cloud collecting #20: Mrs Jynx (Hannah Davidson)
electronic music legend talks about patience, working with time constraints + getting geeky and giddy with sound
For my 20th(!!) and last interview of the year, I'm excited to connect with UK-based IDM/electronica legend Mrs Jynx (Hannah Davidson). I first discovered Hannah’s music via Planet Mu (run by Mike Paradinas aka µ-Ziq) during the mid-2000s, when it became the soundtrack to my wandering around San Francisco. It’s a real pleasure to speak with an artist whose work has influenced my own musical journey, and I hope this conversation helps bring renewed attention to the beauty of her art—perhaps even inspiring some of you to become new listeners.
And, thanks to everyone for being here this year—it has been a joy!
Hannah Davidson is based Manchester/West Yorkshire, Uk and has been writing melodic electronic music as ‘Mrs Jynx’ since around 2005. She has released music on Planet Mu, CPU Records, Recycled Plastics and has collaborated with Mike Paradinas (as μ-Ziq ). More recently she has been writing and producing music as ‘The Space Between Numbers’ with William Humphreys. She enjoys cats and cheese; not necessarily together.
I have been a fan of your music for many years, starting with ‘The Standoffish Cat (2008 Planet Mu) which is iconic among electronic music enthusiasts. Reflecting on that writing process after 16+ years, what memories or lessons from that time stay with you the most?
In the 90s I was playing, writing and scoring music for physical instruments whilst at University (I studied Jazz Music in London). Once I moved back to Manchester I began creating music using Fruityloops on a battered old PC and midi keyboard. I remember the frustrations of getting to grips with the software, and not being able to create as smoothly and as quickly as I would have liked; the lesson there was certainly to have patience and give space and time to myself to learn.
I was living with 3 friends in a shared house in Chorlton, Manchester when I wrote the tracks that were ultimately released on The Standoffish Cat. I had a small bedroom at the top of the house and I made my music hidden away in there. I had no headphones at that time so I’d finish a track and then ask my poor housemates if they wanted to listen to it. They were absolutely sick to death of having heard its creation, so the answer was invariably no.
At that time, ‘Myspace’ was a thing, and after uploading a few tracks to that platform I was contacted by Mike Paradinas (Planet Mu) who asked me to send him a few tracks. I was so flattered (being a long time fan of his music). I sent him 10-20 tracks and didn’t hear anything back for many months. However, he contacted me again out of the blue saying he’d curated the track list, mastered the tracks, and asked what I wanted the album to be called? The Standoffish Cat was born, and I was so happy!
In recent years, you’ve been releasing music as ‘The Space Between Numbers’ with your partner Will Humphreys, complete with sounds of your cats too. I’m curious about your collaboration process. Do you have a dedicated studio where you create music together, or do you take turns at the main hub? Also, do you both incorporate your singing voices in the project?
Will and I have found that we collaborate better whilst in each other’s physical company We live about 250 miles away from one another (Will in the South West of the UK and myself in the North West) and with full time careers, the time we are able to spend with one another is limited at the moment. We’ve found that this also has its advantages; it can sometimes make the creation process more fruitful; it focuses the mind having a finite amount of time to get things done.
We use my iMac, Logic Pro and a MIDI keyboard, which I drag down to Will’s house when I visit. I have a room in my house dedicated to music making which we use when he is visiting me. In terms of production, it is generally myself that uses the midi keyboard to improvise any chords, motifs, basslines. I am a pianist and find it much easier to physically play whilst recording it directly into Logic. We both then ‘design’ the sound together and arrange the track, with Will at the controls. He is way quicker than me and more experienced at that side of things. Will has used Logic for many years, whereas I produced all of my Mrs Jynx music using Fruity Loops. Logic has been and continues to be a big learning curve for me (I’m still in the ‘patience’ phase of getting my head round the software and all it can do!).
We have used our spoken voices a little in our music, but not our own singing voices….yet. Far too self-conscious! That said, we love working with vocals; we remixed a track by the wonderful Karen Vogt and Pepo Galán ‘Engrama’ on the album ‘All the Time in the World’ which we very much enjoyed creating.
How do you cloud collect (connect to childlike wonder) in your creativity?
Will and I make field recordings when out and about (no fancy equipment, just the voice recorder on our phones); the hum of a freezer in the supermarket, the rising drone of a commuter train and the sounds of the countryside in both Somerset & West Yorkshire where we go for long walks. We have used the purr of both Mimi (Will’s cat) and my beloved cat Noodles (who passed away earlier this year) in our recordings – pitching them right down to sound like snoring lions. We get kind of geeky and giddy about the harmonics and sounds captured and I think that is something that drives our creativity and makes it fun.
Best online place to find Hannah is her Bandcamp. You know what to do.