I loved it - I couldn’t stop listening to it!
In early 2008, Montreal music producer and composer Tim Rideout heard through the grapevine that Ember Swift was to be recording a new album. Being on Ember’s “short list” as a potential producer, Tim was invited to do an “audition mix” to showcase what direction he would take with an indie folk icon’s eleventh release. Ember’s reaction was immediate - and positive.
“I loved it - I couldn’t stop listening to it!” said the Ontario native of Tim’s trip-hoppy audition mix. Immediately they were inking the deal and blabbing away about the creative possibilities of this new direction. Yes, Ember Swift is producing an electronica record. And Tim thinks that’s awesome.
New Streets, New Beatz
Tim “met” Ember virtually while editing Dave Cool’s film What is Indie in which Ember is featured and shares her views on the independent music scene. “It was like I knew her when we met,” he says of their first encounters “We had a great symbiosis and we’ve always been eerily in sync creatively. We agreed on a direction and a process. Ember is writing and recording tracks with her mobile studio and sending them to me via ftp. I then produce the beats, add, subtract, mix and mash, back and forth and voilà - what comes out will be this really cool collaborative effort between artist and producer.”
Smouldering Ember
With a new producer, new musical direction, and new place of residence, Swift hopes to stoke the fire she’s always managed to keep burning artistically and entrepreneurially.
This is good news, as the pair is collaborating over the internet. Ember’s current place of residence is Beijing, China. An East Asian Studies major, Swift had visited the East before. The time was right for a move. “I’m going to give it at least a good six months to a year and see how it goes. It’s a wonderful change that’s reflected in my music as well.”
Of her change in musical direction, she says: “I want to try a different approach musically and strategically. I don’t want to make a record and tour the crap out of it. CD sales aren’t what they used to be, and I’d like to exploit the new avenues of digital distribution and sales.”
The Hybrid
Rideout is excited to be producing electronic music for a heretofore “folk-y” artist. “It’s very cool because the collaborative process we’re using lends itself really well to the record Ember wants to produce. It’s not a live record; it’s very try-this-and-see-what-sticks. We’re building it layer by layer; hitting the ball back and forth. I’m very interested in combining the electronic production with live instruments and real players. This will add another dimension to the CD - her song writing and performing style are already highly evolved - this musical hybridization will be the cherry on top. She’s given me a lot of freedom to try different ideas. That spirit of creativity will come through in the final product.”
- Ember’s eleventh CD is due for release in early 2009. It will be released under a different project name. Ember Swift’s new moniker has not yet been announced.
Links
- Offical artist site
- Wikipedia entry
- Ember’s Record label Few’ll Ignite Sound
- Ember’s CDs on CDbaby.com
- Jam! Showbiz articles
- Interesting audio interviews on Earshot-Online.com
