IBW: Did you use anything special to make the unique sound in "Stumble"?
Bonjay: It's actually a sample of an air horn, a sound that you hear a lot in dancehall reggae and, increasingly, in hip hop and club music. We put it into the Ableton Live sampler to pitch it across the keyboard and play it like an instrument. Then in the mix we added some compression and distortion to give it more character, and we eq-ed out some of the harsher frequencies to make it sit better as a melody part. Part of the inspiration for the song is that we were getting tired of hearing air horn samples in so many DJ sets, so we decided to turn the sound into something melodic.
IBW: What was your inspiration to take on electronic music rather than any other kind of music?
Bonjay: We've both played lots of more traditional kinds of music throughout our lives as well. Alanna grew up singing in the gospel choir at her church, and she put herself through university by singing weekly in a soul/r&b cover band at a restaurant. Ian played piano, violin, and saxophone growing up, but it was when he became a teenager and got into hip hop and deejaying that his interest in music really perked up. I think the common thread of our interest in making music "electronically" is that there's a much greater range for experimentation in arrangements and sounds.
A lot of more traditional, established genres have a pretty regimented rules set in place. There are still great songs being written in folk, jazz, rock'n'roll, etc., but they tend to adhere pretty closely to the templates of music from decades past. That phenomenon exists in electronic music as well, but there's a lot more sonic innovation in electronic genres. Recent movements like dubstep and wonky don't really have a parallel in the world of rock.
IBW: Who or what is your favorite electronic musician or song?
Bonjay: Ian has two favourite electronic musicians: the house producer Seiji and the hip hop/r'n'b producer Timbaland. Alanna's favourite electronic musician is the producer Caribou.
IBW: Did you play any musical instruments before taking on electronic music?
Bonjay: Ian plays keys, violin and saxophone. Alanna honed her vocal skills in choir competitions for ten years and can play a little guitar.
IBW: What is your favorite electronic music equipment and why?
Bonjay: Our favourite electronic music equipment is the Akai MPC drum machine. It's very simple - just a box with pads you can assign sounds to - but people from DJ Premier to Jeremy Ellis (and many others) have used it to very great creative effect. Much of our music is based around rhythm, even the melodic parts. So it's a key creative tool for us.
IBW: What is your favorite part of the electronic music-making process?
Bonjay: Turning the initial idea into a rough beat. Arranging and mixing can sometimes be hard work, but that initial blast of just sitting down and making a beat from scratch is so much fun.