READERSVOICE.COM: How did you learn to play a keyboard, or piano, and how did you learn the programs like Reason, Audacity and Ableton, and virtual synthesiser?

STELLARDRONE: I never learned to play a midi keyboard (well, I am able to play a few well-known melodies with it but that’s it) and currently only use it for live performances mostly. 98 per cent of the music was created with the computer’s keyboard, digital matrix pattern sequencers and mouse. A long time ago a friend showed me Propellerhead’s Reason software, gave some important tips and tricks and I got hooked since then. I never fully migrated to Ableton, and use it mostly when I’m bored and want to try some virtual synthesizers.

RV: In the video of you playing live at Cechas 48 at Vilnius, Lithuania, what exactly are you monitoring looking at the laptop computer?

SD: Sequencer and some effect parameters so that I could be able to reset them with my mouse in case I did something wrong with the midi keyboard.

RV: Where do you live and what is your daily routine?

SD: I live in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius and my routine starts with a toothbrush.

RV: Do you associate with many of the other ambient music composers in Lithuania, like the ones at the April 21, 2012 event at cechas 48, and is there a big ambient music following in northern Europe?

SD: Well, most of the ambient composers in Lithuania create very different music than I am, so I keep my head low and don’t want to attract their attention. I enjoyed listening only to some of them and only when I was drunk. I wouldn’t say there’s any ambient music following in Northern-Eastern Europe at all, just some underground performances, that mainly go unnoticed.

RV: Where do you get some of the interesting background sounds like the nasa type voices on Eternity (Reprise)?

SD: It’s extracted from YouTube, I think. It was Carl Sagan’s speech, everything else is too from the internet.

– See Youtube and the Stellardrone website to listen to Stellardrone albums.
– copyright Simon Sandall.