A Quote by Porter Robinson

Virtual Self' was me trying to paint a picture of a very foggy, distorted memory that I had of electronic music on the internet. — © Porter Robinson
Virtual Self' was me trying to paint a picture of a very foggy, distorted memory that I had of electronic music on the internet.
I'm trying to fly the flag for the days of electronic music where people who are making it are also building the gear because that was what was happening in the very early days of electronic music. And that spirit is one of the things that really appeals to me about electronic music so I'm putting this forward as a way to keep that.
I'm releasing more music as Virtual Self, I'm definitely going to be touring Virtual Self.
In some ways it's hard to see electronic music as a genre because the word "electronic" just refers to how it's made. Hip-hop is electronic music. Most reggae is electronic. Pop is electronic. House music, techno, all these sorts of ostensibly disparate genres are sort of being created with the same equipment.
I've certainly always had a very high regard for Botswana and so I paint a very good picture of the country and I've never pretended to be painting an entirely realistic picture.
I'm always interested in very, very futuristic music and bridging the gap between the physicality of organic guitar music and trying to translate that into something electronic is really fascinating.
The pictures come to me in my mind, and if to me it is a worthwhile picture I paint it I do over the picture several times in my mind and when I am ready to paint it I have all the details I need.
I'm trying to paint a picture of what I have seen and what moved me, as well as I can. That's all.
Know what you're trying to do before you do it. Turning knobs at random isn't enlightening any more than throwing paint at a wall blindfolded will let you paint a nice picture.
I wanted to keep the music very electronic, very filmic, and give it an almost sci-fi like quality. Music is a necessity for me. I go into the studio at least five days a week, every week, so once I had the idea and the template, the process was quick and fun.
Having access to mobile phones and being able to document your own life brings people together. Technology has a lot to do with how the world is developing at the moment because there are very raw and pure and primal emotions that people are communicating to each other over the Internet. It's like our new feathers, our new face paint. We're still trying to find love and friendship and cool music, but now it's over the Internet.
People always focus on people like me who use synthesizers, right, which are explicitly electronic and therefore obvious. "Ah, yes, that's electronic music." But they don't realize that so is the concept of actually taking a piece of extant music and literally re-collaging it, taking chunks out and changing the dynamics radically and creating new rhythmic structures with echo and all that. That's real electronic music, as far as I'm concerned.
If you paint a picture and I paint a picture, we each want to do it our own way. And we'll stand or fall on whatever we did.
Sure, the Internet is the future, but what we do on the Internet is still very primal. It's all about connecting to other people, sharing emotion. It's our new feathers or face paint. It's all very raw.
... painting a picture is like fighting a battle; and trying to paint a picture is, I suppose, like trying to fight a battle. It is, if anything, more exciting than fighting it successfully. But the principle is the same.
What is very interesting when talking about electronic music is that - I would say that rock and roll is called the ethnic music born in America that invaded the world. Electronic music is certainly kind of ethnic music born in countries like Germany and France that has invaded the world.
With the violin, for example, one understands culturally that the sound comes from the instrument that can be seen. With electronic music, it is not the same at all. That's why it seemed so important to me, from the beginning of my career, to invent a grammar, a visual vocabulary adapted to electronic music.
This site uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. More info...
Got it!