In this interview spotlight, I chat with Baruch Williamson about the latest music, challenges, surviving these wild times and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Where are you from and how do You describe your style of music?

I am originally from the countryside of the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, but recently moved to the capital, Brussels. I would describe the music I make under my electronic moniker as danceable but experimental wave music, with some hints of psychedelic rock and indie rock, as I mostly played in rock bands.

How did you get here? As in, what inspired or motivated you to take on this journey through music and the music biz?

Since I was really young I already dug into the big music collection of my dad and ‘played’ with GarageBand on the Mac desktop in our living room. I also started a band with my brother at age 13 and from then on it went really organically that we were asked to play gigs in cafés and small venues in our neighbourhood. I became engaged in other bands and projects as well, but this project is where I’m able to do just my own thing. So from a young age I was encouraged and fascinated to understand the processes that were going on in the music industry. I also wrote my thesis in philosophy on music in Deleuze and Guattari, so music is really a passion and common thread through my life and I think, as for a lot of people, it is essential for me in going through both good and bad times.

How does your latest project compare/contrast with your previous release(s)? Were you setting out to accomplish anything specific, follow a specific theme, or explore different styles of creation?

My newest album ‘Satellite Of Love And Rhizomes’ is the third and thus final part of a trilogy that came into reality during the recent lock downs. Already after one weekend in lock down in March 2020, I made and released ‘Le Vent Qui Crie’, the first part. I was very shocked because so many (of my) gigs were cancelled and I finished the first part as some kind of message, but just also as a way of coping with the spare time I had all of a sudden. As everything kept being postponed, I was just randomly working on other tracks and brought them together with some older pieces for the second part ‘Sagittarius A*’. Still at that time, I didn’t had any idea about that I might have been working on a trilogy. But some months after, always around the same amount of time, I finished enough tracks to have ‘Satellite Of Love And Rhizomes’. In the end the trilogy might be for me an artifact or representation of the very challenging times I personally and people in music in general went through. The atmosphere changes a bit throughout the trilogy, and in SOLAR the tone is much more affirmative and relativistic. It’s like me and the listener get sucked into a black hole but we’re able to get out, party again, and think about more acute problems of our time. Creatively I always try to make something really expressive and individual. I really like to experiment and to the end of the trilogy the music becomes more ‘bombastic’. At the time I was listening a lot to Ennio Morricone and his song ‘Le Vent Le Cri’. He died some months after I released Le Vent Qui Crie.

Name the biggest challenge you faced as a creative during these unprecedented? How did you adapt? How have you kept the creative fires burning during all this?

Of course I think the most difficult thing was not being able to play or go to concerts. I did some live streams but pretty fast I realized it’s not at all the same and I started to  revolt a little bit against this way of dealing with music. Because if it would become too normal, we would never have real concerts again (was my reasoning). It was never really difficult to ‘keep the fire burning’, because I automatically find myself grabbing an instrument from time to time. Even if I am tired of it at some points, it comes back again like it is a need running through my body, like eating or shitting.

Of course it was more difficult to work on stuff without a real perspective of bringing it live, because that’s where I suppose music is perceived with and through other bodies, where it can affect and produce something that we were not able to understand on our own in the first place. But on the other side I thought it was quiet interesting to be able to think of music as ‘a world on itself’, like a cut off reality that stands alone and doesn’t necessarily need to be perceived. This world has its own qualities, and for the listener it might be like a new place or planet you’re able to visit if you discover it. The element of atmosphere is therefore very ambiguous, but I’m even more eager than ever to experience the intersection between these two ‘ways of listening’.

What was the last song you listened to?

I just watched the live version of Tame Impala’s ‘Apocalypse Dreams’ on YouTube. I’ve seen Tame Impala live 3 times and it is incredible how they have grown to be what I think it’s the most impressing thing you can do on a stage. Especially in the live version of Apocalypse Dreams, with which they end their sets quiet often, the light show is connected meticulously with the music. It is like you’re watching a spaceship that landed.

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? 8-tracks? Cassettes? CDs? MP3s? Streaming platforms?

With my band we always pressed CDs via a Polish pressing service and I really like to see how something that sprout of your mind can get ‘physical’. Therefore I also like vinyl a lot, but most of the time I’m just streaming on Spotify and YouTube, because I want to discover new music. So the fact that I would buy a CD or vinyl from an artist, is like the last step in a process of affirmation towards them. It’s the sum and consolidation of all the waves that you caught loosely while streaming. It makes it less transient and a structuring of your own space to really ‘possess’ the music.

Where is the best place to connect with you and follow your journey?

I’m active on all social media. You can like my page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/baruchwilliamson , follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/baruch_williamson/ or SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/boriswillems or subscride to my YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/user/tisots

I really appreciate Your time. Anything else before we sign off?

Thanks a lot for these interesting questions! They were nice to think about 😊