Two New Songs and Videos from Spacemoth

We interviewed engineer/producer/artist Maryam Qudus about her Spacemoth project back in Tape Op #148. Spacemoth has a new LP that is releasing on June 26, but in the meantime you can check out these two new tracks, “Internet Fantasy” and “Do We Exist,” and the fun videos accompanying them. 

We reached out to Maryam to find out more about upcoming album, and this is what she had to say:

“My new album Inward Eye started at Best House – the studio I share with my husband Beau Sorenson in Oakland, CA. I started the songs with loops: a drum machine beat, a sequence, and a backwards synth. I would hum a melody throughout the song that eventually evolved into words. I had the studio and an array of instruments at my fingertips: the Moog Mother-32, Sequential Prophet-5, a Rickenbacker 620, plus a wide array of Earthquaker pedals and some classic analog outboard equipment."

"While I was writing these songs, I was also in the midst of archiving VHS home videos of my family. The videos would play in the background while I digitized them in the room adjacent to the studio. I would catch glimpses of my younger self and my family in a different era of our lives, which informed the writing for ‘Inward Eye’."

"In the middle of the recording process, I started to travel more for sessions and I was on tour with Spacemoth and La Luz. I had to pivot to finishing my record in a more mobile setting. I would use moments after sessions, long drives in the van, and days off in hotel rooms to finish writing. VHS home movies were replaced with glimpses of the open road out the window. I brought items that could fit in my backpack: Teenage Engineering TX-6 and OP-1, a Roland SP-404, and I also used my live rig: the Sequential Prophet-600, a Critter & Guitari Organelle, and Hologram Chroma Console. Once I was finally home, I brought the songs to Tiny Telephone in Oakland and recorded drums with Cody Rhodes, Jason Slota, and Liam O’Neill. Beau contributed some production as well and mixed the record."

"One of the beauties of recording music in the modern era is that you can take 'the studio' with you anywhere you go and thankfully I was able to turn mundane moments on the road into something highly creative and beautiful.”

Check out the new songs and videos below, and also keep an eye, or ear, out for a Tape Op Podcast with Maryam coming out soon.