#15

Electronic musician

Ambient electronic musician

Accidental electronic musician

Scientist

6 Likes
#16

That’s fair.

I think if I wrote music at a piano or guitar, or direct from brain to sheet music, then arranged it for synthesizers – or worked in such a way that I could do that, at least – I would be less likely to call it “electronic music.”

Since I put the character and behavior of the synths and effects first, encompassing timbre but also aspects or the entirety of the rhythm, and melody and harmony – the gear as almost a collaborator – I do consider it “electronic music.”

1 Like
#17

this is such a good question! it’s so hard for me to talk about my music-related endeavors with people. i usually say “i play synthesizers and guitar” and when they inevitably ask about genre/sound, i say “kinda ambient, electronic, experimental” and try to explain those words as little as possible.

i really struggle with the self-aggrandizement part since i’ve never even performed as an adult and only really started recording my synth explorations like a year ago. i barely even want to say “musician,” much less “composer” (who am i, Tim Hecker? Beethoven?). i guess i just don’t want to appear to take myself too seriously since i’m a hobbyist. idk.

5 Likes
#18

I hear you, I validate you, I believe you, you’re the next Beethoven.

5 Likes
#19

I struggle with this sometimes, but I usually just simplify it by saying that I am a “maker and consumer of art and sound.”

#21

i usually say
Sound & Light technology & Design
Audio Design, Projection Design & Advanced Media Systems

Also i have cats

2 Likes
#22

just never talk to anyone ever. problem solved.

23 Likes
#23

The bio/artist statement drives me nuts. You can’t really apply to festivals, or for grants or anything else really for that matter saying “I make boring, slow ambient music” which is how I often explain what I do to my childrens’ friends’ parents. However, I’m having a real hard time coming up with a way of explaining my exploration of life/death/impermanence through sound, without sounding ridiculous.

And yes, every time I tell someone I use a synthesizer, they make the ‘playing the keyboard’ hand gesture. I performed this weekend as part of the local Nuit Blanche and kept running into parents from my kids’ school and I’d mention I was performing, and then wind up in this same conversation, over and over. I feel like telling people I create ‘sound art’ while fairly off base, would probably give people a better idea.

2 Likes
#24

I rarely talk about any of my sound art/music/bleep-bloop endeavors because it is mostly spacing out to drones for my own pleasure. I try to dodge the connotations and expectations that are created when people think I’m a “real” musician and/or produce EDM tracks.

#25

I like “sound artist.” It’s not perfect, but it’s general enough to encompass what we typically call “music” (i.e. composer) as well as what we typically call “sound,” specifically non-music (i.e. sound designer, noise artist, etc).

I like to think of it as a composer who’s widened their definition of music. It works okay.

3 Likes
#27

I just say electronic musician, and if people ask for more details I add the word experimental and that’s usually it…

1 Like
#28

Things I have posted on here were electronic musical experiments (but wouldn’t call myself an experimental electronic musician)

#29

I do improvised live electronic music.

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#30

I always liked how those early DMZ releases had “Built by X” on them, like that term.

1 Like
#31

My mildly-pretentious bio refers to myself as a ‘composer, improviser and multi-instrumentalist’ who makes ‘atmospheric and textural music’.

Over time, I’ve gradually come to de-emphasize the words ‘ambient’, ‘experimental’, and ‘electronic’…

1 Like
#32

sound artist, or avid listener both seem general yet specific enough

#33

my new go-to when asked in the airport is “i play the computer” which usually leads to no follow up questions.

21 Likes
#34

I go with sound artist as well. Even though I guess somehow it is more linked to electro-acoustic practices, or physical contraptions that make sound.

1 Like
#35

“Sound artist” makes me think of installation pieces, but I’m starting to warm up to it for basically every other reason. :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#36

in days gone by… :slightly_smiling_face:
anyone who played shows (of any kind)
was labeled an 'entertainer
by the industry cats ('suits, we used to call 'em /even though we were wearing suits too- from the thrift store, taken to the taylor, just to mess with it)
'nob hill style
we called it

these days
doing more vocals
I’ve been trying to make peace with the label 'fool
as dr dre does in this track


(gets labeled a 'fool, at the end, and keeps it in)

1 Like