By Joe Vickrey
Ahead of Indigo Waves’ second album release and European tour, I sat down with Matthew Mink, the mastermind behind their keyboard and sampled drum sounds. In case you’re not already familiar with these legends of the local scene, Indigo Waves are the world’s premier lofi psychedelic post-punk surf rock dream pop duo. (Yes, that’s actually how they describe themselves.) Austin Oestreich and Matthew Mink released their debut album in 2021, and their retro synthwave vibes have aged like fine wine. Even with a grocery list of things he still needed to work on for their upcoming release, Matt was still happy to chat about synths, samples, stages, and studio time.
I first met Indigo Waves when my band played with them at The Basement in Rexburg (RIP to a legend). While English Budgies stopped at the Idaho Potato Museum, Matt stopped at a pawn shop and picked up a Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard. Matt explained what attracted him to this particular keyboard, “You can record like two seconds of audio into it and then it just crushes it.” This would go on to become Matt’s favorite piece of equipment and the foundation for the sample packs he’s released with his company Tuesday Samples.
It seemed to me like Matt has a soft spot for vintage gear as he’s frequently featured a Rhodes electric piano, various synthesizers, and drum machines in his socials. When I asked him about it, he admitted, “I’m a serial flipper. It’s hard to keep [vintage] stuff around when I know I can make money off of it.” He added that reliability was also a concern for aging gear.
That’s where the perks of sampling came in to focus. Matt told me the SK-1 sampling keyboard I mentioned above will turn itself off after two minutes of inactivity. That would be an absolute nightmare for playing live. “We’ve used the SK-1 a lot on our album, so live I can just recall the sounds as samples loaded onto my [Akai] MPC.”
Remembering the initial revelation to use samples, Matt recalled thinking, “This is dope. I can just like create a new instrument out of an instrument I have and give it its own vibe.”
He continued, “I think sound design is what I love about making music,” mentioning how he’s excited by especially weird sounds or things he’s never heard before, and how he’d dream up different combinations of sounds while lying in bed. Matt explained, “I come up with the concepts before, and I wonder what would happen if I put this into this, and then did this, and then doubled it… and I have this list in my phone. It’s like 30 ideas of sound design that I want to try.”
Expressing his excitement for sample packs, Matt continued, “That’s kind of this sweet thing about samples is that if you don’t care about designing the sound yourself — which is what I’m obsessed with — but if you just want the sound, you can get something exactly like it was played off of that synthesizer and just download a $3,000 synthesizer onto your hard drive.”
He began to let me in on the trade secrets of his favorite filters and synths, but I was already googling how to download sample packs into my hardware drum machine because I was so convinced. I tuned back in when I heard him say, “I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on drum samples.” Perhaps this wasn’t the rabbit hole I needed to go down today! After my expression gave away my shock, Matt justified to me, “That’s what we use for every Indigo Waves song, and it’s worked out for us so far.” Can’t argue with results!
It was interesting to hear how someone who was so passionate about sound design could also loathe recording live drums. The tedious nature of setup, editing, and the sheer volume of the process are completely understandable points, but before he’d mentioned it, I had no idea he was actually using samples for drums… let alone thriving with them! For a man who openly told me, “I’m not creative enough sometimes,” he couldn’t have left me more eager to jump back on to my synthesizer to noodle around.
As one of Utah’s biggest hit makers, it seemed like Matthew Mink’s most inspired ideas came from simply chasing what interests him in the moment. Rather than banging his head on a wall or meditating to write a song, he’s in a state of play. Whether it was sampling synthesizer or tweaking filters, I got the impression that Matthew Mink has just been committed to having fun and doing what he wants to do.
You can check out Matt’s sample collections at tuesdaysamples.com and listen to Indigo Waves’ latest singles below! Be sure to follow Matt, Tuesday Samples, and Indigo Waves on Instagram, and keep an eye out for Indigo Waves’ newest album, Mirror, dropping next week!