Landscapes of Sound

Local producer Matt Coon mixes philosophy and engineers sound.

Matt Coon, 23, sits in their home studio, crafting a song they will play to a live audience. // Photo by Nicola Wasmuth

Written by Nicola Wasmuth

As a conductor of atmosphere, Matt stands in the middle of the vast ballroom space. Their music equipment has been set up so the pulsing sound comes from every angle, pushing towards the mixer and computer set up so thoughtfully in the middle of the floor. The song Matt is commanding is thrumming and consistent, convincing the audience to let their emotions out through their movement and collective energy.

Unlike many artists and performers in the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) scene, producer and DJ Matt Coon, 23, prefers playing live in comparison to releasing tracks on common music platforms.

“I want people to hear the music when it’s being mixed by a DJ or being played live by me,” Matt explained their musical philosophy. “I personally really like playing live because I’m able to take my tracks and kind of deconstruct them and mix them with each other in a way that’s a lot more surgical than I’d be able to if I was just fading one song into another song. It’s a lot more fun and spontaneous.”

Matt routinely sits in their bedroom studio, sporting a black beanie that they’re rarely seen without, working the mouse to warp and design sounds for a new track. Their long black hair is pulled back into a bun, their face scrutinizing over the knobs, layers and tools at their disposal. For 12 years Matt has been making music, finding their creative outlet in sound.

Their musical philosophy creates a uniquely shared moment that is not often experienced anywhere else. At Matt’s sets, people connect with those around them, letting the soundwaves guide their movement and emotions. Because of their live show philosophy, these sincere moments exist only for the people present. Matt aims to create sounds that feel good and shape them to fit their style.

“I think electronic music is super cool because you can totally optimize or emphasize what you want to… and you can emphasize what feels really good. Whereas if you have a guitar that’s just a guitar… you’re stuck with how that guitar sounds. But with electronic music you can really shape things to feel good when they’re played loud. That’s why so many people love it,” Matt said.

EDM is a blanket term that encompasses over 100 subgenres. Jordan Watson, a musician and instructor of electronic music at Western Washington University, explains that the key components of most EDM tracks are the drums and the bass. By timing the drums and bass lines with different beats per minute (BPM), artists can create a soundscape unlike any other. Synthesizing the BPM of a track can completely change the energy surrounding the sound.

“I think BPM is super important. One of the hardest things to do in DJ-ing is change the BPM without stressing people out and throwing people off. Even just making things a little faster or a little slower will fuck with people’s brains,” Matt said, their eyes flashed with intrigue. “It’s interesting if I start [techno] at 140 BPM, that’s pretty fast and pretty energetic. But if I play the same songs at 100 BPM, it has a completely different vibe.”

Techno is a personal favorite of Matt’s; a subgenre in which the BPM rests anywhere between 120 and 150 BPM.

“Industrial techno is what I would call it. Techno music is really repetitive and hypnotic, and has the kind of energy that stays flat rather than going up and down a lot. The other thing is that the industrial side of it [came from] these old music groups that used to use machines and strange tools to make crazy sounds rather than conventional musical instruments,” Matt’s eyes lit up as they recalled the history. “That’s super inspiring to me.”

Along with industrial techno, Matt enjoys creating and playing a genre dubbed “drum and bass.” This style has a higher BPM of around 170 and emphasizes — you guessed it — the drums and basslines. The rhythm of drum and bass is almost intoxicating. It is a highly energizing and consistent genre where a faster BPM is vital to the sound structure.

“[EDM] events are designed to be a total sensory overload, a temporary escape from real life,” they said. “Even the folks that go sober are getting high from the spectacle.”

There is a common misconception that EDM shows are all about doing drugs and going crazy to loud music. Raves, like many other live events such as country music concerts and rap shows, are not strangers to substance. As a community that largely represents and upholds the term Peace Love Unity and Respect and Responsibility (PLURR), there will be people who will accept you exactly for who you are without judgment. To reduce an entire community to the individuals who partake in substances irresponsibly is largely ignorant. For Matt, their focus is on the music more than anything.

“I dont attend these [modern] raves,” Matt said. “I don’t care about huge light shows or fun outfits or obnoxious bass drops or doing molly… I care about introspection and abstraction and experiencing cathartic release through music. It shouldn’t be about drugs… it should be about music.”

With most live music, audience members and artists induce and feed off a collective energy — where everybody in the space is there for the same reason, establishing a sense of community.

“The music in and of itself is a way for the artist to communicate with the audience, and to some extent for the audience member to communicate back to the artists in interesting ways,” said Watson. “One of the big takeaways for me in live music is how you have that communal moment together where anything could happen. We’re going to experience this together, which is a little bit different than the show that’s planned down to the tee, per se.”

The communal experience is strong in the EDM scene. Instead of live instruments and multiple band members, audience members connect and communicate with a DJ or producer wielding mixing boards and picking apart electronically engineered sounds. How do the crowds communicate with the artists? By letting the sounds vibrate and pulse through them as they get lost in the music. Many people show their support for artists online, but for Matt, seeing people having a good time to their music and connecting in person is more rewarding.

Audiences and artists also share the paradigm of time together during a show. The saying “time flies when you’re having fun” is just a part of it. Time is a vital component for music, and is unlike many other art forms. Watson explains it like this: when you walk into a museum and look at a painting, you can stand there for one, five, ten minutes. Music’s only constraint is time, and the musician holds that constraint like a magic wand, a tool to command sound.

Electronically engineered sounds can resemble anything, whether they’re pulled from live instrument samples, or generated with a synth or keyboard, and can be finely tuned so there are no errors or mistakes in the soundwaves. If you enjoy artists like Tame Impala, $uicideboy$, or most other popular artists of our generation, you will notice the electronically engineered sounds that they use to both create and influence their music.

There is an infinite number of sounds and songs that can be produced electronically, and many different styles exist under the blanket sub genre of EDM. There is a very high likelihood of a person finding a genre that fits perfectly with them, and one they can connect with.

Now, as Matt stands at the decks, side lit by red lights and surrounded by people who are here to lose themselves in sound, emotions and technique come together to create a moment that uniquely and creatively captivates. Worries wash away, and the sounds set the scene for an unforgettable night.