# Saint Stereo - Generative Music Artist Spotlight

*January 14, 2024*


It's been less than a month since [Unlooped](https://unlooped.xyz), the generative music platform, launched. Among the talented artists it features is Saint Stereo, an NYC-based musician with a rich history in music production, soundtrack work, and live performances. Saint Stereo's musical odyssey began in childhood, exploring piano melodies and eventually venturing into guitar and electronic music production. His attraction to generative music stems from a passion for multimedia art and the experimental possibilities it offers beyond traditional composition.

### Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your journey in music?

I’ve been playing and/or making music about as long as I can remember, occasionally professionally. I produce for a few singers, do soundtrack work when I can, have a number of my own projects, and play a lot of guitar around NYC.

### How did you get involved in making music?

I was sounding things out on the piano at a young age, so my parents started me on piano lessons in second grade. I started making my own music with a tracker program called PlayerPro in middle school and started playing guitar at age 14, and I’ve just been doing it ever since.

### What attracted you to generative music?

I have a background in multimedia art, so the experimental aspect of it is part of the appeal, and also just the possibilities of different sounds and creative processes outside of conventional composition and sound design.

### How does creating generative music differ from your previous musical experiences?

Experimenting with a system is a way different creative flow from composing or designing, where you’re not trying to realize a specific idea so much as work with the tool(s) to reveal something that’s hopefully compelling. What’s also interesting in generative music is considering the balance of randomness/procedural elements with the creative guidelines you’re applying.

### Can you walk us through your process of creating a piece of music generative or not?

Generative stuff I’ve done usually starts with getting one interesting sound or thing happening, where it feels musically/sonically compelling but also sufficiently unpredictable or surprising. Then I’m usually just looking for new layers to augment that first thing while maintaining the self-sufficiency of the system.

### What tools and technologies do you use most frequently?

I mostly work in Logic, and lately have been using Ableton a lot for purely electronic stuff. Ableton has a lot of amazing modular-esque stuff in it, and Max4Live is a basically infinite tool. I’m deeply reliant on Arturia’s V collection, NI Kontakt, and Alchemy (in Logic Pro, formerly by Camel Audio). I also have a small Eurorack system I built during the pandemic that’s not very easy to control, but which is great for weird noise generation.

### Where do you draw inspiration for your compositions?

Could be anything, but I guess there is often a semi-visual space in my mind that sounds fit into, that’s basically a mix of a ‘90s r&b video and a David Lynch movie.

### Are there any artists or genres that particularly influence your work?

Definitely zillions of them, but relevant to the generative stuff I’m playing with, probably Mike Dehnert, Autechre, Boards of Canada and Richard Devine. Also a bit of soundtrack composers, Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross, Johan Johansson, Hans Zimmer, Geoff Barrow/Ben Salisbury, etc. A bit of musique concrete, a bit of vintage psychedelic and sound design, a bit of Fantastic Planet. Should probably try some Philip Glass stuff too, now that I think about it!

### What were some of the challenges you faced learning to create electronic music and how did you surpass them?

I had no idea how any of these sounds were created when I was growing up, and the software I was using was just sample sequencing, so there were no synths or effects or anything to play with. I would just try different things to see if I could recreate them, but was always perplexed by what gear was being used on those records and how. In high school I came across Reason (version 2, I believe!!!!) and that introduced me to all the basics of different gear and synth patching and I just kept bashing away until I started figuring out what it all did. This is why I’m still so gung ho about trying to make my own sounds whenever I can, that’s always been central to the whole thing for me.

### How do you overcome creative blocks?

My new thing when I’m stuck is just “do anything” and then try to fix it until it’s good. It seems like creative ideas come from something, rather than emerging from thin air, and usually if I just give myself literally anything to react to, and keep just fiddling with it to try and make it good, eventually it will start to make sense and then those other ideas will start to emerge from it. I think it’s a lot easier to edit/improve/expand than to just conjure something, in other words.

### How has Unlooped impacted your creative process?

It’s definitely inspired me to dive back into modular, Max/MSP etc to find new sounds, and wanting to incorporate these generative things into some of my other projects. A lot of the studio stuff I do is pretty conventional songwriting/production, so I’ve been in a non-experimental mode for a while, and Unlooped got me fired up to lean back into some wacky sound design. I’m also thinking about trying to somehow use some generative stuff as the basis for composing on guitar or other live instruments.

### What features of our platform do you find most useful or unique?

The musical focus of the toolset is great - Max for example can do anything, but it has a crazy learning curve as a result, even to get something really basic going. Feel like Unlooped is a really well-curated toolset that lets you jump right into musical patching, but still with that low-level manipulation, dealing with math and logic etc.

### How do you see generative music evolving in the music industry?

I think some version of mainstream generative music is likely to show up via AI, where you’ve got customized and/or artist-curated streams of generative music that you can subscribe to like buying a record.

### What role do you think platforms like ours play in the future of music?

I think this is a cool and very new paradigm for releasing/collecting music that’s a different way to think on the artist side, and which also fits into that potential “algorithms as records” idea, although in a more hands-on way. I think it’s ripe for a cool community of experimentalists to come together around, like the tracker/demo scene in the 90s.

### Could you share some of your favorite pieces you’ve created?

Only done a few so far, but this is my favorite so far: [ChitChat on Unlooped](https://https://www.unlooped.xyz/collections/0xa699927e32de0097648d2fa4194574b3c04cd400)

### What makes these pieces special to you?

Got a nice balance of crazy noises and mostly coherent randomization in that one, and lots of inspiring sounds have come from it.

### How do you engage with your audience?

I’m coming off many years of 9-to-5ing so I don’t have much of an audience for electronic music haha, but the plan this year is to push on IG/Soundcloud with cool tunes and cool visuals, and maybe studio videos/streaming as well.

### What’s next for you in your musical journey?

Attempting to take this operation full-time, releasing a bunch of new music this year and trying to work with as many different people as I can.

### What advice would you give to artists starting in generative music?

I feel pretty new to it myself so I’m not sure, but just keep experimenting! Maybe that it’s more rewarding to think about what kind of stuff you can allow a system to do on its own, rather than trying to build a particular melody or part.

### Where can people find more of your work and follow your journey?

[https://linktr.ee/stevewoodzell](https://linktr.ee/stevewoodzell)

IG: [@saintstereo](https://www.instagram.com/saintstereo)

[Saint Stereo on Unlooped](https://www.unlooped.xyz/artists/9)