Webuildmachines label owner, and oft enigmatic Midwest Techno personality, Tunnel debuts a new compilation release of heavy-hitting, gritty, industrial-laced North American Techno talent titled “Prompt/Imagine”. Along with the tracks comes brief thoughts on Artificial Intelligence from each of the artists featured in a companion book of sci-fi imagery and artist portraits depicted in their cyberpunk and technological AI form.
Dirty Epic: For those not connected with the darker half of the Techno scene, in your view, what has been going on in the Industrial scene as of late, and how have Webuildmachines been a part of that?
Tunnel: First of all, let me say that I’m by no means an expert on the Industrial Techno music scene! Finding myself here is as much a surprise, as it is a love affair, with the sounds and energy that come out of that scene and the rave community in general. As the main curator of Webuildmachines, I’ve been drawn towards certain styles and sounds, most of which have come from my history as a lover of Hard Techno, industrial sound design, Drum and Bass, Glitch/IDM, and a real love of Electronic music.
The label was intended to support and encourage the artists and music that I love to hear, and in general, artists who are seeking ways to evolve their sound out of pre-defined genres. Webuildmachines, as a label, has a really varied catalog – from bangers, to Breaks, to post-rave, and Ambient material. It’s been a very small part of the Industrial Techno sound, I would say. A high level of detail, sonic dimension, mood, and thoughtful production are foremost in each release. I’m pretty genre agnostic, so when it comes to the music, I love to listen to and hear. I’ve tried to curate the music on the label accordingly.
DE: Tunnel, you’re somewhat outing yourself by giving credit to your surname as an author on this book. Is there some want to come into the light as someone else besides Tunnel, like Mike Banks and Red Shape have done in the past?
Tunnel: Yes! Haha. To be fair, I think I’ve been ‘out’ as myself within the Midwest Techno community and with a few crews overseas for a few years now. I also have several other aliases (Darkcloud, FWD//) that are just me or myself alongside a collaborator, without the mask, without the costume. Creatively, and artistically, being Tunnel has been a vehicle—a conduit through which anything was possible—and I didn’t have to be cool, or sexy, or marketable. That was my main intention initially, to avoid having to sell myself as the image of my music. I could literally create anything, and what you thought of me (as my music’s representative) had nothing to do with it.
It’s been an interesting social study to see the reactions to the mask and to the identity. In general, for those that love my live performances, they could care less what I look like, mask or no mask. But, I think some hate the mask and the look, and thus have ignored the music. Some love it, and have supported it since day one, while others are completely turned off by it. For me, especially when I first started performing live in Chicago, it got me out of my shell and helped me present a stage presence and a sound that I felt was something out of the ordinary.
At this point in my music career, I think I’m just more comfortable with myself as I am, and I see the value in just being myself onstage. I’m giving myself that option now, as a performer, and it feels right.
DE: For something of a really industrial-flavored label, has the role of machine-based music been a central focus for Webuildmachines? Do you think that AI, heuristics, and machine learning algorithms are a part of that aesthetic?
Tunnel: I define ‘machines’ pretty loosely! Whether hardware derived or software created, the focus for myself as an artist and the label has always been on capturing and refining the process of molding sound energy. We, as a species, build machines to sharpen and amplify our senses and capabilities. The label has been a vehicle to encapsulate those efforts and get them out into the world. The central focus for the label has been to present exciting, inventive, emotive music made by humans through their relationship to each other and their tools.
Aesthetically, I hope the label will always reflect its time in some way, the struggle between light and dark forces in the world, our relationship to self and each other, as well as to our tools. That dialectic is what I see playing out on the cover of each Webuildmachines release, and hear within each release—a conversation between humans and their culture of machines.
“Prompt/Imagine” is the first project that actively sought out and used artificial intelligence as part of the creative process in the development stage, exclusively for the visual design of the cover art and the images within the book. But heuristics, the idea of trial and error within a loosely defined framework, has been a creative and operating method for the label from day one!
DE: Some of the artists in this compilation do have a strong leaning towards analog modular synths in the creation of their music. What part of chance takes place in this modular-based music to become something organic or “analog”? Or is it that in your view, the possibility of creating generative musical concepts in modular gear is similar to creating an organic AI algorithm to follow certain parameters chosen by the artist?
Tunnel: I think there is a line through all of those creative production environments.. modular-based generative, A.I. generated, and even sample-based music. Whether you’ve patched up a Krell patch, coded something akin to Refraktions, or cruise through an online sample library, within each of those contexts, a human sits, waiting to be surprised. It’s the idea of a novelty engine, and an endless novelty engine is where A.I., in my beginners experience, really excels. But without the human element, it’s truly a tree falling alone in a forest. It needs us to define its meaning. The conversation has begun! Haha.
DE: Where’s the line? How much control should we give up as artists to AI?
Tunnel: Well, everything and nothing of course! Each artist will have to determine for themselves how much they want to give over. Will it write the lead melody, or just create the cover? So much of the work of an artist, and the work of any creator, is overcoming challenges, learning new skills, and also enjoying the climb of attainment. The whole process is really psycho-spiritual. Take that away, and being an artist, as a lived experience, means nothing.
A.I. novelty wears pretty thin, pretty quickly. My whole thing is really evolving as a human artist. I want to say I started at ‘A’ and got to ‘X’, eventually. I have to agree with Auspex, I think A.I. art will have its place in Pop Art, and it will increasingly be a useful tool in the production of more resonant work, curated by human artists.
DE: From your conversations with the artists in this book, where do you see an ideal fruition taking place between techno and AI?
Tunnel: I’d like to see all kinds of experiments take off in the techno world. Full-blown A.I. generated weirdness, 300bpm live-code edits, highly curated and minimal use of A.I., and projects where A.I. isn’t used at all. For me personally, I think I will continue to explore the tools that are created, and incorporate them into projects that I’m drawn to instinctively. No rules, really, except transparency of intention and the results that follow.
DE: Worst case scenario, everyone advocates heavily for AI in music. AI takes over completely and makes everything in the major scale. All the music it wants to make is not even remotely dystopian, and essentially the only world that they deem suitable for us is a marshmallow kawaii’d-up, teletubby-esque fantasy… What do you do?
Tunnel: Remember when you were a kid and tried roasting a marshmallow over a campfire and it just burst into flames? Once you blow out the fire, they taste delicious.
In short, should A.I. turn everything into Major Scale, we’ll just have to unplug our computers and go full modular. But, because We Build Machines…we got the skills.
-Sean Ocean
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