Interview : Ray Sohn

Your first musical memories?
Listening to eight track cassettes of Patsy Cline and The Guess Who in my dad's sky blue cadillac.

The best record you received as a present? / The worse one?
It's odd, but I can't remember ever receiving a record as a gift.

The first record that you lost?
The Band - Music from Big Pink

The name of your imaginary band?
The Motherfunkin Buttfunkers, or really any gross pun involving the word funk.

In which environment do you like to record music?
I like to record at home. I don't have to worry about money. Studios are best left for mixing and mastering. Tracking can be done anywhere, and you get more flavor if you get out of the sterile studio environment.

What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
I have no idea what it will sound like, but it will probably continue on as mainly an avenue for communication and self expression. The same emotional themes that exist now in music, will continue to be iterated over for the remainder of human existence. So, to put it bluntly, we'll have some cool new gadgets in the future, but we'll all still be singing the blues.

Who changed your life?
On what order of magnitude? Everybody who I've ever come into contact with has changed my life.

Which album should never have been made?
This is childish, but I consider every Weezer album after Pinkerton an abomination.

Your favourite album to have a drink?
Nina Simone - Silk & Soul

Your dream collaboration?
Boards of Canada, David Bowie and Nina Simone. I feel like something extremely weird would come out of this.

The record that freaks you out?
Lou Reed, Metal Machine Music freaks me out in a bad way. Do not try to listen to it all the way through.

The record you would like to listen to right now?
Dawn of the Dead soundtrack by Dario Argento and Goblin.

The film that tickles your creativity?
The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick. What a beautiful movie. I'm still kicking myself for not going to the theaters to see this.

The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
Clara Mondshine, Die Drachentrommler from Luna Africana

An album or an artist you wouldn’t want to be?
Lil Wayne

The cover version you would love to do?
David Bowie - Heroes

“Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. All musical instruments and all forms of recorded music, gone. A world without music.”. What will you do?
Kill an animal, stretch its skin over a hollowed out gourd and make a drum.

The text you would like to produce a soundtrack for?
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter

Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
Once, when I was a kid I started thinking I could hear this popular N'Sync song playing in my head. It was horrible.

How would you like to die?
I would like to build a giant concrete coffin in a field somewhere in the Midwest. Then I would skydive, without a parachute, into the coffin. Splat!






Check out Ray Sohn website and his bandcamp. Ray Sohn is also a talented graphic designer.