interview conducted by rené margraff at casioheart.de, september 2007.

Did you release music before the kranky album?

Release is too strong a word but there were a few CD-Rs circulated among friends, just little volumes documenting some sketches I might have been toying with at the time or infrequent live sets. That kranky came to be involved was something of a cosmic fluke. My close friend Paul Dickow (who records as Strategy) happened to be visiting kranky towers and played them some of this fledging material. Their curiosity was sufficiently piqued to get in touch. It's about the best working arrangement anyone could hope to have - they're infinitely patient and grant something approaching total freedom. Exactly the conditions I needed for finished tracks to develop.

What are you up to at the moment release wise? Are you working on a second album?

There's always a background throb, even if nothing is getting recorded I'm usually stirring something around. It was hugely liberating to finish the first album and clear the air. Initially, I had the idea that I wanted to draw a line under that and try something new. Where mezzotint had been all about soft edges and things half-glimpsed I thought I might like to try a different approach. For a while, everything was bright and sharply focussed but now it seems the murk is creeping back in.

There are some new things recorded, mostly quite long-form pieces and one shorter track was recently released as a 7" single. I've also been involved in a series of remixes, which have been really refreshing. For me, putting an album together is a process of tracks achieving a kind of critical mass, the tracks must work together a whole and as everything grows so slowly and organically it's difficult to say when it will be ready but it's flowing much as it always does, at a glacier's pace.

What is the process of creating new tracks for you?

If you'll forgive me, there is a cliché about fruit taking a long time to ripen but a short time to drop and that neatly sums it up. There is a tremendous amount of trial and error, random juxtaposition and lucky accidents. I have a profound fear of the blank page so a track might typically begin as making a background texture from source material and then building upon it. Sometimes this is very quick and things fall into place, at others there is a definite process of evolution. Often a track will be very different from how it started out, any unused material is usually composted and surfaces somewhere else. Occasionally, I might start with a concrete idea: use only four sounds or use no loops but I think it's fair to say that each one is based on a lot of improvisation. Again, it's a slow of process of accretion but when a track is ready I'm usually so familiar with it that it's recorded live - most of mezzotint's tracks were captured live in one take. I'm sure the way I use software would raise eyebrows in some quarters but after a lot of practice I feel fluent in my approach, everything is collaged and assembled intuitively and in doing so it avoids a lot of pitfalls people tend to fall into using 'industry standard' tools. While I'd never make any bold claims I think this can make for more personal and interesting music. I think when you have to rely on your wits and make the most of what you've got then worthwhile things happen.

How do you come up with song titles?

Titles for instrumental music can seem arbitrary but they all have a personal resonance of some kind. Sometimes they're a in-joke or play on words, Stab City for example is a name a friend gave to a cinema complex here called Star City but equally it really suits the dystopian feel of the track. I love words and taken individually each has a weight and colour that can be really evocative. Usually they fuse with the track at some stage and become inseparable. Chlorophyll was inevitable, it was recorded live on a laptop sitting in a garden nursing a hangover on a spring morning with plants seemingly busting into bud all around me. Sometimes a word will get simply lodged in my head and gets used when I come to save an audio document, Cassino was a shoe shop I walked past in East London but it's also one letter away from a space probe.

What was your first musical instrument?

I'm really trying my hardest not to sound like Brian Eno but I'm going to have to say a tape recorder. There was never any pressure to take up an instrument as a child and so I didn't. I adore music and began buying records quite early and I distinctly recall being given a tape recorder for my birthday and recording songs from the radio. Later, I graduated into making little bedroom productions and recordings of electronic chirping from short wave. If you're careful you can dismantle a cassette and make a short tape loop which is a wonderful foundation for making abstract electronic music. I bought my first real instrument in my late twenties – an electric guitar which I sometimes use for source sounds.

Why did you start using "music software"?

I suppose there was a creative itch lurking somewhere, I'd been absorbing music for so long I must have internalized a framework within which I could make the kind of music that would instinctively appeal to me. I can't remember exactly how I was introduced to Audiomulch but I remember downloading it and almost instantly thinking it was exactly what I needed. The intuitive interface and plug and play approach was like being in a sandpit with an unlimited amount of effects pedals. Here was a zone of freedom away from time signatures or triggering samples like piano roll. I loved it straight away and still find it the most natural tool to use.

Which was the first "music software" you used?

I can be quite precise about this; I've just searched my computer at work and discovered the earliest Audiomulch document is dated 27/03/2000. Opening it, I am somewhat horrified to discover the use of maracas.

How do you manage to get your tracks filled with subtle harmonies? do you find melodic stuff in the field recordings or do you simply blend it with software instruments/synths/melodic samples?

I make use of quite a lot of field recordings, environmental sources and as a result my ear has probably become quite tuned to sounds that have potential. It is a very elastic resource and often it's easier than you might think to coax out a melodic element. Very occasionally I might use one or two notes from a softsynth as a counterpoint but I try and be as natural as possible and not force things too much. I've got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about keeping the sound as open as possible. One of the nicest things that someone has said to me was that they listened to mezzotint on the train to work and at points couldn't tell which sounds were from the album and which were from the journey.

How important is the haptic stuff to you when you create music (knobs?)

Technically, my resources are very limited. I use minidiscs and binaural microphones for recording source sounds and Audiomulch for most of the processing. I've rusted into mostly using a mouse and clicking away like a madman, altering parameters on the fly but there are things you can do with physical controllers that are unique. I make use of quite a few presets – loop lengths, pitch values in delay line granulators or even the source samples and by turning a knob you can traverse various states very quickly. They're very useful for introducing certain qualities into tracks. The other piece of 'hands on' equipment I sometimes use are contact microphones which are great for spontaneous elements.

Do you use midi controllers?

I have just one piece of midi equipment, an inexpensive Evolution controller that is a little octave and a half keyboard and eight rotary knobs. It's not vital to the way I make music but it does help when juggling a lot of parameters.

What's your favourite software?

Audiomulch, hands down. I use Ableton semi-annually and it is occasionally useful for managing loops but I've never found it particularly inspiring for creating music. Sound Forge is as solid as a metal desk and my go-to utility to chop and prepare samples but it's really Audiomulch all the way.

Do you have a favourite vst plug-in?

Vst plugins are so useful and they're very seductive but therein lies their danger. I've already mentioned my quasi-obsession with keeping the tracks open and I think if you're too reliant on plugins there is a danger that they will impart something of a signature sound. I try and use them as sparingly as possible but of course I have some favourites. Native Instruments' Spektral Delay is really impressive, I've had something of a romantic affair with that recently. I also like PSP's Lexicon delay and phrase sampler. There is some great, free oddball stuff too, Ioplong and Destroyfx plugins are great in small doses. My secret weapon is a really humble sampler plugin (JSMinisample) that I turn on and off at varying points within a loop, it's a kind of self-sampling, generative quality which adds a slight randomness and prevents things sounding too linear.

Which hardware instruments/tools do you use?

I think I've mentioned my guitar (it's an old Kramer aluminium-necked model from the late 70s), which I use for some source sounds although I don't really play it as such. There are a few items that I use for percussive sounds and quite a strange stereo analogue delay pedal that is the source of most of those crackles. I've recently fallen in love with ride cymbals which, brushed, bowed or beaten, offer a beautiful palette of sounds.

Do you play live and if so, what are you doing live?

I really love live music, it's almost sacred to me and for that reason I don't think it's enough to play live and merely take a laptop and run through similar-to-identical versions of the album tracks. I don't play live often but when I do I really try and make the performance fit the environment. I've played in a few one-off events that have been in decommissioned factories or old industrial spaces and have made recordings in them beforehand. I very much prefer this rather than playing bars, which I don't think necessarily suits my music. Playing live is quite easy since most of my music is recorded in real time although there is a lot more freedom in some ways, it's really nice to hear something played loud and see its effect.

How does your normal day look like? Your sleevenotes say you did most of Mezzotint at home and at work. Do you have a boss? What is your day job?

I have a job as a software developer for a small company here in Birmingham. Most of the people there are great and they tolerate me working with my headphones on, occasionally throwing them to the floor as they issue a deafening shriek. During my lunch hour it's possible to make use of guerrilla Audiomulch sessions and often as I work I'll set a track going and very occasionally tweak a parameter. It's a really useful resource and many tracks have started life as a slowly fermenting piece that's helped me to drown out the working day.