Peter Spacey // Electro-Organic Live Session
- Gabriele Filippi
- September 2020
- 10 min.
Tel-Aviv-based artist, Peter Spacey, moniker for Omer Luz, is a name known for his ability to cook spicy and succulent recipes made of glitched grooves and Spacey Beats.
And while his musical legacy ranges from a traditional jazz background to being a trained keyboard player, Luz grew up spending his free time mastering his turntablism and DJ skills. All precious ingredients that allowed him to develop a unique sound signature, resulting in a rare combination of flavors.
Since 2018, when he started the solo project, Peter Spacey, he has embarked on an exploratory journey to probe the relations between audio elements and visual aesthetics.
The fruits that sprouted from this thriving two-year adventure include: 6 Eps, an augmented reality exhibition he created for his Audio-Visual Beat Tape Release party, and performing alongside major artists such as Mad Zach, Anomalie, and Masego, as a Dj and as part of Choke Beat Orchestra Super Group.
In addition to this, his music has been selected as soundtrack for varied commercials (HBO, Porsche, Jubilee), and video games, as well as having been played internationally by radio broadcasts, DJs, and at international events (e.g., DMC World Championship, Zing Music Award, R6 European league).
The list could go on and on, being Peter Spacey, an artist who draws from a source of inspiration that seems interminable and who is capable of managing the right balance between artistic-creative and business-oriented aspects.
Having consciously decided to take a break for the past 2 years, he changed his focus from DJing and performing to being in the studio to create original music for a major world tour he planned to mature this summer.
“This summer, I was planning to go on a tour with my music. After being active on stages performing live and Djing for the last decade, […] I came up with a special live set, well prepared, and chose the instruments I would travel with, and built a special booth to perform with and tailor-made cases for the equipment.”
Thus Peter shares the background and genesis of ‘Electro-Organic Live Session’, the creative Eden in which Spacey sprouted a compelling 30 min live video session of engaging original space music.
Recorded during the world epidemic, the live session video was premiered and broadcasted as part of the Selina International Music Summit, an international live-streamed festival put on by Selina, bringing together artists from around the world to make people happy during the quarantine, live streaming from isolation.
Broadcasting a wide spectrum of sounds, rhythms, and textures, Spacey’s performance is a lush combination that develops dynamically and organically with fluid naturalness, from smooth atmospheres punctuated with environmental vibrations to glitchy cusps of grooves highlighted by a distinctly electronic matrix.
An outstanding creative work, guided by his unique sound signature, as he skillfully glides between drum machines, synthesizers, turntables… and spinning plants!
Here Peter demonstrates that he is clearly immersed in his natural environment, gliding sparkling inside – we should also say outside – the ‘Spacetagon’: the special music-making booth that Spacey has expressly set up for his live shows and performances.
Suddenly the world epidemic came and surprised us all. The whole music industry shut down, along with musical shows, clubs, flights.. everything. But while many have become discouraged and threw in the towel, Peter has found new outlets for his creativity.
As he tells us: “In the beginning, it felt like the whole world shut down, but after a while, new and fresh opportunities came up, such as streaming platforms, virtual events, and online festivals. For instance, recently, I had the opportunity to participate fully in a big Burning-Man festival after the organization announced that it would be a virtual festival. Playing in Burning-Man and flying to Nevada was always a distant dream for me, and I didn’t plan to participate in the Burning-Man event this summer. Yet this opportunity presented itself to me thanks to the world pandemic.
An exciting and noteworthy project, we joined Peter Spacey for a short chatty talk. Keep on reading to find out more!
Curious to know what is contained in Peter Spacey’s special music-making booth? So, let’s find out the tools of the trade with which he performs his tricks.
The Spacetagon is composed of three limbs, each containing one of the main elements representing a key aspect of his music-making tools and musical environment:
Front – THE MAIN: Here, we find the booth’s core, a 49 keys keyboard. He uses it for lead sounds and main harmonies.
Left – THE SIDE ARM: A small synthesizer Peter uses to sparkle some magical dust that comes by synth space FX, arpeggios, and melodies.
Right – SPACEY’S ACE: A turntable to throw the secret ingredient into the mix, which may come from scratch parts or some Dj FX flavors. Need to add more?
I surrounded myself with the tools that I love to create with, organized in a comfortable shape, set up a free playground that gives me the freedom to move from one element to another and play around.
I have some predetermined patterns but I have complete freedom inside of them.
Playing the front elements of the musical part is an essential pillar in my live performance, but everything is possible.
If in the studio when creating and cooking my music, or on stage while performing, The Spacetagon is the ultimate spaceship for making space music!
INTERVIEW: PETER SPACEY
Hi Spacey. First of all, welcome to Nova Music blog, and thank you for the time you dedicate to us.
Let’s get straight into it, but with something a little more aseptic. You were recently invited to be a featured artist and collaborate in a Mitsubishi advert music-video showcasing the new cars’ collection of the Japanese brand. So, what was it like working for the automotive division of the largest financial holding of Japan?
I really enjoyed the process, it was a great experience and I’m very happy with the final musical & visual outcome.
There was a whole team behind this production including: art director, video director, music team that co-produced and co-composed the music track with me, and the production house.
Working alongside this great team was awesome and the final outcome is a result of all our teamwork.
It’s not obvious that there’s such a cool commercial in prime time when most car ads show only the car with generic music.
I got to see a bunch of people raising their faces up from their cell-phone screens during the commercial break because the music caught their attention and they wanted to see what was happening on the TV.
The whole process didn’t take more than 3 weeks from start to finish, from composing/producing the music alongside Monster Music, throwout performing, video shooting, video editing, music mastering… to the final date of the live broadcast!
I thoroughly enjoyed every moment, and despite the tight deadlines, it felt super productive and unstressful.
The whole process felt very organic and natural. I brought my instruments, harmonies, and signature sounds into the mix, the synthesizers, the futuristic spacey aesthetics, and the turntable parts.
We decided to do scratch parts with my turntablism skills using sounds and samples prerecorded from the actual vehicle (Watch behind the scene video – down below).
After we finished formulating the concept, we got to the actual shooting day.
I arrived with an arsenal of synths, samplers, turntables, and my Spacetagon music-making booth…felt at home 🙂
Then, the only thing left was to record and perform the music live, capturing the magical moments.
Modesty aside, in the commercial, you and your music are co-stars of the new Mitsubishi cars. Literally, it is you who turn them on. How does this make you feel?
I feel really honored for this opportunity that I received, and complimented that they picked me up after watching my previous works and deciding I was the right artist for this project.
Modesty aside, I can say that if I wasn’t the right person for this project, they wouldn’t have contacted me, the process could have been very oppressive, and no one would have been happy. It felt like a good fit and natural for both sides, and now we are working on sharing the full-length music track with the world. Got some warm shout-outs from various directions in the local and worldwide electronic music scene and the music industry.
I am so happy and grateful for this opportunity and the artistic choices to bring such an edge to prime time and the final outcome. There is a lot of hard work alongside building a thriving music career, that sometimes leads to highlights and rewarding moments such as this one. Those moments give approval for my hard work and rev up my internal energies, reminding me that I’m on the right track, and give me the fuel to keep going.
Participating in this kind of major commercial project allows me to reach a wide range of peoples and eyes, including potential fans, people from various industries, and who knows what new opportunities and new doors it can open.
Let’s head back to your roots: a professional jazz background, and a trained keyboard player, an instrument you started studying at 8 years old. Then Dj and turntablist, with the first djing sessions at the age of 15. And today, an electronic beat-maker and producer of international scope. An impressive excursus, but between these key points, is there a link or a common thread we are missing?
So many things happened during those 2 decades of doing.
First of all, I can say that consistency is a big thing. Just making something over a decade, I guess anything, will take you to a professional level. Non-stop creating and performing, if as a Dj or as a keyboard player, beat-making and collaborating, while picking up any piece of information that can help me reach my goals and visions.
Day to day exercising, not only the physical aspects like practicing scales on the piano or working on beat-mixing and turntablism techniques, but also exercising and working the creative muscle – everyday creating.
And most important – I work on myself as a human being, on my mentality, personality, fine-tuning my intentions, and working/learning the business side, which grows alongside the doing.
Over the years, I’ve noticed that my creative outcome is in-fact a by-product of my life experiences and mental growth. After realizing this, I understood that working on myself as a human being is no less important than working on myself as a musician.
Also came across this eye-opening quote by Quincy Jones, talking about the best advice he ever got in his entire career – “Your music will never be any more or less than you are a human being”.
During the 2’nd decade of my career, I spent most of my time in music studios learning and crafting the art of sound engineering, music production, and album making. I was so passionate to live and breathe the art of sound & music production that I kinda lived inside music studios over a concentrated period of 5 years, 24/7. Working with hundreds of artists – recording, producing, engineering, playing, watching, hearing, absorbing, collaborating, and participating. This experience was another big thing for me and for my knowledge/skills.
Another big turning point that gave a positive lift to my career is my exploration and activity in the field of audio-visual. If on the artistic side of working and merging these two worlds, and if in the actual career side of syncing my music with video – films, TV, ads, video games, art installations… These things helped my music to expand its reach and exposure to a bigger audience internationally.
In addition to the exposure, I feel that the overall experience got bigger and more immersive. I feel like the overall outcome of audio-visual is greater than its parts.
A movie, for instance, is a bigger creation than the soundtrack itself, or the silent video itself. Together they form a full and whole creation.
A main aspect of my works under the name of Peter Spacey, from the very beginning of the project, was exploring the relations between audio elements and visual aesthetics.
My first release was an Audio-Visual beat tape that was released on a super limited edition of VHS Cassettes (!) For the launching party, I came with an audio-visual Augmented Reality exhibition showcasing the Audio-Visual Works.
The same is true about technology. The mixture of art and technology created a new playground for me as a creative artist. A playground that provides new possibilities for cross-border collaborations among platforms and art-forms. This combination takes the experience, both from the audience and the creator’s perspective, to a new and deeper level.
Art and technology empower creation possibilities, characteristic wise and perfection wise.
While waiting to return to enjoy the live shows, your YouTube channel is the perfect place where we can see you on the block, in that forge that is the Spacetagon. After ‘Electro-Organic Live Session’ came the upload of ‘Morning Haze’, 1st chapter of the ‘Spacetagon outdoor sessions’ series. What is it about?
‘Morning Haze’ was created from my pure love of electronic & organic music, nature, space, synthesizers, ambient, and futuristic soundscapes. My dream performance venue would be an outdoor venue, surrounded by nature. Nature has a big impact and inspiration over my creative outcome.
’Cercle’ video series is super inspiring, FKJ session for instance… That’s one of the incentives that inspired me to take my musical instruments (including my Spacetagon Booth) outside and record the ’Morning Haze’ outdoor session.
This is the first video of an upcoming series; the Spacetagon outdoor sessions – a series of original Spacey Music videos shot at different magical places with my Spacetagon booth.
Peter Spacey // Morning Haze – Live Balcony Session
So, for you, the Spacetagon is more of a forge or a stage?
I would say both. The shape that my instruments are organized on the Spacetagon came from how I organize my studio setup when creating music.
I wanted to bring it to the stage, for my live performance comfortability, and also aimed for the visibility side of a unique stage, a visible concept that will be connected with my works.
You can see it on my Spacetagon sessions series, on my live shows, and even on the Mitsubishi commercial 🙂
Another aspect behind coming up with this booth is – I knew that creating a cohesive structure can give me a frame to create and pour into, building a concept out of my creative process, helping me to keep doing and creating future stuff effortlessly.
Basic in structure but modular and mobile in its usability. How strong is this duality of the Spacetagon, with and in your music?
The Spacetagon, even more than a physical booth, is a concept and built out of my needs, the way I create music, and the conceptuality of my creative process. Its functionality is in full parallel with and in my music.
Using the Spacetagon booth, I can create on-stage while performing; this gives me the possibility to bring my studio environment onto the stage and enjoy both worlds – writing/producing and performing…
I also assume that in this format, people who are experiencing my live show can enjoy it on a deeper level, and feel the liveness of music-making over a ‘regular’ Dj-set format of playing tunes one after the other.
A modern-day creative, Peter Spacey is one who could step up to the chair and give lessons to many veterans on how to manage their artist profile, without debasing the more artistic and creative side.
Despite the legacy of the cliché, despite the lockdown, despite an industry “destroyed because current music is only disposable,” he is an example of how today, more than ever before, music can be a profession in all respects. 
Watch now Peter Spacey ‘Electro-Organic Live Session’. Check it out on the Peter Spacey YouTube channel.
To know more about Peter Spacey and his music, find and follow Peter Spacey all over the web by checking the links below:
- Website
- Spotify
- YouTube
- Soundcloud
- .: Nova MUSIC blog // September 2020
To be original, Peter Spacey recommends:
- Search for the next you, don’t try to be the next someone else.
- Limiting yourself during the creative process can easily help you come up with a cohesive concept.
- Creating quantity is the key for quality, your originality revealed through time and experience.
- Stay consistent. Just keep on walking with confidence and faith and the path will reveal itself.
- Try to think about how your needs and interests can meet others’ needs and interests. Although it might sound upside down, contributing to the world can be the most fun and easy way to receive, fill your needs, and fulfill your dreams. Share your gift 🙂
- .: Nova MUSIC blog // September 2020
