Every now and then, a project arises like an apparition in the fog – out of nowhere. With nuanced production techniques, rare sound design, and unprecedented textures, these projects are often met with a rare blend of curiosity and intrigue.
One operation that emerged under such pretenses was Supertask, a project that presents meditative downtempo and atmospheric bass music that remains in a pocket of its own.
Finding massive success in his solo ventures, most notably during a breakthrough year in 2019, Supertask has enjoyed a highly decorated music career. And he’s done it entirely his own way.
The man behind the project, Kyle Bishoff, is just as mysterious and elusive as the music he makes. Or so I once thought. Recently, River Beats Dance caught up with Bishoff ahead of his Road to Fire Lights show in Baltimore (5/17/24).
During the green room interview, which took place just an hour before he was set to perform, Bishoff reflects on how the project has grown over the years, some of his fondest memories with CharlestheFirst, and where he wants to take the project.
Max Vanegas: So you’ve played hundreds of shows at this point. Do you still get nervous?
Kyle Bishoff: Yeah, I think if you’re not getting nervous, you’re probably doing something wrong or you’re too comfortable with the circumstances. There’s a nervousness about displaying art for people. It is a vulnerable experience. I think some of the pressure of playing shows has dissipated, but I’m definitely still nervous about playing music in front of people.
MV: Besides getting interviewed by River Beats, what do you like to do on show day to help battle those jitters?
KB: Honestly, I usually work on the set until the buzzer. I’ll come to the venue a little early and try to catch some of the openers, and if they are playing something I had planned to play I’ll go change my structure or whatever. But usually, I focus on getting as prepared as possible for the moment, which can take my mind off anxiety. Prepping, exercising, stretching, and sleeping as much as possible beforehand is also crucial. [Sleep] is the hardest thing to stay consistent with while being on the road.
MV: Do you remember the first significant show you played where you really felt like you were a professional?
KB: When it comes to the Supertask project (I’ve had other projects before this one), it would probably have to be when I got booked for Resonate out in Boston. That was the first time I got booked on the East Coast. I had driven to shows on the West Coast but that was the second time I ever got on a plane to go play a show. I remember being in the promoter’s house, taking a shower, thinking, ‘Where the fuck am I? Music brought me here.’ It was the first time in over a decade that I realized my hard work was starting to pay off. So that was distinct for me and I think it gave me something to keep chasing.
MV: It’s been five years since you dropped the Net User and Zero Day albums. Dropping two LPs in one year is already rare. You dropped these two within five months of each other. Can you talk about what was going on creatively that year (2019)?
KB: I don’t think there’s anything unique about my production rate during that timeframe. I think what happens is you get an amalgamation of content that just works together, and that’s kind of what happened there. It was just a couple of years of things just stacking up enough to make something that made sense together. After that, I didn’t release music for a long time, so sometimes things just come together as a project and make sense together.
I get into these phases where some event will happen in my life and I’ll express that through music for a while, and that creates kind of mixed sounds, if you will. Sometimes that happens and then I never release it and don’t do anything with it. Either because I don’t feel like it’s stacked up to the quality of releases before it or it just doesn’t feel right. In 2019, I think it was just a coincidence that [Net User and Zero Day] came together at the same time. It was ready to go, so I put it out there.
MV: What’s changed about your production techniques since then?
KB: I’ve been using DAWs now for close to 20 years and there’s only so many times you can repeat the starting point of a song before it gets uninspiring. Access to new equipment, software, and hardware has changed things up. When I was starting I had so many ideas I wanted to try.
Now that I’m older and have more experience, the process is more about stumbling upon something unique rather than trying to create something. The absence of limitation is the enemy of art. So my process is more about trying to create parameters that you look to exploit creatively. Some of the best results come accidentally.
MV: This sounds a lot like what you’ve started to do with these live looping sessions: using them not just for performative purposes, but for songwriting as well. Can you discuss a little more about what that process looks like?
KB: Looping has been around for a long time. This particular approach of scripted looping was developed by Bink Beats. It is this way of live looping where events are predetermined, such as volume of a channel, or an effect, so an instrument will come in at the same time every time, but what you express with it can be improvised or different. And if you make a mistake in a melody or a baseline or something, the rest of the elements that you incorporate kind of have to play off that mistake. It creates this really cool feedback system where my ideas and mistakes have to intersect or improvise. [Live looping] allows you to interact with what’s happening in real time instead of starting from the beginning of a song or visiting and revisiting a section. When you’re looping, you have to do something in the moment and that ends up dictating the course of all the events that follow.
MV: I’d like to now shift focus to past collaborations. You’ve worked with a lot of great producers; Seeded Vision on this recent EP, G-Space, and most notably, CharlestheFirst. I’d love to hear about how you met Charles, how that relationship evolved, and one of your favorite memories with him.
KB: So Charles and I didn’t know each other when this happened, but we both got a song on a compilation by a label called Sunset Waves (SVMMER SVN VOL 4. – 2016). His track was right after mine and when I listened to it I was like, ‘holy shit, that’s really good.’ I had never heard of him before so I looked him up and it turned out we were both playing the same festival a week later. It was one of the first festivals I ever played so I messaged him and was like, ‘Hey dude, this song was really cool and we’re both playing at this festival, we should kick it, or whatever.’ Then one of the first things we both learned about each other was that we had the same birthday so that was something we connected on right away. I know it might sound stupid or minuscule, but for whatever reason, it was meaningful.
Some of my favorite memories with Charles are staying at his house in Reno. I had moved down to Bishop, CA which is roughly 3 hours south of Reno. They had the closest airport so I would drive to Reno to fly for shows. Charles would always let me stay at his house before the flight and park my car, even when he was traveling. Some of my favorite times with him were actually just hanging out at his house, making beats, or just doing nothing. Sometimes when you have friends you see all across the country, it’s a nice change of pace to be home.
MV: So we’ve spoken a lot about the past. Now I want to talk about the present. In 2024 alone, you’ve released two singles and three EPs including Edge Detection which you just released. This goes back a little to what we were talking about earlier, but how do you reach this level of consistency?
KB: You should express yourself authentically on whatever timeline that unfolds. If you push yourself to put out content for the sake of putting out content, you’re going to feel it’s not right. You’re going to feel that there’s something about it that isn’t your voice or expressing yourself to the fullest potential. Whether that means you release one song in your life or a song every week, you’re going to know when it’s the right time to do something.
MV: What would you say this body of work consists of?
KB: This one’s kind of all over the place. It’s got a lot of slower-tempo stuff with higher energy parts. And then there’s some higher-tempo stuff as well. It’s certainly a departure from what you could expect with my solo stuff in some ways, but I think that that’s true with any collaboration.
MV: What’s it been like working with Seeded Vision?
KB: Sean (Seeded Vision) has this thing about him where he just doesn’t give a shit about what anyone thinks about him or his music. He just makes what he’s feeling and that’s it. Working with someone like that reminds me to stop caring about what it is. It’s really empowering.
MV: So you’ve got quite a schedule coming up including a few special festival plays. What are you most excited about for this upcoming run?
KB: I think probably the Mission show later this year with Ott. I really respect Ott and I think our sound compliments each other so I’m really excited for that. But I’m excited for all of ’em. I like traveling, and I’m grateful to play anywhere that will have me.
MV: Besides these releases and upcoming shows, what else can people expect from the Supertask project?
KB: Hopefully a full-length later this year, a tour, and hopefully next year some sort of interactive live audio experience. I want to incorporate the audience into the experience.
MV: Speaking of live audio experiences, it looks like you’re due on stage in 20 minutes. That being said I’ll let you get some time back to yourself.
As I exited the green room, Artifakts was leading a soulful immersion into uptempo funk and bass-heavy trip-hop, a welcomed vibe but a stark contrast to the soundscapes that would soon follow. Taking the stage with the same calming energy that transmutes through his music, Supertask went on to weave a cathartic blend of stirring melodies and highly emotive sonics that enraptured every attendee in that room.
As Tyme (VJ) patched glitched-out geometry and effervescing visuals, I caught a piece of text on the LED canvas – “Things are tough for dreamers.”
The visual brought me back to the days of quarantine and Supertask’s Bicycle Day stream – an AV performance that included text-based visuals like quotes and messages. It can be a lot to digest or even notice, but on that night in Baltimore, this particular quote caught my eye among the flashing lights and hovering frequencies.
Knowing the story of Supertask, and those of other artists and human beings trying to make it in life, things can certainly be tough for dreamers. Despite the plight we might go through to accomplish our goals, nights like this remind us that the struggle is worth it.
Whether it was two openers making their Soundstage debut, the B2B between Crawdad Sniper, Chez, and Charles Nimbus – who just finished their national tour, Artifakts returning to Baltimore for the first time after coming out of retirement, or the man of the hour, Supertask, reminding us why his music strikes us so profoundly, this was a night of accomplishment and profound realization.
As Supertask moves forward in his career, expect him to continue pushing boundaries and emanating an ethos that is entirely organic and undoubtedly human. Head over to the links below to listen to his new EP and keep up with everything he’s got going on.
Every now and then, a project arises like an apparition in the fog – out of nowhere. With nuanced production techniques, rare sound design, and unprecedented textures, these projects are often met with a rare blend of curiosity and intrigue.
One operation that emerged under such pretenses was Supertask, a project that presents meditative downtempo and atmospheric bass music that remains in a pocket of its own.
Finding massive success in his solo ventures, most notably during a breakthrough year in 2019, Supertask has enjoyed a highly decorated music career. And he’s done it entirely his own way.
The man behind the project, Kyle Bishoff, is just as mysterious and elusive as the music he makes. Or so I once thought. Recently, River Beats Dance caught up with Bishoff ahead of his Road to Fire Lights show in Baltimore (5/17/24).
During the green room interview, which took place just an hour before he was set to perform, Bishoff reflects on how the project has grown over the years, some of his fondest memories with CharlestheFirst, and where he wants to take the project.
Max Vanegas: So you’ve played hundreds of shows at this point. Do you still get nervous?
Kyle Bishoff: Yeah, I think if you’re not getting nervous, you’re probably doing something wrong or you’re too comfortable with the circumstances. There’s a nervousness about displaying art for people. It is a vulnerable experience. I think some of the pressure of playing shows has dissipated, but I’m definitely still nervous about playing music in front of people.
MV: Besides getting interviewed by River Beats, what do you like to do on show day to help battle those jitters?
KB: Honestly, I usually work on the set until the buzzer. I’ll come to the venue a little early and try to catch some of the openers, and if they are playing something I had planned to play I’ll go change my structure or whatever. But usually, I focus on getting as prepared as possible for the moment, which can take my mind off anxiety. Prepping, exercising, stretching, and sleeping as much as possible beforehand is also crucial. [Sleep] is the hardest thing to stay consistent with while being on the road.
MV: Do you remember the first significant show you played where you really felt like you were a professional?
KB: When it comes to the Supertask project (I’ve had other projects before this one), it would probably have to be when I got booked for Resonate out in Boston. That was the first time I got booked on the East Coast. I had driven to shows on the West Coast but that was the second time I ever got on a plane to go play a show. I remember being in the promoter’s house, taking a shower, thinking, ‘Where the fuck am I? Music brought me here.’ It was the first time in over a decade that I realized my hard work was starting to pay off. So that was distinct for me and I think it gave me something to keep chasing.
MV: It’s been five years since you dropped the Net User and Zero Day albums. Dropping two LPs in one year is already rare. You dropped these two within five months of each other. Can you talk about what was going on creatively that year (2019)?
KB: I don’t think there’s anything unique about my production rate during that timeframe. I think what happens is you get an amalgamation of content that just works together, and that’s kind of what happened there. It was just a couple of years of things just stacking up enough to make something that made sense together. After that, I didn’t release music for a long time, so sometimes things just come together as a project and make sense together.
I get into these phases where some event will happen in my life and I’ll express that through music for a while, and that creates kind of mixed sounds, if you will. Sometimes that happens and then I never release it and don’t do anything with it. Either because I don’t feel like it’s stacked up to the quality of releases before it or it just doesn’t feel right. In 2019, I think it was just a coincidence that [Net User and Zero Day] came together at the same time. It was ready to go, so I put it out there.
MV: What’s changed about your production techniques since then?
KB: I’ve been using DAWs now for close to 20 years and there’s only so many times you can repeat the starting point of a song before it gets uninspiring. Access to new equipment, software, and hardware has changed things up. When I was starting I had so many ideas I wanted to try.
Now that I’m older and have more experience, the process is more about stumbling upon something unique rather than trying to create something. The absence of limitation is the enemy of art. So my process is more about trying to create parameters that you look to exploit creatively. Some of the best results come accidentally.
MV: This sounds a lot like what you’ve started to do with these live looping sessions: using them not just for performative purposes, but for songwriting as well. Can you discuss a little more about what that process looks like?
KB: Looping has been around for a long time. This particular approach of scripted looping was developed by Bink Beats. It is this way of live looping where events are predetermined, such as volume of a channel, or an effect, so an instrument will come in at the same time every time, but what you express with it can be improvised or different. And if you make a mistake in a melody or a baseline or something, the rest of the elements that you incorporate kind of have to play off that mistake. It creates this really cool feedback system where my ideas and mistakes have to intersect or improvise. [Live looping] allows you to interact with what’s happening in real time instead of starting from the beginning of a song or visiting and revisiting a section. When you’re looping, you have to do something in the moment and that ends up dictating the course of all the events that follow.
MV: I’d like to now shift focus to past collaborations. You’ve worked with a lot of great producers; Seeded Vision on this recent EP, G-Space, and most notably, CharlestheFirst. I’d love to hear about how you met Charles, how that relationship evolved, and one of your favorite memories with him.
KB: So Charles and I didn’t know each other when this happened, but we both got a song on a compilation by a label called Sunset Waves (SVMMER SVN VOL 4. – 2016). His track was right after mine and when I listened to it I was like, ‘holy shit, that’s really good.’ I had never heard of him before so I looked him up and it turned out we were both playing the same festival a week later. It was one of the first festivals I ever played so I messaged him and was like, ‘Hey dude, this song was really cool and we’re both playing at this festival, we should kick it, or whatever.’ Then one of the first things we both learned about each other was that we had the same birthday so that was something we connected on right away. I know it might sound stupid or minuscule, but for whatever reason, it was meaningful.
Some of my favorite memories with Charles are staying at his house in Reno. I had moved down to Bishop, CA which is roughly 3 hours south of Reno. They had the closest airport so I would drive to Reno to fly for shows. Charles would always let me stay at his house before the flight and park my car, even when he was traveling. Some of my favorite times with him were actually just hanging out at his house, making beats, or just doing nothing. Sometimes when you have friends you see all across the country, it’s a nice change of pace to be home.
MV: So we’ve spoken a lot about the past. Now I want to talk about the present. In 2024 alone, you’ve released two singles and three EPs including Edge Detection which you just released. This goes back a little to what we were talking about earlier, but how do you reach this level of consistency?
KB: You should express yourself authentically on whatever timeline that unfolds. If you push yourself to put out content for the sake of putting out content, you’re going to feel it’s not right. You’re going to feel that there’s something about it that isn’t your voice or expressing yourself to the fullest potential. Whether that means you release one song in your life or a song every week, you’re going to know when it’s the right time to do something.
MV: What would you say this body of work consists of?
KB: This one’s kind of all over the place. It’s got a lot of slower-tempo stuff with higher energy parts. And then there’s some higher-tempo stuff as well. It’s certainly a departure from what you could expect with my solo stuff in some ways, but I think that that’s true with any collaboration.
MV: What’s it been like working with Seeded Vision?
KB: Sean (Seeded Vision) has this thing about him where he just doesn’t give a shit about what anyone thinks about him or his music. He just makes what he’s feeling and that’s it. Working with someone like that reminds me to stop caring about what it is. It’s really empowering.
MV: So you’ve got quite a schedule coming up including a few special festival plays. What are you most excited about for this upcoming run?
KB: I think probably the Mission show later this year with Ott. I really respect Ott and I think our sound compliments each other so I’m really excited for that. But I’m excited for all of ’em. I like traveling, and I’m grateful to play anywhere that will have me.
MV: Besides these releases and upcoming shows, what else can people expect from the Supertask project?
KB: Hopefully a full-length later this year, a tour, and hopefully next year some sort of interactive live audio experience. I want to incorporate the audience into the experience.
MV: Speaking of live audio experiences, it looks like you’re due on stage in 20 minutes. That being said I’ll let you get some time back to yourself.
As I exited the green room, Artifakts was leading a soulful immersion into uptempo funk and bass-heavy trip-hop, a welcomed vibe but a stark contrast to the soundscapes that would soon follow. Taking the stage with the same calming energy that transmutes through his music, Supertask went on to weave a cathartic blend of stirring melodies and highly emotive sonics that enraptured every attendee in that room.
As Tyme (VJ) patched glitched-out geometry and effervescing visuals, I caught a piece of text on the LED canvas – “Things are tough for dreamers.”
The visual brought me back to the days of quarantine and Supertask’s Bicycle Day stream – an AV performance that included text-based visuals like quotes and messages. It can be a lot to digest or even notice, but on that night in Baltimore, this particular quote caught my eye among the flashing lights and hovering frequencies.
Knowing the story of Supertask, and those of other artists and human beings trying to make it in life, things can certainly be tough for dreamers. Despite the plight we might go through to accomplish our goals, nights like this remind us that the struggle is worth it.
Whether it was two openers making their Soundstage debut, the B2B between Crawdad Sniper, Chez, and Charles Nimbus – who just finished their national tour, Artifakts returning to Baltimore for the first time after coming out of retirement, or the man of the hour, Supertask, reminding us why his music strikes us so profoundly, this was a night of accomplishment and profound realization.
As Supertask moves forward in his career, expect him to continue pushing boundaries and emanating an ethos that is entirely organic and undoubtedly human. Head over to the links below to listen to his new EP and keep up with everything he’s got going on.
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