Disintegrating Loops

At this point, loop pedals aren't much of a novelty. While as recently as a handful of years ago an artist could stun an audience by simply throwing around improvised loops and layers, such techniques are no longer titillating in and of themselves. Enter Zoe Keating. The self-styled avant-cellist has been working with loops for over ten years – but she's still at the vanguard of the movement.

Rather than a loop pedal, Keating employs digital audio programs like Ableton Live and Max MSP alongside programs and presets of her own devising. A former IT professional, her technologically-driven approach has been so groundbreaking as to actually baffle the creators of her chosen software. Her unique set-up allows her to improvise and process up to and above sixteen different layers of cello.

“It is quite complex. I feel like every tour, in addition to making a new set, I usually muck with the technology a bit so that it progresses incrementally with every tour. And because, you know, technology changes so fast,” she says of her set-up. “It does tend to get more and more complicated every time. Hopefully the audience is never aware of it, though. The complication is just to allow me to do fancy sampling or just different sampling techniques.

“It is a bit of a never-ending quest – to find the perfect technology that can create this immersive musical experience but doesn't distract from the music itself,” she laughs. “I tend to use off-the-shelf tools and then use them in a way that the designers didn't intend. I had the development team at Ableton Live tell me a couple of years ago that they didn't know anyone who used it like I did – which I thought was the greatest compliment.”

Keating's work is intriguing because she seems to share the same outlook as a businesswoman and as an artist. Through both her music and her career, she seems driven to make a home for herself. A former classical musician who took up her own path upon being petrified by stage fright, Keating seems driven to create a space wherein she feels comfortable with herself and her music.

As a professional, she's one of the most successful DIY musicians of her generation. She's topped the iTunes classical charts on multiple occasions, boasts 1.24 million Twitter followers and makes a comfortable living with her music. As a musician, she creates vast, immersive soundspaces for audiences to inhabit. It's telling that she dreams of touring with beanbags and sound systems – she's looking to create a different space.

“The perfect venue is really hard to figure out. The sound system has to be really great. Not too loud, not too soft. Essentially, just right,” she says – laughing at her own pedantry. “The other thing is the environment for the audience. It should be comfortable and dark but not too comfortable. I think the States is a lot like most other places. You have kind of arts spaces that play classical music and rock clubs that play rock music.

“I often think I'd just like to make my own venue. Rent a warehouse, get some large beanbags, make a nice little space for myself. That's actually my dream. Just drive around America with a semi-trailer full of beanbags,” she laughs again. “Just drop into some random warehouse, transform it, play a gig and then hit the road again. Though, I suppose I'd also need a truck for the speakers.”

Zoe Keating will be playing the following dates:

Wednesday 13 March - Lizotte's, Newcastle NSW
Thursday 14 March - Lizotte's, Kincumber NSW
Friday 15 March - The basement, Sydney NSW
Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 March - Blue Mountains Music Festival, Katoomba NSW
Monday 18 March - Powerhouse, Brisbane QLD
Wednesday 20 March - Community Centre, Byron Bay NSW