PICOLINO

Joel Boychuk aka Hobo takes us on a tour of the Iron Triangle this winter, when the Canadian producer releases his debut album on Minus – a destination point for the techno artist whose very name embodies both the restless spirit of his productions and his journey from being one half of the former Minus duo Tractile, to being a recognized star performer in his own right. With the release of the LP in February, Boychuk intends to encapsulate the unique atmospheres of the three geographical points & spaces in between that have influenced both his musical output and his outlook as a person…

What is the Iron Triangle, and how has it influenced your approach to making your first full-length album?
The Iron Triangle is both a simple concept and complicated percept – kind of abstract but also very simple. In it’s simplest form it’s an area between three places where I come from, covering a bit of Canada & the US – three places which are connected by a lot of history and three important train lines that once ran between them, hence the ‘iron’. Where it begins to stretch into a much more abstract and complicated territory is in how I relate to the iron triangle: Sometimes I’m there, sometimes I’m not there and sometimes I wish I was or wasn’t there. Since I have so many memories and experiences in and around the iron triangle, I draw from those experiences and anticipate other experiences that will hopefully happen: it’s somewhat of an illusion and appears different from different angles.The influence on the album was simple: At the end of 2010 I had been away from the triangle for much longer than usual and mentally I was as far away as ever. I reflected on past experiences and looked forward to new ones as inspiration for the album: All of the tracks are based around experiences I’ve had at this place, sometimes just an image or memory.
How has your sound & style evolved over the course of your career and whilst making this record?
My approach to production changes frequently: Sometimes I produce just because I enjoy doing it; other times I view it as something that needs to be done for the purposes of clearing the mind; and sometimes it’s just done for raw musical experimentation. I think my sound went back to its earlier roots while making this record, at times playful and weird with a tinge of darkness. I was drawing from a lot of past experiences that I had drawn from in my productions before. In that respect, some of the tracks on the album share exact influences with other previous tracks of mine, so I can infer from that the evolution in the album’s sound directly reflects my evolution as a producer.
How do you intend to present the new material in your live performances?

In the spirit of getting back to my roots sonically, I have recently had a desire to do so with my performances as well. I was DJing long before I ever began producing in earnest. I think it might be most fun to present the new material using the three things I love so much: producing, playing live and DJing altogether.
How did you become ‘Hobo’?
In 2008 I became very restless within my working environment. The production duo I was in was leading down a dead end and I had a lot of creative energy to get out. To save my sanity and to pursue the music that I love, I left the duo and immediately found a place to spend a week getting out all of my pent-up creativity: I did nothing but write music for a week straight, laying the foundation of my current sound. It was not long after that point that my first solo record came out and Hobo was born. The place where it all began

Format: 12”, digital, CD
Label: M-nus
Release: 13/02/2012 (physical)
Release: 15/02/2012 (digital)