It’s an uncommonly sunny day in Portland. The city has come to life in the form of blooming daffodils, mobs of gleeful bicyclists and dusty curtains enthusiastically parted. Portland’s resident music producers and artists who inhabit the hazy underground of basements and dark, soundproofed rooms, perhaps come out for a bit.
I am sitting with Tim Jayne, Portland-based music producer, on his couch sipping coffee. Jayne, who produces and DJ’s music under the name Partial, is an integral part of Portland’s underground electronic music scene. As a lover of the weird underworld of electronic music myself, I am here to pick his brain about his evolution as an artist and what he’s up to these days.
Jayne creates self-titled “multi-tempo neuro beats” that never fail to keep you on your toes. Emphasizing the “multi-tempo” aspect of his production style, his music spans a variety of different genres, from what I would describe as Kursa-esque neuro hop, to dark, distorted nonsense reminiscent of Bleep Bloop, and heavy hip-hop inspired tracks designed around Mobb Deep beats. He has been involved in listening to and creating bass music for over a decade, and his tastes have evolved independently and along with the bass scene quite a bit.
Jayne began as a saxophone player in junior high school, but when his grandma purchased him a guitar, his interests transitioned. By high school, he discovered the audio editing and recording software Audacity. “We would chop up sample breaks and make basic drum beats and rap over it,” he said, laughing nostalgically over memories of using Windows 2000. Creating rap beats took a turn, however, after hearing the works of Benny Benassi, Scarf, and Pendulum. He specifically sites Australian drum and bass group Pendulum’s “Hold Your Colour” album from 2005 as one of his first big electronic music influences.
Jayne’s move from suburban Indiana back to Portland, Oregon brought electronic music to the forefront. He received his first copy of Ableton, started DJ’ing around 18, and got serious about making electronic music around 20, he remembers. His aunt played him Rusko’s groundbreaking “Cockney Thug” and his uncle showed him Bassnectar, which, for many of us, changed everything.
I asked him what his first electronic show was, which is a difficult question given the often innumerable quantity of shows that us music lovers attend. He glanced into the distance, seemingly sorting through a haze of memories, and then recalled a rave at Salmon Street Studios, a nightclub that is now closed. “I definitely don’t remember it,” he laughed. The first “monumental” show he went to was Bassnectar’s Timestretch tour at the Roseland Theater. Given the massive following that Bassnectar has developed, I could not imagine seeing him perform at a venue the size of the Roseland.
“There’s a picture of me on facebook in a Van Halen shirt just covered, drenched in sweat,” he said. “I remember going up to him afterwards and having him sign my otterbox…he was giving head nods and being pretty quiet. I gave him my otterbox cover and he signed it and I was like ‘You’re a God!’ and he literally laughed at me. I’ve never been to a Roseland show like that still to this day, maybe never even a show like that to this day, it was insane,” he remembers.
Photo Credit: Arian Stevens
Jayne went on to study jazz guitar at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. While studying classical jazz composition, he was one of the few in his class interested in electronic production. He got into making jazz-electronic hybrid tunes, and around that time, I met him at the show of one of electronic music’s most beloved jazz hybrid artists, Griz. He got a scholarship to the University of Oregon and applied to the jazz program. Electronic music continued to pull him, though, and he gradually lost interest. “I’m already punching myself in the face constantly because I want to play with synthesizers and make beats and I’m spending all this time writing jazz music,” he said. “Why am I not logging these hours in what I want to excel in? So I dropped out of music school and haven’t been back since.”
He started making music and playing shows under the name Taj Lumin. His tunes emitted a more ethereal, liquid vibe and were influenced by Thriftworks and kLL sMTH. These days, while he still names these artists as influences, his music has evolved into a heavier, darker sound. His top three biggest influences today are Kursa, Chee and kLL sMTH. Outside of electronic music, he listens to a lot of 90’s New York-based hip hop, describing Mobb Deep as a huge influence.
I have listened to Partial’s music quite a bit, and really wanted to know what instruments he was using to create such clean yet guttural sounds. He uses Ableton 9 and operator, which is a native synthesizer that comes with Ableton Suite. In addition to Ableton’s stock plug-ins, he uses a variety of third party plug-ins, including Serum, a popular wavetable synthesizer, and Ozone, which allows you to master you own music. He admitted to not using many of the third-party plug-ins he has bought and often sticks to Ableton stock. He named Soothe, however, as a plug-in he wants to purchase, which identifies and eliminates resonate peaks within a sound. Externally, he has an Arturia Mini-brute 2S, and has fallen in love with his Behringer Neutron synthesizer. Both are semi-modular synthesizers.
Photo Credit: Sweetwater
On the topic of music production lingo, I asked where the name Partial came from. Much to my knowledge, he described a “partial” as a micro-harmonic within a sound that helps contribute to its overall timbre. There are many within a sound. This idea of a “partial” caused me to reflect on all of the creative individual forces that make up the underground electronic music scene.
The sun still beams through the window. The coffee is near finished, and to wrap up the conversation, I asked him how he has grown as a producer. “I always tell people the biggest skill I took away from music school was definitely transcription…Transcription and music analysis are important for acceleration.” While the ability to read music, understand music theory and transcribe are not necessarily required to produce music, it seems that these skills have really contributed to his personal growth and success.
“If I’m making something inspired by a certain genre or producer, I can listen to a few songs by them or a few songs in the style from the people I’m really digging and then be like ‘okay, this is what makes minimal dubstep, minimal dubstep’, or ‘okay, this is what the producer does to make it unique within that genre’ just from listening to it actively a few times.” He describes transcribing his own beatboxing as a common method of writing music, as well.
Beyond growth of musical skill, his emotional connection to music has evolved. Jayne claims to have let go of attachment to his art.
“I’m not ever trying to write a masterpiece. “I don’t think I’m there yet. I think a lot of artists want that, especially starting out, they’re always working toward their next masterpiece,” he says. “I am not ready to make a masterpiece. ‘Get over yourself, you’re holding yourself back!’ I told myself. And I did that for years. Everything had to be my best work and that’s a stupid way to work. Just make stuff. Let it create itself.”
This advice hit home for me. I have been daunted by the prospect of making music, or doing anything creative, in fear of my perceived incapability of creating a masterpiece. But perfection is not art. “Without reservations or the need for it to be something spectacular, I think our quality will constantly grow because all of us are growing with it,” he said.
Our conversation concludes with the agreement that the underground electronic music scene in Portland is one of growth, collaboration and self expression. When asked if he could travel to any point in the timeline of electronic music, he immediately said, “this one.”
Check out Partial’s newest tune, Chuckles, a bass driven, Kursa-esque neuro-hop track, as well as his other music, on soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/partialbeats. He is also on Spotify and Bandcamp.
Lastly, if you are interested in making beats, Jayne gives Ableton lessons! Shoot him a DM if you’re interested in making bass music, or any music, really.
Peace!
Featured Image Photo Credit: Haley Jensen Photography