LDY OSC closes off our Endless Illusion mix series, which will be hosted on the @lte.ltd platform going forward.
Music producer, DJ, technician, and overall renaissance LDY, Alyssa Barrera Auvinen’s artist name was born from her love of all things synth. An early liking for music brought her to the dance floors of Mexico, where she began DJing as an adolescent before going on to study music and sound engineering in New York City. In her music production, Alyssa plays with different instruments and unexpected vocal styles to bring her dark fantasies to life. She recently contributed a track to the new Prague-based label LTE (and the new home for our mix series) with the wind-tunnel, electro-infused ‘Suave Duro’. She spoke with Jonas about racial bias in the media, DJing dangerous parties as a teenager in Mexico, sound therapy, the music scene in Vienna, and exploring the worlds of codes, electronics, frequencies, and oscillators.
Hey Alyssa. Let’s start with the simple stuff. Where are you at the moment and what will you be doing while we chat?
I am in my atelier/lab/study space in Vienna. I do all my studying and experimenting stuff here. I also give Pilates classes here sometimes and that is what I have just finished doing. I will be staying here to finalise some documents from a coding program I just finished (Harvard's CS50).
That was taken during exams I think.
One of those cute but overdone plant pulse-to-midi generators. I’ve exhibited it during one of the Open Studios in a building where my atelier is.
How are you coping with the current situation?
As for the current situation, well, it's hard to try and be creative. I am supposed to be working on some tracks for a VA and it just feels a bit pointless to me at the moment. On top of being super busy and my head and heart being elsewhere it has been hard for me to get creative. Now as clubs are about to open in Vienna I don't like the feeling which comes from having to promote myself.
I feel sad about people being displaced from their homes, about men having to sacrifice themselves, and mainly about still seeing a racial indifference towards people of color trying to cross the borders. It makes me reflect on growing up on the border of Mexico and Texas. All of my family and friends had to move away, our cars and houses were getting broken into, family and friends were getting kidnapped. No one made a peep about that and no one donated to help. This terrible white racial hierarchy and media filtration is just a hard reality we have to face. Hopefully this also brings awareness to other people's situation in less economically fortunate places. Anyway, my prayers are with everyone suffering because of the war.
I am sure it's very confusing to a lot of people at the moment. You feel terrified about the brutal invasion, then the acts of solidarity uplift you but then you hear about human trafficking or the racial selection on the borders and you're disgusted again. It also feels very inappropriate to be thinking of yourself, but at the same time you have to think about yourself as well. Super hard to navigate.
Yes. What you say resonates with me. It's really hard to manage and we are not the only ones feeling like this.
I actually wanted to ask you about your journey from Mexico to Vienna. So did you and your family leave because of the violence? Can you tell me a bit more about that?
The violence on the border started in the mid 2000s and got really bad between 2007 and 2013. When you see the El Chapo series you will understand why... haha. My family who lived there had to move to Texas because it got so violent… but I was still exposed to a lot of the violence because I was crossing the borders back and forth often.
My closest family moved to Laredo, Texas, from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, when I was 4 years old because my mom was working in the US and my family wanted us to go to school there too. The thing is Laredo is not like Texas. It's 99% hispanic which means it is a bit uncultured in the end. It creates an environment of close-minded people who don't accept other cultures easily. That is why I left when I was 20 (in 2010) to NYC to pursue my creative endeavours with music. Fast forward to after finishing my studies in 2016, I needed a change from NYC and fell in love with someone who lived in Vienna so I made the much needed decision to move.
I must add that although there was a lot of violence, my journey into electronic music began thanks to parties in Mexico. I started "clubbing" when I was 15, my uncle owned a club in Mexico. Then I started to DJ when I was 17 and started traveling around. The parties were dangerous but also really fun 😆.
That is an early-age clubbing indeed! What kind of a club did your uncle own? Did you actually play there? What do you mean by dangerous?
My uncle's club was in Nuevo Laredo, I only got to go a few times... I think they had mostly live bands with DJs playing after. It ended up closing once the cartels started asking for money and wanted to go after my uncle. I didn't DJ there, I learned to play at a small bar in Laredo, TX, where there was a tiny electronic music crew. We used to travel to Monterrey, MX, for shows. Then I started to play out there and spread into other cities in Mexico.
The parties were dangerous because there was always the cartel selling drugs. The moment when everything fell apart was when the cartel started shooting bouncers when demanding money. One time in Reynosa the "police" – aka the cartel – rolled up to the party, raided everyone's belongings, took their drugs and money and left. We kept the party going though.
That sounds scary. But I guess it's also a very rare dose of adrenaline, haha.
Haha, yes. That mixed with being young and not knowing any better is a dangerous combo 😅.
To be honest I don't know much about the Mexican scene. What I have noticed mostly is this sort of colonialistic attitude of westerners, who go there to enjoy the “freedom”.
Yes, it wasn't like that back in the day. It was only Mexican DJs and some famous international DJs that would be invited to play there. There are only a few relatively safe areas that they can travel to, and it is still nice and beautiful but it doesn't show the real Mexico.
How long have you been in Vienna? How do you feel there? It must be an extremely different experience/life, compared to Laredo or Nuevo Laredo.
I've been in Vienna since June 2018. I love the safety for a change and how clean and structured the city is but as you know everything always has a downside. Mine is the language barrier with German. I got to B1 level and just kinda stayed there. It's hard for me to study exactly what I want here because all those engineering programmes are in German. In comparison to NY the city is pretty boring but my mental and physical health is better than ever.
And what about the music scene, from your perspective? Is it a stimulating environment?
😬 I am not really stimulated by the scene. There are a few clubs, more and more opening which is good. There are also A LOT of DJs here, but I think that’s a global thing. I think a big issue here is that people don't like to pay so it's hard for promoters to make strong line-ups. Although I can't deny that I've had some great gigs here where people were really into it, so it can be really fun at times.
I've found out you also do (or did) sound therapy, in which you combine your knowledge of the body, its movement and sound. Can you tell me a bit about that? What do your therapy sessions look like?
Yes, the project is a bit on pause right now but I was doing these workshops in 2019-2020 in which we would tune ourselves to different frequencies by humming internally or externally. As well as with breathing exercises and actual movement to build heat in the body.
I guess the point was to feel more in tune with how we perceive music and our bodies in space. Also it was about learning about oscillators which really excite me 🌀.
As your name – and your answers – suggest you must be totally in love with oscillators, haha. Where does this love come from and what project are you working on at the moment? You've mentioned a coding programme.
Hehe yes, oscillators are cool, I’ve always been fascinated by the pendulum, starting in high school physics and then, once I started playing with synthesizers, my obsession to know everything about them set in. I started building DIY kits in 2014 and then realised after many mistakes and not being able to troubleshoot properly that I needed to breadboard more and actually learn electronics.
Yes, I’ve been coding a lot lately. Still a newbie, starting with C in Uni and now branching off to Python, and other web development languages. I just completed Harvard's CS50. Haven’t had a solder session in my lab in a while but I have a cabinet full of projects and synthesizer repairs to do.
Can you please show us some of the pieces and explain what you use them for?
This is my next project. I have 3 of these LXP5 in poor working condition so I will Frankenstein them and hopefully get two running, or at least just one. I have one that works and it’s a favourite FX in my sound palette.
Also this lovely modded CR78 needs some love. The pots don’t work well but we bought it like this. The thing is, once I open it, I am going to need a lot of focus and time to work and right now I don’t have that. Soon enough!
As for designing oscillators or circuits I am not there yet. Still looking and learning from schematics and simulation software.
* The conversation took place via WhatsApp between 13:21 on Wednesday (Mar. 3) and 16:07 on Friday (Mar. 4), 2022.
Tracklist:
The Exaltics, Paris The Black Fu - W eex ist part 2
Signal Aout 42 - Voice of Hell
Sister Machine Gun - Overload
System 01 - The Pleasure Principle
Newclear Waves - Fighting For Favour
System 01 - The Pleasure Principle
Michael Zodorozny - 14th Street Union Square Station
Dame Area - Conflictos
I-F - Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass (XL Remix)
Professor X - StatiX (Instrumental)
The Exaltics, Paris The Black Fu - Dis turb ance int he tim eline
M PARENT - HEAVEN + HELL
Christopher Joseph - Eye in the Sky
Not Waving - Redacted 7
Dome - Airmail
Scroll to Top ↑
LDY OSC closes off our Endless Illusion mix series, which will be hosted on the @lte.ltd platform going forward.
Music producer, DJ, technician, and overall renaissance LDY, Alyssa Barrera Auvinen’s artist name was born from her love of all things synth. An early liking for music brought her to the dance floors of Mexico, where she began DJing as an adolescent before going on to study music and sound engineering in New York City. In her music production, Alyssa plays with different instruments and unexpected vocal styles to bring her dark fantasies to life. She recently contributed a track to the new Prague-based label LTE (and the new home for our mix series) with the wind-tunnel, electro-infused ‘Suave Duro’. She spoke with Jonas about racial bias in the media, DJing dangerous parties as a teenager in Mexico, sound therapy, the music scene in Vienna, and exploring the worlds of codes, electronics, frequencies, and oscillators.
Hey Alyssa. Let’s start with the simple stuff. Where are you at the moment and what will you be doing while we chat?
I am in my atelier/lab/study space in Vienna. I do all my studying and experimenting stuff here. I also give Pilates classes here sometimes and that is what I have just finished doing. I will be staying here to finalise some documents from a coding program I just finished (Harvard's CS50).
That was taken during exams I think.
One of those cute but overdone plant pulse-to-midi generators. I’ve exhibited it during one of the Open Studios in a building where my atelier is.
How are you coping with the current situation?
As for the current situation, well, it's hard to try and be creative. I am supposed to be working on some tracks for a VA and it just feels a bit pointless to me at the moment. On top of being super busy and my head and heart being elsewhere it has been hard for me to get creative. Now as clubs are about to open in Vienna I don't like the feeling which comes from having to promote myself.
I feel sad about people being displaced from their homes, about men having to sacrifice themselves, and mainly about still seeing a racial indifference towards people of color trying to cross the borders. It makes me reflect on growing up on the border of Mexico and Texas. All of my family and friends had to move away, our cars and houses were getting broken into, family and friends were getting kidnapped. No one made a peep about that and no one donated to help. This terrible white racial hierarchy and media filtration is just a hard reality we have to face. Hopefully this also brings awareness to other people's situation in less economically fortunate places. Anyway, my prayers are with everyone suffering because of the war.
I am sure it's very confusing to a lot of people at the moment. You feel terrified about the brutal invasion, then the acts of solidarity uplift you but then you hear about human trafficking or the racial selection on the borders and you're disgusted again. It also feels very inappropriate to be thinking of yourself, but at the same time you have to think about yourself as well. Super hard to navigate.
Yes. What you say resonates with me. It's really hard to manage and we are not the only ones feeling like this.
I actually wanted to ask you about your journey from Mexico to Vienna. So did you and your family leave because of the violence? Can you tell me a bit more about that?
The violence on the border started in the mid 2000s and got really bad between 2007 and 2013. When you see the El Chapo series you will understand why... haha. My family who lived there had to move to Texas because it got so violent… but I was still exposed to a lot of the violence because I was crossing the borders back and forth often.
My closest family moved to Laredo, Texas, from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, when I was 4 years old because my mom was working in the US and my family wanted us to go to school there too. The thing is Laredo is not like Texas. It's 99% hispanic which means it is a bit uncultured in the end. It creates an environment of close-minded people who don't accept other cultures easily. That is why I left when I was 20 (in 2010) to NYC to pursue my creative endeavours with music. Fast forward to after finishing my studies in 2016, I needed a change from NYC and fell in love with someone who lived in Vienna so I made the much needed decision to move.
I must add that although there was a lot of violence, my journey into electronic music began thanks to parties in Mexico. I started "clubbing" when I was 15, my uncle owned a club in Mexico. Then I started to DJ when I was 17 and started traveling around. The parties were dangerous but also really fun 😆.
That is an early-age clubbing indeed! What kind of a club did your uncle own? Did you actually play there? What do you mean by dangerous?
My uncle's club was in Nuevo Laredo, I only got to go a few times... I think they had mostly live bands with DJs playing after. It ended up closing once the cartels started asking for money and wanted to go after my uncle. I didn't DJ there, I learned to play at a small bar in Laredo, TX, where there was a tiny electronic music crew. We used to travel to Monterrey, MX, for shows. Then I started to play out there and spread into other cities in Mexico.
The parties were dangerous because there was always the cartel selling drugs. The moment when everything fell apart was when the cartel started shooting bouncers when demanding money. One time in Reynosa the "police" – aka the cartel – rolled up to the party, raided everyone's belongings, took their drugs and money and left. We kept the party going though.
That sounds scary. But I guess it's also a very rare dose of adrenaline, haha.
Haha, yes. That mixed with being young and not knowing any better is a dangerous combo 😅.
To be honest I don't know much about the Mexican scene. What I have noticed mostly is this sort of colonialistic attitude of westerners, who go there to enjoy the “freedom”.
Yes, it wasn't like that back in the day. It was only Mexican DJs and some famous international DJs that would be invited to play there. There are only a few relatively safe areas that they can travel to, and it is still nice and beautiful but it doesn't show the real Mexico.
How long have you been in Vienna? How do you feel there? It must be an extremely different experience/life, compared to Laredo or Nuevo Laredo.
I've been in Vienna since June 2018. I love the safety for a change and how clean and structured the city is but as you know everything always has a downside. Mine is the language barrier with German. I got to B1 level and just kinda stayed there. It's hard for me to study exactly what I want here because all those engineering programmes are in German. In comparison to NY the city is pretty boring but my mental and physical health is better than ever.
And what about the music scene, from your perspective? Is it a stimulating environment?
😬 I am not really stimulated by the scene. There are a few clubs, more and more opening which is good. There are also A LOT of DJs here, but I think that’s a global thing. I think a big issue here is that people don't like to pay so it's hard for promoters to make strong line-ups. Although I can't deny that I've had some great gigs here where people were really into it, so it can be really fun at times.
I've found out you also do (or did) sound therapy, in which you combine your knowledge of the body, its movement and sound. Can you tell me a bit about that? What do your therapy sessions look like?
Yes, the project is a bit on pause right now but I was doing these workshops in 2019-2020 in which we would tune ourselves to different frequencies by humming internally or externally. As well as with breathing exercises and actual movement to build heat in the body.
I guess the point was to feel more in tune with how we perceive music and our bodies in space. Also it was about learning about oscillators which really excite me 🌀.
As your name – and your answers – suggest you must be totally in love with oscillators, haha. Where does this love come from and what project are you working on at the moment? You've mentioned a coding programme.
Hehe yes, oscillators are cool, I’ve always been fascinated by the pendulum, starting in high school physics and then, once I started playing with synthesizers, my obsession to know everything about them set in. I started building DIY kits in 2014 and then realised after many mistakes and not being able to troubleshoot properly that I needed to breadboard more and actually learn electronics.
Yes, I’ve been coding a lot lately. Still a newbie, starting with C in Uni and now branching off to Python, and other web development languages. I just completed Harvard's CS50. Haven’t had a solder session in my lab in a while but I have a cabinet full of projects and synthesizer repairs to do.
Can you please show us some of the pieces and explain what you use them for?
This is my next project. I have 3 of these LXP5 in poor working condition so I will Frankenstein them and hopefully get two running, or at least just one. I have one that works and it’s a favourite FX in my sound palette.
Also this lovely modded CR78 needs some love. The pots don’t work well but we bought it like this. The thing is, once I open it, I am going to need a lot of focus and time to work and right now I don’t have that. Soon enough!
* The conversation took place via WhatsApp between 13:21 on Wednesday (Mar. 3) and 16:07 on Friday (Mar. 4), 2022.
Tracklist:
The Exaltics, Paris The Black Fu - W eex ist part 2
Signal Aout 42 - Voice of Hell
Sister Machine Gun - Overload
System 01 - The Pleasure Principle
Newclear Waves - Fighting For Favour
System 01 - The Pleasure Principle
Michael Zodorozny - 14th Street Union Square Station
Dame Area - Conflictos
I-F - Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass (XL Remix)
Professor X - StatiX (Instrumental)
The Exaltics, Paris The Black Fu - Dis turb ance int he tim eline
M PARENT - HEAVEN + HELL
Christopher Joseph - Eye in the Sky
Not Waving - Redacted 7
Dome - Airmail
Scroll to Top ↑