073: Stephen A. Thomas (aka Sejen Aios)

Good morning! This is Play It Like It’s Music. I’m Trevor, thanks for listening.

On Wednesday, February 3 of 2021 music is not content. It’s connection.

I’m rockin the new theme music today, which you may recognize from the new record I just put out on Monday. True to my promise, but it was definitely down to the wire. I set the deadline to make a record in January and put it out no matter what on February first. And it happened!

Go check it out if you haven’t yet: it’s a bandcamp exclusive for now.

Today on the show we have a fascinating musician to hang with. Stephen A. Thomas (aka Sejen Aios) is a drummer and synthesist, bandleader and composer who lives here in Southern California but spent a long part of his upbringing in Mississippi. We get into a whole bunch of stuff around the touring life, a baby’s fascination with spinning turntables, record store culture, deep synthesis and the stupid misconceptions non-southerners tend to have about the South.

Synthesists tend to be gearheads and I often find their music to be overly complex or relying more on technical gizmos than emotional expression. This is not the case with Stephen. He’s got a real heart connection with the instruments he plays, and a critical eye and ear for their design. We have a great time here picking apart the intricacies of synths.

There’s lots more in here, so let’s jump right in.

Quick ask: if you believe this show deserves a wider audience, please tell a friend:

Without further ado, here’s Stephen.

It’s an honor to have him on the show.

Press PLAY above to hear my conversation with Stephen A. Thomas.

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Thanks so much for listening to Play It Like It’s Music. Thanks so much to Stephen for spending some very generous time with us. You can find some of his synthesis work in the meditation app Insight Timer and his drum work at Stephen Thomas dot LA.

I can’t believe we’ve gotten to 73 shows! If you believe this show deserves a wider audience in 2021, please tell a friend:

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We're all contending with a mutating professional landscape, jacked revenue streams, a catastrophic global pandemic and plenty of other noise out here.

But you gotta keep playing.

We don't draw any lines here between scenes or styles.

As always, thank you for listening and remember to play it like its music.

You can check out my NEW instrumental record on bandcamp, and I hope you will! Sign the mailing list on substack to get this show sent right to you the very moment it comes out.

Music is a beautiful thing and it makes the world go round.

Big love to your ears.

Trevor

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