Unfortunately, we haven’t had the opportunity to meet with Eric Segalstad in person. Fortunately, with today’s technology, we were able to collaborate with this fantastic musician out of Burlington, Vermont. His end product captures the feeling of each scene perfectly. All the scenes have a different composition by Eric except for the Blog scene, which was due to a last minute change from us. (Originally the Blog page would take you out of the flash and onto the blog). We called him up and asked him to answer a few questions from us about his experience with this project and to see what else he is up to. Read on to learn a little more about Eric:
LogicBomb: All the music for the site was created by you. What type of instruments and equipment did you use?
Eric: “I used an F-style mandolin, an old bass guitar, and a Jazzmaster electric guitar. The robotesque sound came from running the bass through an out-of-production crazy ring modulator called The Mold Spore Psychoscumatic. All other sounds were played on either my budget MIDI keyboard or an Akai drum pad module. I programmed the sounds from various instruments and plugins using my Powerbook and recorded it all in Logic Pro. The software sounds include an overdriven Hammond organ, synths, plucked strings, an accordion, and various drum loops. It’s pretty incredible what you can do with a modest home studio these days. ”
LogicBomb: We really only tweaked your work a few times and you really nailed matching the music to the look / feel of the site. What did you use for inspiration?
Eric: “Thanks! I used Josh’s sketches for the inspiration and learned the basic concept behind the site from talking with you—the storyline if you will. Based on that I played with some ideas in my head, made a couple of quick demos and felt like I nailed the direction on the second try. From there on out it worked out very organically. Each track shares the same pulse and root note, but the feel is obviously different. The idea is that the tracks work together like chapters in a well-told story, without the necessity of a predetermined sequence. ”
LogicBomb: How long have you been making music?
Eric: “I’ve plugged in the electric guitar twenty years ago and have made my own music for just as long. I picked up the mandolin, bass, keyboards, and the rest along the way.”
LogicBomb: You’re also a published writer, can you tell us a little about that?
Eric: “Sure. I’ve write magazine articles about skiing, travel, music, and the outdoors for various national magazines and I created the book The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll in collaboration with Josh Hunter. ”
LogicBomb: Ideally, what are your favorite projects to work on?
Eric: “I love projects that are clearly defined, but where my role is open-ended so that I can add my own creativity without being bound by stringent requirements. I like to think the finished product turns out much more inspiring if everybody involved can add what he or she feels as long as they give everything towards the same goal. This project was very much like that: it is stronger than the sum of its parts.”
great interview. it was nice and interesting to learn that Eric creates music. you know, when I visit different sites I don’t usually think the music used there is created for them, rather borrowed (as it often happens) this adds Eric’s work weight:)