Tunc Ak has had tried his hand at some type of artistic expression since he started playing the piano at the age of 8. After working his way across Canada to San Francisco, and now LA, Tunc Ak has made a breakthrough that I feel has the potential to revolutionize the way music is exhibited, performed, and sold. The convergence of his interests in music, design, and art, has manifested itself in the form of the first “albumsite” ever. Ak describes the new presentation thusly, “the site is the album, merging the music, the player, the album art, and the distribution into one entity, one packaging: the internet.”
Tunc Ak was gracious enough to take some time to answer a few questions about his new idea, the machine he used to create the music, and his own musical influences, which range from Pink Floyd to Rakim.
by Evan La Ruffa
How did you come up with the idea of an albumsite? I’ve never heard of this concept before…
It seems like the obvious conclusion to me, a dream come true for an artist in this age to be able to produce an album independently with the amazing capability to be able to distribute around the world.
And online you have so many possibilities with creativity, I mean, I’d like to have even more dynamic movement with every song, more trippy stuff, I haven’t even begun yet. The medium of the albumsite encourages amazing creativity for a long time to come in music and album art.
You created all the music on a Roland R8 Human Rhythm Composer – seems like a pliable machine. What about that machine particularly inspired you to use it, as opposed to other similar drum machines?
Simply it was my machine at the time and one of my favorites at that, because it’s self contained and actually really fun. It’s an instrument you can really push to it’s limits which makes it great.
How do you plan on eating man? Seems like you’re giving your art away…did you copyright the albumsite idea?
Well ultimately the albumsite is really a promotional tool as every record in the past has always been. Artists didn’t really get rich off record sales anyways….
The albumsite idea is of course free in the market of ideas and I’d like to see more artists do it and know that they will. But as far as the content, that’s the music and art, it’s all copyrighted.
The struggle to make it has not changed but the new capabilities has given the artist more control of the work and in the end I believe more reward too. Ultimately I’m pursuing backing to develop a holographic exhibit/concert for It’s A Beat and with that I will be able to earn some money. It’s always about the show, the spectacle. And besides, I know myself, and ever since Napster, the pandoras box has been opened and I believe the future of music will be free just like TV shows have always been for the public. I just want to be in control of that distribution and not give anyone any reason to download from anywhere else. Free and direct from the artist!
Do you play other instruments?
I play keyboards, guitar and sing, and I am building a new page on my site that will be a single release of one of my more rock vocal songs. I want people to see that I’m not just a silent electronic instrumentalist, It’s A Beat was a project that was polished and ready to go, so I started there.
If you could trace the musical or artistic inspiration for “It’s A Beat,” what would you point to as a precursor to your work?
Well, I come from the universe of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and basically psychedelic music, but at the time I was listening to Peter Gabriels’ Passion soundtrack which explains the tribal sound of the album….I can hear some cues I must have picked up unconsciously from Eric B. & Rakim as well. Also, the ascending three note bass progression that is a common theme throughout the album is definitely a direct influence of the groove style James Brown employed in a lot of his songs. But the presentation of It’s A Beat reminds me more of Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon, it has that concept album feel, the darkness and with headphones, that trip out.
What record, cd, or mp3 is currently in your player of choice?
I haven’t bought a CD since 1999 and have been digital ever since. I listen to something new everyday, it’s kind of an addiction, but here goes the latest:
Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg, Easy Star All Stars – Lonely Hearts Dub Band, AIR – Love 2, Muse – The Resistance, Yusef Islam – Roadsinger, Emperor Machine, Black Moth Super Rainbow…
Let me stop there, it gets ridiculous how much I go through.
Name one musician my readers should check out.
There is this album I have been looking for for years, really rare and I just found it called MU from the artist “Masters Of Psychedelic Ambiance”. It’s very avant-garde, not even really music but more of an aural experience and I think It’s a masterpiece.
Check out Tunc’s albumsite, called It’s A Beat…..and enjoy.
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