Q-Theory has just released his first full-length electronica album on 01 Records, titled Design By Chance.

This exciting new album, full of captivating melodies and rhythms, re-introduces the concept of songs as the most important component of electronica, rather than beats and effects which have saturated this genre over the last decade. Design By Chance embraces a range of musical influences from hip-hop to rock and world-beat, and puts forward an important contribution to the evolution of electronica.

Hailing from the UK, Adrian Quayle was originally trained in classical music, and has roots in the brit-rock music scene. He was largely influenced by the trip-hop sounds originating in Bristol, as well as the underground hip-hop scene of Manchester. He started the name Q-Theory to promote the release of his latest work that incorporates these influences. We interviewed Adrian and provided a review of his album.

Q-Theory currently produces music in Vancouver, where he has included the work of various local artists, singers and rappers for his first full-length album debut.

1). Can you give us some insight into how you went about producing the album, what sort of things inspired you?

Probably the two biggest inspirations or influences on the sound of the album are the Bristol trip-hop scene and the electronica/hip-hop crossover sound pioneered by Grand Central Records (GCR) artists in Manchester. I guess if anything the latter was perhaps more significant, in the sense that I see the album as some kind of electronica/hip-hop crossover - only a few of the tracks on the album are really trip-hop, e.g. Shadow Bell, and One Level Higher.

Artists like Rae & Christian and Aim on GCR showed me the potential that hip-hop has in electronica, and that really inspired me. But other than those main inspirations, I'd say many other artists and music styles have influenced my writing in some way - I was originally trained in classical music (singing in choirs, playing piano, organ etc.), picked up the guitar and loved all the britpop music, played in jazz/r&b bands and also many different styles of electronica have been a big inspiration for sure. Orbital were an amazing band, Warp Records, Groove Armada and many others have been hugely inspiring to make me want to write and produce electronica. So eventually arising at the basic sound of the album was mostly by chance from the combination of my influences and inspirations rather than a consicous decision - which is one of the meanings behind the title of the album Design By Chance.

2) Was this album developmental, or did you have a concrete standard in achieving the final sound, (including your contributing artists)?

The album was largely developmental in the sense that there wasn't too much conscious planning, and also in the way that I wrote the tracks. Generally a track starts with a single idea - a riff, a beat, or even a single sound in some cases and then it builds from there. I think part of the beauty and fun in writing is in keeping everything as free as possible and letting things happen.

"......The US has certainly produced some amazing electronica, but the UK wins hands down overall in terms of creativity, originality and quality......"

Having said that, I think subconciously I'm always thinking of some kind of direction - otherwise there wouldn't be enough coherence between anything to make an album, which I knew I wanted to do. So in total the album probably took about 2 years to complete from start to finish, where the first year was just about enjoying the writing process with no real urgency and gathering ideas together, and then in the second year I started to look for vocalists for the project and go about recording and producing and everything else that goes with putting an album together.

I think I was lucky finding people to work with - nearly all the vocalists featured on Design By Chance I found through the free local paper in Vancouver, The Georgia Straight. Obviously I met quite a few people that didn't quite fit in terms of the sound or style of what I was going for, but I was impressed with the amount of interest and response in a city which is relatively dead for electronica.

All the parts were recorded in my own studio which I've been gradually putting together over the last few years before moving to Vancouver. Having the vocalists involved in the project was also really important in terms of getting other opinions on aspects of the music, and Kris Bentz did a great job co-producing the album with me towards the latter stages once everything was essentially written. I guess in the future I'm planning to bring people into projects earlier on and hopefully write with other artists, as one of the main things I learnt is the value of other opinions in getting the best results.

3) How do you feel electronica fairs in today's musical arena in comparison to the more obvious commercialised genres?

This is a really interesting question I think, in terms of how electronica as a genre is perceived. I'm sure most people would agree that electronica has been going through a bit of a quiet period in the last few years, and the real reasons for this are not completely obvious.

Partly I think this reflects a natural ebb and flow of musical trends and fashions; in the uk currently guitar music is enjoying a real resurgence, so much so that 'pop' music is struggling again in the market, but before that around 2000 and 2001 pop music was the dominant market force. Electronica was probably most popular in the 90s, and right now there isn't much which is breaking through into the mainstream.

So I'm looking forward to see what happens in the next few years, and I honestly believe that electronica will gradually start making a comeback, albeit perhaps in a slightly different form from what people currently perceive as electronica. Part of the problem I think is some kind of stereotype of electronica as repetitive music made by geeks with lots of blips and blops. That style is just one facet of electronica, and most people are maybe not aware of the huge diversity of electronica.

 For me, one of the most exciting possibilities with electronica is in combining electronic sounds with the sounds and styles of other genres, almost to the point where it's not really electronica any more. That kind of process is really what triggers the growth of new types of electronica such as trip-hop, and I'm really excited to see where it's heading next. But going back to the fact that electronica is not really part of the mainstream music conscience, guitar sales in the uk recently hit 100 millions pounds for the first time, which is some reflection of the popularity of guitar music. And ultimately I think this is a great thing - I'm looking forward to seeing the strength of songwriting in guitar music at the moment coming back into electronica - then things could get really interesting.

4) Do you see a marked difference in the popularity of electronica between the US and UK music markets, and where will you mostly concentrate on exposing your music?

In the sense that electronica isn't so popular at the moment, the difference between the US and UK electronica markets is maybe not as obvious as it was in the 90s. The US has certainly produced some amazing electronica, but the UK wins hands down overall in terms of creativity, originality and quality. OK, I'm biased being from the UK, but having lived in Vancouver for three years, I can say that the UK music scene is one of the things I'm most proud of the UK for.

Music is a big part of the culture in the UK, and there's always so much diversity in the music scene, and partly for this reason the market for electronica is better in the UK. So for sure, I want to work on promoting my music to UK audiences, but the US and the rest of the world are also a big part of my target. The internet has really made it possible for independent artists to market to a truly global audience, and it would be crazy not to try and take advantage of this. So much of the promotion I'm planning on is almost independent of the country. The album Design By Chance is available in iTunes and other digital music stores, so there's distribution in place to many different countries around the world.

Making people aware of the music and getting the music played is still one of the major challenges for musicians, and I'm hoping to market and promote the album through as many different avenues as possible.

Article provided by Indie News Live.com

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