From Solo Producer to Band Leader
Pyramind sits down with The Opiuo Band leader himself in this two part interview series spiced up with liberal amounts of performance footage from their packed show at Mezzanine in San Francisco on June 25th, 2015. Special thanks to Mezzanine, Hush Concerts and Euphonic Conceptions!
Opiuo Interview part 1: Music Production, Remixing and Running a Label
Opiuo (real name Oscar Davey-Wraight) sits with Jeff Straw and chats about his new band, the US tour, his own record label Slurp music and his two latest releases Meraki and Meraki Remixed. He tells us how this album was so different than his 2010 release Slurp and Giggle.
Opiuo discusses how his approach is different when he’s working on a remix. How he determines what parts to use, vocal production thoughts and he also touches on the Pretty Lights and Infected Mushroom remixes that he did.
Ever wonder what piece of studio gear Opiuo can’t live without? It’s the one synth that is on pretty much every Opiuo production… Want to find out know what DAW he prefers in the studios and why? You’ll learn it here!
Opiuo Interview part 2: Let’s Take it to the Stage
We talk about the horn part creation for the live set and how his sax player fits into the band and helps write parts. A bit of a self proclaimed “control freak”, Opiuo tells us how the arrangements were done for the tour.
Next up he walks us through his Ableton Live rig in detail, discussing how he splits his patches and color codes his sample banks on the Akai MPK249 to make things easier for him on stage. How he sets up his macros and effects in Live to make the most of his live performance. He also lets us know how he sets up his track arming to make the most of his onstage Macbook Air without overloading the processor. Opiuo also plays on a Yamaha DTX Multi12 liberally through the set for backing horn parts, percussion sounds and more.
Find out what is MIDI synched vs played live and why that was so important to the overall vision of this tour. Moving to the other side of the stage, we go over his guitarist Tony’s rig who is in charge of a “shitload of samples” from his side of the stage which are triggered by an Akai MPK225, and a Roland SPD-SX . We get into how he cycles through 8 different Guitar Rig instances in Ableton Live controlled by a Keith McMillan Softstep for his wide array of guitar tones.
Lastly he gives us some words of advice for up and coming producers out there!
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