My Forever Studio: Tourist wants antiques, not museum pieces

“When I was 13 year old, my dream was a laptop and an audio interface, and nothing else”, says Tourist. Luckily, for the Grammy-winning producer and songwriter, he’s in the right place.

On the 66th episode of My Forever Studio, the podcast presented by MusicTech and Audient, British artist Tourist joins us to dream up his fantasy Forever Studio. Of course, he must adhere to the rules: only six musical items are allowed in his studio, beyond a computer, DAW and audio interface.

In the show, Tourist — real name Will Phillips — tells us about the one app he can’t live without, why he doesn’t agree with “sneery” synthesizers and collecting gear as relics, and the importance of not shying away from presets.

Tourist’s celebrating the upcoming launch of his fifth album, Memory Morning, which he says is “one of those albums that really took shape as I wrote it. I had absolutely no point of reference to start from, and that was equal parts liberating and daunting.”

“Often my music draws from specific life events but this album really lives in and was borne from my imagination. I wanted to write something that felt like it whisked you away, an album that felt like a ‘place’, its own world, somewhere you might find new corners with each listen.  It truly is the first album I’ve written that feels like the sum of all of my influences.”

In the past decade, Tourist’s blend of emotive, melancholy and synth-driven dance music — which he once coined “SDM – sad dance music” — has garnered a devoted fanbase and critical acclaim across the globe. In 2015, he was awarded a Grammy for Song Of The Year for co-writing Sam Smith’s Stay With Me, and has racked up millions of streams on tracks such as Run and We Stayed Up All Night. 

In the previous episode of My Forever Studio, Benn Jordan revealed the extremely budget rig he mixed and mastered his early music on, explained why less than half of all synth owners make music, and shared the only Forever Studio item he really couldn’t live without.

The My Forever Studio podcast sees artists, producers and engineers create their dream fantasy Forever Studio, wherever they want in the universe. However, there are strict rules in the Forever Studio. Our guests are permitted a limited number of items in their creative space, so they must choose carefully. There will be nostalgia. There will be anecdotes. There may be gags. But there will be no bundles!