Arms Full of Sound

Paul Needler of Arms Full of Sound revels in the joy of musical discovery. Here he tells us a little bit about what he does, where he comes from and where he's going.

1) I've always been interested in a project's origins, how a sound is developed over time. Tell me a little bit about how Arms Full of Sound began and what some of your early intentions were.

I have always been into Ambient music. Even when I was younger I looked to meditation music to relax. I have always been a listener of experimental music as well. So many a late night listening to Brave New Waves on CBC radio I was exposed to this broad genre of music. This "studying" went on for a whole lot of years as a listener. There was one small event, followed by a larger one that pulled me into the specific genre of Ambient that is Arms Full of Sound.

I was in a record shop in Florida about 4 years ago. I was determined to find some CDs to take home. The store actually had an Ambient section (a rare quality in Canadian music stores) and there I found a cool looking double CD called "The History of Ambient vol.1". I was hooked as soon as I heard this CD. This was the small event.

The larger event that clinched it for me took place while attending The AMBiENT PiNG one night in February 2002. I had never been there before and I came to see my friends Dave and Ruth of Gawdawful Noise. That night I discovered a live venue that caters to the music that I love. So I converted my studio to be able to record all my synthesizers and just started playing music. I recorded hours and hours of live synth playing and modeling sound just for my own enjoyment. That was my early intention - just for my own pleasure. I could not only listen to Ambient, but I could also create it at any time.

Arms Full of Sound never began as something to be recorded commercially, let alone performed on stage. As I attended more PiNG nights though, I would often remark that I should do what I do in the studio (play live improvisational music) on stage. I took myself up on this and pieced together a demo for the PiNG.

Doing this led me to discover that there was enough material for a CD. All those hours of experimenting with sound was edited down to my first CD, "Pieces of a Larger Experiment". At first I put this out to family and friends and I got a show at the PiNG based on this CD.

Throughout that year I played more in the studio and out came a second CD, "Minework in G", again by accident. Pouring over newly recorded music I was able to pull together this CD.

The rest is history as they say. I managed to learn songs from the CDs that friends and family pegged as their favorites, and played them at the show in December 2003. This is also the month that Arms Full of Sound went commercial, selling the CDs at the show.

2) You say in your biography that you came from a more traditional rock background. What was it about the ambient genre that brought about a change in your musical direction?

Well, I like to indulge in many different forms of music. True though, I have favoured Rock Music as my launching ground for many years. Had a band and a CD even. I was even in a blues band for a few months.

The road to Ambient however was not just a flip of the coin. I actually started to accumulate synthesizers with the intent on writing orchestral arrangements for films. I tinkered with the string sounds and that worked for a while, until my exposure to the Ambient music genre as noted above.

The event that lured me in was two-fold. First, I challenged myself to make music similar to what I had been listening to and studying. Secondly, I found a deep interest in vintage synthesizers. I became a student of early electronic music, seeking out early recordings of music of such beasts as the RCA Mark units. When I bought my Yamaha CS-50 that strapped me in. Combining the interest and the challenge, I found gratification in making this music live. The biggest attribute about what I do, and what lured me into it, was that I feel like I take listeners on a journey when they hear my music. In fact I had someone come up to me at my last show tell me what they envisioned when they were sitting in the audience listening.

3) You've got formal piano training which I assume would include musical theory, do you find that helps in your creation of ambience or do you find the creation of atmosphere is sometimes at odds with what you've learned?

The formal training that I have helps me in technique only. I do not write a note on paper for the music that I create. I store it in my head, and like the moods it creates for the listener, I feel it as I play it. The creation of this music does not put me at odds with my training however. It is a nice break from the structure of rock music.

4) Do you work with the theory that you know or do you consciously go against it to try and make something different?

I do purposely avoid the theory of the music so that it does sound natural and free floating. What I try to do is to make the sounds and modulation of one synthesizer interact with another's so as to make a third sound. You know, give enough material in a music phrase that each listener hears something different, but each can say they were on the same musical discovery.

5) If I came over to your house what CDs would you pull out of your collection and hide for fear of being outed as a fan? Where would you hide them?

(Dialing home - "Quick honey, hide all those CD's that I left out!") I think I own almost every Tangerine Dream CD ever produced. Next to that I would have to say every Rush CD ever produced. I would probably hide them all under the lid of my Oberheim OB-X.

Wow! I should have known that question was coming. To me, the perfect piece would have to include everything the artist has spent years trying to perfect, and actually have it constructed to perfection. When heard, this piece would be the end of musical creation. I think that there would be no more to do at that point.

Now if you're a really picky musician like me, there will never be the perfect piece. There will always be great moments, but never perfection. This will keep me writing and playing. What I find most rewarding about this concept is that a listener will always pick out a perfect piece. This is great because my music has then invoked a mood that was a high point for the listener. Each person has a different view of the perfect piece that is personal to them.

7) How close do you think you've gotten to writing the "perfect" Arms Full of Sound song?

I have come close to writing the perfect Arms Full of Sound Piece. I would have to say that "Minework in G" from the CD of the same name has come really close. However listening to the recording from my show yielded the same feeling about one of the improvisational pieces I did. Like I say, so long as there is always room for something new, that perfection will never be reached.

It's always changing based on mood, and will never be perfect for me.

8) What do you feel about the idea that sound and noise are replacing the concepts of melodicism? Do you think that the future of music lies in amelodic structures and forms? What sort of opportunities do you think moving away from a melodic structure will offer?

I wouldn't go so far as to say that music based on melody is being replaced by sound and noise. I don't think that this is happening at all. Sounds and noises are only opening up a new avenue for music to branch out into. This does make the ambient genre harder to define but makes it a broader one to allow for more exploration.

I think that this new form of the genre will make its niche just like the other forms of ambient have. You know, there is a distinction between Space Rock, Atmosphere, Drone, Beat, Noise, Experimental for example, but they can all fall under the general Ambient genre.

I do not consider the assembly of sounds and noises actual music in the traditional form. You have to remember that music is defined as something that has a degree of structure in rhythm, melody and harmony. I do often wonder though, if this will be stretched to include noises and sounds. I have heard proof of this in such recordings as "Symphony #2 for Dot Matrix Printers" where the various printer sounds are combined to make melody, harmony and rhythm.

9) So talk to me about the future. Where do you see your work headed in the future? Do you have any particular plans for projects or ideas that you'd like to try? Given an unlimited budget and access to any musicians or equipment that you would need, what would be the your ultimate dream project?

Let me look into the analogue crystal ball. Well, I have started work on a third CD based on the recordings from the PiNG show last December. One of the songs from that session has spawned the start of a third CD. I plan to have that released in June of this year. Long term, I am planning to get this music used in Film and TV. I will never let that aspect of the beginning of Arms Full of Sound get left behind.

I would also like to experiment with some beat driven sound synthesis, keeping true to the Ambient genre though. One thing that I've always toyed around with would be just releasing albums based on my shows. I always incorporate a large portion of improvisational work into them and some magical moments come out of these shows. I think the success of my following thus far is having the appeal of wanting to hear what I'm going to do next. People want to "see my next trick". I want to extend this appeal to my CD releases. I want people to wonder "What has he recorded live off the floor this time around?"

The ultimate dream project? Wow! I run 6 synthesizers now, all at once in real time, solo, so naturally I would want more gear. Doesn't everybody? In addition to that I would need more arms surgically implanted onto me so that I could play all this new gear. Then once I mastered how to use 8 arms I'd really like to play live on a large stage with a lot of other Ambient musicians and make a live, improvisational journey for a large audience and record that.

That might be as close to getting to perfection as possible right there.