Lawrence Hart’s route into electronic music has been somewhat lengthier than many dance musicians.
A classically-trained multi-instrumentalist, past stages of Lawrence’s music career have seen him performing amongst New York’s jazz scene, playing in indie rock bands and acting as a sideman for UK producer George Fitzgerald, all before discovering production and forging an electronic music career of his own.
If Hart came late to making electronic music, you wouldn’t know it from watching him work. He navigates his hardware-stuffed studio with the purpose and efficiency of an artist that knows their setup intricately and has a clear vision of what they want to achieve.
Hart has recently released his debut album, Come In Out the Rain, which lands on influential UK label Domino, home to the likes of Jon Hopkins, Hot Chip and George Fitzgerald. Built around acapellas sampled from R&B and soul, the record showcases Hart’s innate ear for vibrant, garage-inflected grooves and energetic synth hooks.
To mark its release, we paid a visit to Hart in his London studio and challenged him to build a track from scratch in front of our cameras.
In the video, Hart begins his track by creating a granular synth soundscape via his modular rig, before chopping up a vocal hook, adding a synth line created with the Moog One sequencer and a sampled Reese bass.
Although its a slightly sped-up version of his creative process, Hart explains that the general workflow is a good representation of how tracks on the album came together.
“Usually what I’d have from this stage is 32 bars or 64 bars of an idea,” he explains, of the sketch he creates in the video. “I’ll sit with that for a bit. If I keep listening to it and it keeps feeling great then I’ll come back to it.
“From an idea at this stage, what I’d do is add little pad rises, add more details, develop the drums – at the moment it’s just one loop. I’d change samples out, add layers in… Just start adding FX, modulating stuff, letting it all undulate. I’ll just keep at it. Whilst I can still hear ideas that can be developed I’ll keep working at it.”
He also talks us through his ‘epic’ master chain. “It makes my computer very slow, but it makes everything sound great,” he laughs.
Come In Out The Rain by Lawrence Hart is out now via Domino.