We meet up with

Jos Verboven Also known as Brainvoyager. Both DJ and musician. Its always a pleasure to hear the use of Arps and amazing percussions I wanted to catch and see what makes him tick.

1. What is your process when creating music; or is life the process that creates the music?

Photo: Lucien Kroon Fotografie

I just sit and start to jam. Sometimes I have a preconceived idea of the direction I want to go. But other than that, I just see what emerges…

2. Your favorite instrument?

My software synths and the VST’s I use.

3. What do you have in your arsenal, and could you make the greatest album with toy instruments? 

I don’t know what you mean with “toy instruments”. But here is my complete set-up:

Hardware

• Custom build desktop PC (CPU: Intel® “Skylake-S” Core i7-6700K 4,0 GHz)
• Crucial 32 GB DDR4-2400 “Ballistix Sport LT” Quad-Kit RAM
• 1 Samsung 850 EVO 1 TB internal SSD
• 3 Toshiba DT01ACA300, 3 TB internal HDD
• 1 Seagate Expansion Desktop 4 TB external HDD
• KORG Microkey 37 – midi controller keyboard
• Alesis VI61 – midi controller keyboard
• AKAI APC40 surface – midi controller
• Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 external USB – audio controller
• KRK Rokit 8 – studio monitors
• MXL 770 – Condenser Microphone
• Beyerdynamic DT770 – Pro headphones

Software

• Operating system: Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
• DAW (digitial audio workstation): Ableton Live Suite 9.7 (64-bit)
• Ableton 50 gb sample library
• iZotope Ozone 6 Advanced Mastering Suite

VST’s

• ReFX Nexus 2 & Expansions (64-bit)
• Arturia V Collection 4 (64-bit)
• Omnisphere 2 Power Synth (Spectrasonics) & 55 gb sample library (64-bit)
• Trillian Bass Module (Spectrasonics) & 35 gb sample library (64-bit)
• Stylus RMX Groove Module (Spectrasonics) & 8 gb sample library (64-bit)

With this set-up, I have been able to create all my releases so far.

4. True or false: animals will naturally talk to a certain capacity. And discuss why?

True. Animals too are living creatures that, to a certain extent, can communicate. They act much more instinctively than humans of course. Before humans start their communication, they can decide what to communicate, with what intonation to communicate and with what means to communicate. As far as I know animals start communication right away before considering all what humans are used to do, purely instinctively, merely based upon the current situation they are in.

5. How well do you work with others? Or is electronic a solo centric genre?

I prefer to work alone. But I know many examples of musicians who collaborate with others. All is fine of course. The result is what counts. Electronic music can be created in collaboration with others very well, just like any other kind of music. What counts too, is that musicians must have fun, be it as a solo artist or in a band.

6. Who is your dream collaboration?

I do not have one…

7. Does spirituality play a part in your life?

Not at all. If you mean spirituality as in religion: not at all. I hate all religions since I strongly believe they only have brought thousands and thousands of massacres in our world in the past, today and that they will continue to do so in the future.

Besides that, I do not want to abide with a set of –in my eyes– stupid rules and rituals of a certain religion. I also hate the concept of believing in a supreme being that only exists in the minds of religious people. This all absolutely does not mean I hate people who believe and who are part of a religion!! It’s the religion itself I loathe. Everyone can do as he or she likes, since I believe that this is a basic right of every human being. In return, I want religious people to respect my basic right of being able to hate religions. But we all know that the latter is something that from the beginning of our world many religious people have sufficiently proven not being very good at. This kind of religious people I do loathe from the bottom of my heart.

8. This is a great time to discuss any bucket list item or accomplishments in your career if you care to share?

I cannot think of any item now. So, I guess I do not have one…

9. Despite music what are your many talents? What is your favorite video game?

I am good as an accountant at work, a job I like very much. Music is not a source of income for me, it does not have to be that either. For me it means a very relaxed way of creating my music, knowing that I do not necessarily have to make a lot of money out of it. But I would not mind if a track of mine would become a monster hit that makes me rich either. Lol…

I do not like video games, I never have had any interest in them and I do not think that will ever chance given my age…

10. What are you currently working on what should the world be expecting from Jos?

I just released a track on the compilation album “History of the Universe” of the Legacy of Thought record label. Together with 16 other musicians we have created this awesome album. My track is meant to visualize the forming of our Sun. Hence its title “The Sun Forms”, a track of 19:55 minutes.

As a radio host, I present the weekly radio show “Electronic Fusion”. In August 2015, West Star Radio from the UK asked me if I would like to become a member of the West Star team and if I would like to do a weekly radio show. I said “Yes” and we agreed upon me doing a weekly show dedicated solely to electronic music. That’s how radio show “Electronic Fusion” was born. West Star Radio is an “all round” radio station. It doesn’t focus on a music genre. The station’s broadcasts vary between rock, pop, oldies, electronic and dance. The very first episode was broadcast on Friday 18 September 2015, on West Star Radio.

In March 2016, the Venezuelan radio station Electronic Music Radio started to broadcast “Electronic Fusion”. Electronic Music Radio is a radio station that broadcasts electronic music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This station focuses mainly on the dance and trance genres in electronic music and aims mainly at the Latin American countries of South America.

In October 2016, the German radio station Modul303 started broadcasting “Electronic Fusion” too. Modul303 is a radio station that broadcasts electronic music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Modul303 focuses more on the genres in electronic music I appreciate most; genres that always have a dominant place in “Electronic Fusion” since I have my “electronic roots” there.

“Electronic Fusion” does not only feature the world’s best-known artists and bands. The show highly encourages music submissions from electronic (indie) artists coming from all over the world.

On Saturday 5 August 2017 episode #100 was broadcast.

11. Favorite shows, snacks and wind down ritual?

I like watching Game of Thrones a lot, same with watching Suits. I like to watch a movie every now and then. And I like listening to music, mainly electronic music.

LATEST ALBUM OUT NOW ON LEGACY OF THOUGHT RECORDS