Off the Record

Plover 0:00
What's up, y'all? This is DJ Plover here with off the record here at WKNC 8.1 FM. HD one, we are a nonprofit student run radio station based out of North Carolina State University. And I'm here today with a how do you pronounce your name? Sorry. Xavier Latorre. Awesome. And you're for the band A-tria, we'd like to introduce yourself.

Xavier Latorre 0:21
Yeah. Well, I was I was born in Puerto Rico. And, you know, in around 1989, I moved here to the States. And I gotta give you the story of it. Basically. I remember around 1987, my neighbor gave me a tape. They were very religious person, a whole family. The he told me, Hey, you know, here's this tape, I cannot have it on my house, my parents wouldn't let me have it. And I looked at it. At that time, I was a skater push play on the tape player, and it was actually leaked Surrett. And he kind of like blew my mind. You know, at that time, I was listening to things like Yogi vision, but nothing at that level of intensity and energy that they had.

Unknown Speaker 1:11
So from there on, you know, I started making music around in the 1990s to 1992, I started making kind of fall more into a dark way sounds kind of tracks, some of they were even 10 minutes long.

Unknown Speaker 1:27
Kind of sounding like sometimes meditation instead of music. At that time, the rave scene was very, very big. So I wanted something a little bit different than the wave scene, the rave scene, something that were more darker. But he was going into around maybe 1992. and above, when I really got into more into the dark and dosterone music.

Unknown Speaker 1:52
I remember, my getting

Unknown Speaker 1:57
my Vir tool first

Unknown Speaker 2:02
audio tracks from my computer, back, Danny was called ie magic, a magic came around, they tend to you know, he will say he was a company called sila from Germany, they used to make parts for a computer, but somehow they created these music programs out of nowhere. And I fell in love with it. At that time, he was kind of like $699, I believe. But for me, that was a lot of money. I mean, my first car was $600. So we decided to get it use the COVID a little dongle to you know, to make it work, which was impossible to crack. But anyways

Unknown Speaker 2:41
emagic came up and that kind of open my horizon into making more like professional music. And then eventually, back in the day was pirate bay, they had the cracked version, and I was able to also get it for free. Doing that back then. Don't do that anymore. But he was he was fun when they when he was the assistant.

Unknown Speaker 3:07
Anyways, emagic for those who doesn't know, that got bought by Apple. And now he's what we call logic, which is where I still use. Once you started learning and music program, you kind of stick to it. And back then in the beginning of the early 90s. When I started playing, you'll see the main programs was Imagic And Pro tools. So I decided to go with the magic. And like I say, once you learn it, you kind of stay with it. Because you spend so much time and learning all those software's that it is almost impossible to be impossible to be like, Oh, okay, I'm tired of logic. Let me go back to pro tools and things that will be months and months of just learning just the basics. So to this day, you know, almost like, What 30 Something years later, I still use in logic or logic that they call it right now.

Unknown Speaker 4:00
But anyway, so it was it was a real struggle. You know, even building my own computer, I had to find out hearts of many different computers and put them together so I can have something my music program can hold more than maybe five or six tracks with this before it starts like smoking and burning up. But I but we did it. You know, I actually got a few friends. At that time. The main one is our feet Feliks which we still communicate and we still make music together. He's also part of this, this journey we're doing with Africa, or Asia.

Unknown Speaker 4:43
He's he was from Mexico. And when we came to the United States, we kind of met and we will need a bit of the outsiders. He will say great. It gave me a great outside look into society coming from another country not knowing the language not knowing anything.

Unknown Speaker 5:00
So he was a beautiful thing at the beginning, you obviously was scary.

Unknown Speaker 5:06
You know, hard, he was very, very hard. But now that I'm all done, I look back into it. It gave me that outsider perspective on everything, whether it was social issues, or politics or anything. And he will say, he goes to view

Unknown Speaker 5:23
that shaped my music too. Because I never belong to any kind of specific group, I was always from the outside looking looking in. But anyway, so after having a hard time building those computers, we were able to finally we're still talking around 1983 1984, we were able to get a Mac Pro tower, and that was like Boo, boo, you know, now we have 2025 tracks, without without getting the little thing that say ups, you know,

Unknown Speaker 5:55
this No.

Unknown Speaker 5:57
So that was actually like a big game changer. So from 1993, to maybe 1996. That's when we went from a dark wave to more to more industrial sounds, I still have

Unknown Speaker 6:12
many, many tapes, because they're still on tapes, you see from that era, from the early 90s, that includes everything meditation, jungle music, I think we even make some reggae sounds, which I'm kind of going through all of those, maybe I'm gonna maybe master them more digitally, and maybe put them out there one day. So that's, that's something I kind of want to do, too. I don't know if he should be with Andrea, or she'll be maybe a side project. Because there's just so much music, there are so much different styles,

Unknown Speaker 6:49
including just regular drums and bass guitars and the regular guitar, we were into everything basically. So I know, I definitely want to hear those on a tree or any platform in general, for sure. They're just on tape at the moment. They need some major work some major work, you know, but we save all that stuff I were talking about, we still have instruments. A lot of samplers are they still have the floppy disk on it, you know, back in the days in the late 80s and early 90s A lot of the instruments can be flung at this. So a lot of the music that we have are stealing those things you know, so they're require some major work but but you know, we're working on it.

Unknown Speaker 7:32
The first LP that I did out there

Unknown Speaker 7:36
absolutely. The last song was a little bit different than the other ones and I'm thinking from now on the last one or two songs, I'm going to have some of the older music, just throw in there just to release it.

Unknown Speaker 7:51
But um, you know, we use all kinds of instruments all together, you know, from the TD three which give us a little bit more of an acid base. A lot of our chi pores are Turia scenes for sure on from those, they are Turia synthesizers, I ended up using the Mellotron the OBS and the June 16 Mo's and they all go through the Tascam that I got back here mixer Scarlett interface and therefore mastering I personally rely in logic isotope on a lot of the altario software just to make that sound common a bit more live.

Unknown Speaker 8:32
But anyways, part of the of the beauty of all these is that, you know, from 1990 to this day, you know, me have fake Felix will always even though he's not here in Nashville anymore, he just moved to

Unknown Speaker 8:48
probably like two hours away from here, Charlotte, but we communicate, we have the same instruments, we have the same software the same everything so whatever I make a song or music, I send it to a my he adds or take out whatever he thinks he's not working, they send it back to me and then I add more stuff and I take out more stuff. And we do that on and on until we create a song that we like we both like and and we go for it, you know, right now he's working in New Zealand too. I haven't heard it but he told me he's, you know, halfway done. So I kind of wait till I get my hands on it.

Unknown Speaker 9:24
So we've been doing that scene since the early 90s. And to this day, you know, maybe was a year ago we started talking now that we have this massive collection of music and sounds. What are we going to do with it email every time I wanted to hear some of my songs from like a long time ago, early 90s I sometimes I upload them on SoundCloud and I had to go to SoundCloud just and they said and I was like this is too much. You know, I want my music to be on everywhere so that way anywhere I am I could just be like I want to hear a song form and there it is. And that's how

Unknown Speaker 10:00
We kind of started, we were like, Okay, well then let's put them together into LP Lescol starsan releasing something goals. And that's how we kind of formed.

Unknown Speaker 10:11
And here we are, you know, doing that exactly that.

Unknown Speaker 10:16
So we're, I'm excited about it to come in with a new album. Very soon, we have six or seven songs already ready to go. So I want to add a few more.

Unknown Speaker 10:29
And that's it.

Unknown Speaker 10:31
That's the story on

Unknown Speaker 10:33
you is also going to be the single is that the single author project, what is it is also a single author project because that kind of teasing, that's gonna be that's gonna be one and I did send you guys two new ones that nobody has heard either those are going to be in there, this new one is going to be cold, the LP is going to be pulled out or total. And he's going to be a lot harder than the first one.

Unknown Speaker 11:04
For some reason that he's just we've just made music we don't really stay on we listen make it a lot harder. He's just he's just automatically came into fruition, fruition that way, you know, but when I sit down, I started listening to them, I realized I was like, wow, these these are gonna just gonna be intense, a lot more intense. It's just it just by luck.

Unknown Speaker 11:27
Is not it wasn't by purpose. You know, you I usually when I tried to make music, I started making my own beats, I'm making everything and then it just progressed from there, I never really know exactly where I'm going to go. Sometimes these days on my computer for months, before I finally do work on it underneath is something totally different from what I started from.

Unknown Speaker 11:50
My wife Natalia, always make fun of me, because you know, sometimes I'm working in the studio for a long, long time. And, you know, I only have like 40 seconds, or something. But that is also because we make every single beat we make every single sound, there is a there's a lot to say there's no sound glean. But there is there's a few voices that we use from black and white movies, here and there on not all the songs but a lot of the songs. But everything else is made by yours. And I'm talking about every drum kick, every snare, every every everything, you know, he's just one by one to put everything together. So sometimes I spend even though I work some days into just making one single beat. And that beat is creative with 12 or 13 tracks, you know, because everything is separated individually, just in case I want to take out things or put back things I can do that with sampling. With taking samples out there, you cannot do that, you know, just that there is a complete section now there's all those bands out there, like borders of Canada,

Unknown Speaker 13:05
future sign of London that basically almost the entire song is made by sampling all their songs and they create so much different effects on top of that layer after layers effect, they become something else. And that is a different kind of form of art in order to create that. But I like the I like to create everything from scratch. Because it gives me the feeling of like, you know, nobody can get these a set right here. You know, so it takes me longer it takes me long for sure. How did you kind of decide to cut off point for like your LP and be like your EP because you have so many tracks in your harddrive. You're like how am I going?

Unknown Speaker 13:47
On this one? I usually tried to do a little bit more than 10 or anywhere from a to 13 as my as my goal.

Unknown Speaker 13:57
But really, I'm not bound to any of that sometimes I think my first one was only four songs I have most of them except for maybe two was released already on us a single right now we have I think six or seven already done so I'm thinking maybe four or five more I may be if I have time. Also some of the all the stuff you know, maybe maybe a jungle sauna da or something, you know that because we do have a few bills.

Unknown Speaker 14:30
But I don't have I don't have a specific number. You know, I think once once I look at it, I'd be like this. This feels good. You know, I kind of go by intuition more like anything else.

Unknown Speaker 14:44
What exactly brought you to Asheville specifically as a city? Well, I grew up in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, believe it or not, looks just just like Asheville you know, we have our mountains we have our rivers, basic for the beach. You know we have almost every

Unknown Speaker 15:00
analysis is very rich super tropical island. And you know growing up there

Unknown Speaker 15:06
on the on the countryside, all you wanted to do is move to the city, you know, unfortunately I have kids and a half from their dad no matter how you teach your kids or you know guy your test kids, eventually they're going to rebel for whatever it is that you're doing. So I was like, I want to go I want to go the CD, the CD so I moved when I was 15 my parents actually moved with me but once I turned 17 My parents went back to Puerto Rico and I just stay up with this in the states by myself.

Unknown Speaker 15:38
Because I wanted to be in a bigger city. But then back when maybe in my 30s

Unknown Speaker 15:46
when I started having kids too, I started thinking you know, I kind of want my kids to grow up the same kind of way I did. I don't know if that is a great idea or No, but that's why I was feeling at the time. So I started Googling googling all mountain saw reverse and Musik and Asheville gave coming up coming up coming up so I decided just to go for it I never have been in Nashville never have seen Asheville I just moved

Unknown Speaker 16:17
with my kids and everything you know thinking okay, he's just going to work and and it did I would love it over here.

Unknown Speaker 16:24
I think now my kids are teenagers now so they kind of probably wants to go back to the city because obviously they're growing up just like me in the country and it's just like a cycle that happens like that. But um but um, you know, I love the mountains I love the country now. Um, I ended up actually the first time I moved here, I moved to Asheville, right there in the middle of the city for a few months, and I kind of hated it. You know, I was in the country and we'll see Nashville surrounded by mountains but it was still a lot of people there was still a lot of noise. And then from high school I moved now to Canada, which is only like maybe 20 something years away from high school, but enough to be a little bit away from everything, you know, I like to just walk outside my house and not be bothered with neighbors or anything like that. So you know, to answer your question, you're very short formed and the reason I choose Asheville is just because he

Unknown Speaker 17:21
kind of reminds me of my hometown in Puerto Rico. It's really cool. Is there any part of like Nashville, local music scene that you like or have explored? You know, there are a few bands out there that I do like

Unknown Speaker 17:38
but not too many. Not too many. I do live but don't get me wrong. I do love a little bit of the country you'll see here national what they call bluegrass basically.

Unknown Speaker 17:54
Or Appalachian music I do love it just because he had that most of he has that very fast beat to guy it's just blows my mind how can you can play the banjo that fast is unbelievable. You know and there's a lot of bands in here that takes that that sound and makes it into almost like a punk kind of version of it. And I love it is amazing the way they can do all that.

Unknown Speaker 18:21
But um, but you know there's not there's there's no nothing industrial

Unknown Speaker 18:27
I think might be the first one. So so most of the time you know when I came to Asheville, I went to every single festival every single music anything out there and I just I guess maybe I just overloaded myself with it. And now I just want to sit back and read a bit I just create my own.

Unknown Speaker 18:47
Yeah, I was really surprised because I found you're looking through Bandcamp searching for by city and I saw Asheville and industrial on the same like tag and that was that was really cool. Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

Unknown Speaker 19:00
You know, another aspect of our music too is you know, industrial music. It really started in the mid 70s.

Unknown Speaker 19:09
By the by the early 80s. They were so ready in late Cirebon from 242. But

Unknown Speaker 19:16
you know in the mid 70s and even late 70s bands Ida was already really into industrial sounds or so is is a gene that has been around for a little while they used to call it back then electric body music. That was the term that they used to use. But

Unknown Speaker 19:38
it is it is something that I kind of want to bring back I'm not really into bringing back the new form of industrial music. I kind of want to bring back the classic where you have maybe it baseline that it was the same from the beginning to end and never even change or the jumping never change the only thing that

Unknown Speaker 20:00
change throughout the whole song well, the song, the lyrics, you know, everything was just very robotic from beginning to end. And

Unknown Speaker 20:09
you know, also here my wife, he's been pushing me very, very hard to make a LP with lyrics on every voice on it. And I'm considering it, but at the same time I'm fighting in my mind this idea of once I put a lyric into a song, it becomes those lyrics, you know, if the lyrics are sad and the Sony sad, if the lyrics are happy, then the song is kind of happy to when you have your say instrumental, which there are not that many out there anymore. Maybe there's a reason why maybe they'll say on

Unknown Speaker 20:46
a lost world but anyways, where you have it as a instrumental, the music because whatever you feeling at that moment, you could listen to the same song I'm listening at the same time, for me could be anger because I feel anchored at that moment for you could be sad or happy because you feel happy, or happy or sad at that moment.

Unknown Speaker 21:08
So I like like making a lot of instrumental songs just because it gives the listeners full control of how you want the song to be at that specific moment. Instead of if you put some lyrics on it, then the song becomes those lyrics.

Unknown Speaker 21:26
Something to think about? I do. I do know that if I built lyrics on my, all my songs, they're probably going to

Unknown Speaker 21:35
sound or be a little bit better, you know, just because it creates that very also classic industrial sound to

Unknown Speaker 21:43
like bygone days where there have no say singing, there was more than a yelling into the, into the song, but at the same time, then they will take away from the ability to have a instrumental that becomes whatever the the the person who's listening to becomes whatever they're feeling at the moment. So it's something I'm struggling with two. For sure. Yeah, that instrumental always has more open to interpretation. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 22:12
Have y'all ever played live? Or is that something that you kind of focus? No, no, actually not? No, we have nothing, no other way to act? Yeah, you know, we did at one point, we're very close in Dino to play,

Unknown Speaker 22:27
what you might call it, the High School in one of those vital sorts of bands back with a tape back on the day to bow we'd never really would get on, I remember that time, we were almost about to do a so I got old these. But at that time I had, I was working with a chord sampler and I have all of these sounds that I was I was just starting to creating these long sounds and you know, 10 minutes long tracks. But but never at the end would never did it. So we have never actually played live.

Unknown Speaker 23:00
Something I'm not against, either. But obviously I want to at least establish two or three LPS before I consider going live.

Unknown Speaker 23:12
You know, right now my silence around three and a half to maybe four minutes. So I you know, I need I need some collections before I go out there. So I can have at least an hour an hour and a half of non stop music.

Unknown Speaker 23:26
Oh, you mentioned 10 minute songs multiple times. So is there anything kind of different about like making a 10 minute song versus like a three minute song for you?

Unknown Speaker 23:33
Well, yes,

Unknown Speaker 23:35
you know, it is, when you make back from the days when we were into the dark way, silence, you know, it was more like an ambient and atmospheric feeling almost like lost more, you know, something you created that takes you into a journey, where you do it three minutes of that is way too short, you know, sometimes you need five or six minutes of just repetition so you can get into that, that feeling of emerging into it. So for for Darkwave sounds and that kind of era within the early 90s We were working with that, you know, longer songs were were essential, you know, now, now we don't especially with this style that Archer is working right now is on top of that, especially since we don't have vocalist on it, you know, you have to have quite a lot of changes

Unknown Speaker 24:31
something I also struggle because I want to I want to keep it very, very basic like the beginning of industrial and to keep it like that. You cannot have too many changes, you know, but at the same time see there is no lyrics you have to have a little bit of changing because nowadays I feel like people are so used to, you know, the modern or the way that music is made, you know, with the you know, four liter tracks at first and then you have your cars and then go back you know

Unknown Speaker 25:00
I'm a little bit afraid that if I make it real classic industrial, it would be quite boring, you know, you can see the same baseline on the same day from beginning to end with our lyrics, once you put lyrics in there, then you then you have the illusion of this. The sun is changing, but it's actually just the vocals that you shouldn't do. Because the beat and the bass back on the old classic was the same from beginning to end. But unfortunately, since I don't have a vocalist, I have to have to keep everybody a little bit more entertained.

Unknown Speaker 25:36
Is there any kind of one artists that inspired this project of yours?

Unknown Speaker 25:45
Well, you know, not Not really.

Unknown Speaker 25:48
I mean, don't get me wrong, I grew up listening to God vision, this array of front 242 Skinny Poppy, my life we get through a girl called, I grew up with that era, and that era use a lot of sanitizers and and a lot of hardcore sounds.

Unknown Speaker 26:08
But like I say, when we started making music, he was very different from industrial, you know, and he's just, he's just evolved that way almost naturally.

Unknown Speaker 26:21
You know, we we make a sound we make a song, they will sometimes after spending months on a song, you could be like, you know, whatever to like it. But then I started noticing that every time I made some kind of industrial style, I was like, Oh, I really like this let me save it. And then another one would call more industrial Oh, I really like this let me save it and then I started realizing that industrial sounds were the ones that I kind of

Unknown Speaker 26:51
got guided myself more into it so I decided not to waste too much time in other music that after putting hours open hours I could be like they didn't work I decided just to concentrate on the ones that I kind of knew I going to end up being more happy with it unfortunately with a full time job

Unknown Speaker 27:13
as a teacher and also as a family man time is very limited and very important. So I kind of tried to go with something that I brought to the shore are going to like at the end and that end up to be more of the industrial the industrial side

Unknown Speaker 27:32
what does that really mean by the way that doesn't really have the meaning you know, I grew up I will say I will not say I was still on deep inside anarchists so I wanted something that had a on it. So that's the A came about and then the and then I started playing with symbols and I realized that if I put a T in the middle the A almost looks like anarchy symbol if you put a circle around it and then but I cannot call myself at you know and then I started playing with just just letters and Adriaan came about Yeah, that's really cool. I really like your like gear kind of very minimalist album covers those are really nice. This song that we makes are also kind of like that or I Well it's funny the material these because I like to make my songs for you know, every time I make a track sometimes they're like 2527 30 tracks.

Unknown Speaker 28:31
Sorry, I didn't meant it that way. Every time I've tried to make a song I ended up having like so many tracks up to 30 tracks and then when I send it to my friend happy Feliks to like

Unknown Speaker 28:42
if you master them or tell me what what you know, he he takes out like half

Unknown Speaker 28:49
he's he's very minimalistic, it's always telling me that social half no more than 10 tracks and I'm like 10 tracks I need that maybe we'll just do half and it's not even sound just the deed I need to abstract. But anyway, so we always argue about that. So it is I think it's a very great collaboration of if you hear almost every every single Sony have many parts are very, very minimal. I don't have the parts I just the bass and the drumbeat that nothing else, you know, maybe a tiny live sound on the background. And then also in the same song, usually by the end or sometimes at the beginning or in the middle. It doesn't really matter. There is like a bombardment of tracks and that's usually me and my section that my friend did not clean up. Let me have you know, so and also you know, I did grew up in their late 80s and early 90s with those kinds of music that was like you know, skinny puppies for example. You know, they have so many so many sounds going in all at once. And I cannot date like that. So I tried to incorporate those

Unknown Speaker 30:00
Both of them experientially incorporate the basic minimalistic of early industrial sounds. And at the same time incorporate a lot of sounds into the song to make it more danceable or just more fuller or, or just because that's the way I kind of grew up listening to music. So I kind of like it like that.

Unknown Speaker 30:21
My goal is to create music that makes you want to get up and do something, whether it is to destroy something, or to build something.

Unknown Speaker 30:31
I want to create that energy that you need to get a vessel fi get on that share, get off or whatever you doing, and just go for it. So he needs to have

Unknown Speaker 30:43
that that sound of energy and also being able to dance because he's, for me, it's very important, important to have something to dance with. When I listened to songs that I cannot dance, I am always like, well, what am I going to do with this? Yeah, it's kind of nice and everything.

Unknown Speaker 31:02
The only one that I kind of like is our meditation, honestly, I grew Oh, I'd always been some meditation before I go to bed. Because I just like those sounds, you know, even back when I was I was 17 years old. You know, I was making those meditations. And so he's just always been with me. So I guess I take back the fact that I say that, you know, music that doesn't involve dancing, I can handle. But But I'm talking about other other aspects of music team. No, no, no, meditation. Got to have that aspect to it.

Unknown Speaker 31:37
Absolutely. Is there anything else you want to tell us about the album? Do you have like a potential date for dropping? No, but it will be soon I'm thinking maybe a month or two months from now will be released. Right now there is a lot of materials that are involved. A lot of times making music is very, very strong. For me, mastering is what I struggle with. So you know, I sometimes I spend days trying to master something, and he sounds super nice. And my speakers, I take it to my car or some other people's speakers. I'm like, oh, man, you know, the highs are too high, the lows are too low. So I have to go back and rearrange everything again. So so it takes a little bit of time. And I want to do at least four more songs into the album. So once those songs are done,

Unknown Speaker 32:29
then I would really say not. So I'm thinking anywhere from a month to month, I'd be able be able to do that. And like I say this one is going to be a lot harder, a lot, a lot better. You know, you have to listen. Listen to it now and listen it loud. Yeah, I'll definitely do both those things in it'll probably be on WKNC. I

Unknown Speaker 32:51
did send you so those two songs that is coming also for a new album, those ones I may release as a single very soon, also, but you guys are the first one. Awesome. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about? By the way? No, no, you know, I do appreciate

Unknown Speaker 33:08
WKNC for giving me this opportunity. And talk about how actually I came came about and I really appreciate that you guys. Keep it right here in North Carolina. Of course we love your stuff. We love local artists in general.

Unknown Speaker 33:24
That's all good. I'm gonna do a quick outro and then should be good to go. All right, well, thank you.

Unknown Speaker 33:31
This has been a Andrea with Clover on WKNC. If you want to hear more from us, you can go to wknc.org/podcast and click on off the record for more great artists interviews just like this one. Catch you on the flipside.