Mitch Murder on drums, creativity, and his new XO expansion Root Access

Few producers move as fluidly between genres (or as quietly behind an anonymous avatar) as Mitch Murder. With his new XO expansion Root Access, we sat down for a conversation about beginnings, discipline, identity, sound, and what surprised him most when building his expansion for XO.

How did the Mitch Murder project originally begin, and what pushed you to start releasing music?

I started posting tracks as Mitch Murder around 2008, mainly on Myspace and electronic music forums like WATMM (RIP!). At the time I experimented with a bunch of various genres, but most people seemed to gravitate towards the ‘80s-inspired material.

I had been making music on the computer for around 15 years at that point but had never received as much attention before with any of my previous aliases, so pushing the Mitch Murder project and eventually putting together releases rather than just posting individual tracks became the natural progression of things, and I’ve never really stopped or taken any extended breaks since.

What keeps you creatively driven after so many years of releasing music?

I think switching it up a lot and avoiding working on the same type of music all the time is a good way to keep things interesting. It’s not always the most popular approach. People appreciate consistency from an artist they follow, so when I’m jumping from synthwave to 303-laden breakbeats to city pop to drum n bass, listeners can never really be sure what they’re going to get, which some find irritating, but it definitely keeps me creatively engaged.

Taking inspiration from movies, music and so on used to be a major part of my creative process. I’ve come to realize however that it’s rarely enough to fuel an entire track from beginning to end, and unless you put in the work even when you’re not feeling particularly inspired, a lot of the time you’ll just end up with countless 30-seconds-to-a-minute-long unfinished projects. So, trying new and different things (especially genres you’re not necessarily that well versed in) on a regular basis is my preferred method these days.

You’ve always kept your identity low-key. What motivated that choice?

Initially the idea was for the music to speak for itself as much as possible, without the distraction of an artist persona, which is why I picked the most bland, uninteresting looking banker/accountant-type avatar to represent Mitch Murder. This changed slightly over the years though and I grew quite fond of my chosen ‘80s Wall Street stereotype, which is why he can be seen on many of my album and EP covers in various iterations.

At this point though I wouldn’t necessarily have a problem with a “face reveal” or whatever but I also don’t really see the point, and I know many of my listeners prefer the whole anonymous approach as well. It used to be pretty common in electronic music especially. I had no idea what (for example) Aphex Twin, Autechre or FSOL looked like for many years after I started listening to them in the mid ‘90s, and it created this cool sense of mystery around them that I think is pretty rare to come across these days.

Your sound blends synthwave, city-pop, fusion, funk, and 90s–00s electronic music. How do you navigate all those influences while remaining true to your sound?

I listen to a lot of different sorts of music, so I can’t really avoid being influenced by a lot of different genres. Developing a “sound” of my own is just the natural result of decades of trial and error, so for better or worse I think I’m stuck with it at this point. No matter what genre I choose to tackle there’s always going to be hints of it in there somewhere, and while I sometimes deliberately try and steer away from it, especially with my recent DnB stuff, more often than not I just end up giving in to it.

When you start a new musical idea — is it an explorative process or do you know what you need to do to realize a clear vision?

I usually have a rough idea of what I want it to be, but the majority of the process is what I like to compare to puzzle-solving. I don’t have any formal training in music or music theory or anything like that, so while I can clearly hear the chord or chord progression I’m going for in my head, it often takes me a while to actually figure it out. To me this is part of the fun though. A bit like solving a riddle. I could’ve (and probably should have) learned the basics of the piano by now, but I don’t have all the time in the world, and I’ve always prioritized making new music instead.

Do you process drums on individual tracks or treat the drum bus as its own instrument?

I always process drums on individual tracks, and because my kicks and snares are usually layered across several tracks I’ll have a kick bus and a snare bus for further processing as well, rather than a single drum bus. It’s important to me that everything is neatly separated, compressed, equalized and panned separately etc.

I know a lot of people like to put a single unifying compressor on the master or drum bus, but that has never been my approach at all.

Do you use hardware or software?

It’s always been 100% software. I’ve dabbled with hardware here and there over the years and while it’s fun and often inspiring going hands on, twisting knobs and whatnot, the process always felt too slow and cumbersome to me when it comes to actually making something, and every piece of hardware I bought always ended up collecting dust somewhere. It’s just personal preference though, and probably has something to do with my demoscene / tracker origins, where I always worked with samples.

What surprised you most about making a drum-focused expansion for XO?

Probably how versatile XO actually is when you get more familiar with it. Before working on the expansion I’d pretty much only used it as a tool for finding cool individual drum samples and hadn’t really touched the sequencer at all but it’s been really fun digging into that part of it.

Also, limiting myself to only using the onboard effects etc. on offer within XO while working on the expansion has been a nice reminder of how limitations often spark creativity as well.

How did you approach making Root Access?

Initially I figured most of it should probably stay ‘80s focused as that’s what I’m most known for and what people would expect from it, but I wanted to make sure to include a few other styles as well, having dabbled particularly in DnB, but also some ‘90s house and electronica over the past couple of years. Old school electro and breakdance type beats are always fun to make with drum sequencers in general, so I made sure to include some of those too. In the end the expansion probably turned out a bit more varied in terms of styles than I had originally intended, and I think it’s better for it.

What’s next for Mitch Murder?

I’m currently trying to put a new DnB EP together before the end of the year, likely followed by the 7th entry in my “Selection” album series next year, which I’ve decided will remain purely ‘80s / synth. There’s also a few potential collabs and video game related stuff on the horizon, but other than that I’ll just keep trucking on with the YouTube uploads and sporadic releases here and there.