excerpts from
RGM’s Carl Maloney interview with Marc Soucy
August 5 2024
RGM INTRODUCING – WE INTERVIEW MARC SOUCY WHAT HAPPENED?
I’ve seen a lot of people struggling for support recently online. What’s your view on the industry?
“Things have changed so radically over the many years I’ve been doing this. The market is driven too much by marketing techniques and not often enough by pure quality. I hear a lot of sameness coming from many directions in the music world, and just like what happened when I was young, I get bored quickly with the predictability of it all. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of great stuff out there. It’s just that perhaps there is simply too much music being released nowadays and the result is what it is.”
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
“I am an unknown entity that finally decided I couldn’t continue in life without releasing my work. I am not expecting popular success in any way since I don’t create “popular music”. My music runs parallel to styles like jazz, ragtime, bluegrass, classical, and new age. These are primarily instrumental styles that people enjoy for their artistry and emotional interpretation. I work hard to convey deep emotional content in every piece I produce. It’s very satisfying, and I am hoping to have my music included in visual productions eventually, like film and TV.”
I hear you have a new music, what can you tell us about it.
“It is the coming together of everything I’ve experienced in my life as a musician. I never did become a purist or an expert at any one style. Instead, I was always looking around the corner for what else I could do. This new music is the result of exploring. Perhaps the oddest thing about it is that I am not writing lyrics and not using a singer. At least not yet. Human voices are a sound in my music though to be sure.”
What was the recording process like?
“I work in my studio creating melodies, ethnic snippets, other parts, patterns, beats, and sometimes an arpeggio. Over time, these parts find each other in my mind, and I make them work together. There is usually a guiding principle in the form of a mini storyline that I create to then guide myself through the process.
“I play almost everything at least once and record it to midi on my digital audio workstation. I will some editing to make things tighter afterwards, but 90% of what you hear is me playing on a keyboard first. The rest might be generated by a digital arpeggiator or on very rare occasions a sample of a performance that I can’t possibly do otherwise. These are always licensed of course. I cut up the samples and repurposed them to work in my composition. One time I even played it backward to make it work. Then I render everything to audio and do the final mix and master myself.”
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
“I work so hard at getting each piece where it is when I release it, I am emotionally ready to let it go and stop thinking about it. That feeling can be like torture and I had to learn to think that way. It took me a long time to reach that.”
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
“Think independently.”