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INTERVIEWS

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Javier Bolea is Boy In Sleep.

UDR: You seem to love synths. Do you have many? Which is your favorite?

BIS: I do love synths. It started when I was about 5 or 6 years old, I believe. My family is very musical; my dad gave me a Casio, and then my grandma gave me a bright red Yamaha "guitar keyboard". It felt magical when I was young, and I would play for hours and just go crazy with it. I definitely think I experimented with keyboards differently than the average kid—making music with the buttons not just the keys. Then, a few years after, I discovered layering instruments on a 4-track.

I have 2 KORGs: MS2000, MicroKORG. A Roland Juno 6. A Mini Moog Voyager. Kaoss pad. I have a bunch of old keyboards I've been collecting: sampler Casio, no brand strange japanese toy one, Fisher Price one. Sampling these old/broken keyboards is always good. I couldnt choose a favorite. Oh, I also have a Wurlitzer church organ which definitely has a 'soul'.

UDR: Tell us a bit about your creative process.

BIS: I don't really strive for any specific sound or mood although my music seems to have a certain 'feel' to it. It's a natural process. Most of it feels like fate. I look for sounds in random places, like a record or guitar or anywhere. Then, once I feel like I have a good group of sounds together I start building the song, which a lot of times feels like it's building itself. Once I have that spark I use more "conscious" ideas to develop and hopefully finish the song. The name Boy In Sleep represents the place this music comes from—which I don't know about or have control of, I just have to put the time and effort in, and I'm usually happy with what comes out of it. It’s a balance of subconscious and rational thought.

My main tool now is an Akai MPC2000xl for sampling and sequencing and to control alot of the synths. I do most of the songwriting from that thing. I like sampling records and female voices and guitar, drum machines, synths. I like effects pedals a lot. I do some sequencing on some software but mostly MPC. I do all the recording and a lot of mixing and editing on ProTools. Recently I've been getting into Ableton Live a bit. I find that you can really use anything as long as you get good sounds and know how to put them together. But I love the actual playing part of using the clunky sampler buttons. I like using my hands rather than a mouse. But it's all good… a change of scenery only sprouts new ideas and ways of writing.

UDR: Talk a bit about the Undressing Eyes EP.

BIS: Most of the songs on the record were created in the past year and a half. I’ve been living in my recording studio in the mountains of Asheville, NC which is a major change from my hometown of Miami. Spending endless nights at 80s dances and seeing a lot of live electronic bands among other styles. This record doesn’t have one concept. It's basically everything. Partying in a new very strange city among the backdrop of what I feel is an apocalyptic world vibe right now. I'm hoping for the best, that’s just what I'm sensing. It's about girls, relationships, love, escapism, beauty, fun and all that counters those things: evil, temptation, death, destruction, etc. Blurring the lines in between. I haven’t really thought about it but it's just everything around us and inside of me. It's not very direct though, there are very few lyrics and all the lyrics are simple and can be taken more than one way. I just want people to make up their own stories and have their own feelings in connection with the music, because I have mine. I want it to be a personal record for people. It's reality and fantasy. Good/evil. The artwork is done by an artist named Dana Cohn, who you will hear a lot about one day.

UDR: Are you still planning on releasing an LP?

BIS: Well the Undressing Eyes EP is my first official release. I've always made CDs for friends but never pressed anything. I was finishing up trax for the record and Cerebral Spasm Records, who were out of Philly, wrote me and said, "Hey, do you want to do an EP?" And I was like, "Yes". I got to keep my name and publishing 100% which is what I wanted. And they pressed it and sent me many copies. It was a good deal for my first release. They were a really small and they took great care with their stuff, but I'm not longer working with them. As of now I'm still distributing the EP myself, so if anyone wants to help out with that give a shout. I'm mainly focusing on getting it in indie record shops around the country—or out of it for that matter. It's mainly available from the Boy In Sleep myspace.

I'm working on new music and I think the next release will be all-new material. I was originally going to add songs to these and then re-release it, but I'm writing alot of different songs now, so I'm working towards finishing a new record for the end of 2008 called "Harmoniums".

I'm also doing some side production which is very Boy In Sleep. Check out "The Memory In Vitro", "Robots Win", and my band I have with some of my best friends "Kings Of Prussia".

UDR: Does Boy In Sleep engender a specific sound or an underlying principle, or both?

BIS: Boy In Sleep is, in a way, a genre unto itself, I think. I make a lot of different music. Boy In Sleep happens to be the title to the most personal of that music and the side I feel most comfortable sharing with people as representing "me". We all have sides to us which we wouldn't want others to know about, and recently I've become more comfortable with showing those other sides, but most of that work goes toward some of my other projects. A great example would be my new project, Robots w/ vocalist Brien Worsham (myspace. com/robotswin). Its very electro/dance but its still me and I'm liking it.

UDR: How important is it that people hear this music? Do you ever feel like insulating yourself from feedback?

I have always made music for myself first, but I do like sharing it with others. I like to see people get inspired by something I'm able to create. It's also cool to make a song for someone you care about to show them love. I'll tell you though, I make music to stay sane. I get extremely depressed when I'm not working on new things and feel worthless. My cycle is every 1 to 3 days. It's a health issue for me. I'm very open to criticism from people I respect and trust. I've learned so much from my peers and I want to continue to grow forever. You must trust your instincts but talented friends and strangers can teach you a lot.

UDR: Elaborate more on the direction your music is currently taking. Where do you draw the line between Boy In Sleep, Halo Radio and your other projects?

BIS: Halo Radio is now a hub for me to share different projects along with friends of mine. It used to be a place to show songs I wasn't completely comfortable with saying I made them. It's no longer a band. Its a "radio station".

Recently i've been layering a lot of different instruments over the electronic side of things to get more feeling and add human touch, depth. More percussion, live drums, xylophone, etc. It has a lot to do with moving into a very large space with many instruments I never had access to before—and better microphones. Oh, and 24/7 recording capability, so no pissed off dude slamming on my ceiling with a broom stick. Drawing the line between BIS and my other projects is hard but since releasing the EP I've been OK with sharing more of my music and time to get other projects done. I do have new BIS trax working for a new record and I have a BIS remix record almost done but I'm finishing up some things first. You can check myspace.com/boyinsleep to get more info on those projects under the blog section.

UDR: Changing the subject, what are your thoughts on music piracy? What are your rights as a musician?

BIS: My rights as a musician don't include, "No one can steal my MP3s." I think music piracy is here to stay, and it's not a bad thing. The music 'industry', if you can call it that, has changed, and the major labels are the ones getting fucked now. Bands like Radiohead and NIN are not even on major labels anymore. Sharing music is cool with me because bands never made money off selling records anyway; they make money off touring and merch and commercial/video game deals and such. Music and sound are free, cotton and expensed energy on stage are not (although I will get people into shows for free who don't have the money). If someone in Paris or Japan wants to share my music with their friends and it's gonna be played more and more, then I'm over joyed with that. If people love your music they will still support you by going to your shows and buying T-shirts. I try to buy the CDs of bands I like. It's nice to have the artwork as well. I'm not saying I wouldn't want to be on a good indie label though. Having a good booking agent, distribution and PR would be sweet.

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