Greetings Sounds and Shadows family! It’s been a while. I’m currently shouting through the ether of fatherhood to get this interview to your head holes today and I have a very special guest. I was able to catch up with Colin Cameron of SLIGHTER and do I top tit interview with him. You know him, You love him and you wish he was your fuckin’ boyfriend.
EL: So ill try and get all the arbitrary music interview stuff out of the way. How did you get your start in music and made you get into industrial?
CC: Like most I gravitated towards music really young, I did my first ‘garage bands’ with my friends in middle school. Then I ended up going to high school in the middle-of-nowhere Colorado when I discovered Front Line Assembly, Chemlab, KMFDM, God Lives Underwater, and I didn’t really know that idea or whatever of calling it “Industrial”. Record shops were small and didn’t file under that. And there wasn’t a scene or more than just me and a couple of friends listening to that stuff. I tend to gravitate to darker and atmospheric stuff, so I think that is what draws me to any music that fits that.
EL: As far as the underground scene goes, I’d probably rate you as one of the best producers out there in the scene. Your mixes are unique in that you accomplish a very hard dance floor attack but there are these layers of soft ambience in your tracks. Its like a perfect yon and yang and I think it sets you apart. Now that I’m done gushing I want to ask, what are some of your influences out side of the general industrial/electronic genres that you incorporate into your style?
CC: Thanks for saying that, even though I might not agree with you! Ha! Really the biggest influences on my work as Slighter are film scores. I think that’s where the atmospheric and ambient side of my tracks come from. Really enjoy Sci-Fi and strange films with great scores, that’s where I go to get inspiration to write again.
EL: What is your process when you sit down to start working on a remix.
CC: With remixes, I’m usually firstly deciding what way I want to take it, and that direction I get from the original song. If there’s something I think could go real 4-on-the-floor Techno, then I’ll go there. If it’s something I can do Drum & Bass crazy edits and glitch to, I’ll go there. Then the fun part is taking everything they give me, and fucking it all up into a new ‘palette’ I can make a new version with. I’m very big on incorporating much of the original, even if it is thrown through a 20 step evolution via sound design.
EL: Marry, Fuck, Kill: Mr. Goodbar, 3 musketeers, and the yellow m&m?
CC: Ha! I think all three are quite trash as far as candy goes. So I’d elope with a box of Nerds and GTFO!
(I would like to point out that Colin answered this incorrectly. The answer we were looking for was: Marry Mr. Goodbar, Kill the Three Musketeers, and Fuck the yellow M&M)
EL: I know you fancy yourself as a multi instrumentalist, what is your favorite instrument to play and what instrument do you think you’re the best at playing?
CC: I hate that term “multi-instrumentalist” because it wreaks in self aggrandizing. I’m a piss poor player of a lot of things, but I get instruments to bend to my will, so to speak that makes it artful. I guess I would say, I play a MEAN computer. 
EL: I got a chance to listen to your new album (coming out June 4th btw) and I was pleasantly surprised. In general, how important do you think it is for an artist to evolve their sound?
CC: I think it depends on the musician, if you’re a performer and want to play shows and entertain your whole career, you have to be careful to not loose those fans who want you to ‘shut up and play the hits’ as it were. That’s not me at all. I’m of the side that looks at music as an art form, and as such my work ethic and style musically would be equated to watching a painter paint a painting. So in this sense, I find it very important to treat my art as evolutionary, as much as it is to hit on clever musical necessities, or formalities of electronic music for a dance floor requirements, I want to push my creativity with each new piece.
EL: What is your favorite piece of studio gear? Also, what’s a piece of gear that you regret selling?
CC: I’ve not been able to part with any of my gear! I always have that “oh you’ll need it for something” so I still even have my shitty Digitech pedals from high school. I think my favorite kit these days is everything that Ivo at Glitchmachines makes. Highly inventive plugins, makes for a lot of fun with sound design.
EL: I like to end my interviews with a desert island scenario question. So you’re stranded on a desert island, you have 3 albums, 1 movie, 1 complete TV series on DVD and an unlimited supply of 1 breakfast cereal. What do you pick
CC: The 3 albums would be: Dubnobasswithmyheadman by Underworld, K&D Sessions from Kruder and Dorfmeister, and Formless from Gridlock. Film would be: James Gunn’s Slither. TV series: X-Files because there’s an almost endless amount of those episodes. Cereal: Am I getting milk? Because if not, I’m going Chex, if I am, get me those Fruit Loops and I’ll be pretty content.
SLIGHTER drops VOID on June 6th, so you better keep your peepers peeled for it. Or Else
