Time is Strange

Next to Nothing turns five, an interview with Hugh from Fieldtone Instruments and an exclusive sample pack.

Next to Nothing

One of the only reasons I go back to Facebook these days is for the memories feature. Every now and then I’ll go back and see what I was up to on this day x amount of years ago. I’ve had a Facebook account since 2007 and so many big life events are archived there. Sometimes it’s nice to see where I was then and take stock of where I am now, whilst getting a little nostalgia bump along the way. Last week I noticed a post inviting people to a CDR session at Corsica Studios, where I would share my upcoming album Next to Nothing in full a week before its release and chat about it with Tony Nwachukwu. What surprised me was the year of the post was 2019 - five whole years ago.

This threw me through such a strange time loop. It feels as though I released this music so recently. Perhaps because I haven’t shared any new original music since then until very recently. When I stop to think about it though, so much has happened since then. The years between the release and now have been some of the most challenging I have faced, with big changes in my career and life, and some of the biggest challenges on my mental health. As I start to think about all this, time starts stretching out and suddenly five years feels like a lifetime. It’s a funny thing checking in on these landmarks whilst also trying to stay present and focus on what’s to come.

All this is to say that next Friday - 25th October will officially be Next to Nothing’s birthday and to celebrate I’m hosting a Bandcamp listening party. The album will start playing at 7PM GMT+1 and will run through in it’s entirety during which we can speak in the chat and I can answer any questions and give some insights into the music. If you are free, I’d love to celebrate with you. Please RSVP via the link below.

Weaving Time With Fieldtone Instruments

The sounds of a music box through the Weaver’s ‘Texture’ setting:

Something else that has had me thinking about time recently is The Weaver from Fieldtone Instruments. It’s a pretty wild guitar pedal-sized sampler that records 2 seconds of sound and processes it in multiple unpredictable ways to create an infinite number of new possibilities with a satisfying turn of the knob. Fieldtone Instruments are designed and built by Huge Jones, I got in touch with him with some questions.

- Please introduce yourself, who you are and what Fieldtone is.
I'm Hugh Jones. I've done all sorts of music related things from releasing and performing my own music as Crewdson, to teaching music tech at universities, touring with artists as their instrument technician, to running a record label and producing scores. Fieldtone is the name I've given to my one man company that designs, builds and sells electronic musical instruments - I launched it earlier this year.

- How did you get started building instruments?
I've always been into the electronic side of music production and performance, but that got particularly exciting for me when I started building my own midi controllers and noise makers to perform with. I've been doing that for 15+ years and have done one off commissions building things for other people over the years, but this year with Fieldtone is the first time I've formalised that into something that I can share more widely.

- In the description for The Box of Uncertainty, it says it is designed for immediacy and is imperfect. The Weaver's says that it has randomisation and chance at its core. What is it that attracts you to these ways of approaching creativity?
I think a lot of electronic equipment can be so complex or intricate to operate that there can be a barrier that comes up for certain people to feel they have access. I'm excited by tools that are immediate in terms of getting something back from them and even more so if the results are different every time - even that means they are unpredictable and difficult to be in 'total control' of. I fully totally appreciate that these approaches won't be to everyone's taste though.

- The Weaver is incredibly portable, using battery power and the onboard mic means you can take it anywhere and sample the world around you. Can you speak a little bit about why you wanted to make that possible with this device?
The portability of the Weaver has always been a crucial part of the design right from the start. I wanted to make something that could reinterpret or remix the sonic world around us and for that to instantly be played back in the location of the original sound source. I imagined it being a tool that I might take on a hike (alongside a map or binoculars etc) so I could experience hearing my environment differently whilst in the field, rather than capturing recordings to take back to the studio and manipulate later.    

- Is there anything else to mention or you want to shout about?
Thanks for reading this. If you like the sound of what I'm up to then do get in touch via Instagram. 

The prospect of taking a slither of sound and creating whole worlds is fascinating to me and I’ve spent hours already running anything and everything through The Weaver. As a result, I’ve compiled a sample pack and I thought it would be nice to share it with subscribers on Bandcamp. In total there are 47 samples for you to use freely in your music. Subscribers also get my whole back catalogue as well as bonuses such as exclusive tracks and videos of track breakdowns etc for just £4 a month. You can find more info here:

A clay fish ocarina running through The Weaver:

4 Tracks I’ve Been Listening To

That’s all for now, if you’ve made it to the end… Thank you!
I hope to see you at the listening party this Friday.

Hector 💛