Sequential Artist Spotlight Interview with JOSIE PACE & KEN ROBERTS

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"As the saturated synths rise behind the lyrics “Just take your stamp off my design” in Josie Pace’s driving single, “Battleground” we immediately understand this is not an artist who is weak when abandoned. Instead, this Detroit artist’s music represents a piece of her solitude. The blistering glow of downtempo post-industrial beats, electro-pop melodies and layered soundscapes are home to Josie’s captivating lyrics; she is a songwriter in the purest sense. The result is a pulsating sound that will haunt you with vulnerability while basking in Josie’s world of self-reflection and unapologetic rock and roll attitude that Detroit is legendary for.

When musician and producer Ken Roberts saw an acoustic performance of Josie he was blown away. The raw and intimate performance captured the one thing all songwriters strive to achieve: believability. The two started working together with Josie’s songs as the foundation. As an accomplished guitar player, Josie molds and refines her songs acoustically only to tear them apart and rebuild them with Roberts’ grinding synths, unique production style, and the addition of Mark Damian’s live drums. Songs quickly formed into a unique sound that pull from the likes of Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails yet contain a high-art fashion swagger as if you just bumped into David Bowie at a Halston Party.

From the beginning, the style and the art of the music are just as important as the melody and beat. Josie’s first music video Torn introduced audiences to her unique brand of electronic rock and visual artistry. That theme continues with the videos for Battleground, NO, My Mistake, Lies of the Lovers and Fire where fashion and desolation hold hands with Josie’s in-your-face performance. Perfect Replacement would follow featuring a collaboration with another fierce female, Sammi Doll (IAMX). Josie carries the same commitment of style and artistry to her high-energy live performances having shared the stage with Tim Skold (Marilyn Manson, KMFDM) Daniel Myer (Haujobb, Architect), Powerman 5000, Stabbing Westward, and <PIG> along with successful headlining shows in New York, Detroit, and Los Angeles.

We chatted with Josie and Ken on how they have been using Sequential instruments in their music."

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential Artist Spotlight Interview with MATIJA STRNIŠA

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Matija Strniša is a Berlin-based film score composer. His most recent work includes the score for the internationally successful South Korean feature film, House of Hummingbird, which won more than 50 film awards. Strniša’s score has garnered multiple award nominations including “Best Score” in the recent 2020 Grand Bell Awards, the South Korean equivalent of the Academy Awards. Lakeshore Records is set to release House of Hummingbird – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on June 26.

We chatted with Matija on how he uses the Prophet 12 in his music."


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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential Artist Spotlight Interview with TAKAHIRO IZUMIKAWA

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Takahiro Izumikawa is a highly sought-after pianist, keyboardist, arranger, and producer born and raised in Japan. His style has its roots in jazz but incorporates hip-hop, R&B, gospel, and traditional Japanese melodies. He released his first piano solo album in 2014, which was sponsored by Kawai Musical Instruments. He moved to New York City later that year to further his music career. Since then, he has worked with well-known hip hop artists such as Smif&Wessun, Kool Keith, Black Moon, and Smoke DZA. He has also worked with Grammy Award winning musicians Maurice Brown (trumpet player for Anderson .Paak), Jermaine Holmes (vocalist for D’Angelo), Daru Jones (drummer), Mononeon (bassist), Marcus Machado (guitarist), and Timothy Bloom (vocalist).

In 2016, he performed with Takuya Kuroda, a notable trumpet player who debuted through Blue Note Records at the Blue Note Jazz Festival, which was headlined by Earth Wind and Fire, George Benson, and Marcus Miller. In 2017, he arranged all the tracks on “Hard Times,” an album by alto saxophonist and jazz giant Vincent Herring.

Takahiro’s latest album Life is Your Thoughts was released from major label Ropeadope in the United States on April 10th, 2020.

We chatted with Takahiro on how he uses the Prophet-6 in his music"
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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Update: moved this up as I initially missed the link to the interview. Apologies for that!  Thanks to popman in the comments for catching it.

Sequential Artist Spotlight Interview with MATTHEW S

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Matthew S (aka Matteo Scapin) is an Italian-based electronic music producer who has been releasing music since 2009. Matteo teaches Ableton Live music sequencing software courses at the Istituto Musicale Veneto di Thiene, and also teaches at Pantarhei in Vicenza. He collaborates as a sound designer with Gruppo L’Espresso and Gruppo Magnolia, a TV production leader in creating new entertainment formats that include different genres.

In 2020 he released the single Daydream (for INRI Classic) in collaboration with accordionist Pietro Roffi and pianist Gian Marco Castro. The piece was written during the coronavirus quarantine.

We chatted with Matteo on how he’s been using Sequential instruments in his music.

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential Artist Spotlight Interview with HENNING NEIDHARDT

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Henning Neidhardt is a German pianist, keyboardist, and composer. Owing to his jazz piano studies in the Netherlands, as well as at the Folkwang University Of The Arts in Essen, he is mostly active in and around Cologne, the Ruhr area, and Amsterdam. In addition to live performance, he is also composing soundtracks for short films, as well as producing his own ambient music. Henning was awarded the “Steinway & Sons Advancement Awards Jazz” in 2018.

We chatted with Henning on how he’s been using Sequential instruments in his music."

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential Artist Spotlight Interview with PETER JAMES

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Peter James is a Keyboardist, Producer, and Sound Designer out of Sydney Australia.

He’s been heavily involved with a number of influential bands over the years, the most well known of these being Hillsong United & Hillsong Worship. Some of his greater achievements include programming keys and arranging strings on an Grammy Award-Winning song “What A Beautiful Name” as well as producing an album that was nominated for a Latin Grammy just recently, “Habla Sobre Mi.”

He’s also well known for his sound design work and has had his presets featured on many albums and TV programs such as HBO’s The Walking Dead, Murder One, Good Girls, and other popular Australian TV shows.

We chatted with Peter on how he’s been using Sequential instruments in his music"

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential Artist Spotlight Interview with PHIL KOPSAFTIS

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"When he’s not busy outside the music world as a caretaker of an historical site, Phil Kopsaftis is likely creating sound and music for the indie film and game world or documenting unique and creative synth tips and tricks on his YouTube Channel. He likes to share and employ techniques and approaches that aren’t always obvious on the surface, and ends up frequently crossing into less-traveled musical territory. His hope is to ignite that same sense of adventure and exploration in other synth owners and inspire them to take their instruments to new musical and sonic areas.

We chatted with Phil on how he’s using the Prophet-6 in his music."


You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential Artist Spotlight Interview with TIGERCIDE

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Beneath the bright lights and beyond the velvet ropes of Hollywood lies a different Southern California: a desolate land filled with darkness, punctuated by unrealized dreams, and broken down with anguished hearts. Tigercide, formed half a decade ago in LA, gives musical form to this landscape with the ethereal, melancholic vocals of Shexist and the sparse, shadowy, and balanced beats of Saint Brendan.

The post-punk of bands like Joy Division and the Fall embodied a de-industrializing Manchester. The Bristol sound of Massive Attack and Portishead gave voice to the multicultural grittiness of their city. So too, does the darkwave trip-hop of Tigercide capture the ethos of Angelenos anxious about their future. In a city characterized by soaring rents, temperatures, and population, can there be any more California dreaming?

We chatted with Shexist and Saint Brendan on how they’ve been using the Prophet Rev2 in their music."

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential Artist Spotlight Interview with MAT PETERS

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Mat Peters plays guitar and synths in Manchester-based Post-Punk band ist ist. He also makes his own ambient music and produces under the name Kim’s Garden.

Ist Ist started as a heavy punk band in 2014. Mat joined in 2018 as the songs started to become a more experimental and the use of synths was becoming more prominent. The band’s sound is now a mix of 80’s Goth, Post-Punk, and electronica. Their debut album, Architecture is due to be released in 2020 through Kind Violence Records.

We chatted with Mat on how he’s using Sequential instruments in his music."

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential Artist Spotlight Interview with EMERIC ZUBAR – BLAKE

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Emeric Zubar (artist name BLAKE.) has been a Hip Hop/Soul and electronic music producer for the past 20 years. With a varied discography, Emeric has built quite a catalog in the music scene with instrumental albums used by international TV shows such as So You Think You Can Dance, Dance On, 4 Weddings and 1 Honeymoon, and YAK FILMS.

In 2016, Emeric founded DRIVENSOUNDS, a sound design and music producing company. With DRIVENSOUNDS, Emeric collaborates with a large number of labels, artists, and companies in the music business to create compositions, music demos, and create sound design presets and sound packs for Native Instruments, Sounds.com, Presonus, Arturia, Loopmasters, and Applied Acoustics Systems.

We chatted with Emeric on how he uses Sequential instruments in his music."

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential In The Spotlight Interview with Patrik FK of Kommunity FK

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Patrik FK, founder/composer/shapeshifter of the highly influential Amerikan Deathrock/Gothic Rock group Kommunity FK, is a multi-instrumentalist, electronic, avant art-rock solo artist and composer who is creating within a genre that he refers to as “Avant Synth Pop Minimalism.”

“I only apply synthesizers to my sonic creations. No guitars are allowed within the making of my music. I compose all of my songs instrumentally first, then reflect on how the result evokes my inner feelings and thoughts. I improvise and just follow my muse. I draw from the DaDaists, Surrealists, and German Expressionists, which have been and influence since my childhood together with my own inner visions.”

Mata performs with a Sequential Mopho x4, drum loops, and drum machines. Patrik performs all vocals as well. No MIDI is used in the design of his music. His synth comes from a blessed endorsement given to him by Dave Smith Instruments in the mid-2000s.

We chatted with Patrik about how he uses the Mopho x4 in his music"

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential Artist Spotlight Interview with ITAMAR GOV-ARI

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Itamar Gov-Ari is a keyboardist, songwriter, singer, and producer based in Brooklyn, New York. As the son of world-renowned choreographer Shmulik Gov-Ari, he was exposed to the arts from birth. He plays in the progressive soul outfit Vinegar Mother, plays, co-writes and produces with Jak Lizard, performs regularly with Joanna Teters, and has toured with renown jazz guitarist Rotem Sivan on several occasions. Itamar has also been seen performing with Lolo Zouaï, Dani Murcia, and Caleb Hawley.

Itamar’s productions have charted top 10 in Japan with the Jak Lizard song “Cauliflower,” which he co-produced with Brasstracks. His music has also been played on Israeli radio stations Galgalatz, 88FM, and Reshet Gimmel. Itamar has had the pleasure of playing across the USA, Canada, Europe, Panama, and Israel. He has shared bills with a diverse list of artists, including Blue Oyster Cult, Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Black Pumas, Oz Noy, The Front Bottoms, and more.

We chatted with Itamar on how he uses the Prophet Rev2 in his music"

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential Featured Artist Interview with JULIAN POLLACK

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Julian Pollack/J3PO is a pianist, keyboardist, and producer. Described by Timeout New York as a musician who “deftly balances virtuosity with tenderness,” Julian is an in-demand sideman as well a leader of his own projects. When he was 18 years old, having just moved to New York City from his native California hometown of Berkeley, he was featured on Piano Jazz, hosted by Marianne McPartland, the syndicated NPR radio program. Professionally, Julian has recorded and performed with the likes of Marcus Miller, Michael League (Snarky Puppy), Louis Cato (The Tonight Show), David Binney, The Lesson GK, Matt Chamberlain, Tim LeFebrve, Mike “Maz” Maher (Snarky Puppy), Grace Kelly, Ari Hoenig, Chris Bullock (Snarky Puppy), Nir Felder, Gil Goldstein (Esperanza Spalding), Chase Baird (Antonio Sanchez), Amanda Brown (Adele), Evan “EMAR” Marien, Grace Weber, and many others. He has played an integral role in the band The Lesson GK, which has held the famed “Lesson” Jam Session at Arelene’s Grocery on the Lower East Side of New York every Thursday night for many years. In 2019, Julian (as J3PO) will release his new album Small Plates, a collection of 12 tracks that range from simple lo-fi beats to complex jazztronica future house joints. Inspired by analog synths and sample-based music, the album fuses Julian’s love for today’s contemporary production styles with a nod to the jazz tradition and the spontaneity of live music and improvisation. Julian lives in Los Angeles, California.

We chatted with Julian on how he’s using Sequential’s instruments in his music."

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential In The Spotlight Interview with WVM

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"WVM is a musician, composer, visual artist, and actor located in Los Angeles, California. He is a multi-instrumentalist who mainly uses analog equipment. A great number of his early demos under a number of different monikers were licensed to TV shows and video games such as Supergirl, UFC 3, Sony Computer Entertainment’s Infamous 2 Official Karma trailer, Syfy’s Being Human, CBS’s Criminal Minds, and Hostages, among many other TV shows and video games.
We chatted with WVM on how he’s using the Prophet-6 and Prophet Rev2 in his music."

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential In The Spotlight Interview with JUSTIN STANTON

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"As a trumpet player, keyboardist, and composer, Justin Stanton has developed a reputation as a multi-faceted musician who can serve an essential role to whichever artist he is contributing, both onstage and in the studio.

Best known for his role in Snarky Puppy, twice Grammy-awarded Justin Stanton has been building a reputation as a trumpeter, composer, and producer for the past 10 years. He maintains an active schedule performing, recording, and writing with a variety of original artists and groups such as David Crosby, Robert Glasper, Trombone Shorty, Musiq Soulchild, Salif Keita, Terence Blanchard, and Chris Potter to name a few.

Justin´s long-awaited solo debut album Secret Place is now available on all streaming platforms. In the words of Michael League (Snarky Puppy), “Wide, warm, weird, analog, funky, soulful, and deep, Secret Place gives us an idea of what has been going on in Justin Stanton’s head all these years. This is an incredibly varied but cohesive debut from a rich and normally understated musical personality. As a composer, producer, arranger, keyboardist, and trumpeter, his abilities are finally on full display.”

We chatted with Justin on how he’s using Sequential instruments in his music."

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential Featured Artist Interview with Ian Hultquist

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Ian Hultquist is an American composer and producer based in Los Angeles, CA. Over the past few years he has made a name for himself composing the scores for numerous films, documentaries and TV shows.

Ian started his career in music as a founding member of the band Passion Pit, which started in Boston, MA where he was studying film scoring at Berklee College of Music. He spent many years touring around the world and honing his productions skills as a music director, and working on remixes for artists such as Portugal the Man, Imagine Dragons, Tegan & Sara and OK GO. In 2014 he, along with his wife and fellow composer Sofia Hultquist (aka Drum & Lace), relocated to Los Angeles in order to fully dedicate himself to working in music for film.

He has built a lasting working relationship with renowned directors in the film and documentary world such as Andrew Rossi (Ivory Tower, The First Monday in May) Erin Lee Carr (Mommy Dead & Dearest) and Alistair Legrand (Clinical). In 2018 alone, Ian had four feature films being released theatrically including Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story (dir. Ashley Bell, Abrorama), The Gospel According to André (dir. Kate Novack, Magnolia Pictures), A-X-L (dir. Oliver Daly, Lakeshore/Global Road) and Assassination Nation (dir. Sam Levinson, NEON/AGBO).

In 2016 Ian formed Little Twig Records, an imprint label focused on releasing soundtracks for Film and TV.

We chatted with Ian about his music."

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential In The Spotlight Interview with Tim Lillis

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Tim Lillis has performed around the world with artists like Britney Spears, comedy legend Todd Glass, and the renowned vocal group The Platters.

Tim recently completed the Piece of Me tour with iconic pop artist Britney Spears. He has played in some of the most prominent venues worldwide such as the O2 Arena in London, Accor Hotels Arena in Paris, and the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, often to crowds of over 20,000.

After graduating from the Berklee College of Music, Tim produced a review show with his wife which was performed in several countries throughout Europe and Asia. They also released a holiday album which quickly garnered over 100,000 listens on Spotify.


Tim is a founding member of the band Extra Lives which recreates classic video game music in a live setting. We chatted with Tim on how he’s using Sequential instruments in his music"

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential In The Spotlight Interview with PROTOVOLT

You can find the interview on Sequential's website here.

"Lord of synths, shredder of guitars, and ace of percussion (except the bells), Protovolt mixes modern vision with 80s nostalgia into a style that’s equal parts John Carpenter and John Hughes. With influences ranging from the arcade to the silver screen to retro technology, he lends his style to film scores, artist collaborations, and cross-genre production.

We chatted with Protovolt on how he’s using the Prophet X in his music"

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential In The Spotlight Interview with FJORD

You can find an interview on Sequential's website here.

"The release of Fjord’s debut EP Textures in late 2016 saw coverage in popular music media outlets ranging from FADER to NME, and was heavily championed in their home province of Quebec, Canada as they performed on TV and radio shows alike. This exposure lead to an extensive Canadian Tour and multiple Canadian festival dates along the way. Fjord’s song I Get It Now streamed in the top 50 indie songs in Canada on Apple Music in 2017 and the group was positioned as an “artist to watch” by Apple Music, Spotify and Buzzfeed, as well as multiple critical music media. Textures has now been streamed over 15 million times across platforms and their signature vocals can be heard on Felix Cartal’s Get What You Give record, which has been certified Gold in Canada. Fjord’s sophomore EP, Shallow Waters is scheduled for a Fall/Winter 2018 release. A collection of six songs, the music was written and incubated in Quebec City, before the duo flew to London, UK to refine and reproduce the project with the acclaimed producer Tim Bran (London Grammar, Paul McCartney, Bloc Party). The longing and warmth found in isolation bleeds through every note on Shallow Waters, as the band continues to build on the sound that has made them unique.

We chatted with Fjord about how they’ve been using the Prophet-6"

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.

Sequential In The Spotlight Interview With Florian Fourlin

You can find an interview on Sequential's website here.

"Florian Fourlin is a singer-songwriter, pianist, saxophonist, and producer from Paris, France. He’s an artist with wide-ranging influences. In 2015, after spending years recording, touring and playing with international artists as a both a session and live musician, he began crafting what would be his first solo album — on which he sings, plays every instrument, produces, and mixes every song. This three year- long process would have him step away from the saxophone to put his own voice at the center of his music while exploring new genre-bending soundscapes. The music video for his first single, Levels, was released in July 2018. The album will be released in early 2019."

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You can find previous posts featuring Sequential's Spotlight series here.