Cuban American sound designer, Joey Blush, has been experimenting with audio intelligence for a while now, creating expressions that connect human and machine on another level. He is Blush Response, and the owner of record label Megastructure, based in Germany.
Joey’s brand of music is more of an experience. Fragments, off his Rare Structures album is not quite techno, not quite industrial—it instead forces you to reconsider the way rhythms and unique soundscapes can trigger a real hallucinatory journey. The power of imagination could very well be lurking behind some portal vein in the depths of the mind. And he knows how to activate it.
Joey has used his sound design skills to collaborate on programming projects for bands like Fear Factory and Cristian Castro. He’s engineered for big companies—Yamaha, Arturia and Elektron, and has even developed a signature sound bank for Nord Wave 2. I personally find this audio library refreshing, as it steers away from sound banks that were a little too “polite”. I am very happy to be talking with Joey about his work today. He’s an innovative and resourceful artist who really knows how to take a passion and turn it into a career.
One of the things I really like is your balance between modular synths and digital production. No smug allegiance to modular-only sound synthesis. It’s weapon-grade heavy.
Do you have a favorite way of blending these things? Any favorite techniques?
Well to be honest, if I could do it entirely in the modular I would, I’m always looking for ways to get away from the computer. I don’t like sitting in front of a screen cutting things or editing things with a mouse. I really enjoy the physicality of modular and the surprises that happen when you are performing things in the moment.
With that said, the computer is an incredibly powerful tool to sculpt and edit sound with, obviously the most powerful, so its necessary to refine things and I go in and add plugins to stuff while I’m recording my live takes. All my tracks start as live multitrack jams that I later edit and add overdubs to. The computer’s main role is as a tape machine and later editing and overdubbing machine.
You played in Scar the Martyr– How did you hook up with those guys, and what was it like?
I got into Scar the Martyr through my friend Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly) who produced the album. They were looking for a live keyboardist and he threw my name in the hat and I fit. It was of course amazing to be involved with such a huge band and the tours we did with Danzig, Huntress, Butcher Babies, and Eyes Set to Kill are memories I will cherish forever. RIP Joey Jordison, it was lovely of him to take me on.
Your form of sonic design is satisfyingly bizarre. What would you say inspires your most unorthodox soundscapes?
Everything inspires my music, life itself and every day interaction. But if I had to choose the biggest inspirations, it’s science fiction and horror. I’m a big gaming nerd and love cyberpunk as well. I read a lot of books, manga, and watch anime. Also music. I don’t know what the reason is, but I’ve always been attracted to abstract and darker sounds. My music is really about searching for sounds that excite me and reporting back the things I find.
– What’s the longest live set you’ve ever played? Is any of that ever improv, or is everything carefully calculated?
I have played a couple live sets that went to an hour and 30 to 45 minutes. Mostly because people were late to their sets after me. I always have an intro ready to go and a general idea of how I want things to end but everything in between happens in the moment. I have my sequencers loaded with many patterns I can call up at any time. There are way more than I could play in one set, so I just choose whatever feels right in the moment and also often edit the patterns live.
The sequencer I use, the XOR Electronics Nerdseq, lets you name the sequences. This makes it easy to know which pattern is where if I want to do something more deliberate like play one of my tracks. I have the option to do that or just go nuts with the improv. So I just roll with that and progressively add more sequences as time goes on so the project gets larger and larger. I try to update my modular case and drum machine patterns all the time so the set stays fresh.
You can check out Joey’s unique syle at his bandcamp: https://blushresponse.bandcamp.com/ and definitely stay up to date with his newest releases by following his social media. The first release of this year has been announced on his IG; go there to check it out.
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@blush_response/videos
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