Rage Against the Drum Machine
Why Montreal’s SuperFossilPower Won’t Part With His Casio Keyboard
“I think that computers will be able to do things that up until now in history would have been seen as only in the realm of possibility of humans.”
Drum machinist and founder of the one-man band SuperFossilPower, Tyler K. Rauman, could easily be talking about advances in cybernetics, or the event horizon in which artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence.
How we got to talking about whether computer algorithms would one day be able to make moving music, I don’t know, but it’s something that’s long been on Rauman’s mind.
“I’m totally a trans-humanist,” Rauman said of the coming creative revolution spawned by intelligent machines. “It’s kind of depressing as an artist, right? Because I’m going to be obsolete in another 20 years, probably.”
Rauman ironically brandishes a bumper sticker for The Society for the Rehumanization of American Music, whose slogan is “Drum machines have no soul.”
As a self-proclaimed rationalist, and relentless literalist, Rauman agrees, but only in the most sarcastic of ways; of course machines don’t have any souls.
But as a drum machinist, Rauman takes particular offense at the Society’s anti-modernist message.
“Do you think that people who painted with oil paints were the same way when acrylic paints were invented?” he asks.
“Or when they put frets on guitars—because stringed instruments used to be unfretted, right? When they put frets on them, think about how many people thought that was cheating, because you didn’t actually have to hit the note. It did it for you.
“I’m totally a trans-humanist,” Rauman said of the coming creative revolution spawned by intelligent machines. “It’s kind of depressing as an artist, right? Because I’m going to be obsolete in another 20 years, probably.”
-Tyler K. Rauman,
One-man band
“There are people who think that there’s one particular way of making music and that’s all that anyone should ever do, as though you shouldn’t be allowed to explore different facets of media to make music, you should only use acoustic guitars and a trap kit,” he said.
Rauman makes productive use of his Casio keyboard, MPC1000 sampler and, of course, his trusty drum machine to make songs with lyrics like, “Like a bull in a china shop, I’ll come into your place to break shit up.”
“I try to use music as an exploration of mystical ideas,” he said. “I’m a very rational person, so for me music is about exploring the irrational.”
While Rauman points out that computers have already composed some moving original classical compositions, he criticizes current research into pop music and attempts to distill into a formula what makes Britney sell.
“The problem I’ve had with the research I’ve seen is that it was all based on musical notation and melody,” Rauman said.
“But the way I approach music is so much more about texture. It’s about tonality and the contrast of tones, and those studies have never taken tone into consideration. They seem to be able to categorize songs very well, but I think they’re missing part of the equation so far.”
Perhaps, I might add, the human equation?
SuperFossilPower will be playing a secret loft venue on Oct. 8 at 11:30 p.m. If you want the address to the venue you will need to hit up Facebook and “Attend” that shit.
The show coincides with the launch party for Time Travel Yes! ‘zine.
This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 08, published October 5, 2010.
