“This is a hideous name drop, but…”: Jon Hopkins reveals what he learned from Brian Eno about music production

Jon Hopkins’ relationship with Brian Eno goes back two decades. They were introduced by Hopkins’ friend, Leo Abrahams, who was working with Eno at the time, and the three men went on to release a collaborative album, Small Craft on a Milk Sea, in 2010. Hopkins also helped out on Coldplay’s Viva la Vida, the band's 2008 Eno-produced album.

As such, it comes as no surprise to learn that Hopkins has picked up a few tips from the ambient master along the way, and it turns out that one of them is very simple.

Discussing the music production process in a new interview with Ableton, Hopkins says: “This is a hideous name drop, but something I did learn from [Brian] Eno was just that it’s got to be fun, you know? As much as possible, don't get bogged down in the tiny minutiae, unless you're really enjoying doing that. And that should all happen towards the end, not early on.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Hopkins admits that he does indeed love working on the minutiae - “having things that are there for the deeper listener. That’s how you achieve musical longevity” - but that always comes later.

“Sketch out the big picture first, just work as quickly as possible, dropping things in,” he advises. “Your session can be total chaos, but as you can see looking at this session [he has open the Ableton Live set for his most recent album, Ritual], you can arrange it later and make it neat and tidy. And particularly with the help of a good engineer like I have as well, you can keep things organised.”

Jon Hopkins - RITUAL (evocation) (Official Video) - YouTube

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Ritual might have been released as eight tracks, but it was conceived and produced as one piece, and features a huge number of sonic layers (383, pared down from 440, we’re told). With that many elements in play, though, how on Earth does Hopkins know when any given soundscape is complete?

“Just when it’s good!” he says. “It’s literally that. ‘Fuck around until it sounds good’ is the general ethos. It’s an intuitive thing.”

We like the sound of that: you can read the full interview on the Ableton website.