My friend Stephen Howell was laid to his final rest this morning in Cardiff, Wales at the church where he was a chorister in his youth. I have sat myself down to write about him several times since his passing on the 31st of May. The words would not come.
So let me say that he was a talented, brilliant and complicated man. Without his input and encouragement there would have never been an Atomic Shadow project. If you ever owned an Akai sampler, he was the guy who probably made all of the sounds that came with it. His Hollow Sun company was a provider of quality sounds for Akai samplers and he eventually transitioned to the Kontakt sampler, well after hardware had seen it's day. He designed the user interface for a ton of Akai products, later moving to Alesis when Numark bought Akai. During his years at Akai he learned to speak Japanese. Fluently.
I met Stephen in 2006 on a user forum for the Alesis Fusion. We shared a similar sense of humor and bonded over our mutual love of Genesis. I knew him for several months before he came clean and told me that he was the head sound designer at Alesis.
So let me say that he was a talented, brilliant and complicated man. Without his input and encouragement there would have never been an Atomic Shadow project. If you ever owned an Akai sampler, he was the guy who probably made all of the sounds that came with it. His Hollow Sun company was a provider of quality sounds for Akai samplers and he eventually transitioned to the Kontakt sampler, well after hardware had seen it's day. He designed the user interface for a ton of Akai products, later moving to Alesis when Numark bought Akai. During his years at Akai he learned to speak Japanese. Fluently.
I met Stephen in 2006 on a user forum for the Alesis Fusion. We shared a similar sense of humor and bonded over our mutual love of Genesis. I knew him for several months before he came clean and told me that he was the head sound designer at Alesis.
Usually the people you meet in the music industry are eager to brag about even the most remote association with famous stars. Stephen was quite the opposite in my experience. I had known him for almost two years before I found out that he had worked at Real World Studios for Peter Gabriel during the production of the soundtrack for The Last Temptation Of Christ. Over the years during,g a late night Skype chat, he would let drop that he had an email from someone famous asking about one of his sampler instruments. His relationships with most went back for a number of years. But it never came across as "Look at me. I'm so important". It is clear to me from some of the letters that I have received from some of his friends and customers how highly regarded he was by so many of them. He felt that personal contact with his customers was far more important than what he called "Social NOTworking".
Stephen was the key figure in the origin story of Atomic Shadow, with the unwitting assistance of a guy named Brian Eno.
Between meeting Stephen in 2006, and sometime in 2009, I began to send him things that I had recorded from time to time. He always had the manners to act as if the mp3 had gotten lost somewhere. Never once did he offer a comment of any kind. The one time I pressed and asked him if he listened and what he thought, he told me! Bluntly, honestly and without holding back. As a result I never asked again. My efforts at sound design were ill suited to writing a song. I was taking a loop of a fan system in a building that had the bearings going out and putting it in an Akai S-612, through a chain of effects and then trying to build verse, chorus, and bridge structures from very abstract sounds. My wife would often come back to that end of the house to see what was making that horrible noise. It was me. Making sounds. She would ask me if I was making a song with the sound and I would always say, "I don't see how I could."
Late in 2009 Stephen and I came across a piece of software called Berna. It is a Mac only, software recreation of a 50s era electronic music studio. I started messing around with it one night and recorded something that was done live, in one take. Since we shared a love for the early pioneers of electronic music I sent him the mp3 of my first experiment (which became #1 on the Project One album). He wrote back within a few minutes to say that he thought it was best thing I had ever sent him. "You seem to have an ear for the abstract. I think you've found your niche. You should pursue this direction".
I assumed that he had been drinking and went to bed. Crazy Welshman.
The very next morning I encountered an interview with Brian Eno on one of the synth blogs. I love it when Mr. Eno shares his ideas because he always has something intelligent to say. I still had Stephen's email fresh in my mind as I read Eno's thoughts on inspiration and creativity. Eno said that sometimes an artist has to take his best shot and then paint a bullseye around where the arrow lands. BANG! The light came on. I was a drummer by training. The noisy one. I was never going to write a hit song. All of the sounds that were useless for songs were the end result. That was the bullseye. Pure sound.
I wrote Stephen that morning telling him of the epiphany. I was going to take a load of these sounds that I had made over the years and experiment with them. His advice was, "Get yourself a pretentious electronic music making name and bollocks your way in to serious electronic music circles".
Since I had decided to take off in a very Radiophonic direction I knew I needed a mid century inspired name. I had the vision of the Command Center as a backdrop for future videos. I knew I wanted to channel the lab coat along with that whole 50s era esthetic.I needed a Cold War sounding name. It had to be Jet or Rocket something... or Atomic something. The light came on again.
Over the next few weeks I made the first Atomic Shadow album, sending track after track to Stephen for input. Since almost all of the tracks were done in real time with no over dubbing, some experiments were more successful than others. I was very thankful that I had a friend who would give me honest feedback. He would not hold back to spare my tender feelings. Project One was completed in one massive outpouring in 5 weeks during the fall of 2009.
I have counted on his insight, support, and constructive criticism for every album. He always inspired me to dig deeper.
Since I had decided to take off in a very Radiophonic direction I knew I needed a mid century inspired name. I had the vision of the Command Center as a backdrop for future videos. I knew I wanted to channel the lab coat along with that whole 50s era esthetic.I needed a Cold War sounding name. It had to be Jet or Rocket something... or Atomic something. The light came on again.
Over the next few weeks I made the first Atomic Shadow album, sending track after track to Stephen for input. Since almost all of the tracks were done in real time with no over dubbing, some experiments were more successful than others. I was very thankful that I had a friend who would give me honest feedback. He would not hold back to spare my tender feelings. Project One was completed in one massive outpouring in 5 weeks during the fall of 2009.
I have counted on his insight, support, and constructive criticism for every album. He always inspired me to dig deeper.
Apart from the mentoring I am going to miss his quick wit and wicked sense of humor. He could be uproariously vulgar in the most creative and, somehow, charming ways. Always ready with great comeback. For example I once posted a link to the following video on a forum that we frequented. You don't need to watch the whole thing to get a sense of it.
A few minutes later Stephen had left the following comment. "Bugger! I'm going to be humming that all afternoon now!"
I have laughed out loud more during one of our Skype chats than I do when when watching 75% of the comedians on television.
I have laughed out loud more during one of our Skype chats than I do when when watching 75% of the comedians on television.
Stephen had a reputation for making sample instruments that were very much like playing the real thing. He was especially found of the sound of the Mellotron. He dreamed up several daft things called Music Laboratory Machines. His genius for melding samples with a user interface that was creative and inspiring to use was unrivaled in my opinion.
Stephen's lab at Hollow Sun Towers was so organized and tidy compared to my space. The photo at the right (by Neil Fellowes) is his creative space. Something about this image of his unoccupied desk, with his tools waiting for him, makes me cry. Every time I look at it.
Such a wonderful voice, now sadly fallen silent. Far too young. I will miss him every day for the rest of my life. Goodbye Stephen.
Stephen's lab at Hollow Sun Towers was so organized and tidy compared to my space. The photo at the right (by Neil Fellowes) is his creative space. Something about this image of his unoccupied desk, with his tools waiting for him, makes me cry. Every time I look at it.
Such a wonderful voice, now sadly fallen silent. Far too young. I will miss him every day for the rest of my life. Goodbye Stephen.
RSS Feed
