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Q: Which, by the way, are your favortie tracks off of "Negativ?" And which are your favorite tracks on any of your albums? If someone wanted the whole Proem experience summed up in one track, what should they listen to?

A: the glass is always half empty when it comes to favorites.. I remember which ones I don't like that much. Chalk that up to listening to them for hours on end during their creation or in the process of organizing them for production. Don't think I could sum up the "total" proem experience with just one track. Or one record even. Best to start at the beginning and follow along with the bouncing red ball.

Q: Two tracks off "Negativ" I like a lot are "Cold Water [Flat]" and "Long Distance Tiara." If you remember, could you kind of take me through the steps that took you from staring at a blank piece of software through having a final piece ready for inclusion on an album? Like, did one start with a riff you particularly liked, or maybe a drum beat? Were they inspired by something outside of your computer? how you decide that a beat and tonal riff fit well together, or how you construct your songs once you have a riff you like. I assume Reaktor or Ableton (or whatever you use) has sequencers that let you input standard note values (C#, Eb, F, et al). Since you're never actually playing live the melodies you create, how do you create them?

A: to be honest like everything I write it just kinda of falls together. The ones that work the are the ones that get finished. Dfferent methods for different stuff but the effects always wind up goin in last. I have a huge directory of nuthing but 30 second sequences. That I occasionally drag out and rehash if I hit a hard spot during the writing process.

Q: On that tip, the internet seems to have a huge impact on IDM in that so much advertising and communication happens through mailing lists and web sites. And so many musicians are graphic artists and computer programmers in "the real world." How do you feel about this? You do graphic design -- do the ideas you get doing that cross over into your ideas about music (and vice versa)?

A: What can you say about the internet? It's there. It takes a few degrees out of the six degrees of separation. I'm not really sure about my ideas about music translating to design, on an obvious level. I think everything that you are drawn to do is a part of you. You cant really separate the two entities like saying "rich the designer likes to put big shadows and sentence fragments in the middle of the pieces, whereas Rick the musician likes a softer palette and basic FM sine waves". On the nonlinear plane of consciousness they are one and the same. However, after looking at most of my recent graphics work and my recent audio compositions I'd have to say that there is a total correlation. Most of my design work revolves around really tight random shapes and a hard lines and soft gradients, which is really close to how my music sounds I think. Tight sequences that go seemingly random at times but only for a few seconds and huge reverbs.

Q: Do you care if people "pirate" your mp3s instead of buying the albums?

A: Most of the people that I run into that are familiar with proem are a little shy about admitting that they pirated the mp3s. Case in point, the first time I met Mr. projectile, he told me that he didn't know anything about me and had only heard my track Toytronic nuerokinetic compilation. He later admitted that he had pirated a few others. He felt a little bad from what I can remember. I lightened it by telling him that the same went for me with his stuff. I don't really take offence to it. I would hope that whomever pirated would someday feel guilty enough to buy it all, or fall in love it so much that they have to have a legitimate copy. One of the reasons I decided to do a minidisc only release is that it adds just one or two extra steps in the pirating process. That and I love unconventional formats. The tech bug in me. If Sony made music for hardwired brain implants I would want to be first in line to do a brain implant release...

Q: Would you or have you considered alternative ways of marketing yourself and your material, or are you just happy to let someone else take of it for some bucks?

A: I would be an idiot to say that I haven't thought about alternative marketing. But at the moment I cant afford any of it, and I don't have an agent to pony up the dough either. I'm certainly not going to pull a metallica and get all bitchy about my profits (cuz I barely have any in the first place). The whole mp3 thing is total human nature, people will always steal stuff, and will always find a way faster than you can prevent them from doing so. Humankind is resilient like that.

Q: You probably know this (based on my previous questions, at least), but "Negativ" is available through eMusic.com, a service that allows users to pay $15/month for unlimited downloads of music by artists on participating labels. Sounds good for the consumer (and probably for the labels, at least the larger, more corporate ones), but do you think this is good for you?

A: I can definitely see it being useful for some releases. For instance, I've received so many complaints about not being able to find my first CD anywhere. For blossoming labels I think it's a good thing. Of course it depends on what sort of system they have in place for deciding who gets to participate and who doesn't. I've never had any problem with emusic or the like. Especially considering that I seem to make the top ten lists often enough there... hehehe.

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