hobo: iron triangle

M_nus introduces a new name to its artist family: Hobo. Iron Triangle is a stunning take on the stripped-to-the-bone essence of electronic dance music. Joel Boychuk aka Hobo takes us on a tour of the Iron Triangle -- a destination point for the techno artist whose very name embodies both the restless spirit of his productions and his journey from being one-half of the former M_nus duo Tractile, to being a recognized star performer in his own right. With this album, Boychuk intends to encapsulate the unique atmospheres of the three geographical points and spaces in between that have influenced both his musical output and his outlook as a person. What is the Iron Triangle, and how has it influenced his approach to making his first full-length album? "The Iron Triangle is both a simple concept and complicated percept -- kind of abstract but also very simple. In its simplest form it's an area between three places where I come from, covering a bit of Canada and the U.S. -- three places which are connected by a lot of history and three important train lines that once ran between them, hence the 'iron.' Where it begins to stretch into a much more abstract and complicated territory is in how I relate to the iron triangle: sometimes I'm there, sometimes I'm not there and sometimes I wish I was or wasn't there. At the end of 2010, I had been away from the triangle for much longer than usual and mentally, I was as far away as ever. I reflected on past experiences and looked forward to new ones as inspiration for the album: All of the tracks are based around experiences I've had at this place, sometimes just an image or memory. My approach to production changes frequently: sometimes I produce just because I enjoy doing it; other times I view it as something that needs to be done for the purposes of clearing the mind; and sometimes it's just done for raw musical experimentation. I think my sound went back to its earlier roots while making this record, at times playful and weird with a tinge of darkness. In that respect, some of the tracks on the album share exact influences with other previous tracks of mine, so I can infer from that the evolution in the album's sound directly reflects my evolution as a producer.