Slow Fade

If you want to learn how to sustain a creative career over 20 years, talk to Aaron Taylor-Waldman . He’s a graphic designer responsible for the album covers on many Mystery Circles releases , from Hainbach’s to Matt Lowery’s to my own , and on his own Mystery Circles album Concentric . Aaron is a longtime lover of electronic music who studied sound design under the electronic music pioneer Pauline...

Ben Messelbeck wants you to become a film composer. He's a multi-instrumentalist who’s spent more than a decade as a full-time film composer, scoring documentaries like The Kids Are Not Alright and Zombies: Hung Up on a Dream, as well as narrative films like Adult Interference and The Good Half. He’s toured the world as bass player for the band Hello Stranger, with Joachim Cooder and Juliette...

Andrea Ragusa is a musician, sound designer, and co-founder of AC Noises , an Italian boutique pedal maker that’s taken the world by storm over the past few years, winning fans from Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite to Nine Inch Nails’ Alessandro Cortini. Andrea runs the company with his partner Claudia Bellotti, an illustrator and photographer. They just released their most ambitious pedal yet, an ambi...

Aqeel Aadam is a Philadelphia-based musician, composer, and developer who’s released four albums combining modular synth soundscapes with crunchy beats. He started designing audio software plugins on a whim—and found such a passionate audience for them that it’s become a full-time job.  But how do you live up to a musician grandfather who played with Charlie Parker and John Coltrane? What did Aqee...

Tyler Pursel is a musician with one foot in the world of Top 10 hits and the other in wildly adventurous ambient and experimental music. He’s been the touring keyboardist for the rap-rock band Gym Class Heroes for nearly two decades, and in recent years he’s released a series of exquisite ambient albums as a solo artist and as one half of the duo Earthroom . Tyler’s new solo LP, In The Pasture of...

TJ Dumser, aka Six Missing , is one of those guys who makes you feel better about the world just because he’s in it . [ NOTE for Apple Podcast subscribers : the correct Slow Fade feed is at this link -- please click and make sure it's the one you're subscribed to. There is a duplicate listing that I'll be removing soon. Thanks.] TJ is a professional sound designer, mixer, and composer...

Ainsworth is a Toronto-based music producer, multi-instrumentalist, and social media synth jam maestro. If you’ve spent any time in the synthier corners of Instagram or YouTube, you’ve bobbed your head to the irresistible beats he makes on synths the size of matchboxes. [ NOTE for Apple Podcast subscribers : the correct Slow fade listing is ⁠at this link⁠ -- please click and make sure it's the...

What’s the secret to building a passionate creative community that doesn’t turn into a circular firing squad? How do you become the kind of grown-up you wish you had around as a kid? How do we tap the wisdom of Aphex Twin? [ NOTE for Apple Podcast subscribers : the correct Slow fade listing is ⁠at this link⁠ -- please click and make sure it's the one you're subscribed to. There is a duplic...

Musician Navin Kala fled the big city for an isolated farm life of dogs, chickens, mango trees...and synths. What has it taught him about creativity? Why has Instagram become crucial to him? What did he learn from Stranger Things? And what if J.S. Bach had Instagram? [ NOTE for Apple Podcast subscribers : the correct Slow fade listing is at this link -- please click and make sure it's the one...