Interview: Getting to Know Sounds Escape

Auckland-based multi-instrumentalist Logan Wedgwood returns with his instrumental outlet Sounds Escape, to unleash his new album ‘Electric Love’, a transportive journey through the powerful dynamics of sound. In this interview, we get to know the artist a little better.

1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.

Then the pandemic of 2020 pulled me back to music after a hiatus of several years… Like many people, I struggled with the isolation and weight of uncertainty during this time: I needed a creative outlet. Picking up the guitar, I found salvation in the daily ritual of creating music and bringing the sounds in my head out into the world. Rough riffs became loops, layers, then full compositions. Slowly, Sounds Escape emerged.

Sometimes it’s a single guitar line leading the way; sometimes it’s forty instruments stacked together. It’s always led by feeling – music that invites you to step inside and lose yourself. Whether it’s a late-night headphone listen, a rainy Sunday soundtrack, or the emotional undercurrent of a film scene, Sounds Escape offers tension and release. My works are adventures more than arrangements – where listeners can find their own meaning and connection where they need it most.

2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?

I make sonic soundscapes – music that takes you on an adventure and let’s you lose yourself in it.

3. What’s currently keeping you busy? A new album/EP/single release? A new video? Playing live, or planning ahead?

With the album released last Monday, I am back to practicing guitar, learning scales, learning theory and capture early initial Ideas on my loop pedal. I also have to decide what to do with a couple of songs that didn’t make the record, but are cool in their own way. I have enough material for an EP, but not another album.

4. What is about this current period that is particularly exciting for you?

My favourite part of music is the creative process of bringing a song or a track together, from initial riffs and ideas to a structured adventure that takes the listener on a journey. I love chasing the feeling and trying to find the emotion in the sound.

5. Tell me about the work that has gone into making it a reality and what it means to you.

I have never worked harder on my guitar playing than in this record – because clean electric guitar is so exposing. It highlights every single flaw, finger noise and fret bump. You can’t hide behind effects. So even though real guitarists will feel what I am playing is quite simple, the reality is, simple is remarkably hard to record well. It has taken me a full year to capture this album and I was in the studio every month working on two songs at a time. I would often have to go away in between sessions and work harder on solo ideas or picking parts so that I could actually get them in the studio. The solo on Almost Sexy took about 16 takes to get the right take and that was after I had spent an additional two weeks practicing different ways of playing it every single night. I really have done the best I could within my ability.

6. Making music and being creative can be a very positive experience and can be very good for the mind. In what way has making music had a positive impact on your mental health?

It has literally saved my life. Without it I can’t escape my own brain. When I play everything else in my world is finally quiet and I can lose myself in it for hours. It is one of the few things that brings me peace.

7. It can also be incredibly challenging, more so in the modern times. What have been some challenging aspects of making music and how have you overcome them?

I think it is more challenging to get your music out there than ever before if that is what you care about – but It has never been easier to get started making music. A laptop in your bedroom and you are good to go. What is challenging for me is I have to pay to use real studios for all the live room parts (Drums and turned up guitar amps) So I can only capture bass, DI guitar parts and keys in a more cost effective environment. The hardest part is remembering all the parts I have in my head from all the different instruments. The Dark Side of Melody for example has picking parts, rhythm parts doubled up, lead parts, solo parts, acoustic parts, drums, bass, keys, cello and this all adds up to more than 40 different layers. Trying to remember this for all the different songs can be a lot to keep track of so I build and keep a really unsexy spreadsheet updated!

8. How do you handle the online aspects of being in a band? Having to put out content constantly, promoting across several different social media platforms, and having your success measured in likes and follows?

I don’t care about any of that. I am fortunate that I can afford to pay to make the music myself – I don’t make it for recognition, I make it because I love making it. I don’t know how many likes I have, I don’t know how to use tikkitytok and I don’t want to waste my life spending time on these platforms. I would much rather spend my time trying to get better at my instruments, spend more time writing new ideas and spend more time recording. The only number I know is how many plays I’m getting on spotify. And honestly, even when I see “one person listening right now” and I know its not me or my mum I feel awesome that someone out there is connecting with my music.

9. How do you make this part of things enjoyable, and fulfilling, for yourself?

I don’t give it any mental energy. I really don’t care. I don’t get fulfilment or validation from social media. I was at a party once and a guy who is a friend of a friend came up to me and he said “what are you working on?” And I played him a rough recording of my new song “Exploding Stars” on my mobile and he turned to me and said “Wow, that is stunning” I said to him that I didn’t know he followed my music and he pulled out his phone, and showed my his playlist on Spotify and several of my previous songs were favourites of his. That moment was more rewarding than 10,000 people clicking an emoji on some post. For me anyway… not that I have ever experienced 10,000 clicks haha. Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know.

10. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support you?

Please listen to my music in headphones in the dark.

If you like a song, please like it or share it and most importantly of all, add it to a playlist. Songs that make playlists appear more in search fields, so maybe someday someone out there will discover a song of mine you liked and use it in a film.

11. Outside of music, what do you like to do to relax?

I’m not good at relaxing. My brain is a nightmare. So usually really hard workouts, or swimming or surfing at the beach or sitting in a spa pool under the stars.

12. Where can people find you?

Spotify – Sounds Escape (or search for Electric Love as it is actually appearing quite high on the list – maybe top 10 even). You can find me on Instagram but don’t expect much activity.