Bassnectar Researches Fan Tastes for New Album

Posted on Jul 16th 2009 4:00PM by Benjy Eisen
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With a Saturday night headlining set on Lollapalooza's dance stage (aka "Perry's") just weeks away, electronic artist Lorin Ashton is back in his Berkeley, California laboratory putting the finishing touches on his new Bassnectar album. Since the record has been three years in the making, Ashton finds himself sitting on a veritable mountain of digital files, tracks, samples, noises, loops and songs that, in his mind, will never be completed -- even after they're burned onto CDs and packaged for consumption.

With so many stressful choices that he must cut through by the album's deadline, Ashton decided to do some market research. That's where you, the fan, come in. Ashton posted a short survey on the Bassnectar Website asking fans for their thoughts and opinions ("Question 1: "What do you want?" Question 2: "What don't you want?"). The results, so far, have been varied. And educational.

"It just affirmed my conviction that humans are as diverse as snowflakes," Ashton tells Spinner. "And it can be utter insanity to attempt to abide by everyone's preferences."

As a music blog that allows user comments, we probably could've told him that one, but Ashton says the survey serves a greater purpose as well. "My musical project is more of a social experiment than a band," he says. "I am obsessed with the inter-workings of community. Plus, my own musical tastes are so manic that, being a solo artist, I can get trapped in feedback loops. That's why I prefer collaborations. This is kind of a meta-collaborative offering to my music community."

Survey says: thumbs up.