INTERVIEW culture springing from that is great.” Com Truise On Tour Clearly, the time is right for Com Truise’s moody brand of retro-electronica, which is For his recent tour of the States, synthwave star built on his love for Reagan-era synths like Seth Haley, aka Com Truise, has had to adapt the Roland Juno 106. his complex studio setup to life on the road. Sci-fi Sounds Haley’s recent album Iteration is his first JOE SILVA retro-fests like YouTube short film Kung full-length collection of new material Fury and Netflix’s hit series Stranger since In Decay, which was a compilation nspired by synth-heavy movie Things have propelled the genre into the of leftover pieces that he put together soundtracks of the ‘80s, synthwave mainstream. “A lot of people write to back in 2011. Based around the concept I is a genre that makes heavy use me thinking I did the score for Stranger of a robot astronaut’s galactic getaway of classic analogue synthesizers, Things,” says Seth Haley, aka Com Truise. alongside the alien woman it loves, arpeggiators, sequencers and “I have to say, ‘No, that was my buddies Iteration evokes a universe where the effects units: not exactly road-friendly in Survive. My stuff is definitely a little ’80’s sci-fi classic Tron never ended. Unlike gear. Although synthwave has been different. I’ve got more beats in there, the über-repetitive, dancefloor-driven around, in one form or another, for close because I definitely focus more on the EDM that rules the mega-festivals of to 20 years, the recent successes of ‘80s drums. But to see crowds and a whole today, Com Truise pushes towards a more 88 October 2018 / www.soundonsound.com Photo by Pawel Brzescinski. heartfelt level of engagement from his audience. When it came to putting together these compositions, Haley feels like he broadened the soundscape for this release. “I felt like with Iteration there’s a lot more air on this record... a lot more space,” he says. Given the synth-oriented nature of his music, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Haley does most of his writing in Reason — although for this tour his Watch Online To see our exclusive video of Seth explaining his live synth and sequencing setup in detail, check out the iPad version of this article, or go to https:// sosm.ag/comtruise-1018. www.soundonsound.com / October 2018 89 INTERVIEW COM TRUISE Seth Haley’s main synth for live performances is the Dave Smith Instruments OB-6. A MacBook running Ableton is at the heart of the rig, and also triggers the live visual effects in Resolume. around, stuff breaks. I get nervous when it comes to bringing out the big guns,” laptop is running Ableton Live. “I always that night’s gig could basically be packed he says. record into Ableton but sequence in into a few large flightcases. Laid out on It’s all fairly tidy and unassuming, Reason. I have tried to switch to Ableton a large table in front of him is his current but when he steps out on stage later for writing — I have used Cubase and live rig, which is connected via MIDI to that evening and fires it all up, the pint Logic and everything — but I keep going sync with four LED light panels behind glasses behind the bar rattle accordingly. back to Reason. I just really like the him. A MacBook laptop and his OB-6 A TARDIS‑like ‘whoosh’ kicks off the sequencer it has in it. I definitely get some polysynth from Dave Smith Instruments set amidst the faceless chatter of robot quality out of using it, and now that I’m are prominent, and everything else looks voices. Shrouded in darkness on stage, able to put audio right on the timeline, I like it could be cabled up in no time. Haley begins to poke at a number of think my sound has kinda changed too. “I kind of minimised everything unseen controls as the sound of his 2011 There seems to be more headroom in because when there’s a lot to carry track ‘Terminal’ fills the hall. there, [so] I don’t think I’m working as loud as I used to. The way I used to do For live arrangement tweaking, Seth uses an it was to write and record into Ableton Akai APC40 MkII and an MPD32. and then export long loops and lay them into a sampler. So although you could start from the middle [of a song], you’d always have to start from the beginning of the sample. Just having the ability to put a marker where you need it when playing a song is a big deal for me. I mean, I like Ableton, but I just feel I lose something if I try and write something in it. I definitely need more time to sit with it and build my process for how I would lay out a whole track.” Take My Seth Away There were no oversized transit vans or tour buses when Com Truise came rolling into Athens, Georgia during a recent tour stop. Everything Haley needed for 90 October 2018 / www.soundonsound.com INTERVIEW COM TRUISE Despite their “funky” interfaces, Seth is a big USB sticks to do a DJ gig, Haley and fan of Elektron gear, and has made extensive use of a Digitakt drum sampler on this tour. his performance setup are frequently in motion. He’s had to become fairly “I don’t think I ever got set up to take selective about the gear he tows around a record out on the road,” Haley says. with him because, try as he might, things “I think I play a pretty good cross-section still get ruined on the road. of my catalogue. I never play the same “I used to use the Dave Smith stuff. The thing is that some of the songs Instruments Mopho, and then I had the don’t have visual content associated with Mopho X4. I used to bring both of them them yet, which I’m still creating. But for out on the road for a long time, along the most part the set is pretty versatile. with the Juno 106 and the Octave Cat, I don’t like just playing things where I’m but as much as you try to take care of going down a list. I can morph it. Live them, they still get beat up. But the music has always been a bit weird for OB-6 is pretty sturdy. Sometimes the me. I’ve always been a studio‑recorded panels can get loose from being moved album guy, so trying to make it around so much, but that’s why I travel interesting but not so different from the with a screwdriver.” record has always been a challenge for It’s appropriate that the OB-6 takes me because I really like the songs as up most of the Com Truise manifest, they are.” since the Oberheim sound is plastered over much of his work. “I’ve always Danger Zone been a big Oberheim fan. I picked up an Haley left his former Brooklyn-based Xpander a long time ago and I use that operation a few years back, where he on almost every song. I love that sound. worked in a dedicated studio space, to It’s so bright and sharp. The OB-6 is nice take up residence in a bedroom studio and sturdy. I think it’s a beautiful piece out in the Los Angeles area. of equipment. I love the old-school blue “I just kind of got bored with New lines. It’s just so aesthetically pleasing.” York. I’ve lived on the East Coast my entire life. I did the Brooklyn thing that Control Power everybody did, and then I got back At the core of his live operation, from a tour and I was hanging out at my however, is the lightweight Akai APC40 parents’ place upstate and I just decided MkII — the versatile, compact controller I was just going to try it.” that wires Com Truise into his Ableton But his hermit-like lifestyle of writing Live world, track by track. and recording at home keeps him mostly “This controls Ableton. It’s where I free of LA night life when he’s not do the sequencing of the tracks live. It’s touring — which is fairly often. Unless very simple and a little more compact he’s turning up to a club with a few than the original. That one was built 92 October 2018 / www.soundonsound.com INTERVIEW COM TRUISE like a tank, and this is my sixth MkII, but “I’ve always wanted to send MIDI from little drum machine. One of the other I think that’s probably just from road the computer to do certain things,” he acts I toured with a while back had an abuse. I wish it was sturdier, but it does says, “but this setup is pretty taxing, with Elektron Analog Rytm which would sync the job. All I have to do is plug it into the visuals and sounds both happening up with his laptop, and that was really Ableton and everything is just right there. on the same computer. And for the most unpredictable. But this Digitakt seems I’ve looked at the Ableton Push, too, but part, the computer is used in a pretty really, really on, and doesn’t drift off.