Rodney Anonymous (Dead Milkmen)

Legendary punk/indie rock The Dead Milkmen recently released their first new album in 16 years "The King In Yellow." We learned the group's creative mainman Rodney Anonymous used FL Studio for songwriting and it's VSTs (Sytrus, Harmless, DirectWave) in the entire creation of the album. We caught up with Rodney to find out more.

Cyriak

The Dead Milkmen are Back

Tell us about your animation, music and yourself?

When I was a teenager, back in the 70's (when music was made exclusively with sticks and animal hides) there was plenty of music which I loved floating about, but absolutely none of it was ever played on the radio. I spent my Dickensian youth being forced to listen to Styx and Wings. You could not have paid any of the Rock stations in our area to play The Ramones or The Clash, so - apart from our record collections - my friend (and Dead Milkmen guitarist) Joe and I had nothing to listen to. Rather than surrender to the idea that music made for people like us would be forever marginalized, we decided to form a band and fight back. Also, we were very, very bored at the time. We were lucky enough to meet two other fellows, Dave & Dean, who were just as bored as we were.

How did you come to use FL Studio & what were your first impressions?

I'll try to make this story as short as possible, which is something of a miracle for me: A few years back I switched over to a PC with a 64 bit operating system and DAW I was using just couldn't cut it on that platform. Also, since the Milken had just reunited and I knew I'd be doing some song writing and playing live gigs I needed a DAW that with a just the right feel to its workflow and that would allow me access to some cool VSTs.

I monkeyed around with a few other DAWs (which will remain nameless). They were OK (a few were less-than-OK), but they just didn't have, for lack of a better word, personality. Then I spotted a post on Synthtopia.com about FL Studio and I said to myself "Sweet! These are the folks who used to make Fruity Loops". I loved Fruity Loops, back in the day - I still consider Fruity Loops the most addictive substance I've ever been exposed to. Also, I learned that Deadmau5 uses FL Studio; I figured "Good enough for Deadmau5, good enough for me."

So I downloaded the free version - this was either version 7 or 8, and I've gradually upgraded to the Producer Edition (XXL Bundle) - and started to play around with it, and it just felt right. That's the best - only - way that I can describe the experience. I like to pick my instruments, work on each section of a song, and then string the bits together. I work out my chord progressions first - using keyboard sounds; then I toss a simple beat under that; work on the bass; and keep going until either I'm happy, the sun come up, or the cops drop by: whichever happens first. FL Studio just fits the way I write.

And then there's the VSTs. The first time I fired up Sytrus I was blown away. It was like having my old DX11 back (last seen in Austin TX, in 2008), but now it was chewing human pituitary gland! Instead of 4 operates, I now had six...and an XY modulator to boot! Then I opened up DirectWave and saw that library I could download from and I was like a kid in a very load candy shop.

Dead Milkmen are coming for tea

Tea Time with the Dead Milkmen

Dead Milkmen 1983

The Dead Milkmen Circa 1983

On our new CD, The King in Yellow, that lovely flute sound on "Melora Says", the horns on "Can't Relax", and the cello on "Cold Hard Ground" are all courtesy of DirectWave. While I'm at it, the main riff on "She's Affected" is from FL Slayer's distorted tremolo guitar combined a distortion pedal from Hardcore, as is one of the guitars on "Solvents (For Home and Industry)". The growling synth on "Caitlin Childs" is PoiZone's Rave Noise patch resampled through DirectWave (It has a certain VNV Nation quality). One of the synths on "Passport to Depravity" is the Organ Transplant patch from Harmless (as are the bells on "Quality of Death"). The other synth patch on that song is from a synth I built in the version of Synthmaker for FL Studio. I call it the LC 5000, after "Elsie" - the cow on our logo.

Lately, I've really been into Harmor. I like to stay up late on Friday nights with a couple of glasses of wine and experiment with it. The other day, Dean, our drummer, sent me a demo of song he was working on (everybody in the Dead Milkmen writes music and lyrics) and I put a keyboard part on it using a couple of Harmor patches. He loved the sounds (I didn't ask how he felt about my playing)

Dead Milkmen, early days - The Secret of Life

Tell us about your production environment & toys?

I try to keep things pretty simple. I used to collect keyboards; I owned a Vox Continental and a bunch of strange synths, but I have the bizarre and expensive habit of hurling my keyboards off the stage and into the audience, so I stick with controllers and VSTs these days.

Another reason why I love VSTs keep my setup simple: I have my desktop and my laptop; an M-Audio Keystudio 49i, which I use as my main controller. An LPK25, which is perfect for distracting Katy the cat who shares my home studio space with me. I just got an iPhone and am downloading FL Studio mobile to it as I type this. I keep a Washburn guitar around, despite the fact that I'm a terrible guitar player. I'm also rather proud of my hurdy gurdy and Copeland penny whistle. Oh, and there's a Yamaha SH-10 over in the corner. It was a gift from Joe. I painted it black to match my wardrobe.

Do you have any links you would like to share?

Here's our website

http://www.deadmilkmen.com/

Here is a recent video of an entire show we played in Athens, GA. I don't want to spoil the ending, but Vanessa Hay from Pylon joined us on stage:

The Dead Milkmen & Guests

Here are the rules for hanging out with Faderhead. Your life might depend on them one day:

http://faderhead.com/blog/?p=720

Rodney.

permalink

RSS

POWER USER LIST

BT (Brian Transeau): "FL is such a fresh approach to composition. It literally blows me away every time I work in it."
Project 46 (Thomas ...: "It is the cornerstone of our productions and without it we would not be able to make the music we do."
Dot Rotten (Joseph ...: "It pushes me as a producer, it never fails me, its also a program that helps create success over the years."
Sacco (Matias Monte ...: "I have yet to find a software that is as cool and has such a fast workflow as in FL, and believe me I tried everything."
Ronald Jenkees: "...I don't really endorse anything, but spreading the word of FL Studio has been a no-brainer because it's given me so much"
Tritonal: "FL Studio has been the powerhouse behind many of our productions as Tritonal and remains a go-to production tool"
SoundTakt: "FL Studio helped us realize our creative potential and hone our skills"
Tom Swoon: "It's so addictive! There's too many awesome features to list"
Marcus D: "A fellow Seattle producer introduced me to FL Studio ... I grew up on the cusp of the digital production age and didn't have the money to buy hardware, so naturally software was my go-to move"
Synthetic Orchestra ...: "Not only did the patterns in the playlist feel just right, but the piano roll was more powerful than anything I had used before"
Seven Lions: "It just very easy to be creative with this program, no road blocks"
Tristam: "The pattern/clip set up is amazing, I mean 'make unique' is just bliss!"
Phoenix (The Sound ...: "It's simple at the end of the day. Everything they [other DAWs] can Do FL can do better"
Naden (Daniel Taranger): "Ever since i tried fl studio, the program and I just clicked"
Amir Acid: "FL Studio has a great environment and makes it so easy to be in touch with the tools"
Indivision: "we haven't met any other sequencer which would help us to lay down our ideas so quickly and simply"
Jayce Lewis: "[FL Studio] really has become a big part of what I am as an artist"
Dexplicit: "FL Studio is without a doubt the most important tool in my inventory"
Mick Gordon: "I use it [FL Studio] for scoring, sequencing, designing sounds, and musical sound design. It's just so easy to work with, and work with quickly"
Madeon: "...with the incredible depth of the software, I never feel like something isn't achievable"
Mehran Abbasi: "My dreams came true when I was introduced to FL Studio. This software has formed a big part of my life & I am so glad because of it I am enjoying my music."
Richy Pena: "Before you know it I was playing the keyboard, recording melodies on to FL Studio and creating songs"
Ephixa (James Leusink): "I have never left FL because of my love for the piano roll"
Varien (Nick Pittsi ...: "I tried other DAWs like Live and Reason, but nothing got my ideas out faster and better than FL Studio"
Boi-1da (Matthew Sa ...: "A friend had told me about FL Studio, I ended up going out and getting a copy of it and using it ever since "
Danyella: "I loved the user-friendly layout. Just a few months later my tracks were already signed away to labels "
audiopeel (Kieron Gore): "The fruit however struck a chord. It's interface and workflow, everything seemed logical."
Rodney Anonymous (D ...: "I still consider Fruity Loops the most addictive substance I've ever been exposed to"
Cyriak Harris (anim ...: "Most of my videos start months before I even realise it. That's when I make the music that will eventually inspire the visuals of the video"
Ajurika (Akitaka To ...: "I am instantly able to achieve the desired result and also to create the sound I am looking for."
Veela: "I quickly came to realize how complex and beautiful the program really was"
Andrew Aversa (Zircon): "Trying to use any other piano roll after working in FL was like having my mouse dipped in molasses"
Hitfinders (Andrew, ...: "We noticed it [FL Studio] while reading a producers forum, and were instantly hooked"
Pete Marriott: "When I realized how I could use it as a sound design and production tool I became hooked instantly"
The Flashbulb (Benn ...: "Nuendo and Pro Tools wasted a lot of my time, and I started noticing that FL Studio was blossoming"
MdL (Mason Levy): "FL Studio is the fastest and most inspiring piece of software in my workflow."
Afrojack (Nick van ...: "Don't let people tell you that Logic or other programs are 'superior' "
Feed Me / Spor (Jon ...: "Despite working on other platforms occasionally I still find FL the fastest and most powerful way to get my ideas down."
Porter Robinson: "At first, FL stood out to me just because it was vastly more intuitive and usable...there's way too many awesome FL Studio features to list"
Avicii (Tim Berg): "It's so easy and quick to use ... I literally couldn't shut the program down."
Anurag Dixit: "I’ve used every damn thing that can make music, but nothing comes close to FL."
Alex Medina: "I was first drawn to FL Studio's when a friend introduced me to it and taught me how to make hip hop beats. To this day I have used FL Studio..we are one :)"
Matthew Dear: On FL Studio: "It came highly recommended through various artists I'd meet on the road. I finally gave it a shot, and it immediately enhanced my production techniques..."
Infinity: "It means Everything, without FL i wouldn't be producing."
Ripley+Jenson: "When I took a look at a FL demo version in order to understand it, I discovered that it was the software I always had been looking for."
Nely (Arma Secreta): "For me FL studio is the easiest way to project your ideas and anybody can lay out any musical ideas."
Big Giant Circles ( ...: "FL has always been centric to my studio. It's the cornerstone of my creative process"
Jay Frog (ex-Scooter): "The fact to compose songs and quickly notate ideas on the road within FL Studio was a real innovation for me."
Secret Cinema: "I bumped into Fruityloops at version 3 and Immediately loved it!"
AudioJack: "We are known for having an individual sound to our music and FL Studio has been a key part to shaping that"
Tom Ellard: "It was the Fruity Scratcher that finally convinced me to use FL Studio... It feels like I'm using the hardware but I can save the whole patching system to hard drive."
Jeff Samuel: "Once Fruityloops started to use audio and sampler channels, I switched and never looked back! It was tremendously powerful just with those features but no one really realized it until years later."
Meg Hentges: "FL Studio (plus a wave editor) is the only software I ever use ...and since FL added audio recording, my rack mounted hard disk recorder rarely gets switched on."
Franchize Boyz: "Franchize Boyz and Fruity Loops"
Seismic Crew: "I used the demo of FL a lot back before I was making any real money with my music. I had been using the old software drum machine Hammerhead, but FL offered endlessly more flexibility and power."
Toby Emerson: "I found the demo while searching on the internet for a program that I could create drumloops with. I ended up finding FL studio and have been hooked ever since. It is more addictive than crack (not that I have tried that)."
Peter Presta: "A friend of mine introduced me to FL Studio and I instantly fell in love with the sounds you could create as they ALL sounded so BIG. I was Totally Hooked on FL Studio from there!"
Doug Lazy: "... stumbled across FL while surfing. I tried it and immediately Loved it. I was still into hardware at the time but slowly over the last few years have transferred my work to PC exclusively with FLS."
Mark Tinley: On Fl Studio: "It means I can create multi-track drum loops, music loops or even entire songs and dump them straight into Pro Tools for further mixing."
Steve Duda: "FL means a whole lot, if I were restricted to one item of music software on my PC, it would certainly be FL."
Justin Lassen: "Probably around '98, a friend showed me FruityLoops. I just thought it was the coolest piece of software."
Basshunter: "A friend of mine showed me Fruityloops when I visited his place for a LAN party, and I got hooked right away."
DeadMau5 (Joel Zimm ...: "It’s ease of use and fast results are what get the ideas down as fast as they come to my head, and that’s really important for me"
9th Wonder: "The programs we use are Cool Edit Pro and FL Studio. Those are the two programs that we use, and that's what we did the whole album on."
Mike Oldfield: "It is very good to see a product like FL Studio which is available to all and doesn't cost $10000000000 of dollars"

We asked some of our 'Power Users' how they got involved in music and how they use FL Studio.

Rodney Anonymous (Dead Milkmen)

We asked some of our 'Power Users'
how they got involved in music and how they use FL Studio.