompt and it spits out a song, then they slap their name on it and call themselves an artist.
I feel like AI generated songs and songs that are just a collection of loops copied and pasted together feel fake and lacking in soul or connection to any real emotion or human experience. They sound generic and disposable.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
I’d say my sound is an amalgamation of rock, folk, indie, blues, jazz, and Americana from every era lol. I don’t hesitate to let the sounds of the music from the past into the music of now. It keeps it alive and thriving in the modern era. I love every flavor of rock music, from rockabilly to punk to alt, indie, shoegaze, psychedelia, you name it. I love jazz, blues, outlaw music, electronica, industrial, new wave, all of it. I feel like if the sound fits the mood or feeling I’m trying to create, its fair game to use it. Some songs will fit into a genre box and others might get different genres a bit mashed up into the sound. So I guess, maybe expect the unexpected.
What is one thing you’ve leaned that completely changed the way you make music?
I’ve learned that maybe, sometimes less is more. Writing musical parts and arrangements that aren’t too busy, where the instruments complement each other rather than trying to stand out too much. The space between the notes is just as important as a tasty lick. Also, I think when recording and mixing a song, giving the arrangement enough uncluttered space for the instruments and vocals to have their own place so that the mix has a transparency that allows the listener to easily tune into and follow whatever part of the song or instrument in the arrangement they feel like listening to. I think some of my earlier releases were to busy and cluttered with competing ideas. It kind of gets back to what I mentioned earlier about my current projects, stripping the sound back actually gives you more.
What tools or instruments are essential in your creative process?
My essential tools and instruments are 2 acoustic guitars – a MIJ Yamaha Red Label FSX 5 has become my main acoustic, the atmosfeel electronics make it easier to get a natural acoustic sound when playing live or recording, and it just sounds and plays great. I also use a Canadian Seagull mini jumbo which has a very balanced kind of midrange forward warm sound. I use 2 Electric guitars – a PRS SE Custom 24-08 and a Yamaha Revstar 502t with P-90’s. Both are very versatile and can used in a lot of different ways, but they occupy different sonic territories. The Revstar sounds fantastic straight in to the amp, it has tons of sparkle and drive and sustain, but still has a warm vintage kind of quality, but with a unique modern thing going on. I like to use the PRS when stacking effect pedals on the signal chain, it has very articulate and balanced pickups that maintain nice string and note separation even when you run it through gain staged overdrive, distortion, fuzz type pedals and delays. Also the PRS allows you to split the coils on the pickups which gives it a bunch of tonal flexibility. My bass is a Yamaha BB434 with a P/J pickup configuration, which also gives a bunch of tonal flexibility, and it has a really nice full sound. I use a Nektar midi controller keyboard when playing keys or synths. I’m using soft synth instruments from Reason and Logic when I bring synthesizer or keys sounds into a song. I use Logic as my primary DAW software. I use a Line 6 HX Stomp for a lot of my amps and pedals for electric guitar and bass when I play live, it fits nicely on my pedal board and has tons of capabilities, and the Helix Native software allows me to bring those same sounds into the DAW for recording. I also use a TC Helicon play acoustic pedal on my pedalboard for acoustic guitar and vocals when playing live, it has some really nice subtle reverbs and light compression settings that help me get a nice natural sound through the PA. I also like to run my acoustic guitar and vocals through a UA Max compressor, it has a 610 preamp, an 1176 FET that I like for guitar, and an LA-2A optical tube compressor that I like for vocals. When used lightly and gently on the signals it gives everything a really nice warm analogue sound with a little saturation that I think sounds great. That’s probably more detail than you need, but I can nerd out on this stuff all day lol!
Which indie artist or song are loving right now?
I’m really loving Wolf Alice at the moment, I’ve had the My Love is Cool album on rotation since it came out 10 years ago lol. All their records are great listens and all sound quite different from each other. I really love how they just follow the songs where ever it takes them and don’t get hung up about trying to have a specific sound or trying to fit into a specific genre, or worry about the new songs sounding different from what they’ve done in the past. Sierra Ferrell is another one I’m loving now, some people might want to say she’ roots or Americana or whatever, but she’s doing her own thing the way she wants, and to me that’s as indie as it gets. I think she’s super talented and great song writer as well as a really fun performer to watch. Mannequin Pussy is another band I’m really loving, totally doing their own thing, they rock!
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
I think the way I grew up had a significant influence on my music and artistic vision. My father was in the Air Force and every couple of years he would get a new assignment and we’d move to a different part of the world. It was usually during the school year that we’d move, so my brother and I would get pulled out of one school in one part of the world and dropped down into a new school, town, neighborhood, etc… and just have to find our way through it. That upbringing made me a keen observer of the world and people. Not being a part of any particular scene or group allowed me to be open minded about pretty much everything. The ones that accepted and befriended me were of all different backgrounds, races, and identities and didn’t care that I didn’t fit in, they were the misfits also, they were open minded, so they understood. I think that taught me to see the world with fresh eyes and to be open minded and adventurous and find my own way. I think I approach music and art in that way also, I don’t really care if I don’t fit in to a scene or whatever, I like to stay open to new ideas and just go where the music and art take me.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
I think that even though all of our lives are so different, we still often times can feel the same kinds of emotions or feelings. So, I try to write songs about feelings that everyone can relate to in a way that you can bring your own stories and life experiences to the songs and feel those things in a way that makes sense to you. I don’t really write story type songs with names and places and characters, etc… I try to distill it down to the way things feel, then if you can relate to the feeling, you probably have your own life experience that comes to mind and the song is just a thread that connects us through our own separate life journeys.
What is the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
I think music teaches me many things. It can serve as an escape and a release, sometimes when I just play and sing either my songs or other musicians’ songs I can just get lost in the moment and let it carry me off somewhere. It’s also a discipline, as a musician you must practice and learn new things and consistently put in the work to get better and continue to grow. As a song writer, you have to just bear down and do the work. Writing lyrics is a process of writing and editing and rewriting. Getting the right sound for the song requires you to make a hundred decisions – which instruments, which amps, which effects, how will the vocals sound, etc… Then the recording and mixing is another process that requires time and effort and tons of decisions to be made. So, I think one of the most important lessons music has taught me is that the discipline of doing the work leads to those transcendent moments where you can let the music take you wherever it goes.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
I’m down to play anywhere really, but the either of the Primavera Sound Festivals, the Beaches Brew Festival, Best Kept Secret, INmusic, Down the Rabbit Hole, Mad Cool, I could go on and on lol!! Any place where people are there for the music.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
This is such a hard question to answer, there’s so many!
It’d be cool to write some songs with Neil Young, I think he’d be down to do acoustic songs, or big wall of sound electric songs, or straight ahead rockers, he’d probably be down for whatever. Same for David Bowie, Karen O any of the artists I mentioned before, I can’t stop lol!
Where can listeners follow and support your music?
https://www.instagram.com/dbutterfly007
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5iHTaer8xrlq_3U0BipNAA
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/defiantbutterfly/1522093159
Looking forward, what do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
I hope listeners discover that I’m writing playing and singing authentic original music that goes wherever the songs take it. If your looking for something real in this world of artifice, and are willing to see with fresh eyes and an open mind, you’ll probably find something to connect with in the music.
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