15 questions with… RURAL TAPES

Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen’s Rural Tapes project has attracted collaborators like ex R.E.M. stars Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey plus Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor. But in this studio the computer is used for just one thing: recording…

- Arne Kjelsrud Mathise

It takes all sorts to make music, and they are all in this issue of Computer Music! With rising star Loraine James on p44, we saw how one laptop and a small bunch of mostly freeware plugins can suffice. Now it’s time to visit a studio where the only software is used as a recorder, and it’s based on a remote farm in Norway. Yet it’s a studio and project that has attracted some star names. Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen is the founder of bands including I Was A King, Heroes & Zeros and The No Ones with R.E.M. members Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck. His new Rural Tapes solo project features those collaborators plus Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, Rhodri Marsden (Scritti Politti) and saxophonist Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey, Tom Waits). Here Arne explains his production philosophy which is a world away from a laptop with plugins, and how he attracted such big players to feature on his Rural Tapes solo outing (not to mention the organ player from the Boston Red Sox…)

1 Tell us how you got into music production in the first place?

Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen: “I’m a composer and musician from Norway, currently living and working on an old farm in the south where I have my studio in the barn. I’ve played music since I was a kid, but I never had a plan of becoming a musician. I got into the music business as a drummer with my old band Heroes & Zeros in my early 20s, and I’ve worked in music ever since. Today I play in different bands, compose music for theatre and dance performances, act as a producer for other bands and artists, and I’m always up for cool projects that come my way.”

2 When and how did you become successful in music?