GetMusic's artist spotlight features Joe Faniel, sharing the story behind the music, the latest work, and what comes next.
Introduction & Background
Please introduce yourself and share a bit about your background.
G'day! I'm an artist first, and a producer second (simultaneously) firstly. I was and am still living in Australia, in Tassie, or Tasmania for the longer version. I'm 31, a male specimen, and I enjoy not just making music, but listening to it all day long as well. Discovering new artists, bands, you name it, every day.
What's your musical origin story?
My friend, and my dad. My friend, Dean is a legend. Very nice guy, humble, hard working, the lot. We use to write raps, and just dish out rhyming together, listening to Hip-Hop beats on YouTube. Then eventually I wanted to take it a big step forward into music. But although I wasn't too sure if I wanted to take it seriously yet. But I used some music programs and start playing guitar. Then next thing you know, I'm getting more serious about it and discovering that there's a whole thing on artists making music through a daw. Which I didn't have a clue what that was at the time. So yeah, I got pretty addicted with Electronic music, thanks to the daw discovery.
My dad has been a major influence on me as well, as he has a gigantic library of CD's, constantly collecting and listening to music every weekend. He has phenomenal taste and ear for good new music. So music has always been with me.
What were the driving forces or pivotal moments that inspired you to pursue music?
Hm, well I reckon what drove me and pivoted away from not taking it serious, to taking it seriously was that I really enjoyed my dads music. And he opened me up to a whole lot of new stuff, and I learn a lot from it all the time. It's always good to have an open ear to everything. My mum as well, she went to art school, and art has always been a massive thing, so the artistry in music just seemed to motivate me even more. I really don't want to make music for the sake of just dishing out music. I want to be remembered 'Oh this guy took it seriously, artistically.' I want my music to be crafted with a level of delicacy and consideration. So art, mum and dad, and learning about new music are the driving forces for me. Always discoverning new things.
Musical Identity
How would you describe your style of music?
Very synth sounding, a lot of layers of different synth sounds. That's what you'll find a lot in my music. Never really acoustic sounds, like guitars, etc. Maybe the odd piano. But definitely it will always have a very strong Electronic sound to it. Sometimes I'll be wanting to make Techno, Dance, etc. But then all of a sudden I will be really wanting to make some weird, Experimental, abstract sort of stuff. Then some sort of Vaporwave, sample based music - although I haven't really released anything sample-heavy just yet. But I enjoy all of it. Throwing in the Experimental with Dance music would be my aim I reckon, eventually.
How is your personality reflected in your work?
Well I have different alias's. Joe Faniel will always be considered my main alias, the music I share under that name will be a broad stroke of music. Then there's the alias, ecstatic. Which I want that to focus on my Techno, EDM sort of music. Heavier, gritty, more polished. It's hard to express myself through music with what and how I would like to. But I'm still learning a lot. And hopefully I will be able to one day do that. So I like to think of Joe Faniel as music that I'm learning and feel like sharing with what I've learned, then ecstatic for the more serious stuff.
Describe your creative process when you write new music.
Jump onto my daw, Ableton Live Suite 12. play around with a few sounds from U-he Diva, a soft synth. Arrange some midi notes onto the piano roll, see if it sounds good, get an idea, then draw it out. Basically.
I'll start playing with effects and a little bit of mixing as I go along the process of developing the track. Once I'm finished with it, I'll slap on my made presets for mastering. Then export the WAV, list it under a folder ready for release. But, before I get into the making of my tune, I will have some sort of vague plan on where I want an album or EP to go - what I'm planning to achieve with this music piece.
But yeah, I do all my work inside the daw. Sometimes, very rarely I will sit down with my guitar and play a tune and see if it might work with something. But mostly I'm always dabbling in my daw with sounds, effects, and reading up on how-to's, or tips and tricks and so on.
Current Work
What is the name of your latest release?
Million
What was the inspiration for that release?
Saw Reddit posts/comments that were explaining how much work they put into their albums basically. Saw some say they dish out 100 tracks, filter out the bad from the good and turn it into an album. So I wanted to try to do that. Make a lot of tunes, then save the best for the album. Also, the album Million was kind of my farewell to the old version of how I would create music. My last piece of the past self. Because I want to take it way more seriously. Promoting, dedicating time, learning. And I also feel like I have developed a lot since I started.
What challenges or unexpected moments did you encounter during the writing/recording process?
Major burn outs. I'm prone to them a lot. I'll get really driven to work on music. Then after around a month I'll burn out, and take some time off. Then start back up again. Also, sometimes I'll feel upset with the music I'm making because it didn't go as planned as I was making the music. So I'll scrap it, and that always sucks for me.
Promotion & Engagement
What strategies do you find most effective for promoting your music?
Using GetMusic, Bandcamp. I don't like using Spotify, YouTube, Apple, Tidal and so on. I really, thoroughly love the ethics of Bandcamp. So I promote pretty much solely on there. I do use a distributer though, but I haven't released music using that for a year now. All of my new stuff is only on Bandcamp. When I get some money going on, I will use to promote through ads as well. Instagram, Facebook.
How do you engage with your fans online and offline?
I don't really. But when I receive a great compliment on my work, like on the album Video Game. I will acknowledge that and post something on Bandcamp about it. I'm extremely appreciative to anybody that listens to my music, and then to get a nice comment on it. That makes my day. So I'll post something if I do on Bandcamp for people following me.
What upcoming promotional activities or releases are you most excited about?
Oh! This one is a big question. I have a few projects going on at the moment. Nothing too soon to be released though. First, I have been working on a "sequel" project to the album Video Game. Which will simply be called Video Game II. Been working on that for around a year, on and off - trying to push myself to keep working on it. I also, have a Techno sort of album I'm working on and also a Sound Collage sort of album. Then there is an album project that I need to work on more for my other alias, ecstatic. Which will be gritty, Dance music. I'm very excited for what's ahead for me with my music. I feel like I've learned a lot, and I'm saving my projects and waiting to release them once the time is right for them. So it's a patience game and a need to dedicate time towards them all.
How can folks contact you?
Igloo44D@Gmail.com is my email. Feel free to email me. Or through Bandcamp. That's all really, for now. I don't really use social media like Instagram, etc. But, I check my emails often. That would be the easiest way to contact me.
