American electronic producer Travis Stewart’s Machinedrum alias has been pushing the boundaries of drum & bass for over 20 years, incorporating elements of glitch-hop, IDM, house, dubstep, jungle and juke, while still finding room for collaboration on dual projects such as J-E-T-S, Sepalcure and Dream Continuum. In addition, the versatile Stewart has recently dipped his toe into film and TV scoring with credits including the acclaimed German crime drama, Das Geheimnis Des Totenwaldes (2020).
Following a four-year hiatus as Machinedrum, Stewart decided to spend his 41st birthday at Joshua Tree National Park. Seeking clarity and inspiration, and armed with a collection of old hard drives, Stewart reemployed defunct ’90s music sequencer Impulse Tracker to create a dedicated sound library featuring long-lost material from his teenage years. Creating a self-enforced rule set alongside an eclectic range of vocal collaborators, Machinedrum’s latest sonic tapestry, 3FOR82, threads a needle between his past, present and future self.
You’re about to release your 11th album. How does it feel to have a career that possesses such longevity?
“It’s an interesting question. There have been times when I’ve wondered how long I can keep this going, but overall there was a point when I realised that the path I was taking was focused more on longevity than overnight success. A lot of the creative decisions I’ve made have leaned towards the former, especially given the risk of generally not doing what some other artists do, which is to find and then stick to one sound so as not to alienate their fans. I tend to make music I would want to hear my favourite artists make, and I want to see them continue to grow, evolve and surprise rather than give me something expected or predictable.”
Was there a release that signified a point in time where you thought, great, making music can be a career for the rest of my life?
“The decision to be a career. I was working with all these different vocalists and seeing new paths open up from that. At that point, I finally understood what it meant to be a music producer rather than an electronic music creator – everything had become weightier than just releasing some instrumental tracks of me fucking around.”
