„The people who upload old vinyl rips to YouTube for free have done more for music than these hit piece types ever will'' recently appeared on Iceboy's X feed. The artist, originally from Manchester, deforms and deconstructs samples, blending them into radical sound objects. Their album, Not A Dream But A Controlled Explosion, was recently released on Rainy Miller's brilliant label, Fixed Abode. In it, the Rapper explores the themes of daydreams, hallucinations, and desires, which, according to their statements, influence and shape our reality. Prior to their remarkable show at Case à Chocs in Neuchâtel, author Elia Brüllhart engaged in a conversation about creative processes, the rise of ambient music amid the pandemic, and the role of activism in music during moments of crisis.

Elia Brülhart: What is your process when creating music?

Iceboy Violet: Sometimes it’s conceptual but most of the time when I’m producing, it’s a process of exploration. A lot of what I do is sample-based, so I go and find samples and I see what they do, and I push them. There’s always something that draws me to a sample. Then I take that idea and explore what else it can do. I never know what a track is going to sound like before I get the sample and before I start messing around with it. I wish there were more tapes around, I would sample a lot more of them. I find a lot of stuff in Internet archives, and a lot on YouTube channels that people upload.

EB: Are you also trying to do something referential through the usage of samples?

IV: The samples that I use reflect the stuff that I care about, and the music and sounds that I like. Sometimes, I sample sounds that are very specific—a sample I have an emotional connection with, for example, something nostalgic. Other times I’m just looking for sounds, trying to find stuff that sounds interesting.

EB: What do you think could be the current evolution of contemporary music right now?

IV: As far as wider music trends go, I don’t really know. But I think what’s exciting is that, because of how the world works now, you kind of get hit over the head with music that’s completely different every now and then. You hear something that feels like it has come out of nowhere, although it obviously hasn’t. One thing I’m really excited about is the new album by Lee Gamble that just came out on Hyperdub today. For the whole album, he used AI to generate stuff and then he sampled that. This is interesting because using samples limits you in how much control you have, as opposed to synthesizers where you can technically make every sound you want if you have enough time and expertise. So, sampling is a quite limited technique. Of course, you can also push samples a long way, but your influence on the sound source is far more limited. I find the concept of the album interesting because you could use AI to create whole songs, which you then sample. Out of all this material that has been generated—just from references, from a kind of machine learning based on all the artists or sounds that you prompted—you can take these bits that resonate with you. For me, it’s exciting because you have the same basis in the process as with sampling, but with more freedom in it. For example, you can’t really sample The Beatles because of copyright issues, but you can create an AI to make fake Beatles songs and then sample those. It’s so fertile and really exciting. That’s what I’m currently interested in.

EB: Have you tried producing with AI?

IV: Not yet, but yeah, I’m thinking about it. I want to learn about it and get my hands on all this potential to create something that you would never create on a synthesizer. If you train AI to combine two artists to make this weird middle section, then you could sample that and create sounds this way that would be so exciting and new.

EB: You also made this tribute project to DJ Lostboi and in the last two to three years there’s been a kind of rise of ambient music with labels like 3XL and so on. Why do you think people are looking for ambient music right now?

IV: “D MAJOR LIFE XO” really opened a door for me, when first listening to it, I thought to myself: “Oh yes, this is something you can do”. Everything I create, or I think every type of music is kind of referential to the stuff that influenced it. And I think to your question, the easy answer is lockdown right? When the clubs weren't happening, people had less reasons to listen to club music. So, they probably just started to listen to calm music, because we were all in our houses, so it just worked well in that environment. So, people now discovered how good ambient music can be. Also, at the same time the raw ambient fits well into life, when it can be a backgroundy, but it also gets really rewarding when you pay more attention to it.

EB: That’s actually also kind of how Brian Eno defined the genre.

IV: Yeah, and he would know. So, we’re all listening to stuff all the time, streaming, working on laptops, having the radio on in the background — it’s just constant. I think that ambient music can be quite functional in that sense. I also think we’re in a really good time for ambient music. And I believe 3XL is one of the best labels going at the moment. It might seem like a silly word to use for it, but ambient music really is exciting. It’s interestingly textural and so broad.

EB: What impact do you hope to have when releasing or performing music? Are you trying to catalyze something in people?

IV: Yes, I guess I want to make people feel less alone. I’m trying to explain my stuff in a way that, on one hand, is hopefully beautiful or provides value, and on the other hand, allows other people to relate. So, hopefully, it makes them feel less alone. Music growing up made me feel that way, like I had a place. It was also a way to learn how to be in the world. For example, my politics and how I try to treat people were largely shaped by music. It was a significant aspect of my upbringing. I kind of just want to have the same effect. At the moment, it's a really interesting time to think about the role music can play in politics, like protest music or other forms of political music. Many people have done it, often in not very interesting ways that feel very pushy or obvious and just not genuinely engaging. Now, with what’s going on in Palestine, that's affected me a lot. I’m kind of thinking about what the artist's role in a situation like that is, in the context of protest.

EB: Today a global strike was demanded along with many musicians asking for concerts to be canceled. Were you thinking about that too?

IV: I’m obviously not striking now, but I was thinking about it.

EB: With music, there's a strong symbolic aspect to the strike, isn't there? It's a "silent" protest, quite literally, because of music's auditory nature.

IV: Yeah, if the music stops, you notice. That’s when you leave the bar. But also, when you make political statements in your music it gets tricky. I thought about this and on one hand I just didn’t know if it would make a difference, it feels symbolic, which it is. But also, the desired outcome for everyone is to either go protest tonight or sit at home and think like: “I’m not going to the show tonight so let me think about it and read about it”, so it can also be very valuable. It’s about awareness. I’m obviously very in favor of doing whatever I can. I just felt like this particular strike was kind of scattered. I didn't know how many people were actually doing it, and this show is also how I make my living. But that’s also how strikes work, striking is an act of sacrificing for the good of a message or a cause. I'd like to think about this more, talk to people about it. But today it felt very short notice, I couldn’t really come to a conclusion. There’s also no way to guarantee that the show doesn’t go on anyways. I don’t know, I feel like I’m maybe making excuses.
But I’m really very interested to talk about this, especially in the topic of music, that definitely plays a role. And I know, the heart of my role is to use the platform I have for the good of Palestine. I’m also going to be talking about it in my set tonight. I have to do stuff, cause it’s pretty much all I’ve been thinking about. When the Black Lives Matter-Movement happened in America, it was lockdown, and the avenue for action was narrower. And also, now this is also a different situation, because our governments are actively complicit in these things. And the main focus of the British people right now should be to pressure our government to seize selling weapons and to call for a ceasefire and eventually return land, which is like a far-off goal but at least try making steps towards that. It really is a difficult question and I’m really interested in learning and talking to people about this. I feel like specifically as an artist we must ask these questions.