Machina Candeo:
Ty Cy-Phy gets fired up about SONAR

Cakewalk: Ty, how did you get involved with fire, and in particular, Machina Candeo? It seems like a unique niche to have found as a performer and musician!

Ty Cy-Phy: I first got involved with fire dancing in when I lived in Tucson for a couple of years. After performing music at a gig (sitting playing guitar for a 17 person free form jazz band dressed as clowns) I got to see this headlining Fire Circus/Theatre troupe, and I was pretty much blown away. I picked up some basic fire tool skills from them and other Tucson fire spinners shortly after that.

I moved to Los Angeles, with nothing but a suitcase, shortly thereafter. My music studio and equipment was in storage and I was very bored. I decided to apply myself to learning poi (double fire chains) and soon I was teaching classes and meeting other like minded (our out of our minded) fire people. Again, I got bored with that and had the itch to perform so I started a fire troupe.

We quickly decided that we wanted to do more complete artistic shows versus having a carnie/freak show aesthetic. With that in mind it was natural for me to apply my 20 years or so of music, composition and recording talents. The music and choreography is as big a part of our show as the fire.

CW: Can you tell us a little about some of your favorite performances with Machina Candeo, and some of the things you're currently working on? You mentioned you just went out into the desert to film a video in HD. Tell us about that experience.

TY: Some of our best work was performing at the Los Angeles County Fair. We had two fully decked out 45 minute shows featuring an opera singer that we performed three times each in two days. We've also had the privilege of being on stage with The Mutaytor (a big techno/rock/circus/dance show from LA) and co-produced a huge fire show for Phoenix Project's Chinese New Year event with some of LA's best fire performers.

And yes, we are currently working on the editing phase of our first DVD, shot in high definition. We are working with an extraordinary talent, an Emmy award winning editor and a director (you may have seen his Janet Jackson, Sting or Chris Issac videos in the 90's, along with many others). It was shot in a remote location of the Mojave Desert. This should be released on regular DVD, then in hi-def DVD when that becomes more readily available to the average consumer. I've seen some teaser footage. It looks like an amazingly perfect professional photograph, but it moves.

CW: The music you write for Machina Candeo fuses many different sounds and genres together. You go from prog-rock odd time signatures, to acid techno synth leads, to world music. Tell us a little about your background as a musician and your influences and how those translate into the music you create for this project.

TY: My music background is pretty odd. I've been in prog bands, industrial bands, jazz, and my favorite, a rockabilly-polka-goth band that was very theatrical. I took jazz guitar for many years when I was younger, studied classical guitar (and world music) in college. I've was particularly influenced by Peter Gabriel's soundtrack Work for Birdy and Passion (from The Last Temptation of Christ).

From the beginning, I've always been a knob tweaker, trying my hardest to make my guitar not sound like a guitar (Adrian Belew anybody?). My recordings have always reflected that and as such lent themselves to soundtrack work. I didn't plan it this way but as it turns out it's worked really well for dance as well.

I'd list my main influences as Loop Guru, South East Asian music, Middle Eastern music, King Crimson, Ministry, NIN, Peter Gabriel, Ravel, Stravinsky and Lou Harrison. Guitar wise my influences are Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins), Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, and Alex Lifeson. Bass wise, I'd say Mick Karn, Tony Levin and that guy from Korn.

CW: You use SONAR to create music that is used as part of Machina Candeo's live show, and you are also the group's creative director and a performer. Do you approach the music with particular stunts or routines in mind, or the other way around?

TY: I write music for the company in two ways. I write and record some music and present to our performers/choreographers to see if it will work. Then it gets edited to the needs of the choreography.

The other way is approaching it from the performer's perspective. What fire tools are they using? What is the mood we want to create? What tempos do we need to consider (some fire tools have their own tempos hoop is usually at 124 bpm)? After that, I present the piece I have come up with to performers and choreographers to see if it supports the artistic idea. Usually I'm right on the mark.

CW: How do you approach writing a piece for Machina Candeo differently than you might approach a song that's intended for more traditional delivery (i.e. an album or rock band).

TY: With soundtrack work I have no set rules. Some of it is repetitive, some of it uses song structure, a lot of it is very weird. Probably from my (modern) classical music background. Also, usually I'm working by myself, so I'm responsible for the whole thing: production, engineering, composing, programming and performing the entire piece. The process takes a while since I have a tendency to use 30-40 tracks a lot. I'm looking forward to cloning myself soon.

CW: What are some of the things that lead you to use SONAR, and what are some of your favorite tools?

TY: I'm really used to the SONAR user interface. I just never got into your competitors. I work quicker in SONAR.

I love the sound of the dithering algorithms. I usually record in 48k/24bit (mostly because I want it to sound great on a DVD or DVD audio).

The clip based editing and effects features are great. I really do take different clips and slap a different effect at the end of a phrase or cut and paste and sonically torture a little snippet I find in a track.

The Lexicon Pantheon reverb is a staple of mine, and I use the Sonitus:fx plug-ins a lot (especially the Multiband compressor). The virtual instruments are great. I've been using PSYN II a lot these days. Our 'Dancing Machines' song came almost entirely from that synth. The Roland Groove Synth got me the sounds I needed for this odd 19/8 drum and bass thing I did for the troupe called 'Bubble Glaze.'

Also, I use SONAR as a tool for quickly putting together our seamless soundtracks. I can pop in various files of different sampling rates in the same song. I move them around, put some crossfades in, adjust individual song levels and export to a CD-quality wave file.

CW: You mentioned that you take advantage of SONAR's VST support by incorporating a lot of freeware VST plug-ins. Do you have any 'secret weapons' you'd like to share with our readers?

TY: Unfortunately, I spend way too much time looking for the latest greatest free VST plug-in. It has cost me a lot of sleep Googling 'free VST plug-in' and spending the wee hours of the night playing with new and weird plug-ins.

I really love the Crystal soft synth. A must have for you techno fanatics. Glaceverb is really weird, fun reverb to play with. It has a distinct sound and weird modulation settings. You can get some really good keyboard sounds playing guitar with that thing or some really alien sounding stuff. Also, there are a lot of free ring modulators, which are a must have for those of you who really must destroy a perfectly good sound [laughs], oddly there aren't a lot commercially available. Baxxpander is a good free alternative to some other bass enhancing plug-ins, I use that quite a bit.

CW: What is on the horizon for Machina Candeo, and for your music? Where can our readers check out a performance, hear your music, or watch videos.

TY: Later this year or early next I'd like to get our DVD out and of course a CD of our soundtrack music. We are always working on more choreography, learning more skills and creating a bigger show. We'll start working on shows with a quasi-story in the vein of the 'Cirque' company. More props and set pieces and unusual guest performers such as opera singers and fire installation artists are to be expected.

Check out the calendar of events at www.machinacandeo.com as new shows pop up all the time. We are working on some shows on the East Coast for Spring '07 and of course we'll be working on a tour for next summer.

You can hear some music we use at www.mp3.com/machinacandeo.com and of course check out some galleries or videos at our site www.machinacandeo.com.

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