Alex HJanuary 12, 2009
*Name: Alex H
*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: None so far.
*Do you use a pseudonym? No!
*Members: Alex Harrison
*Founding Members: That would be me.
*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: Definitely digital. I tend to work with mp3s for mashups as they are so easy to get hold of. I chop loops out using Adobe Audition then load them into cubase SX2 to mix them all together.
*Another genre descriptor: Mashup is my preferred term, although my website describes the tracks as "Mashtastic music."
*Is there a story behind your name? I didn't have a chance to think of an exciting name to operate under before I put my first tracks online - then it was too late!
*Location: I live in a cottage surrounded by fields, in Somerset UK.
*Original Location: South West London.
*What is your creative/artistic background: I've always been involved in music as a pastime since learning the violin when I was very young, then piano and guitar as a teenager. My family are all very musical, my parents play in orchestras and my brother is a sound engineer. I taught music production for a living for a while, now I work as a flash developer.
*History: I've been messing around with Cubase for years, since starting on a 486 PC running windows 3.1. I started creating mashups in '05, but have recently been concentrating on writing original music.
*Born: I was born in Virginia USA, but that doesn't make me a yank - I moved over here before my 2nd birthday.
*Motivations: Coming across a really cool loop in a track that is unlikely to have been used before. When you then find another riff that goes really well with it unexpectedly its great fun.
*Philosophy: Mashup should never take itself too seriously - it's not big and it's not clever - it's just a bit of fun! It doesn't really take a huge amount of skill to do, unlike the music it takes its samples from.
*How would you like to be remembered: As a bit of a pisstaker.
*Web address: http://www.alexh.org
