This week, FLARE Magazine was able to (virtually) meet up with Peruvian artist Binary Drift (Mauricio Yrivarren) to discuss inspiring synthesisers, post-pandemic plans and even Steven Spielberg’s Poltergeist…

Tell me something about yourself, what would you like the readers of FLARE Magazine to know about you?

Jokingly opening up with, “Dad is from Mars and Mom is from Venus, I bleed red, typical stuff I guess. My name is Mauricio Yrivarren, I’ll give you the short version, Spanish language full names can be massive”.

Performing under the alias ‘Binary Drift’, Mauricio explains that that he is Peruvian and moved to Madrid from the US in 2010. 

I chose to use an alias, in the same light of Bright Eyes and Nine Inch Nails, which first started as solo projects and then morphed into bands. I already had the songs and wanted to record them and figured that forming the band would come later. These songs became my debut album “Pocket Tunes”, and I recently released its latest single called ‘The Guilded Age’.

When did you begin your musical journey?

 I find that the beauty of music and art in general is that there are no bounds or real metrics. I say this as I picked a guitar in my teens, and a few decades after I don’t know in what part of the journey I am at. Sort of like the kid in Poltergeist that walked into the TV and got lost. But in my case no one has jumped in to try to get me out of there, and I have no plans of leaving. I find music and the beauty of songs to be a safe place, often misunderstood by today’s world, where we are under a cultural dictatorship of shallowness that attacks the individual and free thinking. Musical journeys can come to end in this very bland globalized society, where celebrity/ reality TV culture has metastasised unchecked, emboldening buffoons once in the fringes of taste, who now want to avenge their lack of talent by imposing their meagre –at best- train of thought. Dangerous, as we are moving towards the first generation of kids who are natives to cultural nonsense. Have you ever heard a kid say: “I wanna grow up to be an influencer”?

Who/what inspires you when you write your music?

It kind of starts in my head at first. It’s usually a melody that plays back-to-back accompanied by images. I then pick up a guitar, figure out the chords, and speed up the tempo. That’s usually the process. Second verses in my songs tend to be confessional. In the case of Complete & Alive I sing, “Tears in the shade, as the world falls apart. Wars that ain’t worth fighting, profit, madness and guns”, which is a direct stab at profiteering out of war. A staple of the history of humankind if you may, and sadly a fixed feature of the twenty-first century.

Transforming the ideas in his head and bringing them to life, Mauricio explains the practical side to his composition.

I recently got a hold of an OP-1, which is a small synth that lets you visualize the sounds in the form of shapes and colours as opposed to the more classic options of gain, filter, attack, and/or waveform. It’s been a great help, as the OP-1 visuals can let the user take on a dreamy path when crafting the songs.

The topic then shifts to musical influences. After revealing that his idols used to stem from artists such as Mars Volta, Kula Shaker, Jose Feliciano, Jamiroquai, and the Cure, his current inspiration is a little more concise.

I now find myself listening to the same 5 records: Rubber Soul (Beatles), Lovers (Sleepy Jackson), Urban Hymns (the Verve), Friendly Fire (Sean Lennon), and What’s the Story (Morning Glory) by Oasis. All 5 do intertwine at some point, and I feel that element is heartfelt song writing. While there is a beatleseque dimension to them (albeit Rubber Soul), those albums sound extremely honest to me. Almost as if the pursue of honesty allowed beauty to flourish and manifest itself in a divine way. This is the part of the interview where I might get a bit sappy, but you can’t tell me you didn’t feel awesome the first time you listened to ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, ‘Sonnet’, or ‘In my Life’. They all sound magical to me.

Tell me more about your album ‘Pocket Tunes’, when did the creative process begin?

 I never stopped strumming a guitar, but I did stop performing live for some time, largely rooted in the fact that I felt that I was “chasing” songs. I had about half of the songs that became ‘Pocket Tunes’ laying around for some years, and about three years ago with the encouragement of friends I set out to record and play again. In the midst of that I met uber producer Josemi Sánchez who encouraged me to write more songs, and with whom I worked on the record. With that said, the creative process of ‘Pocket Tunes’ spans well over a decade. But in the case of the later songs, they are a reflection and a criticism of today’s world where the dictatorship of shallowness that I mentioned earlier has allowed for the horrors of war and its collateral effects to be under rug swept, at least in the West. This is reflected in Power Inc. and Complete & Alive. However, It’s not all negativity, and I tried to flip these anxieties into hope, and that’s how Walk on by, the Guilded Age, and All These Years Gone By came about. 

How have you been working through the pandemic?

Luckily, for Mauricio, the pandemic has not put him personally in a difficult place, but the dystopian reality still hits very close to home.

My heart goes out to those that were hospitalised, and those who lost loved ones. I can’t imagine what that must be like. I also wanna thank the front-line workers that stood up to the challenge and managed keep the machine working for all of us. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them. I hope that moving forward, people in general understand that we are all important irrespective of our professions. We have lost respect for one another over the years, and we need to bring it back.

Confinement, while stressful at first, did spark my creativity and I managed to write a handful of songs. Almost as a response to the rather grim news we were bombarded with at the beginning of the year. I will soon enter the studio again to finish the tracks of what will become the follow up of ‘Pocket Tunes’. There will be more synths and drum machines this time around.  

What are your plans for the post-pandemic world?

I intend to “Breathe, breathe in the air, don't be afraid to care”, Pink Floyd style. I got all this energy built up, and I wanna get back to playing live again. I’m based out of Madrid and would love to hit the UK music scene. A Los Angeles music producer/engineer Dave Covell A.K.A. Squirrel –a good friend who has worked with British acts- once described it to me, “It’s like an entire country of New York audiences”. I’m intrigued to check it out and see it for myself. My format is quite simple (guitar and vocals), so all you promoters, and bands in need of an opening act, DM me to plan something!

How do you think small labels/music businesses will recover from the lack of funding throughout the pandemic?

 We gotta redefine what the meaning of success in music is. I recently watched the Joe Rogan podcast with the Black Keys, and the drummer Pat Carney spoke precisely about that. In the case of making records, he said that we should try to break even, which I agree with.

That should be the starting point, and that would keep the spirit of creating and recording honest (much like the records I mentioned above). Easier said than done of course, as I myself don’t run or own a label. It’s gotta be stressful when you are at the helm and you “have to deliver” on the financials. I’m sure that leads to pairing up singers with producers, and song writers (which is not necessarily a bad thing) for the sake of pumping out chart topping tracks. Does putting out music just for the profits take away from the art form? I’d say yes, a bit like a restaurant that wants to serve food for the money only, discarding the quality of the food itself.  

To answer your question, how can small labels/music businesses recover from the devastating effects of Covid? Those that are dying to hit up music venues and festivals have critical mass. Perhaps a good idea for a small label would be to aggregate a number of small acts and set up a niche festival that blends with another art form such as film, and after giving my restaurant example…yes, food, vegan I’d prefer!

Through the experience of the festival, they could promote their acts and attract loyal fans. I repeat, loyal fans, those are a vital part of the equation. We need to take advantage of the crisis to look back at everything that wasn’t working and realise that trying to standardise formats and mass produce acts per se has been detrimental to the quality of music, and of course culture -by default. Frank Zappa said it best in an interview where he brings about the amounts of experimental music released by labels in the 60s, and he attributed it to the people running them. Were they young hip guys? No, they were old guys with cigars that had an entrepreneurial spirit about music. They weren’t so sure about the final product on the desk, but they were unafraid to release it! We need that. I mean, we all need to wear hats and smoke cigars!

What do you want your music to mean to people?

 I once said that they joy that the songs in Pocket Tunes can bring about in people is theirs to keep. Everyone has a personal interpretation of a song, irrespective of what the writer had tried to convey. Yet, if the songs put a smile on people’s faces, then I feel that I’ve accomplished something. ‘Pocket Tunes’ is an honest effort under the premise of art first.

What challenges have you faced as a growing musician?

 I’m all for the Do-It-Yourself operation. The ever-growing music digital space allows for that. An artist today can take on not just the music side of things, but the PR campaigns, booking venues, cover design, you name it! Wearing different hats is challenging, but the thought alone that you can do all these things on your own is really rewarding. The music scene can be frustrating if approached with unrealistic goals and demands, from these frustrations is where artists give up.

If you could give your younger self advice, what would you say?

Tough one. I believe that there has never been a better time for music than today. I say this as the internet has democratized the game to a large extent. You can write, record, release, and market music from your bedroom, which would have been unthinkable 20 years ago. There are aspects of my younger self that I now find hilarious, but I’m not a nostalgic type. I like to live the present.

Ending on another nod to Poltergeist, Mauricio tells me, “In hindsight, the advice that I would give my younger self would be; keep the TV in the bedroom”.

If you’d like to keep up with Binary Drift and follow them on their music journey, keep up to date with Mauricio and stream ‘Pocket Tunes’ below! Remember to keep on supporting our artists and our venues throughout the pandemic where you can too.

Website : binarydriftmusic.com

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/watch/BinaryDrift/

Instagram: @binarydrift

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BinaryDrift

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6iywV8hiM6ESzHIvC180Mk

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgqhWOvOvuwE7nWfkmUJhhQ/videos

Save Our Venues: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/save-our-venues

Read ‘The Guilded Age’ review here