Ela Minus on hardware synths, club culture, and her upcoming album DIA
Ela Minus on hardware synths, club culture, and her upcoming album DIA
Words by Sonal D'Silva
From Bogotá’s punk scene to Berklee-trained electronic innovator, Ela Minus has come far. Her debut, acts of rebellion, resonated during the pandemic, and now her globe-spanning follow-up, DIA, charts new heights in sound and self-discovery.
Colombian artist Ela Minus started her musical journey as a drummer in her teens and evolved into the hardware synth-wielding powerhouse she is today, all the while – excuse the pun – marching to her own beat.
In her hometown of Bogotá, starting at age 12, she played drums with local punk rock band Ratón Péréz for close to a decade before moving to the US to study at the Berklee College of Music where she double-majored in jazz drumming and synthesizer design.
Once synths became the heart of her music-making process, she released several EPs and then her first album, acts of rebellion, released on Domino. The album, crafted entirely in her home studio, came out in 2020 and resonated with listeners during a time when the world, in the grip of a global pandemic, had stopped making much sense.
The follow-up record, DIA, was born from the chaos of those years and created all over the world – from a cabin in Mexico to apartments and hotels in North America, Europe, and her native Colombia. The result is a strong sophomore album that reveals an artist focused on both musical and personal growth.
How did you approach DIA differently from your previous album?
I approached it differently in every single way [because] everything was different in my life. For some people, it feels like the pandemic didn't make any difference and life just kept going; then you find other people for whom everything changed. I was one of them because I had to leave my house and move many times, so there was a feeling of uprootedness. That was very hard and I made this record from that place – physically and mentally – of not having a permanent place, of moving around, renting Airbnbs, and kind of carrying everything I owned with me.
Emotionally, or from a lyrical point of view, on acts of rebellion, I was trying to give people answers, a safe space, and strength. On DIA, I had none of those things myself. I tried to write the record the same way and I couldn't, so I realised this is a record of questions, not answers, and of sitting on those questions and those different uncomfortable places.
From a professional perspective, the first record did well, so life was different after that: acts of rebellion was made at my house, but with this album, working from professional studios instead of my home studio changed things [for me], technically, as a producer.
“This is a record of questions, not answers, and of sitting on those questions and those different uncomfortable places.”
What does the clock in the video for the song BROKEN signify?
I love that you ask this! The clock in BROKEN indicates the actual time of the song on the record. The entire visual concept of the record is ‘time’. It's very subtle, but the video for the first single COMBAT also starts with a timer that goes by. Also, on the cover of DIA, you see the tracklisting with the time at which [the songs] start on the record.
I describe this record as a period of time defined by the presence of light – that is what DIA is to me. Everything, visually and conceptually, is about time, so in the live shows and in the videos, you see time pass.
You started as a drummer, so how did synths become the heart of your performance and production setup?
There are a couple of pieces in the puzzle. A very important one was that I got a job building and fixing hardware synthesisers, so I started spending a lot of time with them, understanding the circuitry and the sound. In parallel, my ear started becoming more refined and I began noticing that music [in general] was sounding the same – sitting in a very specific range of frequencies. I realised that a big part of that is probably because everybody was using MIDI in laptops and software synthesisers and most of us have the same brand of laptop and the same sound card. So I thought, “We're all getting very unified; this is not interesting.” I think those two things made me turn more and more to hardware synthesizers because they felt more interesting. The range was wider and they felt more like an actual instrument that I could play – it was very tactile.
Playing drums is a wonderful thing and it makes you very humble because you're serving the music. You're not in the front of anything, which I love; that’s actually where I feel I belong – in the back. But you always need more people when you play drums, right? I realised fast that with synthesisers I could be free alone – I didn't need anybody else. So I think those three things really pushed me towards hardware synths.
When you're feeling inspired, what gear do you reach for?
I've had a Juno for a very long time and I feel like I know it really well, so I tend to go to it. For the last record, I also went to the Moog Sub 37. I like starting with melodies and chords and then adding everything else because I've noticed that when I start with a beat or a bass line, it's harder for me to make a song out of it. So even if I end up muting them after, I start with the Juno or the Sub 37.
“I started implementing a rule where if I have a synth that I haven't used in one year, I'll sell it.”
Photographs: Alvaro Arisó
What is your approach to adding gear to your setup? It’s so easy to become a gearhead.
That's a great question. I think I'm very good at not being a gearhead because I see some of my friends and see how easy it is to become one. I felt like I was starting to as well and then, really fast, I was like, “No, this is not sane!” [Laughs] So I started implementing a rule where if I have a synth that I haven't used in one year, I'll sell it. That helps me keep it interesting because then, I have to push myself to use it or accept that I'm not going to.
“There’s a very important thing happening right now, which is that more and more, the line that differentiates DJs from musicians is getting blurred.”
Club culture has changed so much in the past few years. How does that impact you as an artist?
I was very much a part of that culture, but fast forward a couple of years of not having clubs…things can change with a bit of perspective. It made me see other things that I hadn't seen before.
There’s a very important thing happening right now, which is that more and more, the line that differentiates DJs from musicians is getting blurred. Musicians are being pushed into DJing and I think DJs might feel a bit the same, where they feel like they have to produce and be musicians and do live shows. I feel like we're both getting pushed into these spaces where we don't belong.
It’s a very dangerous thing that we have to be very aware of as musicians – or at least I want to be very aware that the job of a musician is not to make the crowd happy or to react to the crowd and do more of the things that they’re liking. That is not what making music is, that is what a DJ does, and that is what a selector does because it’s a different job and a different art form.
So for me, the physicality of the club has changed in a way where I'm like, “I am here to entertain you, obviously, and we're dancing together and sharing this physicality, but also, I'm not a product that is serving you. I'm not going to shape my music according to what makes you dance, because that is very dangerous. Then, I become an influencer.” It’s a different job. I don't know if that answers your question, but I've been thinking about it a lot.
What are you looking forward to working on in the new year?
I want to make more music. DIA feels so, so special to me, and I'm excited for it to be out. We have more videos coming out and I always really enjoy the visual side of things and the world-building.
I'm excited to see people again and to play the music and remind myself that I'm not making this alone in a vacuum. I also want to sing more to other people's music and make instrumental music as well – I have this urge to do all those things.
DIA is out January 17th via Domino.
