The American synthwave producer LIGHTSPEAR made a great debut with the album “Metro”. It received great reviews and the album also appeared on vinyl. In 2020 LIGHTSPEAR will continue his adventures. In this interview we will discuss the past year, plans for 2020 and why the ´80s are so special.
Krisztian, can you please introduce yourself?
I'm the composer and producer behind LIGHTSPEAR, a synthwave act from the Seattle area. I produce a very pure form of synthwave, a music that intends to sounds like it was made right in the eighties. I relate a lot to this decade partly because of my childhood, but also because of its endless stream of innovation in art and music: the first music "videoclip", the Walkman, the first gaming consoles, movies so defining that remakes are done 30-40 years after and of course the best music recordings there is.
How do you look back at 2019?
2019 was an absolute delight: LIGHTSPEAR's first album "Metro" debuted on digital platforms, cassette and vinyl and I received a ton of great feedback from synthwave fans around the world. "Metro" was also quickly re-released by Electric Dream Records as a beautiful split color vinyl - can you ask for more?
What are your plans for this year?
Think about "Metro" as just a starting point. Allow me not to reveal more than that the journey continues soon.
Talking about your debut album ¨Metro¨, what can you tell us about this album?
"Metro's" story started back in 2017 when I began to lay out sketches for my first synthwave album. Parallel with the composing process, I built a recording workflow with hardware synths, effects and a multitrack recorder to keep things close to what production looked like back in the eighties. It might sound crazy, but after completing the album with hardware synths, I ended up not being satisfied with the end result and moved the complete production "in the box" rebuilding everything with software synths. Even if the production method wasn't true to the eighties, I felt the end result more authentic and meeting the quality bar I felt comfortable to share. It became a sincere and pure take on synthwave.
What equipment do you use in your studio?
So imagine a couple of great synths sitting there looking jealously at the computer doing all the work with instances of Diva, Polysix, Codex, Hybrid and similar software instruments. The production was put together in Presonus Studio One, which is an impressive DAW that was able to be successful in a pretty crowded market.
What other musicians do inspire you?
It's absolutely unbelievable how many great synthwave producers are around, they are all driving this great revival of synthesizer music and provide continuous inspiration for me. However my inspiration is at the very source with bands like Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Depeche Mode and the list could go on. The aspiration of these artists in terms of music and sound engineering is unparalleled, the technical challenges they were able to overcome is absolutely humbling for me.
How is the synthwave scene in Seattle, Washington?
I just recently moved in the area but was able to attend a couple of great shows by The Midnight, FM-84, and other big names seem to be regulars. I'm also building new friendships, for example with Michael Weber who is also from this area. Waveform Magazine is published here as well, a young magazine all synthheads should check out.
What do you like most about the ´80s?
Circling back to my introduction, it was a magical decade. A lot of technologies democratized entertainment back then: you could take music with you with a Walkman, you could take the arcade home with a gaming console, you could make your own films with a camcorder or watch your favorite movies at any time on a VHS. And with a nascent digital technology, we had -in good sense- a naive picture of the future, leading to visionary movies. Where's our hoverboard, right?
And finally, any last words to the synthwave community?
A big thank you for supporting the producers, everyone is giving their all to entertain you. Together we'll stay rad!
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