every week i answer some questions.

Richard asks:

here’s my question. it’s a general question i’ve always wanted to ask any southern hemisphere-er. you in particular could probably provide a good answer though. i wonder if you get this question all the time though and are sick of it. oh well, here goes. basically just… what is it like to be in the southern hemisphere? do you feel the rest of the civilized northern half of the world looks down on you.

hmmm. i’ve never been asked to speak on behalf of an entire hemisphere before. well the truth is.. the southern hemisphere is a mystical place where we all ride technicolor unicorns across rainbow bridges of joy, with our animal totems on our shoulders and sticky lemon sherbet through our hair. we also like to put shrimps on the barbie.

but yes, australians do have something of a complex about being down south. one of our previous prime ministers very famously was heard oversaying that australia was the ‘arse end of the world.’ constantly being referred to as ‘down under’ doesn’t help. as if our entire nation is down someone else’s pants. i was talking with an american tourist a couple of weeks ago and he was saying that he expected australia to be ‘more european’ which i didn’t completely get, but i thought it was fascinating when he remarked that australia seemed very similar to other countries in the southern hemisphere, for example brazil.

i have a strange feeling we are going to hear more from you, richard.

Dan asks:

i really dig the claps, kicks, snaps, snares etc. in chasing waterfalls. especially the snare. What drum machine/s are you using and where could one find a snare as meaty as that?

you can find it right here, buckaroo:

MP3: Snare drum from Chasing Waterfalls

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a little background on where it came from: i’d like to tell you i have an extensive collection of drum machines, or even an extensive collection of drum machine samples on my computer, but no, often with my drum sounds i am taking snares, kicks, claps out of other songs, treating them to sound different, and using them myself. i download and listen to a vast amount of music, and often randomly go through it looking for the tiniest of micro-samples, or one-off drum hits, that i can then reprogram myself into my own songs. some lawyers would have you believe this is a form of copyright infringement – i think taking someone elses snare drum and mutating it to your own ends is about as much of an infringement as taking the note of C sharp and inserting it into your melody. but this is a complex issue – frankly it is more complicated than that, and i could go into detail trying to explain where i stand on this, but it would confuse both of us and be generally boring.

most melodic samples i use come from music that i like – often, surprisingly, drum hits and one-off sounds ceom from music that i don’t really like, which is definitely the case with the song where this snare comes from (sorry guys) – its a riot in belgium remix of a track made by kim from the presets, called “wet n wild”.

send your questions to asktim@iamfauxpas.com. i’ll quote your first name on the blog unless you request anonymity.