How did you come about to create psychedelic animations and music, what attracted you to this kind of visual aesthetics?
My brother Jonathan makes the animations. He comes from a scientific background with a PhD in Visual Neuroscience and he is very drawn to the fertile intersection of science, math, and art. After a particularly boring period in the official scientific world, he decided to make the world’s largest flying artwork, which is how he came to dye and sew his first tie-dyed hot air balloon. The balloons and the fractal zooms are different expressions of the same drive.
Can you tell us Where your inspiration comes from?
Nature is the raw inspiration for everything. As for our motivation, we are both very driven to make the most unbelievably trippy amazingly beautiful fusion of visuals and music that the world has ever seen. I don’t think we’ve hit it yet, truly, but we will. These little animations that you can see on youtube or vimeo are neat, but they are not anywhere as impressive as seeing our stuff in a planetarium dome with surround sound. All of our stuff is meant to be shown in big domes with full sound, and that’s the true place to see it.
What instruments do you use besides the computer?
All the instruments you hear are real instruments. I do use a lot of synthesizers because they’re really fun. I play lots of guitars and pianos and drums and gongs and things like that. An idea will come to me, usually at a most inconvenient time, and I’ll interrupt whatever I’m doing and disappear to make music. Because of this I’m usually a terrible host at parties.
do you make your music all by yourself, or do you have some musical partners?
I try to play everything myself, but occasionally I get to drag friends into the studio. The new project we’re working on has lots of friends singing in it. It’s going to be amazing.
Your music is a special combination of many different genres and styles, what are your musical influences?
If Pink Floyd met a time traveling Radiohead in a 1970s London flat, and they somehow made love and had a baby while listening to The Beatles, and that mutant baby was raised flying between the gray skies of Europe and the high holy desert of New Mexico… well, that baby would be the music I try to make.
tell us about your special interest in fractals? What do they mean for you?
Fractals are everything, everywhere. The more you look, the more there are. It’s a little alarming at times.
Which programs and methods are you using to create your music and art work?
My brother makes the videos using a process that I think involves a room full of computers and voodoo. I make the music by banging away on instruments and recording it on an insanely expensive program that almost works perfectly, but not quite. We work best when we were share the same vision, and that means lots of talking and discussing and taking tea. My only complaint is that we don’t yet get to do this all the time.
Future plans?
Like everything, we improve with time. The little movies you’re seeing now online are great – at least, we think so – but they will be blown away by the stuff we’ve got coming out soon. Thanks a lot for paying attention.
visit Daniel’s site and download his unique music for free:
http://www.danielwolfemusic.com/
watch more fractal movies on Daniel’s you tube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/wolfesongs
learn, download and explore the world of fractals:
