Interview: Buckwave

For this interview we spoke with Buckwave, an ambient artist from Bristol, England whose music grew from experimentation, curiosity, and happy accidents. Coming from a background as a bass player and songwriter, his journey into ambient music began during the 2020 lockdowns and evolved into a deeply personal exploration of sound, modular synthesis, field recordings, and atmosphere. In this conversation, Buckwave talks about finding inspiration in everyday surroundings, his fascination with stretching musical space and time, the impact of modular synthesis on his creative process, and why making art for yourself matters above everything else.

General info

Artist Name: Buckwave

Real name: Peter

Age: 38

Location: Bristol, England

 

Social Media / Music Links

youtube.com/@buckwavefm

 

Do you release music under a label or independently?

Independent

 

Creative process and inspiration

What drew you to ambient music in the first place?

I think the first time I did anything in the genre was during the lockdowns in 2020. I had an OP-1 and had made a small composition on it, played that back to my partner and slowed the playback speed down as much as I could before then pretending to swim around the room in slow-motion breast stroke as a joke. I quite liked the sound and then started experimenting more with the instruments I had before developing my setup and finding the sounds I most liked and wanted to be part of my setup.

Can you describe your creative process when starting a new track?

I like to start with something musically harmonic, whether that’s a happy accident from a synth or something I’ve written on another instrument, and use that as a basis to start pulling it far apart from itself.

I read somewhere about increasing the spacing between written words causing an illusion where the words no longer seem to be on the same line as one another (loss of text cohesion), and how a similar idea happens in music when the tempo goes below 55 BPM and it becomes difficult to anticipate where the next beat is. I found that idea fascinating and try to feed it into my music, although not all the time. That’d be boring.

Where do you find inspiration? Emotion, nature, science fiction, or something else?

There wouldn’t be one exact thing. I write and record at home, so my environment naturally becomes an influence. Recently I’ve been recording sounds from my apartment, whether that’s cars passing by or the sound of drainpipes after rain. Anything that feels uniquely tied to that location has ended up on my newest recordings.

How would you describe your sonic identity or the mood you aim to create?

My main goal is for the music to be relaxing. If there’s an atmosphere I’m aiming for it’s maybe cinematic, although that can mean different things to different people. As for emotional space, I’d leave that to the listener to decide. Personally I’d say: LIMERANCE.

What moment made you feel like you had truly found your sound?

I come from a background of being a bass player in bands and also making some singer-songwriter recordings as a solo artist. I only got into electronic music a few years ago, initially because I wanted to learn more about synthesizers. There wasn’t a single defining moment, but hearing a Moog play a random sequence of notes with zero attack and minimal decay while I slowly increased the wet signal on my reverb was definitely a great one.

How important is storytelling in your work?

For me personally it’s very important. I don’t necessarily think storytelling needs to be explicit, but I do think there should be intention within the work.

What makes a track feel “finished” to you?

Haha. I don’t think they ever are. That said, I’m definitely too lazy to continue working on the same piece for more than a couple of days.

Which artists (or even non-musical influences) have shaped your artistic vision?

Lots and loads. I love the albums Ryuichi Sakamoto did with Alva Noto, and I love the visual work of Moebius, especially Edena.

I’m also lucky to know a lot of talented people in my local community, and they’re constantly inspiring me simply by doing what excites them and makes them happy. That’s probably the artistic vision I try to follow too: make your art for yourself.

 

Gear and setup

Are you using hardware, software, or a hybrid setup?

Hardware

What’s your favorite piece of gear or plugin, and why?

At the moment I love Onward by Chase Bliss Audio. It feels very unpredictable (possibly because I haven’t had it very long), and that makes it a really fun piece of gear to call upon for help.

What piece of gear completely changed your workflow?

Modular synthesis in general.

The way I explain it is that learning an instrument like guitar (or bass in my case) feels like learning from the bottom up. You develop techniques to produce sound and gradually become faster and more precise. Modular synthesis feels upside down compared to that. It can already generate all the notes you’d otherwise spend years learning to play, and you can sequence those notes however you want. The challenge becomes making those sounds interesting and human by introducing imperfections. Modular synthesis completely changed how I approach music because it made me look beyond that bottom-up mindset.

 

Challenges

How do you stay motivated or inspired when you're in a creative rut?

If I run out of motivation, inspiration, or passion, I’ll stop and pivot to something else — writing, art, cooking, anything really. I wouldn’t want to force it.

How do streaming platforms affect the way you release music, or what is your relationship with those platforms?

They’re good enough, I suppose. It would be nice if independent artists didn’t have to pay for distribution and could simply publish music directly, but that’s only a small gripe. Streaming is probably my least favorite way to listen to music, but it’s also probably the one I use the most because of convenience.

What are your thoughts on AI’s impact on music and art? Have you, in any form, used it in your approach to creating and shaping ideas?

I think if I phoned a friend and asked them to draw me a picture, and then showed it to someone else saying, “Hey, I drew this, look at my art,” that wouldn’t really fit my idea of what art is. There are many uses for AI, but I don’t think art is one of them. Fair enough if other people want to go that route, but I feel that leans more toward commercial uses, which isn’t really something I’m interested in.

How do you see AI evolving in music and art? Are you cautious about it, or do you think it will increasingly function as a tool within creative workflows?

I’m not cautious of it. We’re in completely separate lanes from one another.

What advice would you give to new ambient artists?

There are no wrong answers. Make the music you like and maybe someone else might like it too.

 

The sound of Buckwave