Taken from 3D World Issue #593
Making Sense of the Personal
by Paris Pompor
Our responses and relationships to the music we experience are as varied and
personalised as our reactions to the many different people we come into
contact with throughout our lives. Some we love, others we loathe and
certain special ones will make a significant impact on us and change our
lives forever. Melbourne based producer Sense (aka Adam Raisbeck) has
obviously experienced one of those significant souls, a man who features in
the title of his latest release, Goodbye Mr Henderson.
"To me music is communication, but in some regard it represents the ultimate
form. It's a way of saying, 'I live in my own world, just like everyone else
does'. And I believe what goes along with that is the realisation of your
own personalised understanding of why you see the world, or your world, in a
certain way; completely personalised and specific to you. Neural networks
are formed when we allow ourselves to feel... I made [the EP] to remember my
friend John Henderson, who died 'X' amount of time ago, from 'Y' (common
illness). The music was composed for him, by me... [He] represented the
'human struggle that exists in all of us'."
When the inspiration for a piece of music is so intimate, it's interesting
to know what the composer hopes the listener will pick up from it. With
Sense's strong desire to express through composition, it seems communicating
how he felt was only one part of the motivation.
"When people listen to the EP, I encourage them to make it their music. It
means whatever it does to them. From a personal perspective it is the last
thing I could do for a friend and the most important in my life thus far. At
the time I was writing Goodbye Mr Henderson it was more about a way to say;
one, I appreciated his friendship; two, I remember him; [and] three, I loved
him. I wanted him to know what he meant to me before he died and I was able
to compose the song and play it to him a week before his passing."
While this is the second release Adam Raisbeck has had on Sydney's Aural
Industries label, his outputs overseas number many, with recordings on the
UK's Neo Ouija & Defocus labels, Miami's Merck, Canada's Neferiu and Suojain
in Finland. So how has this acceptance overseas effected his own perspective
and has it opened doors for remixes or collaborations?
"In some ways it's broadened my understandings of the collective possible
understanding for musicians around the world. It seems sometimes here it's
hard to find good people who actually really understand, support and love
the music. It's nice to know that this resonance is everywhere around the
world through friends all over. It's always nice to get emails from around
the world saying people like the music and appreciate you for making it, and
to know that the music is getting out there in a real sense.
"Since releasing my album last year, SENSE: A View From A Vulnerable Place,
on Neo Ouija, it seemed as though people were quite taken with the album and
offers came for remixes of songs from that album. Lee Norris [founder/owner
of Neo Ouija) and I decided that we would do a remix album with some friends
of mine from overseas - [artists interested in interpret[ing] those songs
individually. I've also just completed and sent my new album for that same
label entitled SENSE: Learning To Be. So that's another release for people
to look out for in the not too distant future."
Although his music seems to be getting out all around the globe, in the
immediate future Sydneysiders will have to rely on recordings to experience
Sense. If he does it make it here for some live shows though, he knows
exactly where and how, though it's obviously been a while. "I'd like to play
[again] at a club I played once [in Sydney] called the Golden Ox with the
Vibe Tribe people a few years ago now - it was a lot of fun. Or perhaps the
Underground Cafe - if that's still around? Supporting acts would have to be
Krang and Tim Koch, with Biz-E DJing."
Goodbye Mr Henderson by Sense is out on Aural Industries
(www.aural-industries.com.au) distributed by Inertia.
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