Music

New Brunswick air traffic controller makes techno to cope with anxiety

by Jeremy Mersereau

New Brunswick air traffic control veteran Robert Wilson was forced to give up his 19-year tin-pushing career when he was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Now, he’s found relief pushing LFOs to the limit.

After waking up one night feeling like he was having a heart attack and subsequently unable to work, Wilson spent the next two years at home looking after his children, without any outlet to keep his mind busy, and anxiety-free… until he discovered electronic music production.

Wilson doesn’t think of himself as very musical, and he can’t play any instruments… but those aren’t exactly deal-breakers when it comes to making music that could be released on Ostgut Ton.

“I was always very good at mathematics, which is probably no shock since I was an air traffic controller,” Wilson told Global News. “Music is very mathematical and is broken down into 16 and eight beats, bars and measure and using the machines you can program things in individually.”

Sometimes, as every musician knows, the rush of music production gets too awesome to handle: “There was actually a few times some of the tracks I have created myself when I was done I burst into tears cause I was so emotional,” Wilson says.

Listen to more of Wilson’s music at his Bandcamp page. If he keeps at it, he’ll be playing on Boiler Room in no time.

[h/t Global News]