Future Entertainment have announced the venue details of the Sydney leg of September's The Likes of You Tour. The Melbourne institution's sophomore New South Wales visit will see Audion (Matthew Dear) and Oxia headline at Civic Hotel on 12th September.
Audion will be showcasing his new and improved live show, which is currently doing the rounds in Europe, and features live visuals completely unique to every show.
A large contingent of local support has also been announced, with close to a dozen of Sydney's best ready to lend a hand, spinning across all three levels of the Civic Hotel.
We gave Audion, AKA Matther Dear, a call last week to find out exactly what his new live show is about, and what punters can expect from his performances next month.Why did you decide to completely overhaul your live show?
Technically, it has pretty much been the same setup for the last three or four years. The music has changed, but I was doing the same Audion set, with the same style of effects. I've branched out, which is what I needed to do. I'm really happy with the way it's going.
In terms of technology, what's involved with the new Audion live show?
When I DJ I use Traktor Scratch, but I use Ableton for the Audion stuff. The set is a collection of unreleased projects, with lots of big walls of ambient and static noise. I try to mix it up, with a roller coaster of highs and lows. Now, I'm using the visuals—there's a touch screen controller that we put together. It's fun to control. I mix between patches of visuals with my right hand, and controlling the music with left.
So, are the visuals programmed before the show, or are they manipulated during your set?
It's totally live and on the fly. We have a device that allows you to choose between 15-20 patches, and then we have controls on each side that control the intensity, rotation and colour of the visuals. I can record loops live, so it's kind of like this totally on-the-fly experience. It's not the same thing every night—it's totally different, depending on what I play.
Can we still expect a "banging" Audion set?
Definitely. In general, I think the Audion stuff has toned down a bit, but that's just because I've changed the musical format over time. Now that I've gotten more into vocals, and "song" production, I don't think I have to make such stark contrast between the Audion stuff and the basic techno I'm doing now. Basically, Audion has become where I'm going to release anything electronic, and everything with my own name in going to be song-based. It's always been like that, but it has gradually become more defined.
How is it prepping the show for different venues? Seeing as it's so unrehearsed, there'd be potential to mix it up, right?
It's fun. It's always an experience showing up for sound check and looking at the venue, seeing what's there and what we have to work with. It's not like you can go on YouTube and search for one video clip, and they're all going to be the same. It's really varied between venues. It's always different, and that's what's cool about it.