Hello and welcome to the Sound On Sound podcast channel about electronic music and all things synth.  I'm Rob Puricelli and in this episode I talk with Matt Johnson, one of the most talented and prolific keyboard players of the last 20 years, mostly as part of the legendary Jamiroquai in which he both writes and performs, and more recently as a YouTube channel host where he demonstrates the latest bits of synthesizer tech and has amassed more than 100,000 subscribers. 

I started by asking Matt how and when he managed to get his first big break. When I got into my early twenties, I decided to make the move to London. So I moved to London and I just started off by just busking on the street  to pay my rent and did a couple of years of that and then started to get to know some people, you know, and it all just slowly kind of snowballed.

You know, it wasn't like a.  Uh,  big meteoric rise at all, you know, it was all bit by bit, but and by the time I was sort of in my 20s, I was, you know, I was gigging five, six nights a week out in London and getting to know people.  So when was the first kind of real big break for you? I mean, you say you're gigging a lot.

When did you first start to think, yeah, I'm now a full time musician, I can maybe pick and choose what I want to do.  Yeah, sort of like 24, 25, something like that. I was working a lot, but I still hadn't had any really big gigs. Um, but I did, uh, do a couple of tours of Japan with an artist called Alicia Laverne, uh, who was an R& B singer who was not famous in England, but massive in Japan.

So, you know, that was great fun.  And, um, so the way I got my first real big break was, um, actually someone recommended me to audition for Miss Dynamite. Do you remember Miss Dynamite? Yeah, I do. Yeah. They already had a keyboard player, but they were looking for a second keyboard player.  And I went to the audition and they liked me, um, but they, in the end they decided they didn't need a second keyboard player because their other keyboard player was so good.

Uh, and, uh, but, uh, yeah. In that band was Stuart Zender and Simon Katz, who were in the original Jamiroquai. And then when Toby, who was my predecessor, um, the original Jamiroquai keyboard player, when he left, they recommended me. So that's how I got to audition for it. How did it feel  going into a band that's so big?

Was that daunting?  Um, I kind of just took it in my stride really, but it was, you know, it, it was in a way because I, I got the gig.  Um, I auditioned, there was like a two days of auditions and I, you know, obviously I got the job and then a week later. We were going to be going on tour, you know, on into these massive festivals, uh, all over Europe, uh, like 40, 000 jobs.

And, um, but before that we had to do a TV show as well, which with a totally different set because it was like the early stuff for the TV show. So that was pretty daunting. Like one week to learn two sets was quite full on, you know?  Yeah. When you started with Jamiroquai, what was your, your rig at the time?

Because I'm imagining that, you know, they have a certain sound. So did you have to adapt your, your rig from what it had been before to something new? Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I had a,  I had a Fender Rhodes Stage, which I did use, and I had a Roland JP 8000, which is a great, great synth actually, which was my only polysynth that I owned at the time. 

And, but they had some gear, so I used some of their gear.  Because Toby had been using a Yamaha Motiv 8,  so I used that and also a Nord, uh, Nord Lead.  So that was my initial rig, was the, uh, the Rhodes, the JP 8000, um, and then on the right, I had the Motiv 8 and the Nord Lead above it.  You mentioned the, the motif there, and I recently saw a video where you're doing, uh, soundbanks for the montage.

So have Yamaha workstations, you know, always been a mainstay. Um, yeah, I didn't have one before because I couldn't afford one, you know, but, uh, when I got that, uh, Motif 8, I really loved it. And it's funny, I grew up loving Yamaha because my dad was a Yamaha dealer. So he used to sell Yamaha organs.  So it was a name that I was always kind of felt like, yeah, you can trust Yamaha. 

Anyway, so yeah, I got into the Motif and I, and I feel like, you know, The montage is fantastic. I think they've really taken it up another level with that. Um, and I, I love that keyboard.  Not only are you the keyboard player for Jamiroquai, but you're also a songwriter as well, because you know, your name appears on on many co writes with, with the band on their albums.

How is, how did that come about? Was that just a kind of a natural progression from being the keyboard player or? Yeah, kind of, because, um, Toby, who. I replaced, he had written all the songs with Jay. Um, so Jay was very used to working with a keyboard player.  Uh, and yeah, when I joined, you know, he, he very generously straight away sort of involved me in the writing process.

Um, I mean, obviously I did the tour with them and  I established myself with throughout that tour, you know, went on for a year and a half or something like that. It was a really big tour.  And, you know, I, I obviously got to know Jay a bit. He got to know  what I was all about sort of thing.  And then, uh, when it came to start the Dynamite album, yeah, he involved me and we went on lots of writing trips all over the world.

Like we went to Costa Rica for a month to a, to a, like a, uh, it's like a mansion on a cliff top in the middle of nowhere. It's crazy near the rainforest. And, uh, we went to a place called Milano Marissima in Italy as well. And  there was, you know, it was probably 90 percent partying, 10 percent writing.  But slowly it, it did, um, come together and yeah, I was very involved in that album.

I think I co wrote about nine of the 11 songs, something like that.  And then, um, really on the last album is when I've had the most involvement because that was basically just me and Jay. You know, we, we,  when he was starting, he just said, look, I just want to write with you for a month. So we, I said, look, you got to book me up for a month and we'll do it. 

So we did like a nine to five.  And it was wicked. It was like we sort of broke the back of the album in that month, really. We were both completely exhausted by the end of it.  Um, and, you know, writing with him's great fun. He'll usually come in with an idea on his phone or something like that. He might have a riff or he might have a melody.

Or both, you know, um, and we'll work that out. And very often, you know, that might end up morphing into something totally different, you know, but there's always some starting point that he's got. Then I might make suggestions. And especially the last album, we really collaborated nicely in it.  It just naturally found its way into the music.

Into a into a song, you know,  and how about yourself as as a musician? I noticed that um, you've got a new release That's just kind of come out. So you're doing things outside of jamiroquai. What sort of things have you got sort of on the go?  Uh, yeah, I mean, I've got so many things on the go, but I've, uh, I, I've made a solo album, um, a year or so ago, called With The Music, which you can check out, a little plug for you there, folks. 

You can buy it on Bandcamp, and I did a run of vinyl with it, and I'm doing another run because that one sold out. So, uh, I'm now making a second solo album at the moment, um, and I'm thinking of going out on the road, doing some dates on my own with a band, which would be cool. Um, but I do a lot of writing with other people.

Um, I've been recently writing with Dizzy Rascal.  Yeah, uh, I've been writing with a DJ called Purple Disco Machine. We actually had a very successful song a couple of years ago. It's had about 300 million streams. Um, Which is a big dance track. 

So what are your go to keyboards today in 2022? You know, what, if you could go in and say, right, I'm going to go out somewhere and I'm going to take these, these machines, what would you, what's the top of your list? Um, well, I mean, it so depends on what I'm doing, you know, what the gig would be. If it's with Jamiroquai, I mean, I'll talk you through my last rig that I had.

I had a Fender Rhodes, the, the, the suitcase mark one. And on top of that, I had a Yamaha montage six and the montage six was connected to an OB six, you know, the sequential OB six. So I had that in a little desktop. So that was cool. Cause I could have them both running like the right hand could be the montage.

The left hand could be the OB. And so it was really flexible cause I'd sampled some things off the record, you know, so they went into the montage or I'll be using the montage's own sounds. Um, For instance,  and then on the right hand side of my rig, I had the montage eight  and above that was the profit six  and I did some fun stuff with the montage as well because, uh, I had like, I had a side chain feed going in or an audio input going in basically,  and they could send it to me and anyone from the band.

into the montage.  So I mostly used it for the kick drum. So like the kick drum was coming in and I could sidechain my keyboard pads and stuff live on the montage, which was really cool. Uh, and then like, for instance, on one part of the show, I had one of the backing singers feeding into the montage and I'd vocode her voice and turn it into chords.

So I could do some really cool stuff with that. You know, where  I'm probably one of the few people using all hardware. I know so many people use, um, Mainstage and all that stuff these days, you know, but I swear by the hardware. I love it You know, it doesn't interest you using, you know software lives. Is that not at all? 

Is is it because of the sound or the feel or the reliability or the lack of reliability? It's all of those things. Yeah. I feel like plugins all tend to sound quite the same to me. You know, I, I'm not saying they don't sound good. You can get great sounds out of plugins, but  like, if I listened to the, I don't know, whatever, they, they've all got a very similar quality.

The Jupiter 8 one, the Proficle 5 one, for me, they all kind of have the same sort of sound to them. They don't ping out like hardware does.  And like, I'm super sensitive about latency. So I can't handle any kind of latency. So that, that would turn me off. Um,  and yeah, just, I suppose I'm not really worried about crashing cause these days computers are so solid, you know, I'm sure that's not really a problem, but yeah, I just love having my hardware, you know,  And one more question about kind of you as a performer.

If there was any artist, any band that just phoned you up one day and said, Hey, we would love you to come out. Who would you want that to be?  What's your, what's, what's your, your dream gig? Well, probably most of them are dead already  If I could have played for Prince, obviously that would have been a dream gig.

Yeah  Steely Dan, I mean, I guess they're still going, you know, yeah, I would love to do that Stevie Wonder Yeah, I mean we watched Stevie Wonder. We supported Stevie Wonder in Rio was amazing It was like 130, 000 people and he came on after us and he played for three hours straight and it was just so great That's one of the one of the best gigs I've ever seen.

So, you know, I'd love to play with someone like that Sting I've got a lot of respect for he's always had an amazing band. Yes, you know Um, he's another one. I saw live once in costa rica and he was incredible incredible.  Yeah, it's funny because  In the early days of jamiroquai, um, jay's vocal was compared quite a lot to stevie's, but you know, particularly younger stevie Yeah, and so it's cool that you know, you got you guys got to hang out and play together as well Yeah, there's mutual respect there stevie actually said to jay that He wanted to write with him.

He wanted to do some writing with him.  But I think, I think maybe Jay was a bit intimidated by the idea of that, you know. Because obviously Jay loves Stevie, like, who doesn't love Stevie? You know, he's, he's phenomenal.  But uh, yeah, yeah, there's definitely was some similar, similarities. You know, Jay's got that real high voice that can really get up there, uh, like Stevie has. 

Your audience has grown exponentially, the Matt Johnson audience I'm talking about now, because in the last few years you started a YouTube channel that has just gone from strength to strength and now your videos, they just pop up everywhere. Whenever a new synth comes out you tend to get hold of one and you demonstrate it and you demonstrate it from a musical perspective, from a performance perspective, rather than getting into the The deep technical stuff about filters and envelopes and oscillators.

You talk about it as from, you know, from a performance level. So just tell us a little bit about how the whole YouTube thing started and, uh, and how you, you know, got to over at 100, 000 subscribers now.  Yeah, well, it was my wife that sort of dogged me into doing it. You know, she, she started doing the YouTube channel first.

She's got her own one, which took her ages to build up, but she's now got it up to about 82, 000 followers, which is amazing. Um, and she kept saying to me, you know, you should do YouTube, and I was like, nah, no, it's not for me, you know.  Um,  I'm quite a humble type in a way. I'm not, I don't really, I'm not someone who loves to show off or whatever.

So I wasn't sure that, you know, it would come over, but, um, I think when I got the Moog one or when I was looking at getting the Moog one  is what made me realize that there's no one.  Or at that time there was no one on YouTube that was really demonstrating these simps in the way that I wanted to hear them.

You know, they'd be very techno things, there'd be someone just opening and closing the filter like you say, but there wouldn't be someone really playing with it, the sort of stuff that I would be interested in doing. And then I realized that if I felt like that, then, you know, there must be lots of other people that feel like that. 

And obviously these days there's, there's hardly any music shops, certainly in England, there's, there's almost none. So if you want to check out synth, you can't really go and see it. You, you've got to kind of, You know, I've got to travel a long way, but you're most likely to check it out by going on YouTube and having a listen. 

So that got me started, you know, I didn't take it that seriously, I just started doing it, and um,  I suppose because there was so much interest in the Moog One, that really took off, you know, straight away.  And yeah, that just got me started doing it. Okay. I started showing around a few other simps,  uh, and then I thought, Oh, well, what else can I do with this?

Um, and I was quite reticent about giving tips, teaching and stuff, you know, cause I've always thought I'm a useless teacher. Other people seem to think I'm a good teacher. Um,  so yeah, I started to do just little tips about things that I knew, you know, because I think being a musician.  When you're starting out, you feel like you've got to learn to play giant steps or do those really difficult things.

That's what it's all about.  But I think when you become a pro, you realize that it's the very small details that make the difference between a good and a great musician. You know, it's those little nuances.  And I, and I noticed that that wasn't being taught much either. So, so yeah, I started doing that and people just seem to love it.

You know, they really do seem to enjoy it.  How do you manage to grow the channel so, so rapidly? Is it, do you think it is purely the quality of the content or do you put a lot of effort into, you know, sharing links, doing the whole social media thing? Not really, yeah. I just, I mean, when I do it, what I do is I, I do the video and I do a little clip, an ad from that video and I put it on my Instagram. 

And I put it on my Facebook and that's it basically. I mean it's it's been very organic to be honest I've not been hammering it away going. I've got to make this work at all You know, it's just happened very naturally and I think um,  I don't know people just seem to take to me You know, which I'm I feel very very flattered and humbled by to be honest when I saw your videos I thought the very fact that you were not a a  Typical YouTube personality where it really is, you know, kind of very manufactured and, you know, they do clearly think about what they're doing to gain the numbers.

And it was just you, a keyboard player with clearly massive skills, just sat at an instrument, playing it, going through the patches, talking about the cool features that you You warmed to because you were coming at it from that performance perspective, and I think that's that's what really I think a lot of people have picked up on why? 

Why I see you've been so successful is is it's because of that humble humility and that that just kind of simplicity, you know Yeah, thanks. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a classic Example of, you know, don't be afraid to be yourself. 'cause you'll be surprised, , you know, people like pe people to just be natural and be themselves and, uh, just be relaxed.

And I think, um, when you watch stuff like that, it's more relaxing to watch it than when someone's trying to hype you up. You know? And that can kind of get in your face and get on your nerves a bit.  So, yeah, I just be myself. I can't, I can't do anything else. I can only be myself, you know. 

You've had your hands on some really cool gear over the last few years. Has there any bit, has there been, apart from the Moog One, has there been anything that's really stood out to you as, um,  not say groundbreaking, but certainly, you know, innovative and, um, new and exciting?  Um, well, it's, uh, it's not so new now, but I've only got with it, uh, like a couple of years ago, the Octatrack. 

Octatrack, I think that's a fantastic bit of gear and it just really changes the way you think about making music.  I found it really frustrating to learn how to use it, but a lot of people say that. Yeah. I mean, it's, I, you know, I can see that probably a lot of people give up without ever getting a sound out of the thing,  but it does reward the time because it's just got this very, robotic way about it that's just, for me as a, as a musician, I always find it interesting when something takes me out of my musical world.

Cause you know, you can get bored with yourself, you know, I, I can play great, but it's like, I know what I sound like and I get bored with the sound of myself, you know? So I love a bit of gear that's going to sort of just break me out of that and inspire me in a different way. And that's what, so I've really enjoyed that bit.

I've been playing with the, uh, Wardorf Iridium recently as well, which is a. Absolutely mind blowing bit of gear, you know, for getting futuristic sounds. It's fabulous. I love it. Um,  apart from that, I mean, uh,  the Prophet 5, obviously it's not, it's nothing new, but it's just, it sounds beautiful. And I use that in my workflow because I do a lot of sessions and that's one that I find just always fits nicely in a mix.

Um, and I've really got into using pedals a lot lately.  I don't know if you've heard of Jam Pedals. They reached out to me a while ago and they sent me a load of pedals, which I love, you know. And I've just been really enjoying, like,  just experimenting with that. Like, for instance, having a stereo out of the keyboard, just putting an effect on one side of it.

You know what I mean? And just, it can just make a such a difference to a very basic sound. Um, I think people always look to get a new keyboard or the newest thing, but sometimes it's like just something as simple as putting a pedal on your old Juno 6 or whatever. It's going to  open up whole new worlds for you, you know.

It does seem to be a trend that's kind of come back because  I always saw Keyboard players with maybe a reverb or a chorus back in the days when since didn't necessarily come with built in effects right and then it kind of went away the more you know i guess from the m1 and the d50 onwards where they had you know really good quality effects built in all that kind of stuff went away but there seems to have been over the last few years uh, uh, resurgence of, of using guitar pedals.

Uh, the Strymon stuff gets used a lot in the synthesizer world. And, uh, I guess that's just a sign of, you know,  the times really. Yeah. I think it's, it, it does open up different things. It's not too expensive to get a pedal as well, which is cool.  And I actually like things that another little pedal I got a while ago was the, um, I think it's called the light box and it's a spring reverb.

It's just a little spring reverb that does different sort of effects with it.  So it's not a. You know, like those kind of posh reverbs that are on keyboards almost sound a bit dated these days, don't they? Do you know what I mean? They can be a bit silky and it's like too good. It's a bit too nice, you know, whereas.

Chuck a spring reverb on almost anything and it straight away. It sounds quite vibey, you know, so I like those things that almost beat it up a little bit and, um, you know, just give it some more character.  Yeah, I think there's definitely, um, I mean, there's always been a trend since we got into this wonderful, glossy, high frequent, high bit rate, high sample rate world where, um,  many artists are looking now to dirty things up again, grunge things up again.

Yeah, it's always been the same. Yeah. So we, we, we spent years trying to get as clean and as crystal clear as possible. And now we just want to throw a tape saturation plug in on or, you know, a bit of distortion or, you know, uh, even, you know, uh, the, the profit five with its vintage knob. Um, and I think the, the poly brute as well has this, um, I don't, I can't remember what they call it now, but it, it, it. 

introduces  that kind of, yeah, the artifacts. Yeah. Yeah. No, yeah. And I was just going to say, I do notice, cause I've got like a few old bits, you know, like the, I've got the OBXA for instance, the Oberheim.  And it's just like, every time you play a note on it, it's the envelope's different and the, the filter is a bit different.

And that is what makes it sound so massive. I think, you know, so obviously they're, they've got, you know, they've got They've got their heads around that now and they're trying to emulate it. I didn't like the slop version they had, the slop thing on sequential stuff, but I think the vintage knob is much more,  they've done it in a better way on that one.

I think they've got, they've understood the, the, the bad bits that are the good bits, if you know, that makes sense. Yeah, I think you're right. It's not, you don't want to just a big detune button, because that actually sounds a bit dated now as well, but you just want that little bit of, Out of kilter gives it some character and I think it catches your ear as well.

Actually. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I think humans are naturally drawn to slight imperfection, aren't they? And absolutely can hear it. I agree. I mean, that's why my all my productions. There's out of tune stuff because I can't stand productions that just completely in tune. I just think it's so boring. You know, it's like, like you say, it just, it's so perfect.

It just washes over you like glass. Um, whereas a little imperfection will catch your ear.  I was talking to a friend the other day about, um,  synthesizer development and certainly over, you know, The 80s and the 90s it seemed like every morning you'd wake up and there'd be something new and exciting a new technology new way of doing things and since the turn of the millennium that seems to have really slowed down to a point where there's just no no real innovation going on with just rehashing the the old ideas over and over again and we've seen analog have its resurgence now we're seeing digital With its kind of resurgence, there's lots of FM synthesizers coming out, wavetable synthesizers, and so on. 

What would you, as an artist, like to see happen with music technology? Is there something you would like to see come back that hasn't been, or that, you know, that had a moment in the spotlight and then went away? Or is there something new and exciting, you That you would like to see under your hands in the, in the near future.

Oh, yes. Interesting question. Um, I haven't really thought about it, but, um,  it's been interesting. Like I said, I was messing around with that Iridium lately and I was really enjoying the, the digital quality of it, you know,  and I think, um, obviously we've had so many great. Remade analogs, which is wonderful, but you don't always want an analog sound, you know, it just doesn't.

work for everything.  Uh,  so I guess, I, for me, it would be something that is a bit more of a a Frankenstein's kind of thing, you know,  take the good things from the analogs, which some people have done this as well already, I guess, you know, having a nice filter from an analog, but sometimes you don't want a nice filter.

Sometimes you want a nasty filter. So I think these things where you can, like I said, that's why I was quite into the Iridium because it's got different ways of, you know, it's got FM, it's got a wavetable, it's got  fake kind of, uh, analog, you know, digital. So,  I'm finding those things interesting at the moment, and I'm more interested in  how the  way modulation matrices these days have got so good.

You know, I think that's been a, quite a recent innovation that they're really easy to use now, you know, before they'd just really be daunting to like, I've got an Alesis Andromeda.  It's like, you know, you need to get a BA honours to sort of like work out how to use it. It's very, very difficult. You know, you can get great sounds out of it, but half the time you don't know how you did it. 

Whereas now they've made it so easy that you just twist one knob and then you can assign it to there. And you start to get the idea of that. So  I feel that. Where that's going is the most interesting thing. It'd be great to see something like,  obviously people have got into modular gear a lot. I just don't, I haven't got the patience for it personally, you know, or the space, frankly.

But, um, I  like the idea of these new compact synths. They can be, they can do everything that a modular can really.  You know, in theory, they could anyway,  so maybe that's the future where these modules all exist, but they're all just in within the,  the digital, you know, sphere, I guess.  Tell me about your, your studio at home.

Um, how is it set up for you to record it? You know, what's your rig and what do you use in terms of, uh, recording, you know, hardware, software, that kind of thing, you know? Yeah, well, I've got, um, a Pro Tools HDX rig,  uh, and the sound card is there. Apogee Rosetta 800. It's about a million years old, but it still works fine. 

And I've got that going into a SSL, um, X Logic rack. It's just like an eight channel summing thing, but it's got the G Series compressor with it, which is nice.  And then for preamps, I've got like a GML four channel preamp. That's what I use for most things because it's just super transparent and very high quality. 

And I've also got a, um, fermionic culture. Early Bird, uh, yeah, Early Bird preamp as well. So if I want to put some valves and color on it, I use the Early Bird. For everything else, I use the GML.  Um, then what else have I got? I've got like a Phoenix, another Thermionic culture, Phoenix compressor. Which is a great mastering compressor. 

Uh, but actually I track through it quite often. If I wanna warm up the keyboards or I put my roads through it quite often. It's really creamy sounding.  Uh, then what else I've got, I've got a URI 1176 original one,  and a, uh, a dis a distress I've got, uh, which I, I like that on keyboards, actually stressor.

'cause I like the, uh, the distortion on that is quite cool. Well, sort of more saturation and it can sound really good I find on simps.  And then yeah, I've just got a few nice quality microphones, you know, for when I'm recording vocalists and stuff.  Um, and just all the keyboards are just all in the room.

So it's very easy to just plumb one out, plumb the other in.  What's the first one you turn on if you want some inspiration or something? Uh, well, I mean, the, the, the montage, the Yamaha montage is at the center of my studio because I use it as a master keyboard as well. And I love the action on it. You know,  and I've got a lot of good sounds that I've programmed in there.

So that, that would be the first thing I always switch on and then, you know, they go through, you know, they're like children, you know,  sometimes I favor one, sometimes the other. Um, I find the Prophet tends to be there quite often and the Jupiter 8.  Um, you know, when I'm doing sessions, I tend to,  I'll just stick with the ones that I know that are going to give me results, you know, so the Jupiter 8, the Prophet and my first two analogs and if they're not working out then I'll,  I might get out the Oberheim.

It's just so big that I don't like taking it out.  But it does sound fabulous for the right thing. Um, and then, uh, yeah, I mean, I, I, obviously the Moog one gets, does get used a lot. I work for one particular producer a lot and he loves the sound of it. So I use it a lot on that.  Uh, and the vintage vibe, I guess those are, those are my most used bits of gear.

What bit of gear don't you have that you would love to have? 

I mean, I suppose there's a few like the Elka  synth X. Mm hmm. It's pretty cool  Jay's got one. So I have used it on in the studio because he's got an actually an amazing collection of vintage synths  And then maybe I haven't got an ARP Odyssey. So I wouldn't mind getting one of those at some point I'll probably try and get one One of those.

Uh, to be honest, I feel like I've got everything I need really, you know, there's the other thing I like, like it string machine. I like a ARP, you know, like Selena string machine,  even though it only makes a couple of bad sounds. They're just so nostalgic.  What about desert island synth? You know, somebody said you can only take one synth with you.

What's it going to be? Well, it's tricky in it. Well, what I would do is I'd sample all my simps via sample robot and then I'd bring the montage Good answer 

tell me a little bit about your sound programming skills And you've recently launched a pack with the Yamaha for the montage But you've you've done some other stuff with with other manufacturers. Tell us a little bit about how you go about programming for different synthesizers  Yeah, well I've actually just done them off my own back, and I'm just selling them off my website.

But, um, yeah, I've done a set of patches for the Prophet 6 and the OB 6. And also the little Take 5, you know the Take 5 they've got? Yeah. Um, and again, it's the sort of thing that I just try and program the sort of sounds that I want to get from a synth. You know, because  I'm someone I don't really like using presets.

I very rarely use presets. I like to personalize my sounds, but um,  I often feel that the presets are not great on  synths. It's not that often, just for me anyway, they don't speak to me. So I'm just trying to make the kind of sounds that people who are like minded  with me will get turned on by, you know, they'll, they'll learn them, load them in and it'll give their synth a new lease of life. 

Um, you know, it's really enjoyable. And again, it's about usability, you know, so not sounds that you press one key and like, you know, black holes open up and you know, you fall in  just, just sort of like simple pads that you want or whatever it is, you know, a sync lead, whatever it is, just a very good version of basic sounds, which let's face it, 99.

9 percent of records that we hear are made up of those sort of sounds, you know, not the kind of crazy stuff Which is great. Don't get me wrong. I love it as well. But um,  that's what I try to provide things and and as a player I've got a sensibility of what's gonna be a nice thing to play. I think what's your starting point?

You know you you approach a synthesizer  Say for example, it's a piano Polyphonic analog. Um,  what inspires you to start and go down a particular road? Do you, do you sit down and say, okay, I'm going to do 50 sounds for this thing. I'll do 10 bases, 10 leads, 10 pads, or do you just dive in there and just start twiddling things until something sticks?

And then you, you see that through to the end and then.  Yeah, generally like that. I mean, I, that's how I start off is I just initialize a patch and  start playing, you know, whatever I'm feeling like, yeah, sometimes I might feel like, okay, let's make a bass sound or whatever,  but then I will, I just make a ton of sounds and, and, you know, probably the first 20 you'll end up getting discarded or, or five of them will make it, you know, and then I whittle it down and then I will realize, okay, well, I've got a ton of pad sounds.

I haven't got any of this, I haven't got any of that.  So I'll try and make a balance like that. You know, but I, I just really enjoy exploring the synth and  looking for the sound, like I say, looking for the kind of sounds I like, you know, um, cause you know, you have to work a little bit hard on these modern synths to make them sound like a, a proper nostalgic retro vibe.

You know, obviously that's where I'm coming from with Jumeirah Kwai, there's such a seventies influence. So I'm very tuned into that,  and having played a lot of vintage synths over the years, you know, both on the Jamiroquai records and my own ones, so I'm into trying to get that same sort of quality out of these modern sounds,  but then also try to find some things that the modern sounds can do that obviously the vintage synths can't do, you know, they're so basic compared synths.

Especially now, we're starting to get these more interesting analogs that are coming out with, as we said, the mod matrixes, and you can do a lot more with them. Um, I, I really like being interactive with synths as well, where you're, you know, you've got a sound, but when you, you know, you flick up the mod wheel and a ton of verb comes in or whatever, you know, it morphs into something else.

I really love being interactive with sounds as a performer. You know, when I'm on stage with Jumerical, I always used to just, you know, when I was soloing, I'd start. I'd grab the LFO and I'd start putting out really in an extreme way and change the speed, create like crazy and make these kind of, kind of cosmic sounds, chuck a load of delay on it.

So that that's kind of very much my style of playing. What about, um, expression, uh, Features on synthesizers such as  aftertouch and ribbons and and all that kind of thing is is that does that float your boat? Yeah, it does actually I mean I  I can't this this synth that is going to come out soon on my youtube.

It's got a really good poly aftertouch  And  it's more useful than some of the previous poly aftertouches. It's a, it's a, it's kind of a weird thing to get your head around poly aftertouch, but actually it's wicked when you, it, especially now that you can program so many things, you know, so that you can hear one note suddenly changes from a square to a saw within a, in a chord, you know, that's incredible, you know,  it just opens up whole new worlds.

So I'm really excited about all that stuff.  That's made a really nice welcome return, hasn't it? Poly aftertouch with, you know, certain synthesizers. Yeah, it's wicked. It got kind of written off, didn't it? It was a big thing towards the end of the 70s, early 80s, and then it just got abandoned. And even, even  Well, it's like that Vangelis stuff, isn't it?

The CS80 stuff. I mean,  a lot of it wouldn't be much without that poly aftertouch in a way, because, yeah. No, it's nice to see it come back, so. Um, but there are, there are more synthesizers now that have poly aftertouch. You know, ribbons and poly aftertouch and joysticks and vectors and  all that cool stuff's coming back, which I think is really cool.

Yeah, I'm into it. I'm into it. And I think the expression pedals is really good way as well, because obviously it's not taking up any hands. So you can, uh,  you know, you can do great things with all that stuff. It's really exciting. So where can we find your sounds?  Um, you can find them on my website, which is mattjohnsonproducer. 

com.  Uh, go to the shop and, uh, yeah, save up your pennies, get down there, spend lots of money.  It's been absolutely fascinating to talk to you, uh, Matt, and thank you ever so much for your time. Uh, the best of luck with all your future projects and, um, come back and talk to us again soon. Thanks a lot, Rob.

It's been a pleasure. 

Thank you for listening and be sure to check out the show notes page for this episode where you'll find further information along with web links and details of all the other episodes. Before you go, make sure you visit the Sound on Sound podcast page at soundonsound.  com forward slash podcasts where you can explore all the other great content playing across the other channels. 

I'm Rob Puricelli  and this has been a failed Muso production for Sound on Sound.