SoundGym Hero: Liza Bec

Music Composer and Producer, part of the Spiral Dial Podcast. Currently from the south of the river of London. Liza Bec is this month's SoundGym Hero!

Who are you, and where are you from?

I write stories and then make music to bring those stories to life. I also built a cyborg plastic recorder, the roborecorder, to make unusual sounds for my studio and live work, which is on display in the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.

As I have degrees in geology and medicine, I draw a lot from science and science fiction in my work- my studio is called Anarres after my favourite book, The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.

This last year I have been working on my subscription serial Spiral Dial and with Kuljit Bhamra on the latest Genshin Impact soundtrack. Having grown up in Portsmouth, I’m now based in London (south of the river, obviously!) 

How did you get into music?

My parents noticed me spinning around to Spanish folk records when I was a very young child, and figured I must be musical. Luckily there was a lovely lady called Gwen living across the road giving music lessons for 50p a go, which was pretty much the exact amount we could afford. I started learning recorder, piano and singing at the age of four and went from there.

Initially I trained as a classical clarinettist before my hands started to twitch when I was playing which made it completely impossible to continue. It’s not generally considered acceptable in classical circles to play a bunch of random notes at any time! 

One career break later, I was diagnosed with music triggered epilepsy and moved into improvised folk, rock and electronic music. I ended up collaborating with James Holden on the Animal Spirits. James has such a creative mind, he is one of the most fascinating humans I have ever met. We really clicked on tour.

Every bus ride turned into a magical journey discussing books, music, imaginary worlds and a cornucopia of crazy ideas. I was playing recorders, sax and clarinet in the band - I'd never set eyes on a modular synth before and was super intrigued to find out exactly how his setup worked. One day on tour in Portugal we were at a loose end. Waclaw Zimpel and I ended up hanging out with James on the bed in his hotel room talking through how he used Ableton Live. At the time we had absolutely no idea whatsoever what he was talking about! He gave us all his Max patches, which I then had to figure out how to use and modify. I still play with some of them live- my favourite is his atoner patch which makes my recorder into an extremely loud and obnoxious animal! 

After visiting Leafcutter John's studio to try out a woodwind synth he was working on I had the idea to add a circuit board to a plastic recorder to integrate Ableton into my setup on stage, and the roborecorder was born! My fingers often twitch when I play because of my epilepsy so I designed it to take advantage of this and make it trigger effects and synths when this happens to add something extra to my playing. 
Having become fascinated with Ableton and Max for Live I wanted to know how everything else worked too.

When I designed my studio I got really into acoustics and drove the builder mad with my specification for angled walls. Anarres also has some very fetching purple bass traps which we built using a recipe found somewhere in Sound on Sound magazine.

Learning to record and mix was next on the agenda and after the pandemic it got to the point where I've been in the studio more than I've been out gigging. Although I'm still a performer at heart I have to admit I'm now more comfortable in my own studio than anywhere else! 

I've been lucky enough to work with the most amazing producers. Being at Red Fort Studios with Kuljit Bhamra this year was incredibly inspiring for me. After we met when I was helping on the sound desk at his gig at the Barbican Centre I felt an instant connection. He is such a brilliant producer, performer and composer and above all a lovely person who goes above and beyond to make good things happen for others- definitely a role model for me.

What do you like to do for fun outside of working on music?

I am a very active person and love getting out into nature- hiking, rowing, walking, swimming, surfing, running, you name it. Getting outside and getting moving really helps my brain click into gear, and I often listen back to tracks or episodes while I’m on the move to check mixes over. (I know, you said outside of working on music….!)

I also practice yoga daily and indulge in reading and watching movies in surround sound while ensconced in a portable infra-red sauna. All you can see is my head poking out of a big blue tent- ridiculous but relaxing. I’m also partial to the odd board game, because I am super competitive. Woe betide anyone who beats me at Monopoly! 

What's your most useless skill or talent?

I can make mean profiteroles but don’t because then I’d have to eat them all! 

What inspires you to keep making music?

Connections between people, places and sounds, and the stories that bring them all together. Especially connections with other musicians and artists. Music seems to have a way of creating the most amazing bonds between people, transporting us to times and places which exist only in memory. Escaping from the everyday has always appealed to me. I suppose I mainly exist in the realm of the imagination! 

If you could sit down to a session with any artist, who would it be?

I would love to work with David Lynch. I find his way of working and ideas mesmerising, the way he creates suspense by mixing the mysterious and the macabre. Just listening to him talk would be a dream, or even better get stuck in and see what we come up with together. David, if you are reading this, I think your next project needs a roborecorder soundtrack so hit me up!

Any habits you have before starting a session?

I always do my Soundgym daily workout session first thing in the studio- I find it resets my ears and gives me a good idea of where I’m at that day. Particularly if I’m mixing, sometimes you realise that your ears aren’t quite where you thought they were! I used to think I did my best work after midnight until I inspected the average-score-by-time-of-day feature on Soundgym! As I am a late comer to the studio I am learning lots every day so working on my skills and improving is really important to me.

If you could pick one, what would be the theme song of your life?

It’s got to be Koyaanisqatsiת pure apocalyptic out of balance joy!

What is your favorite piece of music gear you own?

My roborecorders, because I built them, and I’m constantly tweaking them and fussing over them with soldering irons and glue guns. I am on a mission to get plastic recorders into every concert hall and studio on the planet! It's really important to me as someone from a low-income background that kids know you don't need to spend a lot of money to make music.

I'm proud that the roborecorder is already on display at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry and was also inducted into the 6museum- so the world awaits!

In terms of studio gear, I am more of a software person than a hardware person, especially after having witnessed the number of cases it takes to transport a modular synth on tour. I like to be a one Peli person! I love finding new max patches to play with, especially if someone else has written them and I don’t have to spend too long swearing at the computer getting them to work!

One of my favorites is sev by Katsuhiro Chiba. If we must talk physical studio objects, I was lucky to inherit a pair of NS10s from Adie Hardy at Unit 2 Studios which I find super useful for hearing all of the ugly bits in my mixes.

What is your favorite SoundGym feature?

I am a big fan of EQ wizard. As a classically trained musician, I was taught to listen for pitch in a completely different way than I needed to in the studio. When I started, I could hear the difference between the two sounds but had absolutely no idea what I needed to physically change in terms of settings to make them the same. Now I feel like Soundgym has remodeled my brain so I can hear sounds in a completely new way.

It’s as if I have internalized the sonic spectrum, which as someone who has studied the physical sciences, gives me a LOT of geeky pleasure. It has also possibly made me into one of those annoying people who ask for a 3dB cut at xHz during soundcheck. 

What does the future hold for Liza Bec? 

I’m releasing a new EP and short story on the 10th February 2023 called INNERVATE which is all about what it’s like to experience epilepsy. It’s set in a defective brain farm and features a vengeful dragoncat, a malfunctioning dehumidifier and a cupboard full of cannabis, all set to the sounds of live roborecorder music and trippy visuals from Dan Tombs and Catalina Velasquez Gonzalez. You can pre order it on Bandcamp now and help feed my cats!

Follow Liza Bec on her Website, Youtube, Instagram and the Spiral Dial Podcast.