ATW
Aaron Taylor-Waldman is composer, producer, and sound designer who plays the “studio as an instrument”, blending modular synth, field recordings, and traditional instruments with a range of high-and-low-fidelity studio techniques.
Aaron’s fascination with sound started as a five-year-old when he stumbled across his dad’s Walkman—which amazingly (to him) let him capture sounds with a record button and microphone. He went on to perform in multiple high school bands before discovering electronic music at underground raves, prompting him to buy turntables and a drum machine with his summer job money.
He went on to study under the guidance of electronic music pioneers Pauline Oliveros and Curtis Bahn at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY. His senior thesis, advised by Pauline, was an interactive sound installation called Sonic Identity. It was driven by a Max/MSP-powered DJ turntable, and superimposed a database of personal field recordings onto a timecode-imprinted vinyl record inviting participants to time travel through sound by moving the position of the needle.
Internships at Sony Music and TVT Records ignited his interests in music and sound. He co-founded an early hit podcast called Dailysonic, which reached over one million iTunes listeners. As music director, he wrote and produced daily segments, interviewed musicians like Matthew Herbert and Caural, recorded, edited, mixed, and performed sound design.
He founded his own creative studio in 2009, initially specializing in visual design before growing to include sound design and music composition. Clients include labels and studios, journalism companies, tech startups, universities, and media companies like City Cast (Slate Media), Charts & Leisure, and Muck Rack.
In recent years, he’s been immersed in music, sound design, and synthesis projects. In addition to producing electronic music under the artist name ATW, he’s been producing music and doing sound design for commercial and cinematic music assignments in collaboration with Echo Magic and Lo-Fi Music—as well as publishing personal projects merging sound and design, like Patch Deck.
