With only a small handful of records to his name, the incredible full length debut by Seattle native Jon McMillion dropped in the closing months of 2010 turned out to be the dark horse ticket of the year. An intricate, mesmerizing album of deep house packed to the gills with brushes of jazz, progressive and psychedelic rock, it heralded the arrival of a major talent. Like another of Seattle’s revered electronic producers, Bruno Pronsato, McMillion spent his formative musical years playing in a band, something that becomes apparent in his approach to his electronic compositions. Tracking down McMillion to probe him for information regarding the album and his musical background, we found out all about his early electronic influences, his predilection for using live instruments in his records and the benefits of not being in a band. When we asked Jon to do a podcast for us, he went several steps further by putting together a completely new set of his own material, so this week’s podcast is in essence a free album of all new productions. Thanks, Jon!

LWE Podcast 73: Jon McMillion (55:11)

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There are spots around the world that are known for types of music. In America alone there is Detroit for techno, Chicago for house, New York for hip-hop, Seattle for grunge. Tell us about your musical upbringing.

Jon McMillion: Music has always been a part of my life. My father was a jazz guitarist who loved to play me tunes, show me guitar chords and talk to me about musicians he admired. My parents did a wonderful thing for me early on in my life and that was having me take piano lessons. I did that for many years and I’d like to think that it paid off. Later on I got a guitar and never looked back. I started experimenting with looping pedals and eight-track recorders. Many years later a good friend of mine gave me a sampler and a copy of Cakewalk. I was completely blown away with what I could do even in my limited knowledge of how those tools worked. I just knew that this was something I wanted to do.

What were the first inspirational electronic records you remember and how did they change your mind about what you wanted to do with music?

Hmm, that’s a good question. Looking back at when I really got started producing electronic music, it wasn’t dance music I was making. To keep things simple let’s just say I was producing IDM and ambient based music. So back then the records that inspired me and still do were on Rather Interesting, Mego, Chain Reaction, and Warp to name a few. Later on, when I started gravitating more towards dance productions, the type of records I found interesting and inspiring were records that at the time I thought pushed the envelope and challenged the idea of what could be done in a 4/4 context. For me the early Bruno Pronsato records were quite inspiring. There’s far too many artists to mention, but I really like records that keep you guessing.

You’re not the only producer out of Seattle with a band background. Bruno Pronsato as well was involved in bands. What sort of point of difference do you think this gives you when it comes to making electronic music?

I personally learned a lot from playing in bands and working with other musicians. For the kind of music I make now it definitely helped since I often use live instruments in a lot of my songs. But you have to keep in mind that playing in a band is a completely different experience than being an electronic music producer. All the decisions I make nowadays as a producer I make on my own. There are no band meetings to attend these days, or having to deal with competing ideas. I honestly don’t miss much of that. To me producing electronic music provides a lot of freedom and means to explore musical ideas. It’s hard to get in a band situation where complete control and a sense of personal freedom are in place. To me this is quite inviting and personally that’s what keeps me at it.

What instruments do you play and do you incorporate live instruments into your tracks?

I play piano, guitar, bass guitar and occasionally drums. I try to incorporate these instruments into songs as much as possible, but sometimes it’s just not appropriate or possible.

Do you consider your background as a software engineer as an advantage when it came to making music too?

Yes and no. Earlier on when I didn’t make 4/4 stuff I used tools like PD, C-Sound, and Super Collider, and my knowledge of programming definitely came in handy with those types of tools. Nowadays I’m not so much into programming sound. Instead I’m much more interested in the process of composition. Now I find myself being much more productive not having to rely on those types of tools as much as I did before.

What sort of studio set-up are you running?

Right now my studio is comprised of a Mac running Ableton & Logic, various plug-ins, some analog synths, guitars, and various pieces of outboard gear. I also keep a PC around with Sound Forge on it for more involved wave editing duties. Lately I’ve been using this new soft synth that a good friend of mine made called Aalto.

Your album is so rich with ideas, yet sounds very much like it is a studio album in a true musical sense, developed around a certain period of sessions. Can you run us through the background of the album and the recording process?

You’re right about the sessions. Most of the songs were made on a run from early 2009 to mid-2010. There really wasn’t a definitive process I used during the making of the album, and honestly it’s kind of hard to explain what I did during those sessions. One thing I really wanted to do was experiment and try out different techniques. On some of the songs I’d hit record, jam out for a while, come back and edit away. Often I’d lay down skeletons of how I wanted the song to go, and over time paint in the pieces, do more editing, do more jamming and let it sit for a few days, come back and add or subtract and move forward. I’ll say this, many of the songs were first sketched out in a few different coffee shops here in Seattle. I love sketching out ideas on my laptop outside of the studio. But overall the whole thing was a case of doing whatever it took to achieve the sound I was looking for.

There are so many tracks on the digital release, you could have stored them up for another album altogether. Did you consider shopping the other tracks around?

We knew there were going to be quite a few songs, and we wanted to put them all within the Jon McMillion LP package. So no, I didn’t consider shopping them around.

Can you tell us as bit about NuEarth Kitchen, the label you released your LP on?

Sure, NuEarth Kitchen is a new label out of Seattle my good friend Jeremy Grant put together and runs. The idea to start the label first came up in mid-2009 when Jeremy and I were listening to some tracks of mine in the studio, and we started thinking how cool it would be to have a label to put this stuff out on. That idea kept popping up over and over until finally Jeremy said, ‘It’s on, let’s do this.’ After a year of research and hard work it finally got it going.

There are an impressive array of people on remix duties for the album – in fact I know for one that’s how I came across your record in the first place. Did you hand pick the artists to remix your tracks?

Yes, the artists on the remix record are guys we really respect and admire. It was really cool how everybody came together on that project.

Do you play live? If so what sort of set-up do you operate from?

I do play out live. Right now my live PA set-up consist of Ableton Live, a Motu Ultralite, a Moog Moogerfooger ring mod, a Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man, Novation Launchpad, and an Evolution X-Session.

Tell us about this mix you’ve done for us.

Sure, this is actually a live set. Its all brand new material I’ve been playing around with.

What can we expect from Jon McMillion over the next year?

Right now I’m working on a couple of remixes, and a new Wig Water Magic E.P. After that I’m going to do some more shows, take a breather, then start production on some new projects. Hopefully we’ll see a Wig Water Magic full length later on this year or in early 2012.