Bearded Magazing Article:

THROWING SNOW
AT THE PAST

There is something fundamentally irritating about the term
'folktronica'. It bears all the hallmarks of the mainstream music
press and its infatuation with pigeon-holing, and it reeks of
journalistic laziness. But Ross Tones, aka Throwing Snow, is happy
with the tag when applied to his brand of melodious electronic
downbeat – not least because Four Tet, commonly regarded as
the father of folktronica, is a major influence.
Ross, who grew up on a farm in County Durham
"breeding sheep and chickens", is in London now, working at
Ninja Tunes and promoting his debut EP Footnotes pt 1 – an
accomplished and at times mesmerising collection of electronic
instrumentals. When I meet Ross for drinks, he's keen to highlight
the folk roots of his music. Growing up "in the middle of nowhere"
left its mark, he says, and subsequent years spent travelling
in India, Thailand and South America have combined to
produce a rural strain in his music. But this is offset by an urbane
sophistication, shown through his use of advanced electronic
techniques. "I'm a proper country boy. People don't understand
that about me because I'm kind of urban now I suppose. Still, a
lot of my roots are from the country. You can probably here it in
some of the folk rhythms that I use."
In fact, the folktronica tag is absolutely fitting for Throwing
Snow. "I've always liked natural instruments and traditional folk
music, but crossed over with cutting edge electronica." Ross
samples from a wide range of instruments, including a violin
played by a man he met in Rajasthan, and the relatively modern
hang drum, or "an upside-down wok" as he calls it, a melodious
drum played with the fingers. These samples, as well as more
traditional 60s and 70s funk breakbeats, are combined with his
own live acoustic bass and filtered through hi-tech software to
create the sound of Throwing Snow. Folktronica just about
sums it up.
Footnotes part 1 is released on Ross's own label, A Future
Without, which brings together a collection of musicians that
couldn't be more varied in terms of genre and geography. These
include Voodooetnies from Seville, a friend of Foreign Beggars
and purveyor of a very Spanish kind of trip-hop. Then there's
Head and Neck Sessions, a downbeat, soulful electronic act
from Shrewsbury that has received support from Gilles Peterson.
But there are also guitar-based singer-songwriters like Smith and
Paperplain, who both sound like they've never been anywhere
near a laptop.
So what is it that brings these artists together? What's
the unifying idea behind A Future Without? "It's a Bristol sound.
All the artists, no matter where they're from, should have been
from Bristol, and they all want to be there. I don't know what it is.
I suppose it's to do with breaks, bass and interesting vocals." Ross
went to university in Bristol, and the city's rich musical heritage
has clearly left its mark. He namechecks Portishead, Massive
Attack and Lamb as clear influences on him and his label. But he
goes further, suggesting that the city itself is responsible for what
A Future Without is like. "Bristol opened up my horizons. Everyone
seems to be musicians, so it's this melting pot of different styles.
And everyone seems to know each other. I worked in a sandwich
shop, and the girl working with me was having a baby with Adrian
from Portishead. It is that kind of tight community that makes
people who are into rock, punk, hip-hop, or whatever, all get
along and make interesting, crossover music."
Making a living out of electronica is a tough ask, but Ross
is giving it a go. Footnotes pt 1 has a fighting chance of making
some kind of sales impact on iTunes. But Ross is under no illusions
about how difficult it is to succeed in this business. "If you try to
make the music that you want, it's so hard without bending it to
some commercial purpose," he tells me. And on the subject of
major labels, he comes close to losing his otherwise ubiquitous
cool. "They take control of people's tastes. If you play the same
tune 1,000 times you're going to have to like it eventually, so long
as it has a catchy hook."
But there are other ways now to get a piece of the pie
without being part of the major label scene. "Without myspace
I wouldn't even have considered setting up a label," he says.
A music consultant for Adidas found A Future Without by chance
on myspace, and is using several of the label's artists, including
Throwing Snow, for adverts. And Ross is convinced that the
majors haven't cottoned on to the rise of the MP3 fast enough
– he wants to release all of A Future Without's output on MP3s,
"because it's environmentally friendly and, well, it's the future".
But he acknowledges that sales are unlikely to keep an
electronic artist on a minor label afloat, and is looking at ways
to develop Throwing Snow as a live act. "A lot of electronic artists
hide behind their computer, and I've been doing that when I
play live. People watching must think I'm just pressing play on
iTunes." To spice things up, he has constructed a loop pedal
out of a Playstation controller, and is looking at developing the
Nintendo Wii technology to make his live act more of a visible,
physical performance. "Anything that can take us out of this
stagnated state of pressing buttons on a computer has to be
good. It can be so boring otherwise. Live electronic music has
been pretty boring for the last 10 years, but I think we're getting
past that stage now." Judging by the quality of music and variety
of ideas coming from Throwing Snow and A Future Without, I think
he might be right.