Here's the answers to the questions... 1) Can you please tell me a somewhat detailed history of Cybrid? Both as how you got together and each of your histories with music. We (Jim Gourgoutis & Gustavo Lanzas) first met in 1997, shortly after I moved to the SF-Bay Area. Both of us had already been producing music for a number of years -- I did a stint with an industrial-dance band back in Pittsburgh, PA, and also had been producing electronic music on my own for a few years; Gustavo at the time was involved in the live drum-n-bass band Protolab, prior to that he produced downtempo and ambient music, playing chillout rooms at area raves and such. Going back even further, Gustavo cut his teeth making mixtapes for the breakdancers at his high school. Cybrid really came about due to a number of coinciding elements. Firstly, Gustavo had been booked to play a small show at a coffeeshop in San Jose, and had asked me if I'd be interested in doing that show with him. Around the same time, I had grown frustrated with the way I was performing live, and was exploring alternate improvisational techniques. We got together one evening, Gustavo with an MPC2000 full of drum samples and patterns, me with a couple of synthesizers and a drum machine I was using as a rudimentary step sequencer, and MIDI-sync'ed all the gear together, and just jammed. We were suprised at how well things worked, and I think more fundamentially, how intuitively we worked together. We played that show, and I think people were somewhat surprised by the energy we created -- it went off really splendidly. Back then, Gustavo and I were regular attendents at a Tuesday-night weekly club called Static, which was then held at the Cat Club. A couple of weeks after we played that first show, we caught Phoenecia (from Miami, on WARP & Schematic record labels) live at Static. Simply put, they blew us away, playing a very funky set heavily influenced by electro and Miami bass music. This was long before the electro scene blew up in San Francisco, and frankly that was one of the best, most bass-laden live sets I've witnessed -- the club was going crazy! I think that very night was when we decided to focus on electro and try to help bring it back to San Francisco. Kraftwerk played at the Warfield a month or two later, reinforcing that thought process. Fast-forwarding to the present, we like to think that we' ve helped to solidly place San Francisco in the the global electro scene, due to our extensive back-catalogue of live performances, numerous DJ sets, our releases on local labels Exact-Science and Belief-Systems, and organizing many club nights and underground parties. 2) Is it usually just the two of you? Wasn't there a third on vinyl at Club 6? Yes, it's usually the two of us, although we've been known to occasionally collaborate with turntablists like DJ Bre-Ad (Brad Steinberg) from Exact-Science, other performers such as Single Cell Orchestra in live-battle action, and various MCs who step up to the mic. What instruments/equipment do you use? Gustavo's Gear: Apple iBook laptop w/external keyboard Propellerheads Reason MOTU Fastlane 2x2 USB midi interface Emagic EMI 2|6 USB audio interface Evolution UC-16 USB/MIDI control surface Korg Kaoss Pad Korg Electribe ER-1 Jim's Gear: Apple iBook laptop Propellerheads Reason MOTU Fastlane 2x2 USB midi interface Emagic EMI 2|6 USB audio interface Peavey PC-1600 MIDI control unit Evolution MK-125 MIDI control keyboard Clavia Micromodular synth/processor (vocoder) Audiotechnica wireless microphone Also used: Rolls mx602 line mixer Sony mdr-v600 headphone MAM MAP-1 arpeggiator Opcode Studio 128x midi patchbay/router Alesis Nanoverb effects unit FMR Audio RNC1773 compressor Can you explain, in detail, how you make your music? Originally the live show was a full-on jam session. Gustavo programmed the drums, and I programmed the synth parts -- often improvising the sounds and patterns on the spot. The machines were sync'ed together, and things just flowed -- nothing was planned, and we never really knew what direction it was going to take. Hence the name 'Cybrid' -- the machine controlling the human. Although there are identifiable *songs* these days and the equipment has evolved into a more powerful, flexible, and compact setup -- things are still done in very much the same way. We both run Reason on Apple iBooks. Gustavo has a multitude of drum samples and patterns programmed on two virtual 'ReDrum' drum machines, plus several 'Dr. Rex' loop players as well as various effects -- all within a single Reason file. He has mapped the keys on an external keyboard to control pattern-switching on the drum machines and also mutes/solos on a couple of different virtual mixers, so he can change drum patterns on the fly and control samples and effects in realtime. I program synthlines and samples for each song within a different Reason file, and also have mapped the control over pattern-selection, mutes, effects, and several other parameters to an external hardware control unit. We MIDI-sync the two laptops together, and then build or arrange songs on the fly, switching in different patterns and sounds, tweaking effects, etc. As our live show is a continuous, dancefloor-friendly 'mix', I have to open and close multiple Reason files during the set, and if you watch us closely, you'll see me ask Gustavo for a countdown or other marker which helps keep us in sync, in terms of song-structure. I also use a MIDI keyboard controller, mapped to another virtual synth or sampler within Reason, to play synth leads and pads; this keyboard also allows me to play our vocoder. What makes your music unique, in your opinion? The music is very much tied to the live performance...and as such, it is unique in that every show played is different, because -- as mentioned before -- it's still very much of a live improv/jam. Also, the music has always been geared to the dancefloor -- the primary objective is to make people dance. How do crowds react to you at clubs? Are they used to your non-DJ way of making music, or confused? What kind of things do they ask? I think people might be initially put off by the laptops, since a lot of laptop music is somewhat eclectic or experimental, but once they see us put on the gold chains, hats, and glasses that have become our trademark, and *then* hear the vocoder, those impressions melt away pretty quickly. We occasionally get the odd person asking if we take requests, or if we have track "abc" by "xyz," so I guess there are still some people out there that have trouble comprehending live electronic music, but mostly these days people just ask us what software we're using. Or, if they got to the club late, they'll ask us what time we're going on, and when we tell them that we just finished, they just say "Damn!". ;) What venues have you played around town? In no particular order... DNA Lounge (:code, Qool, Mozilla Release party) Club 6 (Aranji) Robotspeak Sessions Hush Hush Lounge (Minimal Monday, Vehicle party) Lazlo (Synapse) Galaxy Club (Hot Hair Car, Electro Rodeo) The Otherworld Presents..."Beats & Bass Throwdown" (underground party) An Sibin (Impulse) Sitio.sf (Incognita) Whitebox VIP Lounge Li-Po Lounge Storm the CPU #2, Los Angeles CA (underground party) Cafe Babylon, San Jose Technostate Live Webcast Lost-n-Found (Odyssey Sound) Kelly's Mission Rock (The Bridge party) FOCUS on electro party (underground) Presidio Bowl ("It's a Big Booty Bass Bowling Christmas" XLR8R party) Cloudfactory house party Alchemy (underground party) Pow! a cocktail lounge :SFMachines (underground party) Betalounge Live Broadcast The Sno-Drift (Exact-Science 'SF Bass vol.1' record-release party) Edinburgh Castle Partytrap (underground party) Cat Club (Static) Waves, San Jose What do you have planned for the future? We've released an EP which has been selling nationally, and we're currently finalizing a deal for international distribution. We'd like to extend the reach of our live shows, possibly doing a west-coast mini-tour later on this year. We'd also welcome the opportunity to play shows in the UK. Also, we'll most likely begin work on another record in the coming months. In the meantime, look for more live-performances and DJ sets around the SF-Bay Area....you can keep up to date on the latest Cybrid happenings via our website, wearecybrid.com. > Please return these asap, preferably before this Saturday. I may have > some more questions by then, too. > > And I wasn't able to get a photographer to the show. So do you guys have > any pictures we can use? Preferably not live pics. > > Thanks! > > Amanda > > > > -- > Amanda Scotese > West Coast Performer Magazine > _______________________________________________ > 155 10th Street > San Francisco, CA 94103 > > 415.255.8567 > www.performermag.com > wcpeditorial@performermag.com