#hvzel

[sixtyseventimes]

Listen/purchase: Bird of Paradise by HVZEL

[musictoliveandloveby]

HVZEL - 'Killer'

I love this.

[clapclapcolour]

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This track has been in my dropbox for over a month and I have been listening to it ever since. The sadness “Cav” gives off really resonated with how I was feeling back then and somehow comforted me. It sounds like someone tucking you in while you are curled up in bed, crying.

When listening to it for the first couple of times, I didn't even notice the percussion, which is so subtle that it almost disappears underneath the vocal samples. I like songs that let me discover new things every time I listen to it. (Or maybe I'm just really bad at noticing things.)

HVZEL has two EPs on bandcamp: KINGDOM, including “Cav”, and MIXTVPE, released back in February. “Leelanau”, a track from the latter EP, is included here as a bonus. It has that same sadness, even thought it's a lot rougher and more distorted.

A perfect soundtrack for sad days.

HVZEL - Leelanau

Dry your tears on bandcamp . soundcloud . facebook

[a-proper-burial]

HVZEL - Skateboard

[creepingwave-blog]

HVZEL - KINGDOM

<a href="http://hvzel.bandcamp.com/album/kingdom" _mce_href="http://hvzel.bandcamp.com/album/kingdom">KINGDOM by HVZEL</a>

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[yyuks-blog]

[lfolr-blog-blog]

HVZEL

<a href="http://hvzel.bandcamp.com/track/leelanau" _mce_href="http://hvzel.bandcamp.com/track/leelanau">Leelanau by HVZEL</a>

What makes a home musician a home musician? In starting this blog I had to ask myself this a few times, struggling to find some common ground between a wide diversity of musicians. What sets these types apart from a "band" with a contract or a session musician?

One commonality that has arisen is financial. With the burgeoning growth of home market musical electronics, the curious can start to build their own way to record, usually with some quality, without having to bow to the costly professional studio environment.

I would say a specific outcome of this is not only cheaper equipment but a sort of "cheaper aesthetic."

Think of old hand made toys. Something not built by the precision of a machine, awash in imperfections, but still beating with a human feel. We can grab the same joys and feelings from underproduced tracks that we can from the grandly overproduced music we're surrounded by on the airwaves. But with these collections of imperfect and varied equipment, that feeling comes across perhaps more alive and more directly from someone more like us.

And, without expensive equipment, artists are forced to search, perhaps in that same childish, explorative way, to find sounds and the feel they want on equipment they're forced to learn. One such home musician who came to me by submission from reading the SomethingAwful forums is HVZEL.

HVZEL (“Hazel”) is Winston Berg, born and raised in Texas and studying International Affairs in Washington. He tells me he makes hip-hop but I’ll call him a hip-hop instrumentalist. I hear the beats but it certainly follows a growing trend right now brought on by the likes of Kid Cudi, Clams Casino and Flying Lotus, hyper stylized instrumentation that seems to aspire to go for the same aesthetic that hip-hop has only touched since it started showing up.

He is inspired by the do-it-yourself screamo and hardcore scenes of the 1990s and early 2000s:

Basically bands that worked around their limitations instead of buying new gear. A lot of screamo bands had that vocal style because they performed without a mic, same goes for trap rappers. Everyone wants to make awesome rock songs and be the next E Street Band or whatever, but a lot of people don't have those resources and I think trying to work around these limitations are what helps to create interesting music.

An artist he mentions specifically is "I Hate Myself," a Florida band Winston suggests had to act as a screamo band out of irony to find acceptance.

HVZEL’s instrumentation is simple. He works with a MIDI keyboard and a laptop. He loads up Reaper - a free virtual DAW - with what high quality free VSTs and trials he can find. His first DAW was Sony’s Acid Studio, given to him by a friend (He remarks with what I imagine was a slight sigh: “So much clipping”). 

Nothing perhaps has changed in his routine since then, still the two hours he puts aside for music most days is spent the same way. If he doesn’t have ideas he gets out whatever curiosities he has and works with them until they sound good to him, building a track on impulses, much as many of us do in our musical dens.

Of course, if he gets into it he sticks: “The upshot of this is that sometimes I won’t do too much else. But I guess that saves me money, right?”

Despite having piano lessons when he was a kid he didn’t take kindly to theory. He did, however, gain an “ear,” finding with practice he could program, sequence or play most of what he heard. It became all the more useful when he turned to making his own music though occasionally he’ll incorporate one of his many used pawn shop finds. He reassures me that they’re “things that don’t sound so great, but they’re fun to play,” and the same glamour strikes me as I look to my cheap gear.

While it’s not needed to play those types of instruments with a flair, Winston admits he can’t really play “real instruments.” But while he works mostly alone, occasionally he’ll trade recordings over the internet or have some of his ex-bandmates come down to his tiny dorm and help out, friends familiar with theory and in jazz backgrounds.

The old band friends also lend to his musical repertoire - he’s been in a few groups already. Between “average man indie” and a rap group, Berg has also performed with live electronic groups.

Where is he going now though? Like some of us, he’s trying to get some of his music out into the world and perhaps turn a vocational interest into something that can get some cash. It’s only a matter of time before Winston gets that cassette to Portland’s Sweating Tapes. Maybe he can get some interest from someone he’d like to work with - Lex Luger, as Winston tells me, is another bedroom musician in some ways that he looks up to.

Here’s to you HVZEL, good luck with it.

Read more interview after the break, along with a better look at HVZEL's equipment, musical attentiveness and how his cat reacts to his music.

What do you think of the current musical climate? Do you pay attention to music (such as reading Pitchfork, browsing SoundCloud, going to shows, reading music magazines, reading biographies, etc)?

"I'll hit up p4k sometimes, I actually really like the wave they're pushing with like the JJ, Small Black, etc. I kind of hate SoundCloud though, it seems like there's just a lot of unfinished stuff on there. If I'm looking for "bottom tier" music (people like me who just entered the game), I prefer BandCamp to SoundCloud because there's a lot more finished product.

My music taste got a lot better since I discovered datpiff.com. I go to shows a lot, especially if I've never heard the band before.

How would you, if you had to, classify the music and projects you work with?

The HVZEL stuff thats available now is pretty heavily hip hop influenced. The new stuff is weirder, like Michael Jacksony or Depeche Modey?

Do you try to broadcast your music and find listeners? Is this a solitary hobby simply for your own curiosity? Do you hope to turn this into a career of some sort or are you fine with just making music?

I love making music so much and I love it when other people hear it and like it!

I sent out about a million emails to blogs when the first mixtape came out and only like 2 posted about me but it was still so cool that someone across the world was hearing my music. One of my top Last.FM listeners is from Ukraine! How cool is that?

Beyond utilizing Last.FM and BandCamp, HVZEL also tries to take advantage of  SoundCloud (somewhat), ReverbNation and blog noticing - he's been previously mentioned on BIRP.

Have you ever had interest in what other "bedroom" musicians like yourself make? What is your experience with other musicians, in this case and others?

I love hearing 'bedroom' music, my issue just is, and I know it sounds stupid, is that I think it's weird when people put 'unfinished' music out online publicly. Anyone can produce computer music, myself included. The art is in the finishing I think. [...] That's the biggest thing I need to work on, myself. I have been listening to some of my old songs because I've learned so much about sound design since I 'created' them. There are a couple bedroom musicians I'd really like to work with though.

While he hasn't had much luck he's tried considerably to work with, or is trying to work with, Gvcci Hvcci, LoveDied and SpaceGhostPurrp who Winston feels is channeling early Three 6 Mafia.

How do you feel about the Major Label world? What do you think is the best option for those like yourself?

Haha I'd love to be on Columbia or something like that. Wanna know what my dream is? To be an in house producer for 1017 Brick Squad, Gucci Mane's label. Lex Luger is so good, I feel like I could learn a lot from him. Right now I'm working on getting a cassette out with a small label out of Portland, that's been super fun.

Rundown of hardware and software used by HVZEL

Winston uses a myriad of free soft synths to create his music. Hardware is sparse, consisting of a Windows 7 Laptop with Reaper ("The world's best, cheapest DAW"), controlled using an Axiom 49 keyboard MIDI controller. Tweakbench (specifically Tapework), KVR's Synth1, HG Fortune free lite versions ("Best on-board reverb I've heard"), and lots of drum samples ("Shout out to the Yamaha RY30!").

Would, of course, love to have the Waves master bundle and a Dave Smith Prophet.

Closing notes.

Winston Berg has a cat named Stanley who apparently chills out when he makes music; a girlfriend that helps him considerably as promotional support and sees music education as a great help in being able to express himself better.