The Questionnaire with Robert Raya from Allen Freed / By Dotan Schachter

May 4th, 2010 • Categories: Additional Questionnaires, Musicians

"I love bass lines. Anything that resonates low kind of captivates me."

What are you doing these days?
Lately, personally, I’ve been doing my best to improve as a multi-instrumentalist. I’ve been improving my skills on the guitar, keyboard, bass, drums, and even on software manipulation. As a collective group, we’ve both been doing our own thing separately kind of; writing solo songs and whatnot. Just recently we completed a few songs but I’m not completely satisfied with them, so who knows when those will see the light of day. Oh, and we’ve been doing shows.

What turns you on creatively?
I definitely thrive off of listening to musicians who aren’t afraid to push the boundary. Bands like Radiohead, the Flaming Lips, Talking Heads, TV On the Radio, etc etc. I used to be stuck in a creative rut a while ago until I discovered bands such as these, and I sort of thought to myself like, “Okay great, I’ve found a bunch of bands who are doing music that I wish I could do”, and I think once you find that, it really pushes you to create better music as opposed to staying in your safety lane.

If you were a mind-reader whose mind would you like to read?
My own sometimes. I feel like I have so many ideas and if I were to astral project from my own mind and be able to sit back and look at my ideas from another angle that I could sort through them easier.

If you could travel in time, which era would you visit?
Probably sounds cliché, but definitely the 1960’s. Looking back, it just seemed like there was an extremely vibrant creative energy running wild.

What is your favorite sound?
I love bass lines. Anything that resonates low kind of captivates me.

What is the album or song that influences you the most?
That’s difficult. I have separate influences for different aspects of my music. As a producer and band-leader, definitely The Beach Boys- Pet Sounds. An album that influences the way how I view music theory is probably Radiohead- In Rainbows. As a lyricist, it would probably be Daniel Johnston- 1990, and overall, whenever I need general inspiration, I can turn to most, if not any, of the Beatles albums in their discography.

Who would you like to collaborate with? And why?
So many musicians, but overall, probably Kanye West, simply because I feel like when it comes to hip-hop artists with a grasp on how to progress the genre, he’s head and shoulders above the rest. As someone who’d love to progress how the genre is viewed, I definitely respect him.

What drives you crazy?
Not being able to flush my ideas out properly.

What makes you laugh?
Not being able to flush my ideas out properly. They turn out as some unmistakable piece of garbage at times. Makes me laugh.

If you had 3 wishes what would they be?
I wish someone would give me every instrument in the world. I wish I had the opportunity to play in front of an enormous audience and I wish that everyone in the world could hear my music.

What is the craziest thing you ever did?
Terrorize my school newspaper by dropping the “F” bomb. Long story short, I got suspended.

What makes you feel embarrassed?
I don’t really get embarrassed too much but it does make me a bit uncomfortable when I have to introduce my music to family members, just because I feel like they’ll judge me more harshly than anyone.

What are your favorite web-sites (not including the ones that you are participate in)?
I don’t know. I participate in the social networking sites, but they feel like a chore almost. I enjoy researching random topics just to gain knowledge on stupid subjects, but no specific web site comes to mind.

What is the silliest thing you have ever done?
I perform my school’s morning announcements. Kids have short attention spans so I kind of need to act like a total fool just to get anything noticed.

How would you make the world a better place?
Tell people the truth.

What is your biggest weakness?
I second guess my ideas at times, when it comes to my music.

Where will you be in 10 years?
Preferably married, with a kid or two, graduated from some type of college, and hopefully doing music for a living. If not that, then I shutter to think what else I could be doing.

Write a question that you like to ask yourself and answer it.
What’s a question you’d like to ask yourself? Shit, I don’t know.

Who would you like to answer that Questionnaire?
My partner, Christian Lund.

Associations
Love - My girlfriend
Death - Stay away from me for now
God - Where are you?
TV - Don’t watch it much
Family - Drive me insane.
Politics - Need revision
Internet - Going to kill us all
Happiness - Same as internet
Music - Most beautiful thing humans can create
Allen Freed - The future, perhaps.