From his humble beginnings in Brooklyn to the stark landscapes of Berlin, M. Vaughan recounts the journey that led to Keep in Touch (June 14). Through candid reflections on the challenges of relocation and cultural adjustment, M. Vaughan reveals how each new environment sparked creative shifts, inspiring a fusion of electronic and indie rock elements and more.
ATN: You’ve gone through significant relocations from New York to Berlin and then to Lisbon. How did each of these moves influence your music and creative process?
MV: When I was in New York I was listening to a lot of small label electronic music and got very into the deep house music scene. Labels like Studio Barnhus and Smallville were really important to me. I liked the DIY ethos of dance music. It felt like skateboarding. In New York my music was primarily pointed at the dance floor.
Moving to Berlin was weird. I didn’t have my proper musical setup while living there and I was busy balancing adjusting to a new culture and language. I expected to get deeper into the house/techno world there, but all of the clubs were closed and it felt weird to put on dance music when I was locked in the apartment for long stretches of time. Strangely, when I was in Berlin I started to get more into guitar stuff. I was listening to a lot of Alex G, the Microphones, Sun Kil Moon.
Since moving to Lisbon two years ago, Brazilian music has become a huge influence on me. Lisbon has a massive Brazilian population and a good chunk of my friends here are Brazilian so I’ve learned a lot of great music from them. Jorge Ben Jor, Gal Costa, Chico Buarque are some of my favorites.
ATN: Moving from Brooklyn to Berlin during the pandemic must have been quite a shift. Can you tell us how the change in environment and culture impacted your musical direction and the themes explored in your latest EP Keep in Touch?
MV: I lived in Brooklyn for five years and decided to move to Berlin during the pandemic. I had always wanted to spend some time abroad and I was scared that if I didn’t make moves fast, I’d wake up to a screaming baby and a loving wife somewhere in Park Slope. So I hit the eject button.
It was a massive transition. In Brooklyn, I had a really solid friend group of people I’d collected throughout college and childhood, and I felt like I kind of belonged. I think that scared me and I felt like things were too easy.
Musically, things also made sense. I feel like we all grew up listening to the same bands. And there was a rich dance music scene with great producers and artists playing at venues like Nowadays and Bossa Nova Civic Club. I’d always wanted to live in a place that was having a moment in time and Brooklyn really did/does feel like that.
Berlin was less easy. It was cold, grey, and COVID, and my German was shitty. Culturally things weren’t clicking. I remember feeling like I was always breaking some unspoken rule and old German folks would just be shaking their heads like “you stupid American!”
Musically, I met some great people that spoke the same language as me in regards to electronic music. In Berlin, the average person would just like good electronic music. You could just meet someone and they’d name drop Underground Resistance or Shed or Jan Jelinek, whereas in New York those might be deeper cuts. While I could intellectually nerd out on electronic music in Berlin, there was still something missing. It didn’t feel like home.
ATN: “Tire Swing” seems to capture a sense of homesickness and longing for familiarity. Can you delve into how the experiences you had in Berlin influenced the creation of this song, both musically and lyrically?
MV: Probably because I felt out of place in Berlin, I started drifting back towards guitars and indie rock and more American sounding stuff cause it reminded me of home. For example, putting on Ovlov or Tom Petty really made me feel proudly out of place and deeply comforted. When I wrote this song, I’d just bought a bike and I would go on these super long rides along this canal and just kind of meditate.
ATN: You mentioned being inspired by artists like Fishmans and Tom Petty while writing “Tire Swing.” How did these influences shape the sound and emotion of the song, and what do they represent to you in the context of your journey as a musician?
MV: On my label Super Tuff, we’d just put out a record of breakbeat-driven downtempo stuff (Time Won’t Tell You Everything by Jonny Oso), which was sick. So I was listening to ambient, breaksy stuff like Global Communications and also… Tom Petty. I was kind of musically schizophrenic at the time. I wanted to fuse electronic music production techniques with just classic straight down the middle pop songwriting.
I made the piano arpeggio over the breakbeat first and I loved how they fit together. It felt dorky and cheeky and that made me super stoked. I think Fishmans is a great example of that. Their lyrics and melodies can be so on the nose, but they work. It’s sweet, you know, it makes you want to pinch their little noses. Being in Berlin I became super conscious of things trying to be cool and aloof, and that’s not me.
Lyrically, there’s a lot of hearkening back to teenage years and homesickness. Tom Petty stuff was big in this department.
ATN: Your EP, Keep in Touch, reflects a fusion of your dance music background with indie rock elements. Was this the original plan to explore music that way or a happy accident?
MV: Kind of a happy accident! I didn’t want to make pure dance music anymore and I wanted to course correct towards this under-explored musical side of me. Perhaps being away from where I grew up made me want to musically “come home” even more.
ATN: Keep in Touch seems to touch on themes of transition, self-discovery, and finding a sense of home. What message or emotion do you hope to convey to your fans?
MV: Fans!? Nice to meet you! I’m Michael. Who are you?! Just be weird and go for it. Stick to your guns.
ATN: Compared to your previous album, True Life, you mentioned that the songs on Keep in Touch are more song-oriented. What prompted this shift in focus, and how did it inform the overall storytelling and sonic landscape of the EP?
MV: I didn’t want to DJ anymore! I had more to say on this record and those things needed to be conveyed in lyrics and songs, rather than abstract soundscapes and field recordings. Don’t get me wrong, love me a nice little ambient interlude, however I wanted these to be polished songs. I also wanted to prove to myself that I can write songs again.
ATN: You started off playing in indie rock bands before transitioning to electronic music production. How has your journey shaped your approach to music-making, and do you find yourself drawing from both experiences in your current work?
MV: I 100% draw from both. I think I never felt at home in the dance music world nor in the indie rock world, so I’ve always listened to both and I can’t help but borrow parts from each when I make music.
ATN: Being both a music producer and a songwriter, what often comes first? Music or lyrics?
MV: Music 100%. I hate writing lyrics! Feel like a cornball.
ATN: As a producer, you’ve experimented with blending electronic and organic elements in your music. Could you discuss some of the production techniques you used on the EP to achieve this fusion of sounds, and any challenges or breakthroughs you encountered along the way?
MV: I’ve got a couple synthesizers that are my kind of workhorses I use on everything, namely my Korg Minilogue and Novation Bass Station. I usually start with them, or a sample that I tweak and process and slow down and distort and delay, etc until it becomes more of a weird textural element. I use a blend of in the box and out of the box stuff. Elements like guitar, vocals, or even live percussion like shaker and hand-claps help give things a more human, organic feel. If I don’t take things out of the computer for some journey of processing, things just sound a little too tight and mechanical. I always need to dirty them up a bit.
ATN: Looking ahead, what are your plans for the future?
MV: I’m playing my first live show in maaany years at Beginnings festival in Evora Portugal on May 16th. Other than that, putting together a string of live shows around Portugal and perhaps Europe this summer. Recording more music and keeping on it!
SAME 3 QUESTIONS WE ALWAYS ASK
ATN: Artist / band that you feel is the most underrated and why?
MV: Bleary Eyed. They’re a shoegaze band from Philly. The whispery texture of the vocals and blown out guitars and drums and weird synth textures is so good. Everything they put out has an unabashedly catchy energy too.
ATN: Artist / band that you would like to collaborate with and why?
MV: Insides. They’re a duo from the UK that released some dope stuff on 4AD in the 90’s. Her vocals are Nico-vibes and the production reminds me of Beach House but with more opiates and synths. I actually found the dude on LinkedIn and was trying to slide into his DMs many years ago. I think he’s a teacher in rural England now? Might re-attempt this slide again actually
ATN: Artist / band that you would like to tour with and why?
MV: Mount Kimbie. I feel like they’ve got similar rock/electronic inspirations and I would love to nerd out on their live setup.
