Creating Music That Breathes with OVERSEA - Music Production Podcast #427

podcast
Written By Brian Funk

Sebastien Heintz makes electro-acoustic music under the name OVERSEA. His new album BEYOND is a modern ceremonial album made for transcendental experiences.

Sebastien and I spoke about his work as OVERSEA and how has been using music for meditation and healing. Sebastien explained how he uses Ableton Live as a live performance instrument. We also discussed finding the creative flow in activities such as surfing, meditation, and music-making.

Sebastien put together a download Ableton Live effects and sounds he used on the new album!

Free Download: OVERSEA BEYOND Ableton Live Pack

Get the OVERSEA BEYOND Free Ableton Live Instrument Pack here: https://brianfunk.gumroad.com/l/kvvvijh

Listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube

Links:

Thank you for listening. 

Please review the Music Production Podcast on your favorite podcast provider!

Episode Transcript:

Brian Funk (00:01.772)

What's up, Sebastian? Welcome aboard. Great to have you.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (00:04.301)

Thank you so much, Brian. So happy to meet you and and be here tonight with you. Today, today is today for you, it's tonight for me, but

Brian Funk (00:10.626)

Very happy to have you. Yeah, we have a little time difference. You're in Portugal. I'm on Long Island, New York. So yeah, we we've got an ocean between us, but so much in common, so much to talk about. So it's great to get to it. congratulations on the new record, beyond.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (00:31.433)

Thank you. Thank you. It's just been out a few weeks and it's already so I've been so blessed and touched by the way it's it's been welcome. So thank you so much.

Brian Funk (00:42.766)

Hm. Yeah. I I've been listening, you know, over the last few weeks just to familiarize myself. But today in particular, I was kind of telling you, I was, you know, it was Monday morning, rushing to get to work and the hectic, you know, speed of life. And I got in the car and I put your record on and it was just a great exhale. It was and I I had such a nice ride. It was

just refreshing and put me in a great place to start the day. It was pretty much about the length of the drive, a little bit longer, so I didn't get the whole thing in, but it was yeah, just really nice moods, some nice soundscapes and also, you know, to do music like this that's very ambient, I guess you would say, like in nature and

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:13.224)

Looking in relation to 13.

Brian Funk (01:36.3)

There's a lot of melody, there's a lot of nice texture in there. So you've there's a lot going on. I I think, you know, more than a lot of ambient music often has chord changes and things like that. So, I found it pretty interesting on that level too, is it's it's really cool.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:54.973)

Thank you so much and and I'm I'm I feel blessed because I feel like the mission is accomplished. If you have if you had like a a moment to just zone out and and kind of rest while you were driving to work, it's kind of it's a good good way to to feel it. So yeah. So happy about that.

Brian Funk (02:08.43)

Mm.

Brian Funk (02:15.564)

Yeah, we could use more of that kind of stuff in the world, probably for a lot of us, right?

OVERSEA (sebastien) (02:19.856)

For sure, and that's also why I wanted to create this this type of album and and you were mentioning ambient and and already is so much to uncover, you know, but I don't come from ambient music at all and a at the start of my music journey, career, whatever. And but but I wanted to create a a longer piece, like a longer album with this type of space, you know, and

and being able to to kind counterbalance our culture and social media is and s the fast in in which we live in at the moment. So it's it's it feels very good that you you know you're mentioning the car drive this morning after you're rushing out to get to to work. It's it's it feels good.

Brian Funk (03:09.25)

Yeah, and y you know, as I'm talking to you now, this is actually the first time I've seen your image in full screen of whereas before it had the split screen as we were setting up. But I'm seeing your your layout and in your I guess you're in your studio. and it is there's like a balance happening right now in the shot. On the left side of you you've got all your electronics and synthesizers, and on the right side we've got a bunch of guitars and a couple of other things I think

OVERSEA (sebastien) (03:24.425)

Yeah. That's true. I just kind of tried to put that Yeah. That's that's right. Yeah.

Brian Funk (03:38.712)

hiding in there. And I think that's a nice blend of what we're hearing, it sounds like, on the record.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (03:45.496)

Yeah. Yeah. So funnily enough, I so I come from guitar. I was I started playing music when I was ten and I was fascinated by guitar and I grew up playing guitar, you know, so it was a very different world than what I'm w very different music than what I'm doing today. And there was I I grew up in Switzerland in the French speaking part of Switzerland and I was a fan of a a guy, a French guitar player

called just the letter And he's a kind of a guitar hero in France. And and it was really my mentor as a kid. You know, I was really passionated by guitar. And it's and and when I started playing guitar, quickly started playing piano as well. And then I got my first node stage which had a few synth sound but I was not into ambient. And it's it's more recently that I got into synthesizer. I was in London

And I fell in love with the the Core GMS 20 that's over there. And yeah, I I like Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're so good. And I was in the studio in in Telliot Studios in London, and they had the the old one. And it that kind of started my love for synthesizer, which then brought me into a bit more of an experimental approach to music in general, and it it just also allowed me to

Brian Funk (04:48.651)

Hm. It's got the same one. The the kind of newer mini one that they made. Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (05:15.244)

not give a rest not you know, not not just get away from guitar but also open my musical knowledge and mind and experiments as well, with with synths and and that's that's kind of how I ended up doing Beyond or you know, all the work I'm doing now was just that particular moment in time where I fell in love with the the the the Korg S twenty and just it was just a a snowball effect from

from that very moment. And and funny enough, you're mentioning guitar is when I was almost finished with the new album and I didn't put much guitar in it. And I was actually about to finish the mixes and so something didn't feel quite like me. And I I was reflecting on it and and I thought I think it's missing guitars. And that's how I got back into it. It was the very last week

before I was sending it to Master and and I added all the guitars that are are now in the in the album and it just felt finished when I added the guitars it felt like I'm a whole you know as as this album could be and as I wanted to present it. So thank you because yes the guitars were not supposed to be there because overseas as a artistic project was always about my synth experimental side and

And less about my guitarist side, but I'm happy to merge the two together now, you know. So I'm glad you're mentioning it, you know.

Brian Funk (06:53.793)

Mm.

It's interesting how I f I've found this a lot in my own path and in a lot of artists I've followed and spoken with how these things kind of come together eventually. A lot of times we go off on these paths and we take I w I was the same way, guitar player, you know, rock bands and not much in the way of keys or synthesizers really at all in any of the music that we played and

Then it sort of crept in a little bit and little I think that what really excited me was hearing kind of chip tune sounds in synthesizer, like putting just a square wave and be It sounds like Nintendo And I thought that was really cool and it had a lot of nostalgia from my childhood. And that started getting me kind of interested in it. And it was plugins of course at first and I had no idea why anyone would need to buy a physical synthesizer because

OVERSEA (sebastien) (07:40.981)

Yeah.

Brian Funk (07:54.92)

of how much you could do with plugins until I got my hands on a physical synthesizer and I was like, I I get it. Turning the knobs, controlling interacting with it like a like a like an instrument, I guess, like a machine that you can play with. but then a lot of my music started to go on in that direction and it it'd been a little while since I'd picked up the guitar, which has really always been the way I interact with music the most and the

OVERSEA (sebastien) (07:57.839)

Yeah.

Brian Funk (08:24.873)

I understand music the most through the guitar. and I'm kind of at that point too where now the blending and incorporating and almost doing synthesizer like things to my guitar and and guitar like things to my synthesizers running. We were talking about I've got the Chroma console here running it through guitar pedals. it's been a lot of fun. So it's nice to hear how there's like a sort of

OVERSEA (sebastien) (08:35.06)

Instead of value by these houses.

Brian Funk (08:54.123)

You know, three sixty kind of thing happening for you.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (08:57.611)

Yeah, and I think it's a you know, it's kind of a conversation between our different sides and our different kind of love for sounds. I don't know if it feels like this for you, but you know, like you were saying, y the guitar inspired you to play synth differently and synth in inspired you to play guitar differently and and I feel the same way. and i it just opened up so much in my music, getting into synth and and also just

wanting to have my guitar sound different. You know, I I I w I was sh I don't know, I've been playing for fifteen years, you know, playing guitar for fifteen years and although I was always passionated by different sounds and pedals, I was like very early on I had pedals and I was messing around with with the pedals. But just to kind of the synth world is is another kind of metaverse out there, you know?

Brian Funk (09:47.213)

Mm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (09:57.381)

And when you get into it, it kind of

start this conversation with the rest of your I mean it did for me in in my case. It started a conversation for me in the guitar world as well. It just like wanted to treat it differently. You were saying that and I think it's it's it's one of those moments where you feel like you're evolving as a musician also and it's it's one of those beautiful way to kind of counter any plateau effect that we can have at some point because you know you know how it is when we've been playing

playing for so long, sometimes it it it you can kind of feel in a rut and just finding ways to rediscover your instrument by using other instruments to inform this conversation is I mean it was a big part of of my journey and and and my musical journey because I don't really like the word career but in in everything I do today has been inspired by how I got away from guitar to come back to it with a different

an angle you know so it's it's funny you know.

Brian Funk (11:05.172)

Yeah, it it does. I find that a lot with all the different ways I guess I interact with making music now, which I'm guessing you probably have, you know, coming from guitar, you I imagine you played and probably groups and bands and learned making music that way and then you get into sequencing and you get into these other methods of where it's more recorded based.

And you're writing that way, it's so nice, I guess, when you get down those roads a little bit to realize like, okay, today I could and this is also the source of a lot of my struggle and procrastination in that I don't know which one I want to pick to start with today, but I could start with the guitar, old style, make a song that way, or or maybe on a MIDI controller or maybe a sequencer. And there's always a fresh way to approach it.

when you have some of these different things going on. But which can also, like I said, be the problem too. You have too many options, too many choices.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (12:08.024)

Yeah, for sure. We can get lost in the kind of the geek world and and just having too many options. Most recently I was I had to my computer died, so I had to redo my whole Ableton and my whole and I had to go through all my plugins to f and I I think I I probably didn't reinstall all of them. And it's just the statement of sometimes we get so many of those sounds and plugins we don't even use because we're so used to what we use all the time and we

Brian Funk (12:19.464)

no.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (12:37.549)

we got we get distracted. So a lot of a a lot of beyond of this album and and my most recent work is was about just trying to get away from the the the plug in crazy mind, you know, like getting more plugins and just trying to be a bit more creative with what I have. Even with my synth, you know, I I I do have some dream synth in mind, but

for now this is my collection and and I try to be as creative and I think this is this is the way to kind of also to me was about to to to help me finish stuff. You know, it's it's about what what because we we asked the question about what we are missing or what we want to add to our collection arsenal in a way. But in the end it's it's how can we use what we have to be creative and to sound different.

than what we did two years ago or how to evolve from that. And this this road was was very inspiring to me and it and it still is because yeah some pedals on my board I've you know I have the I think it's the DL4 the line six DL4 delay that I had for I don't know 15 years but I'm still trying to find ways to to

to be inspired by it and and be excited when I do something with it. It's not always the case, but I think it's it's it's it's good to have this kind of almost gratitude like reverence towards what we have and and almost stretching it like yeah a a gratitude thing and and being creative with this to me was was a a big a big thing a few years ago. Hmm.

Brian Funk (14:04.438)

Mm.

Brian Funk (14:30.41)

I like that thought process, the gratitude of it. 'Cause we have, like you said, there's so many plugins, there's so many pieces of gear. It's so easy to get gear now and if you like it, you keep it, you send it back, you can return it. it's easy to dabble in a million different things, sell it on eBay if you don't want it. But that feeling, yeah, when I was younger and like I just got a guitar. It's like wow.

Like I have a guitar now and I can play it and it was so exciting. But when you can download a new plug in every twenty minutes, you c you know, I follow a lot of blogs and things w about the gear and you know, and I love keeping on top of it, but it's like there's always a new free thing, a new free thing, and you're like, cool, and you wanna get it. But every time you do, I guess it it does take away a little bit of that feeling of gratitude.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (15:03.061)

Yeah.

Brian Funk (15:29.388)

'Cause you don't get to really spend the time with stuff like we used to. 'cause you're on to the next thing and you how's it sound? Okay, cool. And then you just move on and try the next one instead of getting lost in it a little bit and some appreciation.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (15:33.684)

Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (15:40.759)

And and that's the beauty of it. And it's a lot about what I'm doing now is getting lost in the sound. And because I have this very almost meditative, meditative approach and contemplative approach to sound, which has kind of always had, but it's it it it's been even bigger now over the last few years. But it's it's just that.

time we give ourselves to get to know a sound or just experiment it in different ways and almost I'm using it almost to get into trance, you know, sometimes, but simple sound, meditative sound, and and yeah this this thing get lost into sound is very inspiring to me. And you know it's it's going back to the conversation we had about the Brahma console just a a few minutes ago.

I got mine six months ago before I was I got on tour and I just got it set it to what I needed to do for the tour. But I didn't even I don't even know how to use probably sixty percent of it, seventy percent of it, because now it's controlled by MIDI on on stage so it does everything it needs to be doing.

But that's about it. And I actually I was thinking about that a few days ago. I was like, I think I should spend more time with this pedal because I mean my twelve years old kid, the the version of myself twenty plus years ago, would have been so excited, you know, and would have spent like an an entire summer digging into the sound. And sometimes it's like that. Just just just going back to that gratitude. I'm like, wow, all of all of what I have today is

Is is is so much that I could have dreamed of a few years ago, you know? yeah, still inspired to get new stuff because, you know, it's it's it's cool to keep it is qu yeah, keeping it fun and and sometimes trading stuff, getting out of a of of a rut by sending a synth and getting a new one or whatever. Just is it's good, but I think the the the

Brian Funk (17:31.103)

Yeah.

Brian Funk (17:36.255)

Yeah, it's new stuff. It's fun.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (17:51.422)

The Instagram culture and YouTube. I'm a big YouTube kid. And it and I had to unfollow a lot of musical gear pages because y you always feel like you're behind and you you don't have enough stuff. And and now I'm I'm trying to get back to this twelve, thirteen years old of myself who spends who spent like months with one pedal and and could get lost in the sound. I think what you said is really resonating with me. This this

I yeah. Like it's not just that we can't make it.

Brian Funk (18:23.787)

Yeah, I used to really get to know the things I had. Really 'cause there was no other choice. I mean, sh I fantasized about all the things we have now and all the capabilities we have, but I got a lot of creative work done trying to figure out ways around it. And I do think I've over bloated my computer. I'm sorry your computer went down.

I do have this kind of twisted fantasy of my own though of that happening so I could just start fresh. Like no samples, no plugins and and just add things in as I see fit and I need. I actually got a a lot of use out of a plug in uninstaller. I paid a couple of bucks for one I found somewhere and it searches I originally got it for duplicates, but then I was kinda like, you know, like I never use this one. I never use this one. And

got a little kind of disciplined on saying, like, if I'm not using it, it's getting in my way, it's distracting me really. So yeah, the the too much choice thing is we do that to ourselves sometimes. Hm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (19:38.389)

Yeah, we do, and I think it's just almost a a

overall social thing in in general and that we have in our lives. I don't want to get into like capitalism or whatever, but we just tend to accumulate and and I'm also a big fan of Rick Rubin and I I just love the the way he he used to say that he it what he wasn't producing music, it was reducing music. And I always like that kind of my mindset, you know? Even though Beyond took me two years and it was a lot about layering and

Brian Funk (20:05.253)

Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (20:14.727)

It was a a lot of sculpting the sound and it required that amount of presence presence and but but yeah, I also tried to get away from from accumulating sound or accumulating plugins. Because in the end in in the end I'm yeah, I'm looking at my plugin list. I have my favorite favorite

folder in Ableton and it's really only what I'm using mostly ninety eight percent of the time. Yeah.

Brian Funk (20:51.241)

Yeah. Yeah, that's that's a good way to do it. That is a cool way to think of it, reducing music. I I don't think I mention this maybe, but I teach high school English and teach writing and so often the question if I have a writing assignment is how many words, how long does it have to be? And it's I hate this question so much because it it implies more words are better. So

If I'll say I say three hundred words, then you're just gonna put words on the paper until you get to three hundred and more and more is bet your sentences get long winded. But in reality it's it's about how few words can you do it in? That's what I want it to be. And I think even musically, it kind of occurred to me as you were speaking, we

OVERSEA (sebastien) (21:39.375)

Yeah, but

Brian Funk (21:47.603)

almost feel like it it needs to have lots of tracks. You know, it needs it's almost impressive to say, like, yeah, this last song I produced has, you know, ninety-six tracks and you know, seventy-two of them are vocals and all of these kind of things, which sometimes is great, but I'm really getting into the idea of like how few can I use also, 'cause almost like the gear

I can't appreciate all these little sounds and these little textures if there's a hundred other little sounds and textures dancing around it at the same time. And I think you do a really nice job on your record of allowing us to take in these sounds and appreciate them. You've there's a lot going on. I'm not not saying that it's it's simple by any means, but you've

got a way of allowing the things to have their time and get some presence with the sound so we can listen to them. Yeah, that's an interesting that wind chime sound you have is playing and then it reverses and we can really hear it where it's not getting kinda washed away in the crowd of sounds.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (23:02.849)

Yeah, well thank you so much. I'm so glad it comes out that way because when I was prepping the promo for the album and I was also prepping for this podcast, I went back into the sessions and I was looking at some of the yeah, the songs and I was like, Jesus Christ, there's a lot of things I I don't even know that that were in, you know. And it's it's and it was my whole thing when I was producing was about making it as

I wanted I wanted it to feel like a living organism, like you would go in a forest. Nothing feels like too much, nothing feels like too less, it feels feels perfect as it is. Yet everything is evolving and everything is kind of a for informing the next move and the next little plant or the next little whatever living organism there is. And I and that's what I wanted to do, but it also requires sometimes of yeah, layers. And I'm thinking

of the one of the track is it's called Down Here. I was just listening to it the other day and it's it's a lot of track. It's just for the pads because I wanted them to feel like something was

Yeah, evolving, very living organism, a tapestry of sound that wouldn't feel stagnant. But yet there's there's yeah, another song feel that that's called here. There here is called double name. And it's it's only really f five tracks, vocals, a few ambient and a bass. It's you know, it sometimes the song requires more and I think it's a little bit like you were saying about the the

the assignment, the English in inside assignment. It's it's always about what is in service of the message, the conversation, the song, the the art, whatever the sculpture, whatever the the the convers I mean the the object is about. But it's it's really about what is serving, you know? And yeah, going back to the to the sessions, I also found that a lot of what I had done in my session were muted. And I was like, that's amazing.

Brian Funk (25:07.412)

Mm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (25:15.996)

I actually thought of moving like removing stuff. I didn't delete them for some reason because probably I was like fear of losing the idea. But it was muted. I was like, I didn't didn't remember muting these, but it's amazing because it really actually gives space for more to happen. So yeah, it's it was a mix of a lot of work, a lot of detail work and a lot of letting go as well. Just like, I think this.

Brian Funk (25:26.794)

Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (25:45.949)

This is done as as as is, yeah. So it's a hybrid hybrid thing.

Brian Funk (25:49.002)

Mm.

Brian Funk (25:53.865)

Yeah. Yeah, the mute button has been a friend for me. I I tend to like to build the stuff up and keep adding and adding. And then when it's time to do mixing or even really just arranging, it's almost like what's the least amount I can get away with now? Where is 'cause there's some weird paradox that happens,

I think guitar really taught me this, where you would think the more guitar layers I put in, the bigger the guitars are gonna sound. But it just sounds like a lot of little guitars now inside the music. Whereas if it was just one you could really hear it and it can be up front and all the little noises and textures and tiny details are very easy to pick up on. But as soon as you start layering in, it's they

There's like a point where it yeah, this sounds big, it sounds great and then you get down the road and you're like, Huh, why do the guitars sound so weak? And it's 'cause there's too many of them and they're just sort of blurring each other.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (26:57.331)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (27:04.655)

Yeah, it's the c character of of each song i each sound we use, I I feel like. And also not I I don't wanna feel like a nostalgic person, but I mean, I think in in the old days of music we we we did that a lot more, you know, just focusing on the sound and getting the right sound from the get-go, you know, from the source had to be good and we didn't rely so much on the post-production. It was it was really about how can we get this sound to

Brian Funk (27:25.065)

Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (27:34.598)

Sound good, this guitar and how can we get the

the performance as well. I think it was a lot more about the the living music, you know. and and today we tend it's probably also this gear thing we're go going back to this conversation, it's we tend to forget about just the performance and the humanity of it, you know, just just putting ourselves into the music. It's so easy to comp stuff, to edit and to get that perfect take and and we

We all know about that, but w what if it's a little bit wrong? What if it's a little bit out of time? And what if it's it's it's not being duplicated? Even my some of the the yeah, this the synth line bass synth I'm doing in one of the song, originally it was just one loop.

that I it was a midi clip that I looked and lit also a at the final stage of the the album of mixing the album I I thought I think I should just replay that through the same synth but not having it played as a midi clip played four times but just play it and even though it might not change everything, it will give some humanity to it. And to me i it was a lot about that, especially with this album

I wanted I wanted it to feel yeah, a living organism so I didn't want it to feel too perfect. I think we have a lot of perfect around us or pseudo perfect, you know? And just the way you were saying it, the the more guitars might not be the best. And I'm guilty of it too, you know. I get booked to record guitars remotely and my tendency is to send twenty guitars for one song and then I'm listening back to

OVERSEA (sebastien) (29:31.206)

the song once once once the artist is finished producing it and they only send back I mean the the finished song is only two guitars I sent and I'm like wow you're right that was enough. I need to go back to channeling my Rick rubbing a little bit, you know? But it's a it's always so interesting.

Brian Funk (29:41.899)

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Hm. I think that's a cool thing to do, like you said, playing like the MIDI clip out. You know, in that case, are you performing it or are you just letting it play through performance? So so the timing is gonna change a little, subtle velocity differences and yeah, all of that. You might not notice

OVERSEA (sebastien) (30:03.99)

Performance. Performance. Yeah. Yeah. I I think so. means that

Brian Funk (30:19.283)

But I do think you feel. I I really do. I think we kinda our brain sort of recognizes when something's kind of being like photocopied over and over again and spit back out compared to when it's not and it it's a little more fluid.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (30:38.806)

Yeah, and I think it works for s for certain genres or even for certain songs. I'm not very it might not be genre specific, but some certain songs feel good when it's very, very tightly repetitive. And and and it can also get you into a trance state, you know? It's it's very interesting how how we can use this to inform brain waves. But in general, especially with this album I wanted

Brian Funk (30:39.016)

Those are

Brian Funk (30:44.446)

Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (31:04.492)

really wanted it to feel fluid and and just very very nature like so that's why I I I really took as much time as possible to make make sure I was playing most of the stuff and and not just yeah duplicated the the midi clips which is yeah not not bad in itself but that was my kind of memo and my kind of momentum at that time

Brian Funk (31:33.0)

Yeah. Yeah, and that's I mean, obviously I think probably almost everybody listening now w does that on some level and it's great you can you can duplicate out those MIDI clips and hear what the song sounds like over time without having to play everything. And you can't like you you did, you can go back and edit if you want, but yeah, sometimes it works too. Maybe we're in a time too where

we want a little more humanity. We're seeing a lot of computer generated, AI generated stuff all the time. And it is nice to know you're getting something alive and breathing. And something even just about the fact that you decided to take the effort to perform it when you could have just done that.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (32:16.908)

I think we could do that if you just have it out there.

Brian Funk (32:26.801)

It's that little bit of little bit of sweat in the creative product creative process I guess that is kinda nice to know that some effort went into it, that it wasn't just the technology taking over. I'm appreciating that much more these days than ever before.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (32:43.193)

Yeah and Yeah. Same, same, especially yeah, with the the the rise of the AI world and

I think we want more human behind the stuff we read, we listen, we watch, we even our emails sometimes I'm like, this feels like it's it's a Chat GPT email, you know? I'm like Who's who's the real person behind this email? I don't wanna send back a a Chat GPT email, you know? It's like I we're not having a conversation, it's just our different yeah, AI machine or whatever to

Brian Funk (33:20.443)

I get so many of those. just send me the prompt. Courteous email asking for, you know, whatever. Cause it feels deceitful. I and I get it for the podcast a lot. I get these emails that are just AI and they fool me and and I get upset 'cause it used to be w all of the I don't know, like PR people I guess are sending me

OVERSEA (sebastien) (33:24.276)

Yeah, easier. Just create a key.

Brian Funk (33:48.741)

emails that they're sending to every podcast. They're just blasting them out. And I could tell in the past I this is just one of these emails. There's nothing personal in it. We love your podcast and it what's a music production podcast in like a different font than the rest of the email counts on. But now it's saying things like, your Sebastian your c your Sebastian conversation was so interesting. How you guys talked about the mergence of electric guitars meets el electronic instrument

You know, gives me a little bit of a thing in there that is very specific detail about some conversation and then they ask me if I wanna have like you know, like an auto mechanic on the show. It's like so unrelated after that. Like I I find that really frustrating and those those are though, they're they're just an easy delete. I mean, I'm not getting a person. I feel like I don't they're not expecting me to get back to them. They're not waiting for me.

But I what bothers me about that I guess is that there are other people like like you, for instance, when we started speaking, I you were human, I could tell right away, but as this technology starts mimicking in that, I'm afraid I'm gonna start missing it when a real person is writing me something genuine and heartfelt. It's gonna be confusing and you know

OVERSEA (sebastien) (35:07.802)

For sure. It yeah, it's it's it's slowly st it's tasked to creep in, right? Yeah.

Brian Funk (35:17.448)

Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (35:18.176)

Even in the music industry and and it it's it's yeah, it's I'm not kind of against it in in any way. I think it's it's beautiful to have the tools to help us focus on other stuff. But I'm I'm very aware that we are human beings and we are in a living world and it's it's especially going back to art, it's it's about our own expression and our

way to experience the world and experience certain yeah, I I talk a lot about about transcendental experiences, but whatever it is, you know, whatever you experience in life, it this is what makes people want to listen to music. whether it's gospel or you know, or electronic music today, it's it's it's about who it is to sing this story with sound, with words, with painting, you know, with colours, whatever.

whatever it is I think it's it's it's for me this is all about it. Otherwise it doesn't make sense if I'm not having this devotion for humanity in a way and and to create music for someone who will appreciate it it's I'm not making it for the for the the the bots I'm making it for the the the human beings and and in that way I feel like I have a responsibility towards the

people who listen to my music and to and and the people who will listen, you know, especially because I'm I'm in a sp specific kind of musical world slash yeah, it's it I have this bridge with with neuroscience and I work a lot with meditation and and different type of practices. I feel like it's all about the intention we have in what we do and I I I couldn't feel I I couldn't look myself in the mirror

Or if I was not make pouring my heart and my soul into the the work I'm doing and taking I don't know shortcuts with with AI, it wouldn't feel right for me. But again, this is just my point of view. I'm not against it, but in in the

OVERSEA (sebastien) (37:37.923)

work I do, I feel like I have this I have to have this devotion because it it makes the the the the experience I'm I hope to give a bit more real or just just a bit more human. True, true, yeah.

Brian Funk (37:54.098)

But

Yeah. Yeah, I guess I have the problem with the deceit of it, the mimicking of it. but obviously there's there's great uses and all of that. but I I can see where you're coming from, especially with the style of music you're you've just put out, that you wanted to have that. I'm kind of interested in what you said about like the meditative stuff and the

almost like scientific aspect of it that you're you were getting at. because also, before we started recording, we were just kinda chatting and you mentioned surfing and it's something I I've liked to do in the past though. I've had a little time off. I don't know if I'm allowed to label myself a surfer right now, but I love it and so much of it is that meditative aspect. It's not unlike

I'm like for surfing, it's not anything other than just enjoying the time doing it. I'm not trying to really get better or compete or anything like that. it's sit it's enjoying sitting out on the ocean and if a wave comes, going with it. But it is one of those things a lot like music where when you're doing it, everything else kind of melts away. So y you you

Go out there and whatever's on your mind, whatever's bothering you, you get a break from it. 'Cause there there are moments of intensity, you know, in there where you can't be thinking about other things. And that break I find to be really nice 'cause then you get out of the water and now you're on a different angle. You're you're looking at whatever's going on in life from a new perspective. You're not just stewing in those thoughts that are taking over your mind.

Brian Funk (39:49.585)

So I what I was originally thinking was like kind of this idea that there's these meditative qualities to being in the zone of making music too. and there's parallels with that, with something like surfing. But I'm kind of interested now where you're going with some of that other stuff you just mentioned.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (39:52.03)

There's really good pieces.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (40:11.133)

man, there's so much I want to to talk about right now. Well, just to touch on the the surf topic, because I think it it it it really is similar to music in a way. It's that flow state you're talking about. That very

Brian Funk (40:12.648)

Yeah, I i it feels like we just found something.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (40:31.849)

very unique moment where nothing else exists. And I think this is one of the most beautiful thing we can ever experience as as as beings, you know. It's like being I don't I don't wanna sound too corny or tore or t or too spiritual woo-woo but it's but being here now, you know? And it's it's it really is that feeling. And I think to me it's surfing is is is a lot like you were saying is

I'm I'm not surfing to get to be a pro. It's not my path, but I'm surfing to be out in the ocean and and just out in the surf. And I I think I had some of my most mystical experience out there. You know, in the morning with the when the lights the light comes out, the sun comes out. It's it's so magical. And and a lot of it is is is a buffer for me because I'm I've I've been working a lot in the studio and

When I need that that buffer, I find that same flow state that I can have in my studio. But as you said, with a different angle, you're looking at even just just the way of being in the water and looking at the ocean and looking at the cliffs or the the beach wherever you are. But it makes you look at things differently. And and for this album and going back to this conversation about meditation and flow.

I've over the last few years, so much of my music has been about creating s soundscapes and and spaces almost in music to be able to experience something transcendental or something meditative or something just just rest. I think I I wanted to question my own status quo about music.

I was an I was in a band, I toured the world with my rock psychedelic band for years and it it w it was it was a fun a fun way to look at music and I am not separating music into better or if if it served this or if it doesn't it doesn't make it better or worse. But today I wanted to make a music that served another part of us.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (42:48.559)

the part that needed rest or needed to as you were saying this morning, just listening to the song and kind of feel at ease or work on the nervous system in a different way. And also have been very passionated and and did some research in my degree and my master degree especially around brainwave therapies and how we can use music to support

Brian Funk (43:12.539)

Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (43:16.176)

support us as living beings and and just support our creative states, our rest restes and and this is was this was a big part of of Beyond, but I think it's just a big part of my music at the moment and the music I've been doing for with oversee, you know, this project of mine. Was it was a lot more about this type of space than than than it was before.

And and today for me I think the music is is is is a medicine. Again, I don't wanna sound too sp spiritual woo-woo slash corny, but it is a medicine for me, you know? And I think it it it has been for years and there is there are t I mean tons of research that show how that shows how music was was

Brian Funk (43:56.283)

Right.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (44:11.82)

a tool in the past and still is, you know. And I've been very intrigued by how therapeutic music can be and how we can use it and and bridge bridge the ancestral knowledge with the neuroscience knowledge that we have today and and have this bridge and this conversation with the two worlds. And that's often why I say that I do electroacoustic music because

It's not so electronic, it's not so acoustic, but it's a bit of both. And I think it's it's it's a reflection of this these two worlds, you know, the ancestral knowledge of music and and and and this magic that we we we had. E even like when we listened to gospel or or the first blues songs, you you feel that this there's something of the

Brian Funk (44:54.663)

Mm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (45:02.018)

the heart and the soul and and and it kind of evolved and and beautiful but I I'm I'm interested in into going back to this and creating these these soundscapes, these spaces and beyond for me was was really a space, you know. I wanted to create a a space that you can walk in and maybe have a breath work, maybe have a

I I'm working with also psychologists that that work with psychedelic therapies and I y you know, I wanted to have this this bridge and explore this with with music. So this is really w where I'm at with the music and and beyond was created, constructed that way.

Brian Funk (45:50.258)

Well, the album title makes a lot more sense now. Right. You know, I I understand your caveat, I guess, of not to get too spiritual woo-woo and all that. but it is something I think we kind of can't deny that something is happening. when you're

OVERSEA (sebastien) (45:53.098)

Yeah.

Brian Funk (46:17.009)

If you're at a concert and you're having this kind of communal experience with all these strangers, like when you're there, it's it's real. It something's definitely going on. And I know we don't have all the data and it's hard stuff to collect data on, but I don't think you really need it to know that it's happening. it's it's very interesting to find out what it actually is and the science behind it.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (46:21.264)

It's a very interesting thing to find out there actually.

Brian Funk (46:47.323)

But yeah, it is very therapeutic and medicinal in a lot of ways. It's maybe not the same as taking like I don't know, like a a pill to make a headache go away or something. But it it has real effects. I mean, I think my life would be a lot different without that, without that release. All those times I've come to make music and take time away from life and get a breather.

to not be ruminating on thoughts and caught up in the cycle that just, you know, to think about just the way our minds work, where we have a thought and you get on it like it's a train and you it's it could be total fiction. This they're mad at me. That text message came out and you just suddenly you're off to the races and you're in this whole other place.

And it can be just totally made up in your own head. But if I could add up all the times something like a a music session took me out of that and brought me back and give me a little perspective, I think that's probably very significant and I'd probably be a much different person and have much different relationships, I'm sure. I'd be much less tolerable of a person without all of that going on.

There's something real going on there. And surfing is like that too, that gives you that. And surfing is really interesting in that it takes a lot of these kind of abstract concepts like flow and

those types of states and it's real physical. Like you have to literally ride the wave. You can't fight the ocean. Like you'll never win. And and when you work with the ocean, it it's almost easy. It's fluid. It's it's you know, you just kinda coast. But when you try to fight it, it just smashes you.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (48:40.47)

No. No.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (48:56.14)

Yeah, again, it feels like a conversation, right? You know, it's like i y you have the an information coming at you and it's how how will you respond to it and how will you flow with it? And there is it's so funny that we're having this conversation because I was part of a project called Waves of Life two years ago which

Brian Funk (49:17.904)

Waves of life.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (49:18.892)

Waves of life, yeah. And it was all about that, you know, how art or surfing and and all this type of concept can actually be teachings for our wor for I mean for our lives in in general. And and and also I'm just making the connection that one of the song of the album started when I was working on this waves of life because I w it it it felt so inspiring to me that t to to take this concept of i

Being in the flow, I think, as you said, it's it's a very

bizarre concept to to tou touch on, you know. And unless you're a musician or you're an artist or you're maybe you you in certain type of sport, I'm sure you get that as well. It's like you get in that zone, then you understand what it is, but most of the time we're we are far away from being in the flow. And and this is what's been interesting to me, you know, it's trying to

to help the process of being in the flow and kind of talk about it and be an advocate for it, you know, it's like th this is places we can go to and this is places that we are allowed to go to because I think there's also yeah the the the acceptance of it. But so anyway, I'm getting lost in the in the thought of it. But it's just

Brian Funk (50:52.342)

Mm-hmm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (50:54.083)

Just such an i an interesting topic and and you're you were seeing the the thoughts the thoughts train and th and stuff like this. I'm I'm a bit big meditation guy. I do two meditations a day, I do yoga every day, so it's it's a big part of my life. But but i in the end it's it's only to serve

me being a better person, a better musician and and just being a more I don't know what you said, but it was very funny the way you said it about music. Like if you hadn't music you would feel so different and i i it's the same for me and I think music is also a type of meditation and we have all these labels around meditation and around

Brian Funk (51:36.741)

Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (51:49.601)

what meditation should be or should look like and I think flow in a lot of of of the the moment we can feel flow is meditation as a at its best, you know, like if you get into a sound on your on your synth and you get in that moment where two, three hours pass by and you record something and it feels just right. And you didn't

see those two hours pass by. This is the isn't isn't this the most beautiful thing? You know? It's it's so medicinal for yourself and once you finish the piece of music it might be for someone else and this is the type of exchange I'm I'm really interested in, you know, and it's the conversation between the surf and the surfer, the musician and the music. And it it's it's all about that. That that's

Brian Funk (52:21.286)

Mm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (52:43.809)

That's part of the the work I'm trying to achieve. Yeah.

Brian Funk (52:49.456)

Hm. Yeah, it's nice. That is often the feeling I'm chasing is the getting lost in it and where everything kind of melts away, the time fades. It there is no time really. It there's nothing. There's just what's happening in the moment and it it always is refreshing and it's fun. It

the the hard parts of it even are enjoyable and I I think that's where I wanna be when I decide to start and can't always get there for one reason or another, but when you when you tap into it, it is just quite a cool place to be. And and you almost don't know you're there and and as soon as you realize you are, you you run the risk of popping out of it.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (53:45.086)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's it's a fine line.

Brian Funk (53:46.566)

But

OVERSEA (sebastien) (53:50.102)

I think there's there's interesting musician and composer that brought this aspect into music. I think I I'm thinking of of John Cage, you know, in the four I think it was it the forties, fifties, where he started to take classical music into a new a new direction and I'm also thinking I think the that guy name is Lum Le Mount Young, something like like this. Le Mount Young. I think he's a Canadian guy. Same area of

of John John Cage era. but I I remember seeing one of the music music partitions and music shit for one of the song and it's basically two notes. I think it's a B and an F charm. And the only indication that you have is play for a long time. And you only have those two notes and and it's kind of

This is the kind of concept I'm I'm very interesting in, you know, as a composer and as a musician and just as a being as well, as a meditation practitioner, whatever. It's just like having this experience that we are living beings and that we also are experiencing time into different in different ways and and music is such a beautiful way to get into it and and kind of

feel time, disappear and come back and and I think the work of these these guys, yeah, the minimalist guys in those days. I don't know if we we can really call them the minimalist, but

the those guys, John Cage, Le Mount DeYoung, those those type of composers, they are a good entry into this type of flow states. If it's hard to to experience this these states, I found them really inspiring and i I find that they were a very good way to practice it in the first place. Just like playing two notes on a keyboard and

OVERSEA (sebastien) (55:58.012)

waiting for I don't know two, three, four, five, ten minutes and suddenly you don't hear the same beef, B and F sharp the same way you you've heard it like for the past four minutes, it suddenly starts to shift and you get into that little bit of a interstellar feeling, you know and

Brian Funk (56:15.097)

Mm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (56:22.682)

everything d dis dissipate anyway. So I think this is a a very beautiful way to experiment different aspect of our of our human self. That's something I'm very passionate about.

Brian Funk (56:37.827)

It is funny that time gets perceived differently because it is so steady, right? It's just ticking along and we use it in music. It's time based. yet you can sort of lose track of it. We feel it differently all the time.

And sometimes the very repetitive rhythm of the music, the timing, takes us there. It it because we're so focused on the time, we almost lose it. Like maybe in a s in a way how if you listen to those two notes playing over time, I guess you start to hear the other frequencies, not just those fundamentals and they start to come together in new ways and you notice

almost like new sounds within it. New new layers of time. Something going on.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (57:36.386)

New layers of time. I like that. This is a good good good one.

Brian Funk (57:41.495)

Yeah.

I wanna I because this is like we can spend a lot of time here too. but y one of the things you mentioned was like using Ableton Live as an instrument. And I think this is a really fun way to look at it. It's kind of how I got into it. I'd been playing music recording and got into some other DAWs and always sort of felt like I was making music against it. And

what I really loved about recording and all the things I found interesting, all my favorite artists too did this. They experimented with the studio like it was an instrument and played it. And then when I finally wrapped my head around Ableton Live, I was like, this is the studio's an instrument now. It's part of my creative process. And I got real excited about that. So I'm kinda curious how that is for you, how you use it like an instrument.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (58:42.061)

Yeah, well, very similar story. I started, you know, I started recording music. I was 12 and I was using a very early version of Pro Tools. And and then I moved on to Logic Pro because I was in the UK learning I was in at a music college in in the UK and everyone was using Logic Pro, so I moved on to Logic Pro.

and and it's it was more recently I got into Ableton because similar similar story most of my music inspiration and and favorite artists were were using Ableton and and first of all the way I found it so interesting is that especially in the beginning

You know, when you're learning an instrument, y you're learning to work with the resistance of the instrument. So if you play guitar, you have the frets and the the the strings and there is so many little details of resistance that you have to learn about. And and learning Ableton was so different. I mean, to me, it felt like another world.

than l than Pro Tools, you know, like even though like even the way it's it's presented on the page, everything is on the left, you know, in in in Pro Tools and and all the input and everything. I mean the the the important stuff are on the right in in in Ableton. And it felt like an instrument in that way for me because it felt like I had so much resistance to learn again, you know, and it it felt like I needed to have this

I mean the word conversation comes up again. It was it was a very more it was it was a lot more of a conversation between what I could do, what I wanted to do, and it it was it was very much in the service of how can I create sound with it. Whereas before it was just serving, you know, Pro Tools was just serving me as a

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:00:58.868)

as a yeah, as a studio to record my music, basically. And suddenly Ableton kind of opened up that space and the little resistance I f I felt like I'm I I feel like I'm holding a guitar but Ableton was the same, you know, it was learning the resistance of the the the the DAW but it was it was an instrument to me around around that time already.

And then, you know, I was I was always having like this joke with my my best friend who's an incredible producer aga also. I was like, I'd I would love to get into modular synth, but I will do that when I'm fifty, because before it's it's too much for me. But what I found in Ableton was exactly what I was looking in modular synth, you know, is that kind of

Brian Funk (01:01:47.598)

Mm-hmm.

Brian Funk (01:01:52.856)

Mm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:01:56.905)

infinite possibility of choices and way of using the plugins and it's it's very more cre I mean to me it feels a lot more creative than how Pro Tools felt a few years ago when I was still using it, you know. And the plugin chain and the way you can create plug-in racks. It's still very new to me. I still feel like I'm learning the instrument as I go. You know and I think beyond was a a

It was a it was a the Ableton Academy for me, you know, because there were places I wanted to go with the psychoacoustics, the places I wanted to go with the music in general and the way I wanted it to feel. Again, I wanted to the music to feel like a place, a space you w you would go into. And and Ableton was allowing me to do this, but it was it was a lot of learn as I as I yeah, learning as I was doing it.

Brian Funk (01:02:30.372)

Mm-hmm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:02:55.611)

And and again I was as I was prepping for this podcast, I I was going back to the to the sessions and and realizing that so much of the combinations and and so much of how I use the plugins and how they interacted with each other, I I could have never done or perhaps never thought of in in Pro Tools. And I'm not trashing Pro Tools because I think I still think it's an amazing DAW for

You know, I think it's it's it's different instruments, you know. And and today Ableton i it really is in the service of what I'm trying to do. A lot more than than yeah, Pro Tools or Logic had been in the past. And and I think to me it's it's really this modular mind that made it for me. And still feel like I can explore a lot more. I'm not a big

Brian Funk (01:03:28.91)

Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:03:53.608)

gig guy so I I'm not I I'm not yet into the Max for live world but perhaps that will open up in the the next few years. I I do have a few devices and stuff but you know I'm not a I'm I'm not so much of a of a developer guy or yeah crazy intelligent person like that. But I'm very fascinated by it, you know.

Brian Funk (01:04:14.104)

Yeah. Me neither.

Mm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:04:20.151)

But yeah, the instrument for me, yeah, Ableton, the instrument is is the modulo synth I was looking for. But a lot cheaper because I I know that we have a lot of sense.

Brian Funk (01:04:26.978)

Hmm. Yeah. I think that's what kept me out of modular synths was just financial restrictions, you know, because you can really go wild there. but they they have built so much inside a live that it really does feel like a modular synth. You can drop LFOs and have it modulate anything and all these envelope followers and you get a lot of cool interaction.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:04:51.684)

Yeah. Yeah, and also I was I was getting into generative music back like a few years ago and I was listening to a lot of Brianino and I mean Ableton was so good for me to experiment this, you know, with yeah the LFOs and you just use a very slow LFO on one

Brian Funk (01:04:56.024)

with your music that way. Are

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:05:18.156)

one little macro that you want to assign to and and to anything, you know? And it it just felt very very living. Again, I'm going back to this word, but it's really what I'm trying to do in music. It's it's it does I don't want it to feel too stagnant or too static. And and Ableton is so good for that. So good.

Brian Funk (01:05:31.874)

Mm.

Brian Funk (01:05:46.5)

Well that's what we love about instruments, I think, too. your guitar. Every time you play a single note, it's different. It's it's subtle, but it's different. It's slightly different. And if you watch the notes on the tuner, they're n they're not right on the green dot perfectly in tune, they kinda waver around it. And even

Hardware synthesizers have a little bit of that where some days there's something funny going on and they just respond a little bit differently. And you can really program a lot of that stuff in. Like you said, you can decide more now. Instead of I I have an old Moog, it's like the Radio Shack Mogue. It was the let's see the MG one, the concertmate. So it was like a cheaper consumer style.

synthesizer from the eighties and it sounds really awesome but it's a little bit broken. Right now it's like kind of broken in a cool way where I can get some fun stuff out of it. But I can imagine a little bit further down the road it's a problem. I tape machine too, where you know f until I had it serviced recently, but before that it was almost unusable. It was just problems with it.

In live you can decide. All right, I want it to be like, you know, I'm gonna take that slow LFO and I'm gonna just put it on the pitch of this synth. And it's gonna just happen sort of randomly over time, but only this much, you know. N not to a degree where it ruins the music, but enough where it just helps it breathe a little bit. and the ability to make those decisions is a lot of fun and I think it does make for some more

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:07:23.235)

Yeah.

Brian Funk (01:07:36.78)

organic, lively sounding music when you start adding those things up.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:07:39.64)

Yeah, organic too is organic is definitely the word and that's how I use it. It's I try to use it as organic as possible as possible. And and and and really feels like an extension to the synth for me, Ableton. And it's it's almost a a synth recording station and and and yeah, beyond was so much of the songs there were LFOs and LFOs and LFOs and LFOs triggering small stuff and

And everything it was really my my thing at that time, you know, when I was making the album. I want everything to feel like it's moving and like a breathing organism and and the tapestry of sound couldn't feel static. And yeah, Ableton was a game changer in the way that it really opened up my my musical perspective onto what I could do. Never thought I could do that before. And also the attention to detail I could have I could go into

to with Ableton just just was not in in my headspace or in my my view before using Ableton for sure.

Brian Funk (01:08:54.627)

Do you work inside the session view at all?

Like the clip based view?

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:09:02.323)

No, mostly arrangement. Clip based, I mostly use it for life for when I'm taking stuff live. because I'm also I'm an D for s for artist and I also work for them and building Ableton live sessions for certain shows. And I like using the this view for for this but mo when I'm writing or composing I'm I'm still

Brian Funk (01:09:04.728)

Mm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:09:32.277)

old school in the way I I I like to see the arrangement.

Brian Funk (01:09:37.25)

Yeah, I mean, eventually you always have to get there, right? Like if you ever want to export anything, it does need to get to the arrangement. I was sort of just thinking about how when you're in that session view, you're nonlinear, so you don't have to think about the timeline as much. And that was something that I got really into early on because I was like, cool, I can have a bunch of musical ideas.

And instead of just putting them down and hoping it works and then trying to move them around if they don't, I can just kind of trigger them and jam on the arrangement, which I thought was a really exciting new way to write music in that. Okay, so I've got these ideas swirling in my head. What happens if I go here? And then I go here and the drums from the verse will happen in the chorus. That was cool. I didn't expect that. You can kind of mix things up in a fun way.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:10:13.515)

Yeah, that's right. There's probably thirty thing covered for you. But this have your item for your part of time as well.

Brian Funk (01:10:36.183)

But it's you still have your timing, but you're off the timeline. Right. So we it again, like to come back to this concept of like losing track of time and I find that to be a lot of fun to just sort of jamming on these things and sometimes you're doing it for twenty minutes and discovering how the parts should connect and how things should interact with each other in a

Totally new way, almost like you would with people playing music with them.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:11:09.366)

True. Yeah, it's actually now that you s that that you talk about it first it it makes me want to do it. So thank you for the inspiration. a lot more. And and also yeah because I also do some

Brian Funk (01:11:18.485)

Mm-hmm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:11:25.977)

live version of this album and I also do a lot of soundbath but I don't like to call them soundbath because I think they are too attached to this specific label of spiritual world soundbath. But I I do a modern version of it and I do use the clip view for for for that. And to me going back to that is how you can combine things combine things the way you would have never

thought of but because you are in the flow, you are in the moment of it. You think it's it's these I don't know these synth I have in in there. If I put them with waves that I recorded in Portugal and I put them together, how will they interact? And if I add this vocal part I recorded and this things that I would have never thought about even yeah a few years ago.

Brian Funk (01:11:57.347)

Mm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:12:23.983)

I I I actually do them, so thank you because I didn't think about it, but I I never took them into a composition state. So it's something I'm definitely inspired to do now. Definitely inspired to try that. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Funk (01:12:38.359)

Hmm. cool. Yeah, you just hit that record button at the top and anything you do in your session view just gets printed. And yeah, I I often will when I'm coming up with a song, just sort of do that for a while and then listen back and hear if anything cool happened and then then it's like the reduction process of the production process just to figure out, okay, it's not gonna be twenty minutes long, but

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:13:03.299)

Yeah. Yeah, and the surprises, that's that's the beauty. I I always think this yeah, yeah, the surprises and feeling like it's it's not

Brian Funk (01:13:08.083)

What what are the highlights and that kind of stuff?

Brian Funk (01:13:14.945)

Yeah. It leads to a lot of that, yeah. The surprises.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:13:22.144)

I don't know w where you sit with this, but I feel like when I'm making music I feel connected to some kind of source or that's how I like to call it. Some people might call it God or universe or whatever, Buddha.

I like to call it the source and and sometimes I feel like it I'm not making the choice not just on my own. I'm kind of guided to make certain choices. And I feel like it's a good way to open up to maybe it's just a question of surprises. maybe it's serendipity, may I d I don't know what it is. In the end, whatever.

if we believe it or not. But it's it's such a beautiful way to to get to experience stuff you wouldn't have thought about. And I think it to me Ableton i it is about that in general. It's I mean for me it was a big a big turning point in in recorded music in on my on my on my journey, you know. Everything was being questioned in the in the best way, you know.

Brian Funk (01:14:27.81)

Mm.

Yeah. Right. Yeah, it it does sometimes feel that way. Yeah, it's mist it's a mysterious thing. There's it doesn't always feel like you're doing it. And sometimes it feels like you're finding it, like I like you have a net and you just caught it or or sometimes it's coming through you. But yeah, I'm okay with like those sort of magical explanations.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:14:42.375)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Brian Funk (01:14:59.732)

I think that's I I only think that helps me get there and it sort of takes me off the hook a little bit to kind of think in those terms too, where it's not really me, it's just you know, it's you find these songs, you find these ideas or they come to you or they come through you. it's like you as long as you're working, it's like having the like T V antenna up

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:15:04.174)

L C One

Brian Funk (01:15:28.726)

Like you can connect, like but you have to sort of do your part of starting things up.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:15:36.29)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And I I mean, I can think of multiple times in in this album where I I kind of felt like I had to do the music I was hearing in my head. especially there's one song called Behind Your Heart. I just had the baseline for this song, which is the big sub. It's kind of the central piece of the album. And

I had this bass idea. It was coming from my prophet and it was sitting in my computer for weeks. There was one Sunday I woke up and I had the whole sound, the whole song, the whole melodies and everything in my head. And it felt like it it I couldn't have

think that myself, you know, it was just it was something else. So I was like I was telling my opponent, I was like, I'm sorry, I I'm gonna have this Sunday without you. I'm so sorry, but I need to get in the studio because this this thing is almost like chatter. I can't hear you talk to me. I need to get into the studio and and put these ideas onto the into the yeah and and record them.

And it's it's it's this practice of to me, it feels like it's a practice of being here, being present, but also practicing the music, the the the synth, the guitar, being able to being in in service of those moments so you can flow and

just not think about the technicalities of it, you know, and and and just be in the flow and know your know your tool and also that's one thing to go back to one of the the the earlier conversation is is when we accumulate too much stuff we tend not to know them as much, you know, with the gear. And when you get to that state where you know your pedals, you know your synth

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:17:39.16)

when these ideas, this inspiration strikes in, you are able to go full in because you don't have to read the manual kind of vibe, you know? And and this is this is really what I'm not chasing

Brian Funk (01:17:48.288)

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:17:54.97)

Chasing wouldn't be the right word, I don't really like it, but yeah, kind of being ready for when the inspiration hits, being ready to deliver and and and and be in response to this. Yeah.

Brian Funk (01:18:09.706)

Yeah, kind of be in shape. Like musically in shape. And yeah, I find that also just with the actual setup too, understanding how things are working and being aware. I mean there's nothing that kills a creative moment than like, how's this work? Well how do I figure this thing out? So it's good to Yeah, it's funny, right? All these things, like you have to be open to it, but you have to also

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:18:31.787)

Yeah.

Brian Funk (01:18:39.306)

kinda do the practice, the exercise of it and you gotta go with the flow with it, you gotta be receptive, you gotta also know when to take control. There's so many different kinds of like mindsets you gotta get into and you gotta know when to do it and when not to.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:19:02.183)

I think it's such a beautiful mirror to what being a musician is. Or an artist in general, isn't it? Yeah.

Brian Funk (01:19:04.065)

Yeah.

Yeah. Man, just a human really, right?

Hmm. Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:19:14.387)

being flexible in those in in all those dimensions.

Brian Funk (01:19:19.038)

Mhm. Yeah. Well it's another reason why I think doing this has been very healthy for me as a person. So to get back to some of the stuff you were saying earlier, there there's a I can't measure it, you know. I c it's not like I can step on the scale and see I've lost weight or gained weight, but it's undeniable that all these little things over time have

Definitely helped me in a lot of levels.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:19:51.462)

Yeah. Is it is an academy, isn't it? Academy of life. Some some sort of how to be a be a being.

Brian Funk (01:19:55.776)

Yeah. Yeah. So

Brian Funk (01:20:02.997)

Yeah, it's amazing. Well the record is awesome. beyond is definitely worth checking out. And there's a lot of ways you can enjoy it too. I mean, you can sit there and th this is like I think I think this is Brian Eno's definition too, right? Like ambient music where you can as easily deeply pay attention to it as you can almost just let it play. And it works even on my car ride this morning, like it was there were moments where I was really listening. I like, wow, what's going on here? And trying to figure out like

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:20:24.361)

Yeah,

Brian Funk (01:20:32.821)

the mechanics of it, like how you got those sounds. And then there's other times when I kind of almost forgot it was playing. You know, it was just coloring the experience. so I love music like that that can do both. There's some music that, you know, as much as I love it, like I can't put on at certain times. And this this kind of music, what you've done with Beyond, is it's very flexible.

To use your word as well for a lot of situations.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:21:06.435)

Thank you. Well I'm I'm so glad. Thank you for it's so great to have the conversation around those topics because I mean as you can see I'm very

passionated about those topics and and and and beyond was a reflection about all of this. I wanted to I wanted to create a a a a full arc, you know, a full transcendental arc. But also being able to dip your toes and just play one song that you like or just one song for certain moment of your life. but still if you want to have a full introspective or psychonautic experience you can

Brian Funk (01:21:18.283)

Yeah.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:21:45.862)

have with the album so I'm yeah thank you so much for this word flexibility 'cause kind of yeah yeah thank you yeah yeah

Brian Funk (01:21:57.58)

Well c well, cool. so if people look up Oversea Beyond, they'll find it pretty much everywhere, it seems like, right? I th your website I got here, h dash music dot CH, right? Where people can kind of find like the overview of stuff.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:22:10.97)

Yeah, that's that's my label. Yeah, yeah. All the music, all the different projects, but yeah, mostly focusing on focusing on oversea right now, which yeah, y as you know in in an artist career you have different iteration of your work and I think overseas is is the most aligned for me right now. So this is the path for me at the moment.

Brian Funk (01:22:37.173)

Hm. Yeah. It sounds like it's speaking to you. Yeah, I I really see it's the connection through everything. That's pretty cool how you found all these and some of these different aspects too, with the brain and and the science and the nature. Yeah, I mean, science and nature are are sometimes seen as opposing forces, but I think it's probably more just the

mechanism of nature in a lot of ways.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:23:08.586)

Exactly. And yeah, I don't see the the difference so much these days.

Brian Funk (01:23:15.659)

Hmm. Very cool. Well, thanks for doing this. This is awesome.

OVERSEA (sebastien) (01:23:20.101)

Of course, thanks for having me, Brian. So much so much fun.

Brian Funk (01:23:24.585)

Yeah, and thank you to our listeners for sticking with us. definitely check out Oversea Beyond. you won't regret it. A lot of cool music, great vibes, energy, all that stuff, which I'm sure you probably know just based on this conversation. So thanks a lot. Have a good day.

Brian Funk
Previous

Lomotor Trees and Stones - Free Ableton Live Pack #244
Next

Turning Nature into Music with Lomotor: Music Production Podcast #426