Audiotool

Interview

Audiotool artist of over 10 years from Winnipeg, Manitoba and just turning 27 years old.

About Nicholas Girouard aka kiari:: Audiotool artist of over 10 years from Winnipeg, Manitoba and just turning 27 years old. I can't say I've ever found a specific style for myself when it comes to music but if I had to pick my absolute favourite genres that really get me in the mood? I'd have to say classical orchestral pieces or complextro.
Which artist has had the most influence on you (on and/or outside Audiotool)?: Astrum/Zonra on Audiotool has been my biggest inspiration to pursue music for over a decade now. When I was new to the site Astrum was always making these beautiful, albeit dated tracks by this point and to a new artist it felt like he could do anything. Even now I'm amazed at some of his older works' attention to detail and hauntingly catchy melodies.
Who would you like to work/collaborate with on and outside Audiotool, and why?: Anomalie is an artist that's blown up in recent years. Like myself, he has an experimental take on many different genres and he was just an all around nice person and to this day I feel like if there was any one person I've most wanted to collaborate with, it's definitely him.
Which film/game would you like to produce the score for or contribute a song to?: I've always leaned more into the orchestral side of video game music especially. If I absolutely had to pick an existing piece of media, it would be the Nier video game series.
Have you ever had a writer's block? If so, how did you deal with it and what do you recommend to your colleagues?: I've been having on and off writer's block for years now. I have noticed that keeping at it has always been what breaks through the block in the end. It doesn't even have to be full tracks; making small doodles, coming up with new sounds to experiment with, or even trying out new tools can be a good way to change things up. Though, if I had to say how I got through my two year long block, it was the Home Office contest on Audiotool. I'm a sucker for competition and even though I didn't place, bringing back my desire to make music was the real prize for me.
What has helped you the most on Audiotool to improve and widen your musical horizon?: There's just so much music being made on Audiotool that it's hard to not be exposed to new things all the time. Almost every day, even. So naturally when you hear all of these cool things coming out you want to hear more of them and that leads to you wanting to try all these new things. It's why I've never stuck to any specific style, there's always new things I'm wanting to try no matter how different it is.
What do you like most about Audiotool? Is there anything you would like to suggest?: There's two things I like near-equally about Audiotool. First is the community and how it's the leading drive to create new and exciting music. The other would be how tactile Audiotool feels when you're making music. That feeling of being able to control everything on one screen and wire everything together is the closest thing to being in a real life studio I can imagine on a DAW. I think a suggestion that would help a lot of people more handily would be pop-up text descriptions of each tool and its features within the app itself from something as easy as a right click on the tool itself.
Your message to the community:: Always be willing to try new things. There's nothing that helps you reach a specific goal faster than learning everything you can about the DAW itself and what it can provide. Keep expanding your horizons so you don't end up in places where you feel like you aren't progressing, because in the end that will be your drive for creating new music.

“That feeling of being able to control everything on one screen and wire everything together is the closest thing to being in a real life studio I can imagine on a DAW.”
— Syntax AKA Kiari