Linux Audio Development (LAD)
Arend Lee Jessurun
Linux Audio Artist Interview with Arend Lee Jessurun
This interview was conducted by Amadeus Paulussen in 2025.
Dear Arend, thank you for taking the time to do this interview! ☺️
Can you please start by briefly introducing yourself?
I'm Arend! My pronouns are they/them. I make music under my name, Arend Lee Jessurun, mostly folk music, but I've been stretching out from there lately. I also produce, mix, master, and teach music from my home in Los Angeles. I live with my spouse and our two cats. I'm nonbinary and disabled with chronic illness. I'm Dutch-Surinamese.
What can you tell us about your Linux-based computer setup (audio interface, distribution, DE/WM, DAW, plugins), and what particularly fascinates you about it? 🤓
I have been using Linux for just a little over a year. I heard good things about Linux Mint, so that's what distro I use. I'm using my trusty Scarlett 4i4, which covers my use-case for the moment. Reaper has been my DAW of choice for 5 years, and works great on Linux. I get a ton of mileage out of AudioThing and u-he plugins for tone-shaping and such.
Are there certain things that bother you about Linux-based music production, or perhaps pose a challenge to your workflow?
The initial frustration was that things often take more setup than they do in macOS. Still, sometimes things don't work so easily how I want. But I'm grateful that I've learned how to set things up for my workflow decently enough. I'm now faster and freer with my workflow in Linux than I am in macOS. So I'm generally quite happy with my experience.
Any thoughts on hot topics such as Wayland, PipeWire and Flatpak?
I've heard lots of murmuring about these things, but it's all a bit beyond me. Maybe as I learn more, I'll develop opinions, haha.
When and why did you decide to use Linux for your computer-based activities?
Spring 2024, I believe. I got tired of Apple's business practices. It was just going to be an experiment, but it stuck.
Did you learn writing, singing, recording, mixing, and mastering all by yourself?
Recording, mixing, and mastering was a self-taught thing, yeah. I'm not really sure how I learned songwriting. I did study music theory and composition with teachers in high school and college. But before that, I think I learned songwriting by emulation, as many do. As for singing, I sang in choirs for many years then later studied classical voice at a conservatory.
Your studio looks beautiful! 😍 Can you tell us a little bit about what is important to you in a studio, and how happy you are with your own studio?
Thank you! I'm so grateful I have a partner who agreed to turn one room of our home into a little music studio. (My partner, Jessica Gerhardt, also makes music.) The most important thing to me in my studio, especially because I'm fairly newly disabled, is accessibility. I need to make it easy on myself to record music. I'm quite happy with my studio now, though there are some accessibility upgrades I'd like to invest in as we're able.
You say, “I love to help others make music,” and you give music lessons. What is your focus when teaching, and do the lessons take place offline or online? If online, can you tell us a little about your technical solution?
I primarily teach guitar and voice, and the first thing I want to do with each, is give a foundation in good technique to avoid injury, because I've dealt with injury, and it's no fun. I'm not a stickler for technique, but I emphasize that singing or playing should be comfortable, not painful.
From there, I try to just guide and accompany students in exploring what it is they're interested in. I've helped some learn jazz guitar, others how to "belt" with their voice. I find musical exploration so fun, so teaching keeps me inspired and learning new things myself.
I'm still working out how best to do online video lessons. I've tried many solutions over the years. At the moment, I'm trying video conferencing with MEGA, who provides my cloud storage. I may go back to Jitsi Meet instead. Teaching in person is a lot easier, especially because of the real-time feedback of playing music with others.
I saw that you offer Vital presets for download. Is Vital one of your favorite synthesizers, and which other plugins and tools do you like the most at the moment?
Vital has become my go-to synth. It often surprises me with its capabilities, despite being free. I've also been really enjoying playing TAL-Sampler lately, experimenting with the different 90s-style sampling algos, doing that AKAI time-stretch thing. It's really fun creating nostalgic electronica sounds with it.
I try to optimize as much as I can within the sphere of my consciousness and action. For example, bicycle over car, love over hate, recycling over plastic, equality over inequality, veganism over exploitation, secondhand over consumerism, Linux over macOS or Windows, Open Source over Proprietary, anti-speciesism over speciesism, etc. However, I am well aware that we don't always notice everything that could be optimized, and, for a variety of reasons, we can't always immediately do so. I try to be understanding of everyone and not judge anyone, myself included. Admittedly, that is not always easy. From your lyrics and online activities, as well as your statement that you make political folk music, I know that we share some of the same pain. Although I feel protected and blessed, it's not always easy to stay positive. How do you deal with this, and what is important to you with your activism?
Yeah I appreciate that. Moving to Linux was a similar motivation for me. I wanted to become less reliant on a tech company that could be considered partly responsible for the human rights violations in Congo. But no one can perfectly extricate themselves from systemic harms. There unfortunately is no pure, ethical lifestyle under our current economically exploitative reality. And like you say, some people cannot afford to make certain changes. But the best we can do is try, quit what no longer serves us, and make an effort to live simply. And when we accept that we can't free ourselves on our own, that's when we recognize the power of community, and that's where the magic happens. It's tempting to get frustrated at oneself and one's fellows. I try to redirect that anger toward the powers that be, those who keep people in ignorance.
For me it's not always easy to channel my emotions into music making. When I'm feeling down, for example, I find it difficult to get into the flow, hard to process negative emotions. As a result, I mostly make light-hearted music. 🫣☺️ Do you need to be in a certain mental and emotional state to make music, or is it easy for you to channel your feelings (positive as well as negative ones) into your music?
I love light-hearted music! I have always had a hard time making music when I'm depressed. Others seem to be able to do it and find it therapeutic. I tend to get harder on myself. I've come to realize I need to at least feel like I've taken care of myself somewhat before I try to compose something. Do some journaling, drink some tea, eat well, meditate. Sometimes I'll just sit at the piano or with a guitar and noodle around. That feels good. But I can't very easily write a whole song about a feeling I'm having. Maybe it's a part of me being autistic. My "confessional" songs tend to come in small bursts of one line of poetry here, one chord progression there, and then someday, I'm able to put it all together and express something I've been feeling for like, 3 years, haha.
If I understand you correctly, you say that you want to help relieve world-weariness with your music. Can you tell us a little bit more about this?
I used to sing a lot in churches, back when I was a gigging musician, before coming out as nonbinary. I'd often get the feedback that my music would bring someone peace, so I've thought maybe that's what I'm here for: to hopefully ease people's suffering with music. I myself have always had to listen to a lot of music to regulate my emotions, so I want to give others who need that a similar experience, if I can.
Do you tend to like trying new things, or are you more the type who tries get more out of the ones you already know?
Oh that's hard to say. I'm always inspired by new methods of music-making. And I love many music genres. But I definitely have my own workflow. I think my style is to privately be pushing myself to try new things, but the stuff I finish and release is usually what just comes easy to me.
Are there circumstances that prevent you from using software, even if it is available for Linux?
If it's a matter of conscience, yes. Or if it's a matter of user error, yes, haha. But I try not to use any software that don't sit easy with my conscience.
Do you only use Linux in the studio, or also on stage?
I have yet to use it on stage, but I've been curious to try!
Are there many other musicians in your circle who use Linux?
Not yet, but I've got a couple friends who are curious since I've made the switch.
I am currently at a stage in my life where I am investing my savings in a new start in another country. This is a little scary for me at times because I'm spending almost all my money and hardly earning any. I know that I'm happiest when I'm involved with music, but sometimes I wonder whether it will become even more difficult to earn money with music in the future. How do you feel about the challenges of this era, namely streaming, AI, etc.?
It certainly is disconcerting. I'm sorry you're feeling the pressure too. I've only made a living in music by doing other gigs beside performing and releasing my original stuff. "Diversify" was what my teachers taught me. But if people start to feel too discouraged by AI and streaming to learn or record music, then I'll definitely be out of work. I have lots of hope that won't be the case though. Enough people seem disillusioned by big tech that I think we will see some sort of revolution against it. Already, more and more artists and listeners are ditching Spotify.
What has become clear to me over the years is that the musician community could do well by starting to practice mutual aid. In the trans community, there's a joke about passing around the same twenty dollars to help your friends pay for medical bills. So send some money to your friends' fundraiser, whether they're fundraising for rent or a record. We take care of us!
You just released your new album, “The Tower of Babel Falls.” Congratulations! 🥳🥰 Can you tell us a little bit about how you approached the making of this album and maybe highlight some of your favorite songs?
Thank you! Some of these songs have been in the works, in Reaper sessions, for years. Songs like "I Am the Way I Am" and "Little Wonder" were very emotional for me to write, so it was hard to record and release them, because it felt so tender. But this last summer, my chronic illness really flared-up, and playing music was one of the few things that provided me considerable pain relief, which created the right conditions to finish the record.
These songs all started as simple voice and accompaniment songs. "Get Lost and Found" actually got recorded in 2021 as just that. Most of my catalog is that—guitar and voice—but I wanted to start incorporating more electronics in my music. So I re-recorded "Get Lost and Found" to a click, starting with a scratch guitar and vocal track, then programmed a drum machine beat, recorded bass guitar, keyboards, etc., then re-recorded final guitar and voice takes. That became kind of the template for the rest of the record. Some songs, I recorded acoustic and voice live, like I would play in concert, while others were overdubs. It was fun to allow myself to try different things. After I finished mixing the record, I brought it to my friend Patrick Doyle, who mastered it and did an awesome job.
You also produce for third parties. Can you tell us about some highlights of your work and also tell us a little about your wife's music?
Getting to record and produce music as a service for other artists and bands is a dream come true. I started remotely, in the beginning of the pandemic, since it was work I could I do, trying to make ends meet. I'm grateful to have friends who have been some of my first clients, like Friends + Family, with is fronted by my childhood friend Matt Marquez, who does a post-hardcore alt-pop type of thing.
One of my favorite recording projects was my friend Isabel Wing's EP Late July. We spent two days having her sing and play live, and then we did overdubs on a couple songs. It was supposed to be just a demo, but I think it turned out better than that. We did it pretty fast and loose, and while I think I could have mixed it better, it was a really fun project. We're in talks about doing another soon.
My work with my wife, Jessica, I think has yielded the most "hit" material I've been part of. Her song "Don't Be So Hard on Yourself" earned for itself a bit of a reputation in our local indie songwriter scene, and it got me some more work from others who liked the production. Last year, she put out a new record of her own, Alight Beyond the Sea. I produced the songs "Impatience" and "Psalm 139" and mixed most of the record. It's a really cool record for one because there are so many different producers and engineers on it.
I've also done a couple singles with Ramsey Lee, Aria Liang, Doctor Generous, and Mina Bloom respectively, who have all been a pleasure to work with. And we've got some new ones in the works too.