As well as being the owner of Cape Town nightclub Fiction – where edgy bands and DJs play late into the night in the cellar of 150-year-old building – Ebenhaezer Smal (under the aliases Haezer & Embassy) has established his name on the South Africa and international EDM scenes with an sound evolved from his collaboration with Bob Rifo of The Bloody Beetroots and Black Tiger Sex Machine. More recently, he’s taken to his synth-packed studio to record his first album, Exit.
The studio occupies a large, treated room and is centred on an iMac, Audient iD22 USB audio interface, a Culture Vulture distortion unit, Moog Little Phatty synth, Dave Smith Mopho and Waldorf Blofeld desktop synth and an Edirol Midi keyboard controller. ‘It’s far from perfect, but it works for me,’ he says. ‘I also make use of my Tascam recorder and sample from my SL1200 turntable.’
‘I normally rig my synths via the Culture Vulture into my iD22,’ he explains. ‘My analogue synths are all connected via USB to my iMac for Midi control via my Midi keyboard.
‘I’m very impressed with the clean in/out signal and ability of the iD22 to handle a “hot” signal from distortion unit without any artifacts. I use the built in stereo/mono check button all the time, too. I love this function and it keeps my phasing and stereo/mono balance in check.’
Making an album marks a new direction for Smal, who despite not taking himself too seriously, does admit to leaning ‘towards the darker sounds of a genre’, generally steering clear of what he describes as cheesy or fluffy. ‘Most of my tracks I’ve made for club use,’ he explains. ‘This is the first time I’m making songs to all fit into a body of work meant for listening to one after the other. Telling a story of sorts and taking the listener on a journey through different genres and moods.
‘Music for me is a form of escapism. If people feel anything I’ll be happy. Everyone has their own interpretation of music and what it makes them feel.’ He’s certainly experimented and evolved making Haezer difficult to pigeonhole, so he’s reluctant to suggest just one track to showcase his vibe, before his album release in early 2017. ‘A good start would be ‘Minted’, ‘Mind Off’, ‘More’ and ‘Fire Walk With Me’,’ he says.
‘My biggest motivation to start the day is to better myself and create. Just create. I see music as art and if I can better my art every day and never be stagnant, I’ll be a happy man.’
More: www.audient.com
