Dennis DeSantis: tactical solutions for the contemporary electronic producer

Dennis DeSantis is a musician and writer who grew up on the outskirts of Detroit. With a wealth of musical experience across form, style and approach, his recent focus has been as head of documentation at Ableton, the music technology company who revolutionised methods of making and performing electronic music over the last decade and a half. Through his practice, DeSantis identified a gap in the market. There are endless tutorials to detail the technical aspects of production methods, but very little to address the nitty gritty reality of actually making music through these means.

Comprising three self-explanatory sections – ‘Problems of Beginning’, ‘Problems of Progressing’ and ‘Problems of Finishing’ – Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electric Music Producers is DeSantis’s attempt to address the disparity. This is no Ableton ‘how-to’ guide; there are no specific products mentioned in the text. But perhaps more important than offering specific answers, it encourages a different way of thinking one’s way around studio problems; new ways of approaching creativity; new ways of conquering the “existential terror” of creating art.

So has DeSantis succeeded in addressing that gap in the market? The fact Making Music’s first physical print run sold out in just two days offers resounding confirmation of the fact. As his colleagues at Ableton scramble around to put together a rapidfire second press, we asked the author a few questions about how the project came to mind, then came to life.

The book is an incredibly valuable resource, it’s surprising that no one has thought of it sooner. Did the idea just occur to you, or are there any precursors to this kind of guide?

I had been thinking about some kind of book in this direction for a few years, but took a long time to really figure out exactly how to do it and what would be the most useful things to write about. I don’t really know of other books that address these topics in this specific way, but I’ve seen some of this kind of creative strategy thinking turn up on blogs now and then. For the more motivational or philosophical topics, it’s common to see some of these strategies directed towards ‘artists’ in general, but I felt like there was a way these could be tuned more specifically to electronic music producers.

The scenarios, techniques and patterns discussed in the book suggest a vast and varied range of music-making experience. Is this the case, or are you just particularly good at identifying and quantifying moments of tension in the process?

I don’t know if I’m particularly good at identifying these moments in general, but I am good at identifying them in my own particular creative process. I’ve certainly had my share of creative tension. But I figured the kinds of problems I’ve faced and the solutions I’ve come up with can’t be unique to me, and that I might be able to put these into words in a way that could help others.

I do have a range of music-making experience, maybe because I’ve been unable to sit still and really just focus on one thing for very long. My earliest real musical interests were in electronic music, but I went off on a bunch of tangents before looping back around, including a few years playing drums in a funk band, as well as getting a doctorate in classical composition. At some level, I guess all of that stuff informs my thinking about electronic music now, both as a producer and as an educator.

Was there an element of collaboration on the book? Did you speak to a lot of other producers and borrow scenarios from their creative process? 

Not as much as there probably should have been, and this is one of the things I’d do differently if I were to do this project over again. I spoke informally to a few people to get idea starters, and some of these conversations helped me decide to frame the book in the three sections. But beyond this, it’s mostly just a collection of my own strategies and techniques. If I do a second volume, I’d like to do more interviews and spend less of the time in my own head. I did get a lot of extremely helpful feedback from colleagues during the editing phase, however, and this absolutely resulted in a better book in the end.

How did the idea come about to team up with Ableton?

I work for Ableton anyway, writing the technical documentation and educational materials for Live and Push, so the fit seemed pretty natural. I had originally imagined the book as my own recreational project but I mentioned the idea to Gerhard Behles [Ableton’s CEO] one day, and he immediately suggested Ableton publish it. I was initially pretty sceptical of the idea, since I imagined that publishing a book was way outside of the scope of the things we’d be good at. But in retrospect, this was absolutely the right decision. The book got much more early exposure as a result of being associated with Ableton. But more importantly, it’s just the next logical step in what we’re trying to do as a company, which is to help people become better musicians. Technology is only one part of that goal; education is the next one.

Would the greatest satisfaction of all be in years to come, if certain producers, or certain tracks or albums, were to cite this book as a key influence?

I hope it does, and I’d be really happy to hear that the book helped people get over creative blocks and get music done. I’d also love to see more things like this start to happen. Electronic musicians have a wealth of learning resources already available on the technology side, but could really benefit from more on the music side. The kind of academic musical education that I came from is not really well-geared towards the kinds of creative challenges that electronic musicians actually face, and I think there’s much more work to be done here.