FU: Please state your name for the record.
KWAK: My name is Chris Kwak. K-w-a-k.
FU: You’re in a band, right?
KWAK: That is correct.
FU: What is your role in the band?
KWAK: Um, a couple different things: I play guitar, but I’m one of the main writers for the band, so me and Travis will mostly do a lot of the writing with either Pro Tools or Logic. So we do the writing and play guitar. FU: So… say for example, you record your instrument and your voice and you run it through a computer, correct?
KWAK: Yeah. We run it through an interface, and the interface will hook up to whatever computer you can have, and through that, to whatever program you use.
FU: You use autotune, right?
KWAK: That is correct.
FU: Do you feel that since you have autotune, you can use it as a crutch, so you don’t have to necessarily sing in pitch?
KWAK: Yeah, I definitely think, um, there are pros and cons to having Auto-Tune. The pros are, I mean, it’s great. It’s almost become an industry standard, and even really great singers will use it for fine tuning and for polishing it up, and there are people who can overuse it and take advantage of it in the sense where they’ll rely on it heavily and because of that, their singing is not up to par and it can fool other people.
FU: Do you think that since autotune exists, there are people who deserve jobs in the music industry that don’t have jobs?
KWAK: I think there are certain cases… I definitely think that there are a lot more factors than that. There are a lot of people that I think aren’t very talented, but they are autotuned so much that people can’t tell, and not only that, but they’re attractive. But I do agree: I do think that in a lot of ways, people have relied too much on it in the last five to ten years.
FU: Can you give an example?
KWAK: [long pause] Paris Hilton. I definitely don’t think she’s a singer. She did do a song; she created a single. The voice that you heard on there IS her voice, but how much of it is it really just raw talent is up for questioning.
FU: Do you think Auto-Tune in itself has helped increase sales of music?
KWAK: I think for certain genres, like music that’s super pop or super…I don’t know what the word is. But there are certain types of music where they use Auto-Tune stylistically and you can really tell, and they crank it.
FU: You mean like T-Pain?
KWAK: Yeah, exactly. I think for music like that, it’s definitely helped, and it’s created its own genre. But overall, I would say no. It’s still about the music in itself.
FU: What do you think about the indie bands who have taken a stand against using autotune?
KWAK: I think, again, it depends on if it’s something they’re going for. If they’re trying to achieve a certain sound or a certain feel to the song or the record, to make it a little more vintage or something, then I think it’s great. But if they’re avoiding it for the sake of avoiding it, then …. [quietly] they’re stupid.
