You’ll remember Andrew Saks from Sway and the seminal track ‘Fall.’ which came out way back in 2003 and remains a cult shoegaze classic to this day.
Andrew aka ASAKS is defined by his experiments with audio. As Sway he didn’t hesitate a moment as he moved from classic shoegaze on The Millia Pink and Green, to game-changing bleepy-bloops on This Was Tomorrow. If there’s anything that defines his music, it’s that it has remained undefinable for a decade and a half.
Today, Andrew is FLDPLN and he’s just put out his first album, Let You Down. In this interview, He’s going to tell us about his evolution from Sway to FLDPLN, how he conquered uncharted territory (again – this time it’s hip-hop), and if we’ll ever see him shapeshift back to the Sway we once knew.
AE: OMG you’ve lost your vowels! What is FLDPLN?
ASAKS: Ha! FLDPLN is vowel-free for “field-plan”, which is derived from my other life/day job where I’m a utility a designer or planner. I thought it would be kind of a funny way of branding my music – a weird way of bridging dimensions. The day job is such a big part of my life, and it really keeps me from doing as much music as I should be or would like to, but I can’t escape it.
I know it’s my job, but I’m having trouble defining your sound. Could you do it for me?
I’m not really sure what to call it or how to define it either. I guess it’s primarily electronic music with maybe some lo-fi hip hop? I sort of look at it like sound collage. The other night I was trying to think of a food that would be metaphor for the sound of what I’m doing. The best I could come up with was some sort of parfait, but then I thought of Halo-Halo, a Filipino dessert. It’s like a big cup of shaved ice, some cheese ice cream, prune or taro ice cream, condensed milk, coconut, gummy candies, sweet corn, dried fruit, mochi… and pretty much anything else that’s sweet. It looks like a parfait when you get it, then you mash the hell out of it and mix it all up. It’s amazing – all these layers and textures mushed together. FLDPLN is kind of like that. A couple of hip-hop guys told me my stuff was ‘chill’. So… noisy chill-hop?
Talk me through the evolution from The Millia Pink and Green > This Was Tomorrow > Let You Down and why you felt you needed a new identity for the last one.
With The Millia Pink and Green I was still very much enamored with huge, dramatic guitars and swirly Robin Guthrie-ness. I just wanted to make music that was like windy+carl but with really melodic bits to it. I loved Slowdive, and at that time (maybe like 2000-2003) I felt like that whole shoegaze thing was so dead that the handful (or so it seemed at the time) of bands doing it were unique in a sense that we were holding on to these sounds when so many other bands were going very snappy, pop-punk and all that. Or like rap-metal shit. I wanted to do something that reflected what I liked and made me feel nostalgic.
In about 2004 or 2005 I had a couple of friends that were messing with electronic stuff, like Fruity Loops (pre-audio FL) and they got me into it. I got into Ableton Live, which is THE greatest instrument/audio workstation ever made. This Was Tomorrow as Sway and the ASAKS singles I did for Saint Marie Records compilations were meant to be a bridge between the shoegaze stuff and my love of electronic stuff.
I was always fond of 80’s pop stuff, even some of the cringe-worthy, sugary sweet stuff. I’m also a die-hard old-school video game nerd, so I love chiptunes sounds. I’m a decent guitar player, but for some reason the whole guitar thing annoys me a lot. How many pedals do you have? What kind of pedals do you use? What guitar? I feel so ordinary as a guitar player – it just bores me. With electronic music and synthesis, I feel like there’s this whole endless universe of sounds that one can create. When you start smashing sounds together, it’s kind of like the whole shoegaze/noise thing but using digital tools. I’m completely captivated by the possibilities. FLDPLN is going to be my outlet for the things I’ve been experimenting with on my own since 2006 or so. My Northern Two album with Seth from Sway was kind of a beginning to this I suppose.
I think many of us loyal Sway fans saw something along these lines coming our way since This Was Tomorrow. But I have to admit, the hip-hop component is a welcome surprise. What’s the story behind that?
I was really hoping NOT to lose the Sway fans with this. I feel like shoegaze/dreampop fans have the potential to be really open-minded about mixing sounds and stuff, so I’d hoped I really wouldn’t alienate anyone that’s been following Sway for so long. Since I was a kid, I’ve always loved rap music. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with the genre these days. There’s a lot of really cool, more underground stuff out there. You know like more indie rap than the big, over played shit you hear on hip hop radio. A lot of that stuff annoys me because of the really basic, crank-it-out production and over the top misogynist lyrics. I’m an art guy, so I won’t fault peeps for making their art, just some of it’s not for me. I love the artists featured on the Let You Down and picked them out because of their varied and unique sounds. The idea of featuring some hip hop artists came from one of the first times I did a little street performance/busking deal, just out making my beats when I had a few dudes with their crew come by and start freestyling over my shit. It was kind of a ”um, yeah… that kind of sounds legit!” moment. I’m excited about the potential to do more production for others.
Do you think you’ll ever go back to your shoegaze roots and one day we might hear another ‘Fall’?
Hmmm. I dunno. I feel like that’s kind of flown, as far as the guitars thing. MBV is back. Slowdive is back. Ride is back. I feel like the time for homage is over. There’s ways I can make music and sounds I can explore that don’t necessarily have to step in on that territory. I will always have those sounds and the Sway sound as part of my production, so you will absolutely hear more huge swirly textures. The next FLDPLN release will feature some downright ambient stuff, but it will be mostly synth stuff. I love dramatic soundscapes. It’ll be in the mix.
I know I’m not the only one to think this but we’re all happy to have you back on the scene. What’s been keeping you busy since This Was Tomorrow?
My day job. I’ve been desperately trying to tough it out and make music for years but it’s been slow going, and I’m a very harsh critic when it comes to my own stuff. The FLDPLN album is actually the second album I’ve done since then. The first one started out very This Was Tomorrow-ish. I put it on ice. I started doing a lot more field recording stuff and sampling and stuff and that led to what you have with the Let You Down. I also used a lot of sounds that I made on my phone using music apps and stuff. If you listen really close, and I hope some folks will, you’ll even hear some Sway samples from The Millia Pink and Green in there. I sampled my own stuff! I’ve just been plugging away. Last year, I got a new position at work (field planner) and I now work closer to home and have more time to make music so there will be more on the way. I already have a rough framework for the next FLDPLN release, which will probably be an EP.
Tell me about what inspired the music and the songwriting on Let You Down.
Like most of the stuff I do, nostalgia is the main driver. I love mid-century modernism and while it’s become super hip over the last ten years or so, I still really notice the beauty in things that were once supposed to be part of the future, and were so contemporary at the time, but have been abandoned and neglected. I’m really influenced by architecture (a field I wish I would have studied professionally) and print art.
I absolutely love 50’s and 60’s jazz. I love Expressionist art and things that experiment with texture. Street art gets me going. I’m just very interested in making very textural, layered but not necessarily chaotic music. I like fuzzy, broken sounds. For the past five or so years now, a lot of what I’ve done is experimenting either in my home or out busking. I’ll improvise using synths and collected samples and just make a mess. These sessions usually have their golden moments, so with Let You Down I tried to do an album that sort of captures that feeling. It’ll be an ongoing challenge. The improvisational spirit is a focus with this project. I love the accessibility of electronic music, and the potential for textural experimentation. Making sonic collage really makes me happy. I just hope people enjoy listening to it!
Perhaps it’s too early to ask this question, but what’s next for FLDPLN?
I’m going to be working on a follow-up EP with about 5-6 songs that I hope to release by the end of 2018. It’ll be a similar vibe, but there’s definitely going to be some very ambient stuff in there. I do love my ethereal stuff, so I have some pieces that I’ve already put together with some really pretty stuff. I’m not sure if the next release will feature any guest artists yet, but I’m open to it. I’ve already discussed with a couple of different peeps. We’ll see. For now, I’m looking forward to playing versions of the tunes on Let You Down out at some shows and just enjoying having something new out!
Let You Down released on 23 March, 2018 and can be bought here.