By Keith Walsh
There’s a new digital music provider service in town. BeatStars gives electronic musicians a platform to market their beats on a stable and user-friendly forum. I spoke with our friend Gilles Snowcat about his use of the platform to sell his beats.

Synthbeat: What tools are you using to create the beats?
Gilles Snowcat: “A good drum machine with a hammering kick, and basic FM synthesizers. I also have fun creating sounds with totally unrelated items.”

Synthbeat: What are some of the unrelated items you use to create beats, and specifically what drum machines?
Gilles Snowcat: I like the Mattel drum machine. I think it’s the same company that makes the Barbie dolls, no? I have some sounds of it and I love them. I’ve used them years ago on the disco mix of ‘The Blue Hanger’  and kind of forgot them afterwards. I know that Carmine Appice from Vanilla Fudge used a Mattel SynSonic on the ‘Mystery’ album, very underrated stuff, great great album actually.”

Synthbeat:  Is there anything different about how you create beats for BeatStars compared to how you would make a beat track for a Gilles Snowcat song?
Gilles Snowcat:  “Yes. The beats being royalty-free, it means I’m not creating anything personal here. Just beats that are easy to use on any song. It’s an ego-dilemma, since I couldn’t allow a Snowcat-infused idea to be released freely. I’d be sick if I did. Each time a beat starts to be really creative, I keep it for my own next music, probably the new Minus Ion Re-Generation project. For the beatmaking job, I just focus on making usable, strong and completely unpersonal beats.”

Synthbeat:  What’s the most unusual thing you’ve used to create a beat?
Gilles Snowcat: “It was on the same ‘Blue Hanger’ disco single, in 2009, the B-side was a new version of ‘Riding The Yellow Line Gives Vibrations,’ for which I had created my own drum machine with sounds I’ve recorded in an airplane. I’ve actually replaced the white noise of the drum machine with the rich sound of an airplane cabin, and kept the same envelope, which created that unique drum sound.”

As the creator of lots of music – playing bass, guitar, keys and vocals, starting with his days in Awaken in the 80s, Gilles knows his stuff. Check out his latest album “You’ve Been Unboxing Gilles Snowcat” on all streaming platforms.

The BeatStars interface is available at www.beatstars.com and also an app for your Android or iPhone.

www.beatstars.com
Gilles Snowcat Online
You’ve Been Unboxing Gilles Snowcat

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