The Parallel raw and uncensored

This is the unexpurgated conversation between myself and Ireland's The Parallel aka Colin McKeown. I can't even begin to explain how dope this guy's singles have been thus far, every track I have heard that he has had his hands on is comprised of the deep, Detroit techno icyness that sends shivers up & down my nostrils. An actual prose-y piece will (hopefully) be coming out in the next issue of Big Shot magazine-it will be incredibly short so I decided to include the terse responses of the young producer to give the article a little more reach. Enjoy!

Few have combined the ambient sounds of Brian Eno with Detroit techno so well, your music sounds timeless-neither chill nor techno. Tell me a little bit about your studio set-up and how you get capture all of those beautiful sounds?

My studio set up consists of a Toshiba laptop running various audio software (Ableton , Cubase, FL Studio) and an Axiom 25 midi controller. To get my sounds i use a handful of VST's including Albino 3 for pads/strings , D16 Group's Drumazon/Nepheton for drums and also use samples now and again.

Your music has unique melancholic tint to it, is that bourne of the Irish rain or specific musical or artistic influences?

I think i get that from listening to ambient [music] over the years. Its a big influence in the tracks i produce, I'm also a huge fan of the Detroit sound which has similar traits. I try to infuse the two together. The Irish weather may play a part as well.

Give me a (very) brief history of the Irish techno scene-Who influenced it? Who are the biggest names, and where do you fit in?
For me the main influences growing up were David Holmes, Eamon Doyle, and Rob Rowland from D1 Records. The biggest names at the moment would for me be Donnacha Costello, Chymera, Lerosa, and John Daly. There's a lot of up and coming artists as well with Rob Glennon, Julian Eustace, Sunil Sharpe, Tr-One...it's very healthy at the moment. I'm still a new name so I'm not sure where i fit in yet, maybe get back to me in a few years on that one.

Tell me a little bit about your album-is it out yet, what's it called, is this your debut?

At the moment I'm just releasing EP's on different labels (Static, Electronic Ireland, Nice and Nasty). Most recent release is "Spectral" out on Electronic Ireland with Chymera and Julian Eustace doing remix duties. I have my first vinyl release coming out on a new UK label called Komisch, that will be out during September.

How long have you been making records, what inspired you to get started?

I started making tracks from around 2005, was just messing around with software to get the sound i was looking for. Had my first release March 2008. I have been inspired since i was eleven back in 1990 after hearing the likes of Alten 8 , 808 State, and LFO on the radio and have been into it ever since.