On a recent trip to Antarctica, artist, speaker, and activist Madame Gandhi was awestruck by the pristine beauty of the icy continent and its delicate ecosystem. She decided to try to bring attention and awareness to climate change and it's effects on Antarctica through her superpowers - sound and music. In honor of Earth Day, Splice sat down with Madame Gandhi at her studio for an interview on this very special Splice project.
How do you use awareness of sounds in our natural environments to connect deeper and create music in popular genres like hip hop, trap, and electronic music?
Madame Gandhi: On a very literal level, listening to natural soundscapes has always proven effective to calm the mind, to reduce our stress and anxiety. And many people are listening to the sounds in their original form. But pushing this thesis a step further, when I spent time with my friend Adam, who's a collaborator on this pack out in Woodstock, NY in the pandemic with his project called Sound MANA (Music, Art, Nature, Awareness, M-A-N-A). We really started pushing forward this idea of what if the actual raw audio material of a stream, a pond, the wind, birds chirping could actually be re-sculpted in a DAW like Ableton Live into hi-hats, kicks, snare drums, bass tones, synthesizers, risers, things that you traditionally find in the electronic music production world.
When I started learning this process of micro sampling, I was so inspired because in the same way you might go down the aisles of a grocery store and look for products that are organically sourced, that are vegan and gluten-free and healthy for you and in their closest to their original form. What if we took the same approach in our music? What if we actually could make music that we hear on the radio sourced from nature sounds? Is there an opportunity to actually create music that is quite literally good for you? So as someone who has always created music with a message, as someone who prioritizes the lyrics that I put into my own artistry, taking this thesis further and building electronic music that is organically sourced and good for you was of high motivation and high priority for me.
How do you think making music with field recordings connects and brings awareness to the fragile ecosystem of Antarctica?
Madame Gandhi: The opportunity lies in empathy. You know, if you are dating somebody, you fall for them romantically, you fall in love with them, you want to understand them, you seek connection, you seek sameness, I see myself in you, therefore my ability to empathize with you expands. When we dehumanize something, it's much easier to lessen our capacity for empathy. So when we dehumanize the planet and we fill up, trash bags and trash cans of waste material, it's easy for us to participate in this unconscious and mindless action because we don't have an emotional connection to nature. The second that we start to break down those walls and actually show a different opportunity, which is the ability to connect, the ability to find joy from the connection, then the opportunity for empathy and awareness rises and therefore the opportunity for us to act with conservation mentality also rises.
So my intention with creating the Antarctica pack was what if we can enhance the empathy that we have for the planet by falling in love with the sounds, by benefiting directly from the sounds, then we are immediately incentivized to do something to protect the planet, to change our behaviors every day when we're consuming in the sort of matrix world. This is what's interesting to me. And this is why I chose to use my capabilities as a musician, as a producer, to make this Antarctica pack.
How can people view climate change action differently through the prism of sound and music?
Madame Gandhi: You know, to motivate a behavior and change a behavior, there's either the carrot, which is the reward or the stick, you know, which is the pain. And I definitely agree with you so much of the planet conversation and the conversation around eco action and eco activism has been fear based. If we don't do this by X date then by 20x, you know some terrible thing is gonna happen and all of those stats are very true. But humans, especially given the culture of Instagram and the culture of immediate gratification with online shopping and things like that, our behaviors are completely immediate. We're oriented to immediate, you know, response and reaction.
And so exactly that fear base doesn't always work and it doesn't feel joyful. It doesn't feel inspiring. It feels upsetting. It's contracting. It makes you feel bad. It makes you feel shame actually. And it actually probably makes people continue their behaviors. You know, for me, when someone pulls me over and they're like, hey, Kiran, did you know that you can make this choice of water bottle that's actually helping the planet rather than buying, you know, plastic water bottles at the airport all the time? You can make this one change and it's going to make a world of difference. That feels empowering. That feels encouraging rather than, oh, like, I can't believe you just bought that plastic water bottle. Oh, you're part of the problem. That doesn't make me feel motivated. That makes me feel small. And now I'm just going to hide my water bottle purchases. Do you know what I mean? Like, I'm not going to be motivated by somebody who's trying to create shame.
So I think nature music is that carrot for positivity and inspiration. Using music, art, creativity, you're actually pushing people's understanding of what's possible further. And you're bringing them back to nature in a way that they, through a different path that they never would have experienced. You know, when we play the Penguin Synthesizer, when we play the loops, the ice beats, it sounds fresh, it sounds yummy, it sounds interesting. It's like, wow, what music sounds like that? You know, and this is made from nature! So it has to be something that is aspirational, cool, interesting, desirable.
What organization are we partnering with for this pack?
Madame Gandhi: I want to send a shout out to the 2041 Foundation that, a percentage of the proceeds of this pack, the royalties of the downloads are going towards this organization that's, founded by, Robert Swan. And proceeds are directly going to be helping to protect Antarctica’s fragile ecosystems in danger. It's good to know that like in some way these penguins have some royalties coming back to them to help to protect their ecosystem and maintain as best we can.
I'm so grateful that, you know, Splice was open and able to create a partnership where anyone who is buying the pack can know that just by participating and purchasing our sounds, not only are they making music that's going to create empathy, but they are immediately supporting an organization that has prioritized conservation of Antarctica specifically. This is a company that is thoughtfully wanting to make sure that Antarctica will exist for decades to come, that it's not this forgotten place. So it's very, very special. And I'm very grateful that we're able to sort of put our money where our mouth is in the immediate sense and in the long term through creating music that creates empathy.
