Q + A with Rafael Anton Irisarri
Rarely does music elicit the emotion of fury in me. I can think of only a few songs** that connect me with fury. Maybe that’s because on the other side of fury there is usually sadness, a much more familiar emotion in music.
Rafael Anton Irisarri’s "Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom" is one of these compositions. Daunting. Furious. Out of control. I continue to listen to it, over and over, expecting that something will turn, reveal and resolve - within myself. It is hard for me to describe, but it somehow connects your mind and physical body in an uncomfortable way.
“Control Your Soul’s Desire for Freedom” is the first single from the accomplished composer and sound engineer’s forthcoming album FAÇADISMS. In this blank mood Q + A, Rafael explains the background of the album, his creative process with Julia Kent and Hannah Elizabeth Cox, what it’s like to be a mastering engineer in the ‘completely fucked’ post-streaming music landscape and the influence of heavy metal on his work.
You've spoken about incorporating limitations into making music rather than seeing limitations as problems in the process. Is there a limitation you worked with in the forthcoming album or the first single ? What is the result of this limitation?
I started working on this piece back in 2020, right in the middle of the lockdowns. At that point, I was completely isolated from other musicians, so there wasn't the possibility to invite anyone to the studio to record. That in itself created an opportunity to reach out to musician friends like Julia Kent and Hannah Elizabeth Cox to work on music remotely, sending each other parts over the internet or using tools like Audiomovers, which allows me to stream from my studio. These in turn open many possibilities to write. For instance, sometimes I'd connect to Audiomovers, send Hannah a link and I could play live in the studio. She'll be listening to what I play and message me with feedback, like: “Oh, I got an idea for a part for what you are playing right now” It felt like we were working in the same room, though in reality, we were many miles apart.
As far as self-imposed limitations go: while I have a fairly large amount of equipment (I'm a borderline hoarder), I decided to only use a fairly simple signal path for my guitar: a loop pedal, distortion/fuzz pedal, delay pedal, and an amp. No click track either, I relied on my own sense of tempo, which helps capture a more human feel and makes it way more organic than the overly quantized sound you often hear in modern recordings. This approach can get pretty challenging, especially when you’re also working with synths and sequencers, which keep a perfect tempo because they are machines. I spent many hours mapping MIDI notes and tempos just to sync up everything afterward. In hindsight, forgoing the click track was perhaps not the most practical thing to do!
I’d sit down for a few hours, improvising with different looping techniques. Looping is a huge part of my process, as I find loops to be a perfect metaphor for how history tends to repeat itself. We all get caught in these endless cycles, with all these different threads weaving in and out as we react to one another. To me, that reflects in many ways how I work with loops in the studio.
For this album, I drew lots of inspiration from brutalist architecture with its raw, unpolished vibe. I wanted my creative process to reflect that same kind of aesthetic. So, I embraced imperfections and bold structural elements in my work. I spent countless hours improvising and recording everything in real-time to capture those spontaneous ideas and those unexpected moments that often lead to something compelling. I heard someone say once, 'What makes a perfect recording are the imperfections you decided to keep.' That line rings so true for me.
"Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom" is magnificently overwhelming, crushing with weight then easing off with a bit of air to gasp before dissipating. I have been listening and struggling to categorize it emotionally. You've noted the song (and album) deals with disillusionment and unravelling the myth of the 'American dream'. How do you hope listeners will feel listening to the album or single? Do the songs have a special place in this historical moment, on the cusp of the 2024 US presidential election?
It's interesting that you mention how you are struggling to categorize the song emotionally because that kind of ambiguity is something I hoped to evoke. It's not meant to sit easily within one emotion; rather, it moves through a spectrum of feelings. There’s dread and hopelessness, for sure, but also anger, disillusionment, confusion, and even moments of relief. I wanted the track to reflect that unraveling —where things don’t resolve neatly, just like in real life, especially in our current timeline.
Making this kind of music feels to me more like a reflection of myself and what it feels like to be living in this particular era. It’s such a mess right now, innit? It’s so easy to feel powerless. But instead of just getting lost in that, I wanted to process it and create something that might help me—and maybe others—feel a little lighter, even for a brief moment. To me, writing music is cheaper and more effective than going to therapy (at least in America, you won't believe how expensive it is to get help in this country). I find some relief when I create something that taps into those feelings. I hope the listeners can feel some catharsis while engaging with the piece and perhaps feel less weighed down afterward.
As for the timing—yes, I think these compositions resonate in this particular historical moment, especially with the 2024 U.S. election looming. There's this sense of heightened anxiety and urgency about our future, and the album taps into that. It’s less about making a direct political statement and more about capturing the emotional undercurrent of our time. I can't shake the feeling that the institutions we've relied on are crumbling. What does that mean for us, both individually and collectively, as we lose faith in the institutions designed to safeguard our democracy?
You worked with Julia Kent (cello) and Hannah Elizabeth Cox (vocals) on "Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom. The vocals are difficult to detect as such, but described as 'multi-layered looped choirs'. Can you say something about your and Hannah's process here?
Before getting in the weeds of the vocal process, I want to talk a bit about Deep Listening, a concept coined by the late, great composer Pauline Oliveros. Deep Listening is all about expanding your attention—almost like a meditative practice. You’re not just hearing the surface of the music; you're diving into the whole soundscape and focusing on everything happening in the piece. When I want to get into that deep listening mode in the studio, I usually close my eyes, put on headphones, and lie down. It helps me block out everything else so I can fully immerse myself in the sound. I hope more people try this at home because it will help you uncover many hidden gems in a recorded piece of music.
For this track, Hannah’s vocals aren’t used in a traditional way. Instead of standing out like a lead vocal, her voice blends into the arrangement as an instrument and is layered like a choral texture (but not exactly like a choir). We recorded her vocals remotely, then sampled and looped the takes to build an evolving atmosphere. It’s subtle, but powerful, and more like a soundscape. That was intentional—to match her vocals with my guitar parts in a way that feels immersive and complex, yet minimalistic. I actually drew a lot of inspiration from Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's tintinnabuli style, making a highly resonant vocal part (no pun intended), with the notes in the chord triad and melodic lines blending to form a minimalist, sacred-sounding texture.
Trust was essential in this process. Often, when I’m transforming an idea, my collaborator may not fully grasp where I’m headed. I’m the only one who can see the completed picture, and that’s where trust comes in: the other person has to believe in my vision and allow me to shape their sound, trusting that the final result will be intriguing and compelling. I’ve known Hannah online for over five years, and we really bonded during the 2020 lockdowns when we first started making music together. She quickly became more than just a collaborator—she’s also a wonderful, supportive friend. Despite the fact that we were working remotely (she’s in Boston, and I’m in New York) we managed to pull off a full recording session. It’s incredible how technology enabled us to create something so connected, even with the miles between us.
Once I had her vocals in place, I passed the arrangement to Julia Kent. She’s a wonderful friend whom I genuinely admire, and I’ve also been her mastering engineer for over a decade. Julia is one of the kindest people I know, and I’m always amazed by her talent. For this track, I simply told her, “Do your thing! Add whatever feels right,” and wow, did she come through! She sent me all these beautiful cello parts and motifs that I fell in love with almost immediately upon listening.
Can listeners expect more late capitalist doom to be unravelled by other compositions on the forthcoming album FAÇADISMS?
When you lead with a single that is so intense and powerful, I think it's normal for listeners to expect that the rest of the album might be like this. But there are so many layers to this album with moments of absence and abandon that, hopefully, strike a balance that’s both haunting and may I say, peaceful. At times, it feels like a storm has passed, and has left us behind with the remnants, delusions, and just a haze of memories. You can dive into your own experiences, and connect the fleeting moments of life with the weight of what we all carry. Each track is a chance for reflection, revealing the beauty in both what’s lost and what remains to create a space for introspection and connection.
In an interview with Audeze you explained the music that had an impression on you as a pre-teen and a Guns n Roses TV appearance in 1988 that led you to learn guitar and get into heavy metal. How, if at all, has heavy metal influenced your later work? Do you think there was something special about the late 80s and music on television that left a mark on a generation of teenagers?
For a lot of us back then, it was a formative experience that shaped our musical tastes and identities. We were raised in front of a telly – and often our parents were too busy working to make ends meet. Latchkey kids is what we were called. It's something that got completely lost in the 21st century. There was something really special about having music as a focal point in your life, like the soundtrack to a particular time and experience, not to mention forming part of a subculture that transcended socioeconomic factors. Heavy metal has always been an influence on my work, particularly the density and weight of that genre of music. The raw energy and emotional intensity taps into feelings via non-lyrical instrumentation. For example, a few months ago, I took my musician friend Tom (Benoît Pioulard) to see the Def Leppard, Journey, and Steve Miller Band tour—his first big stadium concert actually. I told him, “This communal experience is something to cherish. You’re witnessing a relic of a bygone era. For future generations, this kind of spectacle will be a thing of the past. Few new artists today can write their own songs, play their own instruments, and achieve enough success to become legacy acts capable of filling a 40,000-capacity stadium.”
Oh my gosh… Journey… yes! Ha!
As a mastering engineer, you've mentioned that you work with more independent artists in the current "post-streaming music landscape". What is unique about your work in this landscape compared to other points in your career?
Well, the music industry is completely fucked at this point, innit? Haha. What even is the role of a label in this post-streaming landscape? There are so many things to discuss on this subject – from the ever-thinning live show revenues to all the many things that are wrong with streaming. The rise of streaming has also changed how we engage with music. As a mastering engineer, for example, one big issue I have is the massive free-for-all and inconsistency when it comes to the delivery standards for different streaming services. They all have their own specifications and this makes it extremely challenging to navigate. Then there's the rise of AI and cheaper technologies - it seems as if anyone can master a record for release on streaming. I’ve experimented with AI mastering out of sheer curiosity myself, with not surprisingly bad results. The issue lies in how we perceive mastering. Mastering is not just about making music louder; it’s about having a fresh set of ears provide feedback and shape the sound based on the engineer’s ethos and aesthetic sensibilities. It's a system of checks and balances for me. AI mastering reminds me of something like getting legal advice from ChatGPT—it might be faster and cheaper than hiring an actual lawyer, but it lacks the human insight necessary to properly contextualize all the nuances of the information that make each situation unique. That’s what a human brain brings to the table, something a machine is never going to get right. Artists come to me for mastering because they value my input beyond just technical precision. They seek out my understanding of specific genres and cultures that aren’t always handled well by more mainstream mastering houses. Being deeply involved in these music communities, I know how vital it is to have someone who truly grasps the culture and aesthetic behind the music. I wouldn’t want someone unfamiliar with that context touching my own work, and I imagine most artists feel the same way.
Are there many women in the field of mastering? Admittedly, I ask out of personal curiosity and ignorance. I have the idea that only in the last few years do I hear something about who mastered songs and albums, but perhaps this is related to the post-streaming landscape question above.
Yes, there are definitely women in the field of mastering, and some very accomplished engineers like Heba Kadry (who mastered my album Peripeteia actually), Amy Dragon, and Mandy Parnell. That said, it's still a very male-dominated space overall, not just with mastering, but sound engineering in general. In recent years, there's been a push for more visibility and representation, which is great to see and a step in the right direction. This might explain why you're hearing more about who’s mastering songs and albums now—it’s part of a broader movement to highlight the contributions of women and other underrepresented groups in audio engineering and production, along with encouraging more aspiring female engineers to enter the field.
Anything else you'd like to mention or bring attention to? I see you have some live EU dates.
I’m overjoyed about playing these new pieces live. While it presents a unique set of logistical challenges, it also gives me the opportunity to expand on the ideas of the record in a new context, and one that is infinitely more open (and forgiving!) than the recorded format. Live shows always push me outside my comfort zone (i.e. usually being in the studio). I have to adapt to the audience's response and the venue's acoustics and sound system, and this makes each show a unique collaboration where my reactions and the energy from the listeners can alter a performance's trajectory.
I'm excited about the records I have had pass through my Black Knoll studio that will come out later this year and into next year. It's great to work with some amazing artists and hear their work before anyone else. This is one of the many things I love about being a mastering engineer and having my own studio practice. I'm also thrilled about the releases coming up on my newly minted label Black Knoll Editions. Before releasing my new album, we released a collaboration between myself and Abul Mogard. It makes me really happy to be releasing my own music and finally having control over most of my back catalog, plus slowly and carefully bringing in other artists into the fold. I am also happy that all the vinyls being released are BioVinyl. It is only a small thing for now, but it's a start to being more environmentally responsible in the music industry.
Lastly, I'll leave you with my tour dates over the coming months. Can't wait to get out there and play shows again and I really look forward to playing my new album as part of my live shows.
Autumn tour dates for Rafael Anton Irisarri
13.10.24 MUTEK MX / Ciudad de México, MX
01.11.24 Casa Montjuïc / Barcelona, ES
03.11.24 Dababada / San Sebastian-Donostia, ES
09.11.24 Le Guess Who Festival / Utrecht, NL *
14.11.24 Østre / Bergen, NO*
16.11.24 Festiwal Ambientalny / Wrocław, PL *
*with Abul Mogard
Readers might also be interested in a Bandcamp listening party for FAÇADISMS on 27 October - you can RSVP here - and the second single from FAÇADISMS “Red Moon Tide”, another composition of heavy sonic and emotional weight.
Special thanks to Karen V.
** The other composition is Jo Johnson’s “Vigil”, discussed in this blank mood blog post, if you’re interested.
//wendy