How the web is changing music forever: a chat with E-603

A few days ago I posted my thoughts on how the web is changing the distribution of music forever. A few days later Radiohead released their album The King of Limbs and the world seemed to be more focussed on the way they released it, than the music itself (to the band’s ire, I’m sure). I wanted to chat with someone who embraced the model of releasing music solely over the web, whose very music production process is based on technology, to get more insight into how the web is changing music; after a quick glance at my Most Played items a pretty obvious name popped up: Mashup extraordinaire E-603.

E-603 (or Ethan Ward as he’s sometimes known to his friends) has released two albums for free over the web, and is in the process of finishing his third. His music is made up solely of other peoples’ – he samples his favourite sounds, noises, lyrics and beats to create the music package known as E-603, still a touchy subject with the music industry.

I wanted to find out more about how Ethan got into mashups, the underlying tech he uses for both recording and live shows, but mostly his approach to the web as a music distribution mechanism and how he uses it to keep in touch with his fans. So here’s how our chat went (why not listen while you read…):

Tell us about the new album

Things are great. It’s been a busy couple of weeks, I’ve been preparing all this material for this album – it’s a long process. I have no procedure for legal signoff, if I have the music on my computer I’m allowed to use it. Probably April it’ll be mastered and ready to be released. I find material that’s worth sampling – sometimes it can take a while to find new and interesting pieces of music to use, where I’m at now in the process is pretty much starting to put actual pieces together. I’m currently at the beginning stages of that – getting solid mixtures of probably 2-4 songs going right now.

how is this different from the first two?

For my first album I wasn’t really thinking about what would appeal to a certain demographic or social idea; I like to think of the artists I put together as having some sort of artistic conversation – I find it funny to think of the Talking Heads having a conversation with some kind of 90’s rap artist; I like to think of the conversation between the artists that I use as kind of a real thing. For example, I have a song about love in the background and someone over the top basically talking about how he wants to get down, then that’s an interesting conversation between the two artists. For this record I wanted to rely less on rap a capella samples and include more singing samples, creating epic harmonious moments; I’m just pulling together a sample by Oasis and A-Ha’s Take On Me that I’m excited about.

How did you get into music creation?

It’s funny, just recently I was exploring one of my old computers and found some of this old material where I was composing my own electronic music using basic synthesizers and some pretty budget production techniques, but adding Top 40 samples on top of it – cutting them up to match the beat, creating more of a collage of the vocals than a linear idea. In about 2007 I started adding more and more samples, then that translated to just using samples. A friend suggested I make a full-length record out of samples, so I took that idea to make the first album, Something For Everyone, which exploded on the Internet much faster than I thought it would.

What’s your take on the Creative Commons movement, and the argument that you’re ripping off other artists?

My argument is it’s not necessarily bad to comment on another artist’s work by using it; sometimes artists can be narrow-minded about their own material. I’m going to do it because it’s creating something new. These days when anyone can get their hands on any kind of material, it’s hard to come back to me when their music is so accessible. I think it’s a good thing that artists are reminded that their material can be used in different ways.

What kind of software do you use?

Currently I put my samples together in Cubase, because it’s particularly easy to chop samples up, move them around, and edit their individual volume. For my live shows, after I’ve modified the samples to my liking I bring them into Ableton Live that allows me to trigger the samples whenever I want during a set, combine multiple samples at once, where I can play up to ten samples at once. After that I use a music plug-in called Effectrix.

What kind of hardware?

I run both a Mac and PC: I use a Mac for certain apps that are only Mac-compatible, but I do all my album editing on a PC and also all my live performances are PCs. Most people are surprised, I used to play live on a Mac but when the shows got rowdy and a kid actually fell directly onto my laptop, which turned off in the middle of the set! After that I realised I needed more of a durable computer for the live sets.

You’ve recorded albums and make a conscious decision to put them online in their entirety for free – why?

My creativity doesn’t me anything, except time. In fact – other artists might get even more mad if I profit from sampling their work. My time is worth something, and the amount of time that I spent on a record is a heavy load – but the idea is the more people that listen to it for free will end up helping in other ways, more people that can see me live or support me in other ways. If something’s just slightly inconvenient, someone might overlook it. Even setting up a PayPal account… The idea is to make my music open and easy for people to listen to at any time.

How do you use the web to get word about your music out there?

The web is used in such a promotional way, like posting on someone’s Facebook wall “Oh – I found this kid E-603”- that’s how my first album happened, just people with blogs and people sharing music; that’s the interesting part of the web. I personally am bad at self-promoting, I have friends who run blogs or associate with labels so I will have a little more help in hyping the record, but in the past I just called a couple of people and that was it, more of a grass-roots thing.

So you believe in the value of tapping into the social sphere of people for an ongoing collaboration effort?

Fans are probably contributing in small bits every now and then, even just playing at a party or something. But I wouldn’t want to ask my fans to help out or anything. It would be cool if you could remix the album I’ve already made – edit it however you want, but I wouldn’t want to put a question out there on Twitter asking people what sample I should put with this beat. I like the idea of records being a surprise, putting the record on for the first time and not knowing what’s going to happen.

To web developers who may be approached by members of the music industry, what kinds of things should they bear in mind (above and beyond simple tour dates, discography etc.)?

I’d say think about two different things: Either have a video or pictures that make it its own artistic piece that compliments the album, or have something that acts as a meme on the web that would just inspire questions, get buzz and get people curious, by building a brand. It’s valuable to foster the interaction of a website, because that’s not something you can have with a physical album itself; you really want to make it a multimedia experience.

when are you coming to the uk?

Hopefully some time in the summer.

Check out E-603.com and look out for the new album shortly. If you’re a musician using the web in innovative ways, or a developer doing some cool web sites let us know!