I got aware of The Alchemical Theory by their debut on Annulled in 2018. The Italian collective soon will do an Ep on Affin, so a good opportunity to chat and find out a few things about their project…
J: How did you guys meet and what made the decision to team up and build “The Alchemical Theory”?
T: We have known each other for many years, we all 3 live in the same city and by sharing the same musical interests we have had the opportunity to forge a great relationship of respect and friendship. At the beginning we often met to record podcasts or exchange advice on our individual productions, on the use of software, musical instruments and much more; over time all this has matured in us the desire to create something new, so in 2018 we decided to create the project “The Alchemical Theory”. This decision was born primarily because there is really a lot of affinity between us and secondly because each of us has something more than the other in music production and by combining our ideas we are able to achieve something that alone we cannot to create.
J: There’s a co-operation you did with Monument, presenting your first live in the mountains of Italy. Is there a plan for performing live for regular?
T: Of course, our strong point is the live set. Over time we have designed different types of live sets, ranging from an ambient texture to a much more techno imprint, to be used based on the contexts in which we find ourselves. We also perform with dj sets, but the live set performance is our favorite.
J: Can you explain how you work on your music, is it always 3 people working at the same time on a track, or one sends to the other and another part is added etc.. moreover, I’d like to know your fav SW/Hardware for liveacts.
T: We do not have a fixed scheme to produce our music, however when we do not have the opportunity to meet in the studio we divide some tasks that make the most of each of our potentials; for example one of us creates the main sounds that characterize the mood of the track, another one takes care of the drafting and addition of rhythmic parts, pads, sequences, and other sounds, and another takes care of effects and the final mixing of the track. For our live sets we mainly use some software and VSTs fundamental for us, such as: Reaktor, Zebra, VCV Rack, Surge and many others, but if we have to list our favorite analog instruments at the first place there is certainly the “Elektron Analog Rytm MKII” followed by the “Make Noise 0-Coast”.
J: Is your music linked to where you come from, or could it be made anywhere else?
T: Our music is not tied to our territory, or at least certainly not 100%, indeed it is precisely through travels we find different inspirations that help us a lot to create our works, as for example it was for the EP that we will release here on Affin.
Joachim Spieth 