Interview: The Analog Affair create music cross-continent

Digital tools in music making are rapidly becoming an everyday reality for aspiring musicians. The age of Mac applications aiding in music creation are very much a thing of the present. They allow bands like The Analog Affair to collaborate and create music in two entirely different countries (Evan in China, Cody in the US) while still producing seamless songs. I had the opportunity to have an email interview with the budding musicians and talk about everything from their recent work with Straylight Run to their creative process.

How'd you decide to make music cross-continent? Did you ever conceive any difficulty in it, or did it just seem like a natural thing to do? How'd you meet in the first place?

[Cody] We haven't always made music cross-continent. We attended college in the same town, Laramie, Wyoming, in the beginning.

[Evan] Cody showed me some stuff he had put up on Myspace and coincidentally I had just started fiddling with GarageBand as well so I was interested in doing some stuff together, plus my taste in music at that time kinda sucked so I figured I could learn a few things.

[Cody] We threw together some tracks for about 3 months before parting ways (Evan moved to China and I moved to Tennessee). Of course making music was much easier and more efficient when we were in the same town but being thousands of miles away from each other wasn't going to stop us from doing what we enjoy. The web is a powerful tool and we are living in a time when making music this way is becoming a fast-growing trend. Anybody with a laptop and a connection can make and post music online.

What did the John Nolan collaboration feel like? Can you explain the process you went through to do that?

[Cody] It was a blessing getting to collaborate with Mr. Nolan. He has been one of our favorite vocalists since we heard the early Straylight Run demos. Basically how it worked was I (Cody) sent him one of my instrumental tracks (electric piano/drums/bells) and he added guitar parts to make the sound more full. He then wrote lyrics and laid down his vocals and it was done. The entire process only took a couple weeks. He did a great job with what I gave him and in the end we were both happy with the final version of the song. This was a great idea on his part and it has worked beautifully for him and his fans. When I heard the song, it was one of the best feelings I've had in my life! The song is titled "This is How" and is available for free download on his fan collaboration site, as well as his other fan-collaboration songs, which are also very good!

Do you see any live shows in the future?

Live shows at the moment are physically impossible due to the distance between us. However, playing live shows would be possible when Evan returns to the states. Touring would be a dream come true, whether it be playing in front of 5 fans or 5,000. Our tracks are all made on acoustic guitar first, so they would be fairly easy to reproduce live. We've never attended an electronica live show, so we're still unclear on how these bands perform live shows. If we ever do get the opportunity to go on tour, we have drummers, guitar players, and keyboardists lined up and willing to drop everything to tour with us, which is amazing.

With the way the music industry is going these days, do you think that creating everything yourself and digitized is the way to go?

[Cody] The music industry has definitely changed in the past few decades, there's no debating that. There are so many bands these days that it's hard to keep track of everybody. Playing live shows and building a fan base is a huge part getting exposed, and unfortunately, we haven't gotten the opportunity to tour yet. Creating everything yourself is very refreshing at times because it allows the artists to create what they want to without the pressure of labels and sales. However, we don't have a whole lot of knowledge about producing music. I think most bands would agree that working with a talented professional producer in a studio results in a better overall sound.

[Evan] To be honest we have a lot to learn about the 'state of the industry'. I think what we're doing is different in some ways. Seeing as it's all made on our Macbooks, I think that that presents it's own set of challenges/ benefits. The biggest benefit being the ability we've had to live on opposite sides of the world while making a majority of our music. The biggest challenge, however, being the fact that some people wouldn't really call us musicians because we make music solely on GB. We're optimistic though in spite of this because we have a general feeling that people will like the stuff we make regardless. The compliments and criticisms about our music that we've received have all had one thing in common: that our style is unique (which I think is the most encouraging thing at this point).

What are some of the major themes in your music?

The instrumentals don't have any particular themes per se. We use a lot of electronica instruments (the possibilities are endless), strings, and electronic pianos.

Do you have a specific writing process?

For the most part we write every song the same way. The chord progressions are first made on an acoustic guitar or piano. The music is then imported into Garageband and instruments are chosen. Evan then writes lyrics and a melody that go well with the instrumental tracks. During the process we compromise on a final song arrangement and keep polishing it up.

Have the specific countries you both live in impacted your music at all? What are the music scenes like?

[Cody] I'm only familiar with the music scene in the states. As I've gotten older, I have realized that the word "scene" is irrelevant to me. I like what I like and I respect what other people like. It would be a boring world if everybody liked the same bands. I'm not going to stop listening to an artist I like just because the majority of the "scene" doesn't like it.

[Evan] Aside from the budding rock scene in Beijing and Shanghai, I can't say that there's much of an established 'scene' here other than that for the terrible pop music here... it's awful. Thankfully that's changing. There's a lot of great up-and-coming folk/indie and hip-hop artists in China that have really struck a chord with the younger generation of Chinese who have a passion for 'better' music than what they hear on the radio. Chinese musicians are definitely finding their way in a place where everything is anything but simple.

The biggest impact that living in China has had on me musically speaking is the fact that I've become much more aware of what's around me. Over time I have learned, through making friends with the people here, traveling all over to big cities and villages etc. that there is so much going on that is beyond me. I know that sounds terribly obvious, but I think that's something that is lost on a lot of people. That's driving me to develop my style of lyrics in a way that is more conscientious than before.