Mathbonus equates to serene chord progressions, a signature bass sound, and energetic beats within a genre that is unlike any other. Intricate sound design, humane guitar interventions and astutely processed drums symbolize the depth of his craft. Paired with a mind overflowing with all sorts of ideas, this Oregon-based producer surely knows how to magnify listening experiences. An extremely humble, talented and all round producer talks us through his career up until now.
mathbonus: I first started as a college student in my dorm room. I was 18 at the time. I’m not sure if there was ever a moment where it “clicked” necessarily – it’s a gradual learning process. I did get some positive feedback right away though and that encouraged me to continue.
I’m 27 now, so almost 10 years!
I’m actually from Eugene, Oregon – and I am admittedly not that connected to the music scene. I mostly do my own thing. I’ve played a few local shows but that’s about it.
They each came about fairly quickly as I recall. “There Is Light In Us” is one of my favorite tracks of mine. It was really special to me at the time, and I look back on it fondly now.
Thank you! Trial and error just like everything else. Sometimes stuff comes together in a way that’s hard to recreate. I just mess around until I come up with something I like, basically. I had a few tracks I was referencing at the time for the drum programming. The main synth is pretty basic – just some saw chords drenched in stock ableton reverb.
“My biggest challenge is keeping things interesting for both myself and my listeners. I don’t want to just do the same thing over and over, but I’m also aware that people probably have a certain sound in mind when they think of mathbonus.”
They were kind enough to upload my music and that’s about it. I’ve reached back out to them here and there when I’ve had new music.
That’s a great question. I really don’t know. It’s something I ask myself sometimes, like did I just get lucky or is there really something special about them? And if so, is there something special about them that’s missing from stuff I’m doing today? I’m not sure. Could be a combination of all of those factors.
“A song is like a snapshot of who I was at the time, and that includes my technical abilities as well.”
My biggest challenge is keeping things interesting for both myself and my listeners. I don’t want to just do the same thing over and over, but I’m also aware that people probably have a certain sound in mind when they think of Mathbonus. Going forward I really want to try some new things. I’ve already done some more out of the ordinary stuff, like on Whelmer and Voices. I’d love to do more stuff like that.
Yes, I do everything. Each component has its own unique challenges, and they’re each really their own self-contained arts. That’s why you often see the different tasks done by different people – people who specialize in each one. I’ve always found mixing to be challenging, particularly because my idea of what a good mix is seems to always be changing. I listen to some of my older stuff and wonder what the hell I was doing. But it seemed fine at the time, and that’s okay. A song is like a snapshot of who I was at the time, and that includes my technical abilities as well.
Thanks. I’m no professional so take what I say with a grain of salt, but the biggest tip I can give for drums is to use “parallel processing” – send your drum bus to a return track and compress the sent signal so that the drums are “doubling up” on themselves. I have no idea if this is good or bad practice but I’ve found that it helps the drums feel bigger and cut through the mix better.
“It would be impossible to make music without listening to music, so I owe a lot to other artists.”
Make sure you’re comfortable with your listening setup. I do almost all of my mixing on headphones, which will probably raise some eyebrows. But it’s what I’m used to listening to, and it’s what I’m comfortable with. I still like to reference my mixes on speakers, but the actual work is usually done on headphones. Listen, listen, listen to music that you think sounds good! There are some do’s and don’ts to mixing, and it’s a technical skill, but it’s still a creative practice. A good mix can be a subjective thing. Find out what it is you like about mixes that sound good to you and try to recreate it. The most important step in a good mix is getting your levels right. Compression, EQ, etc, all have their place but if the levels of your channels aren’t right, it’s useless. I think they call it “gain staging”.
I usually just tell people “I make beats”. I hope this doesn’t sound bad, but I honestly hate describing my music to people. I tell people that I make beats with guitars and synths and usually leave it at that. If they check it out, awesome, if not, that’s cool too.
I just went on an anagram generator website and typed in my real name – Mathbonus is my real name with the letters rearranged.
It changes all the time. I like to mess around with sounds and chords, drum patterns, etc, until I come up with a basic loop that I like, then I expand from there. I only recently started paying more attention to things like song structure, so my older tracks are a bit more free-form, I suppose. I have my go-to plugins I return to – I use iZotope Trash 2 on almost everything these days.
You may have noticed that I use a lot of “Reese bass” sounds – the detuned saw bass that I use on almost everything. That’s a staple for sure. I use guitars a lot and I have some plugins that I return to, but it’s really a new process every time. I’m always looking for new sounds.
Shlohmo was the biggest inspiration for me when I first started. I’ve borrowed a lot from him over the years. I’ve referenced bands like Beach House and Bon Iver as well for some of the more guitar heavy stuff. It would be impossible to make music without listening to music, so I owe a lot to other artists.
Haha. Pretty serious, I guess. It’s kind of a jokey bio, ironically. But I am serious about music.
I work independently, but I use “Repost Network” to distribute my music to iTunes and Spotify, etc.
As with most of my things, the name was a last minute decision. I just like the word. I think it has cool connotations. It’s more of an association thing – it doesn’t mean anything literally, I just like what the word makes me think of.
Yes, sometimes. It can be really frustrating to have long extended periods where I can’t come up with anything I like.
Probably “Flicker” – not to be too self-indulgent but I think it’s a good synthesis of “classic Mathbonus” and what I’m currently trying to do in terms of sound design. Particularly on Down I wanted to focus on these big bass sounds that combine bass guitar and synths. I quite like the bass on Flicker.
Trial and error, just like Fog. It’s a fairly basic synth with a lot of reverb with a short decay applied, and that’s about it. This is a sound I return to semi-regularly, and it’s very simple to make. Just some saw chords and some reverb is all you need.
I was just particularly fond of this image. I’m a photographer as well and it was one of my recent pictures. I like to use my own photography for my cover art a lot.
Thanks. I make most of my art myself, occasionally borrowing drawings from friends (like on Solicitude and Holy Park). Nobody Here features a couple cell phone pictures I took, manipulated in Photoshop.
It’s not really a conscious thing, if it does. I’m sure subconsciously it affects my mood and whatnot. I’m a photographer so I appreciate things like the way light falls on different objects. A beautiful day is something kind of magical – the way it lifts your mood. I like that. I probably write happier stuff in the spring and summer, but I don’t know.
“I find that guitars just immediately humanize a track, though. Like it makes it sound like there’s a person on the other end of the recording instead of just a computer.”
It’s really hard to say. It might be “Fissures” off of Voices. I wrote it at a really weird time in my life. I was going through a lot, mentally. I can’t even explain the state of mind I was in, it was just a weird time. It came about really naturally one night when I was just jamming. I definitely think it’s one of my more powerful, yet understated tracks. I’d really like to do more songs like it.
Hmm.. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt part of the electronic music industry – I’ve always done my own thing. I definitely don’t get the play counts I used to, which used to bother me a lot. I suppose it’s only natural, though. I still have dedicated fans that return time and time again, and that’s awesome.
I have the very definition of a “bedroom studio” – it’s just my computer, an audio interface, my headphones, and a couple of bad old guitars. I use a lot of different software as well. iZotope Trash 2, BiFilter2, Valhalla Vintage Verb – I use these on almost everything.
I guess probably my guitar. It’s an old Ibanez with only 5 strings. It’s probably worth like 20 bucks. It’s broken right now actually, which is really sad. I can’t get it to make a sound. I find that guitars just immediately humanize a track, though. Like it makes it sound like there’s a person on the other end of the recording instead of just a computer. And it’s a really versatile sound. A guitar is a really great starting point for all kinds of processing. It’s a good raw sound.
Stay home and stay sane. Do something creative.
I’ve been playing a lot of video games and not going anywhere. These times are really challenging. I hope things will get back to the way they used to be very soon.