California-based producers Torin Goodnight and Tyler Gibson pool their talents to make dreamy electro soundscapes. You know what they say about birds of a feather...
Electronic music can be hard to pin down. One minute it's all about EDM, the next you can't move for supposed psytrance DJs. Birds Of Paradise manage to steer clear of their genre's more fickle elements. With more than a decade of production experience behind them, Bay Area native Goodnight and Gibson combine rolling backbeats and intricate sound design to create timeless yet extremely listenable tracks.
How do you describe the Birds Of Paradise sound?
Well that can be a tricky question for us, but I think we'd call it a fusion of tropical, ethnic elements mixed with edgy psychedelia over various forms of beats. Freeform psychedelic electronica could be one way of looking at it. We aim to create music that provides a fully immersive experience of colour and texture with an environmental quality that changes shape, form and style.
Your tracks often fuse organic sounds with more synthetic beats. Is it hard to find the right balance between the two?
It really just comes down to listening to what's in front of you and what you'd like to hear. We put a lot of care in balancing the elements whether it's the organic and synthetic parts, the melodic and the shred, and so on. Anytime we think things are leaning too much in one direction we create a counterbalance so nothing pokes out as being used too much or too little.
Torin, you have a degree in sound engineering. Has this academic background effected the way you create music?
I very much enjoyed my time at sound school, and while its approach wasn't necessarily geared specifically around electronic music production, I know it plays a role in the way I think about things. If nothing else it was a fundamental element comprising my journey as an electronic musician and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity and experience.
Earth Frequency has a focus on the visual arts as well as music. Do you design the album art for Birds Of Paradise?
We have a major appreciation for visual arts as well, but our buddy Android Jones did the phenomenal artwork for 'Flight Patterns'. He couldn't have done a better job at capturing visually what our music sounds like. Thanks Andrew!
What are you looking forward to most about playing in Australia?
The beautiful landscape and connecting with the amazing people again. We are very impressed and inspired by the music coming from Australia, and are honoured to be so well received by our fans as well as fellow producers that we hold in such high regard.
Do you prefer large festival dates to smaller shows?
We do prefer playing at festivals to shows in bars or clubs. Not solely because there are larger crowds, but it feels much more in line with how we feel about the music we make. We aim to create special music for special times, and for us being out under the sky with the intention of creating magic feels like magic. Smaller gigs in bars or clubs can offer their own form of magic, but it seems just a reflection of what's truly possible. We do try and give everything we can regardless of the venue, but when we're genuinely inspired it makes all the difference.
What can we expect from a Birds Of Paradise set?
Our sets are comprised of released and unreleased material. One of us mixes the songs and the other adds elements over the top to give it some spontaneity. We do continuously consider how to improvise but unless we think it will genuinely benefit the music we aren't too concerned with it being 'live'. We put a lot of time and effort into creating interesting music full of lots of interesting information. Trying to perform it can really just compromise the complexity we work so hard to achieve.
Written by Phoebe Hurst
Birds Of Paradise play Earth Frequency at Ivory’s Rock, February 14-17.
