Some time ago Fedor Thonnessen has reached the second place in Delamar’s music production contest (with the nice track “Power Walk in The Park”, that you can listen here) and since that we’ve been following his musical moves, specially the MySpace profile of his duo Fedido, with his mate Guido. If before being at the contest podium their production already used to be powered by the Symptohm:Melohman’s sounds and Quad Fromage’s filtering, next album’s tracks (they’re now in studio recording it) are being tweaked with their brand new Ohmicide:Melohman and Hematohm. Fedido’s last album is called “Improclima” and it’s free, released under a creative commons license. We’ve benefited from the moment to know a little bit more about them…
Tell us more about Fedido…
Our trumpet & keyboards duett FEDIDO exists since 2003. My friend and I met in a jazz band where we both felt the urge to widen the horizon. We record a lot and then spend a lot of time in post production. My friend has started using effects from an old PC version of Logic on his portable computer with amazing results. Sometimes we use home made or royalty-free loops (rythms, pads etc.) Even though we never set ourselves a style, our music has been called « relaxing », soothing… It’s true we don’t venture into « savage » sounds – or, in my view, what *we* percieve as savage is still calm by general standards ;-) Until now, we have played exclusively for the pleasure we get out of it – and for the absolute artistic freedom we enjoy as long as there’s no money involved. Anyone can listen to our albums (two until now, working on a third) on www.myspace.com/fedido , and we apreciate any feedback !
What’s your studio setup?
My main computer is a Powermac G5 QUAD (4x 2.5 Ghz), bought with still 6 months of warantee to go, when the Intel Macs started to come out. I also use a PowerBook G4 1Ghz, as well as a modest PC Intel Dual Core 1.6Ghz, which is more than enough for running well crafted Adobe Audition and Steinberg Wavelab (both quite old versions, but entirely sufficient for my needs).
On the Macs, I use Logic Pro 7. I started to use Macs so I could go on using Logic. (Having both worlds is a bonus as far as I’m concerned !) Pro 6 has been working perfectly fine for a while now; a stable setup is a setup I want to keep – so no urge to upgrade to Pro 8 right now.
I’m very fond of the proprietary plugins in Logic; I especially like the ES2 (a great and extremely versatile substractive synth.) The SPACE DESIGNER is a convolution reverb that sounds just amazing with sheer infinite presets from ultra-realistic to ultra weird ;-) Finally, there’s the no-fuss and still very flexible EXS 24 sampler, which accepts Akai and Giga format, which, again, is all I need.
My audio interface has been the Presonus FIREPOD for years; it has 8 channels all with mic preamplifiers, a very decent sound and a simple design that suits me well. Also a lot of outputs allowing for pretty much anything to be sent anywhere. I have done live recordings with it (8 channels come in handy!). I don’t know if an optical out has been added on the new version, I know people complained about “only” SPDF output on this unit…
I don’t want to sound too flattering, but my Ohm Force plugins ARE the ONLY non-Logic-native plugins I paid for! I started by falling in love with… was it Frohmage ? Ohmygod ? Anyway, i felt at ease with it instantly. Sometime later, there was a group buy, and I got myself the « All Filter » bundle, which included the both gorgeous QuadFrohmage and Symptohm:Melohman.
Now I’m exploring my newly won Hematohm and Ohmicide (you gotta love them just for the NAMES, right ?)
What have been the concept and the starting ideas for making your contest track?
I essentially let myself being guided by the loops offered for the contest. To have sort of a background, I started with a homemade, pad-like loop (made with the ES2, a Logic synth), nicely distorted with Frohmage. I then let the synth loop (with lots of reverb to keep it distant, discrete) play along with my own loop. I then let both the rythm and bass loops kick in, as they played really nice together.
When I heard the organ loop, I instantly wanted to « trash » it, so it would feel like someone talking (that was the idea, anyway !) So I sent it through « BitCrusher » from Logic. I then stopped the rythm section and made the organ loop resonate / « sing » through Frohmage in a kind of midway-through « solo ». Rythm section kicks back in, organ solo ends, and I let my own loop have the « final singing », resonating through Frohmage as well. That’s it.
What kind of music your listen to? What are your major influences and favorite artists?
I’ll try to be brief, because there would be so many names to mention… As a pianist, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and… Vladimir Horowitz (classical) have had a huge impact on me. The Pat Metheny Group has been in my life since about 1978. I stopped listening to new albums for some years now, but his music – and, of course, the magical touch of his keyboardist and co-writer of most songs, lyle Mays – feels like home to me. I just have to add Radiohead… and Kate Bush ( !) to name the uttermost important ones…
My buddy and I both enjoy Pink Floyd, Miles Davis (especially what he did since « We want Miles »)… and lots more !
