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INTERVIEW: 7XINS
- Chromatic Club
- 2 jul
- 7 Min. de lectura
Actualizado: hace 5 días
Over six years in the making, One Knob Per Function isn’t just an album it’s a closing chapter and a declaration of freedom. Built entirely from raw, unedited live cuts, this debut LP captures the instinctive energy of hardware performance, where imperfection becomes part of the narrative.
In this interview, 7XINS reflects on his journey why he abandoned DAWs for hands-on control, how dance music’s political and emotional layers shaped (and unshaped) this record, and what it means to say farewell to a performance mode that’s defined him. With references to Blade Runner, sonic OCD, and a vision for his label Severn Electronics, 7XINS invites us into his world of machines, chaos, and catharsis.
”One Knob Per Function" feels like a bold artistic statement. How would you describe the emotional or conceptual arc of the album as it evolved over these six years?
Interesting! I didn’t really feel like I was making a bold statement when I came up with the name. Fine by me though! So yeah, when it comes to concept, this LP is much different from my studio work (much of which is still to be released in the near future). My work is usually conceptually based on politics and other areas of fascination books, history, geopolitics so it was a little difficult for me to deviate from that. I tried to think of ways to intertwine it, but I didn’t feel like it was right to do so.
While I feel dance music is highly political at its core, given its history and fundamentals, it has also been a place of escape from the harsh realities of the world a space of joy and freedom. So I really just wanted to focus on that energy for this one.
As many will know, “One Knob Per Function” refers to audio hardware that has a single knob per function and doesn’t rely on layers or menu diving. This is something I prefer to use a lot especially when playing live. I feel like there's already enough to do without diving through menus. The easier and simpler you keep it, the more fun there is to be had. And at the end of the day, that’s what people want to see when they come to a show they want to see you have fun. When you’re having fun, the performance translates and transcends. It makes it easier to communicate with the crowd.
Not sure if anyone can notice them, but there are a few samples from Blade Runner (one of my favourite movies) in the live set some soundscapes and modulated vocals. I used a few quotes from Blade Runner in the text inside the cassette artwork too. The name points toward machines, and live sets are essentially machines with a human element of control. I suppose this ended up as a small concept that became intertwined in the work, even though it wasn’t planned.
The album was actually put together over the last year and a half it was never planned in advance, so it came together pretty straightforwardly
The decision to release unedited live cuts is powerful. What do you think live recordings reveal that studio tracks often don’t?
Yeah its kind of nerve racking too haha! I feel like the live recordings definitely reveal dance music its rawest form, there is A LOT of uncontrolled sub, different grooves made from layers of different kick patterns, synths and atmospheres that become unusually loud at times, just things you would just never do in the studio because its not “technically” right to do so or things that wouldn’t translate when making an actual record. And of course obviously it reveals a lot of little mistakes, mistakes in timings or other small
imperfections and artefacts when pushing preamps and effects, things that our studio minds always want to “fix” or “control”.
You describe a philosophy of tactile control and sonic integrity how has this shaped your relationship with your machines over time?
I know the word is thrown around a lot but when it comes to being in a live environment I am quite OCD, I like to try and eliminate all kinds of unwanted danger and make things easier for myself to play live and have fun. Thats my philosophy of tactile control, honing the set up around me in a very particular way, positioning the machines and effects in a way that I can build a very natural muscle memory as to where things are, to a point I can reach for something without looking if I need to. And then also what power and control certain parameters will have such as EQ’s, distortion, envelopes etc, all of these minor things give me a lot of control to sculpt sounds exactly how I need to with very little effort. In terms of relationship with machines its kind of made me fall in love with my favourite bits of hardware, I almost feel like I couldn't perform without certain units now, in my head its almost like 7XINS wouldn’t exist without them! Making them very precious as you could imagine!
In an era dominated by digital production, why did you choose to completely forgo DAWs?
That’s a good one! Again, going back to the OCD thing needing everything to be set up in a strict, specific way when I first aspired to perform live around 2016, I wanted to use Ableton Live. I had a really cool custom MIDI controller I bought from the States. But over time I became incredibly frustrated. Ableton is such a beast in terms of possibilities they’re almost infinite and that made me really struggle.
I was constantly changing the setup, the MIDI mappings, the effect racks, the routing to different channels... the list goes on. I just couldn’t do it anymore. So I looked for something to simplify things and picked up the Elektron Octatrack. While it had a lot of limitations compared to a full DAW, it was exactly what I needed. It forced restrictions on how I performed and stopped me from constantly changing the way I did things. It made me focus on just making it work with what I had.
That said, I do love working with DAWs in the studio. I’m a big fan of the digital realm I really love both. But for live performance, I prefer to have less in front of me and keep it more hardware based.
Were there particular moments or performances that you knew, as they happened, would make the cut for the album?
I never knew I was going to do an album of these recordings. The idea came to me randomly while looking through the recordings I’d collected. I really wanted to share them, but I felt like just uploading them to SoundCloud or wherever would cause the work to get lost in the ether.
Once I had the idea, though, I knew there were some moments I wanted to include some personal favourites and some moments that close friends still mention. It’s mad how certain things can get sonically imprinted in your brain.
The album closes a chapter. Where does Severn Electronics go next from here?
Severn Electronics is just a baby, I have been a little slow with it although it has always been a long term plan which I feel is now starting to get in motion after 2 years. I have been mainly releasing my own material on there and have quite a lot of studio work to put out including my first studio album which is not dance music. I am also chatting to some really great artists at the moment whose work I really love and I think fits the sonic aesthetics of the label, the plan is to build a really solid discography of music that fits the vision and also not bound to any particular genre but is still sonically fitting. There is a lot of scope for exploration and I am really excited about it all. There will also be more collaborations between myself and others under different aliases, probably a lot of one off releases like this. I think building relationships with like minded artists maybe even evolving into some kind of collective could be really cool. Who knows! Thats the fun of it I suppose!
What emotions do you associate with this “farewell” to your current performance mode and how do you want listeners to feel when they hear these tracks?
I have been through a massive transformation over the last 2 years in life and music wise and I now feel like all the prep and live sets I have played were all just a learning curve, almost like training you know? As artists we work for years looking for a sonic identity, we get there to a point where we are like “okay yes, this is this is what I want to say sonically” and its and it feels like a big achievement at the time, especially when others show appreciation for it. Then you realise its only just began. So I associate a lot of emotions with this farewell really, moments of frustration, anger, crippling self doubt and also extreme highs and euphoria, it was a lot of hard work to put all these performances together especially with the stage fright and anxiety I have sometimes. Overall though its a sense of achievement and excitement for whats next. Ripping things to bits and rebuilding. I hope it just resonates with listeners in someway, obviously its super subjective and totally down to the individual but I would like to think they can feel the raw energy of a euphoric club environment. If it resonates in any way at all though with just a few people I would be super happy! I think the biggest thing relative to emotions for me is that this is all about letting go.
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