Q: How did this collaboration work? Were you guys in the same room and was this all put together remotely? How do you think the final album reflects this process?

A: This collaboration was completely remote. We did a few video chat sessions to talk about how things were developing, but in general we would share stems and rough mixes and send brief emails to say "I added some bass to your track." I think whatever spontaneity the final product has came from the process of listening and responding without doing a lot of talking. The success of this approach was dependent on how long Jon and I have been friends and have been working on music together.

Q: How much of the structures of each track were developed through improvisation or were they done in post? I especially dig that I never knew where each song was going to go and was delightfully surprised each time.

A: That's great to hear! In the context of home recording electronic music, the lines between writing, improvising, recoding, and post-production all seem blurred to me. We used a variety of different approaches depending on what we were working on. In some cases we had sprawling jams with many elements that only took their final form through heavy editing. At the other end of the spectrum, Onion Milk consists of one multi-tracked live take by me and two tracks that Jon overdubbed, at which point we both felt it was done. I think each track probably contains some elements of improvisation, because in general we seemed to be tracking pretty quickly so we could continue the collaboration. The thing that I loved about making this record was that the process was slightly different for each song. Maybe that is also a form of improvisation, in that we found different ways to work together each time in response to an initial musical idea.

Q: Also very cool - at certain points, I couldn't tell what electronic noises were played live or if any were sampled - thoughts?

A: In general, I think the samples contain human voices. A theme that slowly emerged as we worked on the music was altered or filtered voices that hopefully become more expressive because of their lack of fidelity. Theron Humiston did some really beautiful tracks on "To Close..." using samples of his guitar playing. Otherwise, we both put a lot of effort into the sound design aspect of the music, so it's good to hear that it's not immediately apparent what is producing some of the sounds. I really like to change the playback speed of sounds and to reverse them. I guess that is one way to treat sounds that you have made and played as samples and to recontextualize them.

Q: Have you ever seen a ghost?

A: I've seen things in dreams that have stuck with me for weeks.