Ochre

“Christopher Leary AKA Ochre just released his first album, the beautiful A Midsummer Nice Dream, from excellent label Toytronic.

Can you present Ochre?

Christopher Scott Leary, born 1979, starting writing music as Ochre in 2001.

What’s your musical background and how did you come to making music as Ochre?

I’ve been studying contemporary music for about five years from college to university, which gave me the time and resources to work on my own music in my spare time. I originally chose the name ‘Ochre’ for a school project, but it’s stuck since and I haven’t been able to think of an alternative that suits my music any better. The name comes from a street where I used to live – ‘Oaker’, but I preferred the colour spelling instead and so used that.

How did you come to electronic music?

I’ve always enjoyed writing music ever since I started messing around with the wavetable on my first PC’s soundcard. I used a free sequencer that came free with a magazine to write my first tunes, which I had on tape until recently. As PCs became more powerful I started writing more music using soft-synths and real-time effects. I’ve never been much of a hardware junkie, so I tend to have quite a stripped-down set-up of a few mainstay programs. As for influences, I can probably thank the Orb for partly kick-starting my interest in electronic music, plus a large amount of Jean Michel Jarre and Mike Oldfield in the home as a child might have had an effect on me.

You won the global goon remix competition. You released several tracks on compilations for labels like Audiobulb, Toytronic, Boltfish… and a new album for Toytronic in 2004. It seems like everything is going well for you. What do you think ? How did all this happen?

Yeah, things are picking up for me at the moment, especially as the album’s just been released. It’s been a very gradual process though, just building on small achievements and taking each step at a time. I’ve just been very focussed and persistent when it comes to writing music, plus I’ve thankfully had the time to keep writing.

How did you work on A Midsummer Nice Dream ? What was your idea behind this disc? Is it a reference to Shakespeare in the title & why?

I decided on that title because I’m a sucker for wordplay. Plus it just seems to make sense for the music it contains. There’s no concept to the album, and I didn’t write the music with the title in mind, but everything seems to fit well under that title. The music is basically a collection of work spanning about three years anyway. The Shakespeare reference was a nice bonus. I wouldn’t have bothered had the wordplay sounded forced, as there’s nothing worse than clumsy wordplay for the sake of it, but seeing as though the title works well in its own right then I’m happy.

It seems you always work with melodies. Why? What kind of hardware/software are you working with to produce Ochre’s music?

I’ve always been a keen fan of nice melodies, as that’s what I remember about good music. Good musicality will always be more memorable to me than production or sound effects (although I do enjoy interesting rhythms too). I think I’ve always had a pretty good aptitude for melodies, so I thought I’d make the most of this. Looking at the bulk of music that makes up the electronica genre, or whatever you want to call it, it became clear to me that the more musical side tended to be neglected in a lot of tunes, which tend to focus instead on fancy drum patterns and production. The fact that I’m not the chirpiest guy in town might also explain my penchant for more melancholic melodies.

As for equipment, everything is written inside the Cubase SX sequencer on PC. I use plenty of soft-synths and effects too, and although I might get an outboard synth or two in the future, I don’t really have the money or the space for much outboard gear. I’ve got everything I need at the moment inside the computer.

Generally, how do you compose? What push you to create?

There’s no rule to how I compose, but I usually start with an idea in my head for a little chord progression or motif, and then just throw ideas around inside the sequencer to build on it until the song takes shape. I don’t play my ideas into the sequencer, but prefer to paint the notes in directly. It’s more of a hindrance trying to play the tune I have in my head into the computer on keyboard, as I just don’t have the skills – plus there’s no way anyone’s going to be able to play something like Mobile Foes accurately anyway, never mind me. Again that probably stems from my early days writing when I didn’t have a controller keyboard, but I’ve become so used to it that it’s my preferred method of writing. I keep a keyboard handy for programming synth patches though.

How do you work live?

At the moment I use Ableton Live and a MIDI controller. I know it’s not the most thrilling entertainment to watch someone use a laptop, but I’m happy with it at the moment.

Now A Midsummer Nice Dream is out on Toytronic which is a IDM-label people are attentive to. Has it changed something? What’s the first assessment to this record?

The album’s been well received so far thankfully, and I’m certainly very happy with the way things are shaping up following it’s release, definitely. I’ve always been a fan of Toytronic since getting their Neurokinetic compilation, so naturally I’m very pleased to actually get something released on the label.

What are your projects for the future?

I don’t have any major plans at the moment, apart from to keep on writing more music. Since the album was delayed for a while, I’ve been able to write a fair amount of new material, but I’ve been unsure whether to present this as part of a new release or not. There are a few interesting projects on the horizon, but it’s too early to say anything about them really.”

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