‘Synthesiser Nut’: A Q&A with Sean Lister/Arcology/DJ Arc

Many might remember Sean Lister under the name of DJ Arc from the ‘Liquid Radio’ and ‘Biosphere’ shows on Contact in the 1990s. The now Wellington-based Sean has also long produced his own music under the ‘Arcology’ name, and at the Contact 50th he will be playing -- replete with drum machine, synthesizer and effects -- a live acid techno set. We talked to Sean ahead of the event about musical inspirations, synths, the importance of Contact, and more!

​HUP: Specialist shows were really important for Contact. In the mid-1990s, as DJ Arc, you were one of the hosts of the electronic dance show Biosphere, and you were the creator of the electronic chill out/ambient show Liquid Radio. How did you become part of Contact, and how important was the station for you?
 
Sean: Contact was hugely important to me in my six years living in Hamilton.  It came about due to my meeting of Greg and Jeff Wood (of Unit 23), we became friends due to a shared love of electronic music, Vespa scooters and art house films.  Greg and Jeff were doing a show on Tuesdays called Cybertronix. I sat in with them a number of times to see what the radio thing was all about.  They were busy one Tuesday and asked if I could fill in for them and seeing as we had a lot of similar type music, I was happy to.  So that made me catch the bug, and when an hour slot came up on a Tuesday evening, I created the ‘Liquid Radio’ show, focussing on ambient music styles. This also reflected what was happening in chill out zones at dance parties at the time.  Then I was also asked to co-host the ‘Biosphere’ dance music show, where I got to play a lot of what I was DJing at dance parties etc.
 
HUP: Tell us a little bit about DJ Arc versus Arcology.
 
Sean: Arcology is my own music, so when I needed a DJ name I just took the first part of my project name. I pretty much stopped regular DJing once I arrived in Wellington at the end of the ‘90s. It seemed like every guy I met here said they were a DJ, and it was a hard scene to break into, so I decided then just to concentrate on creating my own music and to hopefully do some live gigs.  Probably about 15 years ago I managed to get a live acid techno set sorted (similar to what I will be playing at the Contact party), and I played a number of gigs at various venues around Wellington. This led to a set at one of the Camp a Low Hum events, which though daunting, was a great experience. I still try to play a live set of some description once a year here in Wellington. [continued, below]

HUP: How did you first become interested in electronic music?
 
Sean: Wow, where to start. Probably my first electronic music memories were hearing Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Jean Michel Jarre in around 1976-77 (yes, I am getting on in years). Something about the sound of the synthesizers just hooked me. Then in the late ‘70s I discovered Devo, Ultravox, Human League, Gary Numan and OMD, to name a few. And, well, I've never looked back, and my crazy music collection is evidence of that.

HUP: What gear do you use? Have changes in technology altered how you have done things over the years?
 
Sean: I bought my first synthesizer in early 1985, a brand new Roland Alpha Juno 1. Over the rest of the ‘80s I bought a couple of other second hand synths and a drum machine. These days I have a rather large studio collection of gear; lots of synths and drum machines and other toys. The difference with me these days, is that I am all hardware based, meaning I don't use computers (other than [for the] final mastering and posting of tracks).  In the ‘90s I used an old Mac SE computer for multi-track sequencing of notes, including at a couple of the legendary Corso dance parties in Hamilton.  I upgraded my Mac in the late ‘90s and continued using that just for sequencing until the hard drive died and I lost most of a year's work. So that was a catalyst in deciding to get a hardware sequencer and take the computer out of my song creation process.  The main thing about technology now is the incredibly huge number of things available to electronic musicians, and the prices are generally incredible value for money, especially compared to when I started.
 
HUP: On your 2019 album ‘Emanator’, all of the track titles are taken from Blade Runner 2049, while on your 2021 ‘Fried EP’ you had a track titled ‘Nanu Nanu’, which is almost certainly a Mork and Mindy reference. Are all of your tracks inspired by sci-fi? And, when you are producing new songs, do you start with this as a point of inspiration?
 
Sean: Not all are sci-fi influenced, but a lot are. The two Blade Runner films are huge influences for me, but also many, many other sci-fi films.  Generally, in addition to the futuristic and space themes, they have cool electronic music soundtracks that just go hand in hand.  Generally, when I'm starting odd tracks, I may have a theme idea, but not always. But when I did my album project I had just seen Blade Runner 2049 (a number of times) and decided to use references from the film as my song titles and create a bit of a sci-fi story of my own. Mainly to try and give the project some kind of cohesive feel, rather than just a bunch of random tracks created over a year, then thrown together as an album.

​HUP: In your Bandcamp bio you describe yourself as a “synthesiser nut”. Stealing a question from one of my favourite podcasts over the last couple of years, Martyn Ware’s ‘Electronically Yours’, what’s your favourite synth?
 
Sean: Always a hard question. Just looking at what I own, probably my favourite for fun and jamming is my old Ensoniq ESQ1 from the mid-‘80s. It has a great built in 8-track sequencer, which is what I used to create my songs prior to my first Mac computer.  But I think from a sound creation perspective, my favourite would be my Dave Smith (Sequential) Pro 2. I can just get lost in that synth for hours.