During my personal music-discovering endeavours, I recently came across the work of young, Dominican artist Josué Suero, known as “Boundary”. His work is something I’ve never come across before in the world of DIY electronica/trance music; I honestly felt like I struck gold. Suero’s music fully immerses you into another world, and is heavily reminiscent of the sounds of 90s raves (something I am always craving). I reached out to Josué to see what’s truly behind the mystical trance of Boundary, and was met with a passionate artist who is trailblazing an exciting future for electronic music. Read the full interview below!
1) How did you get your start in music?
I began making music in late 2015, just out of curiosity to see what i could put together, and I began uploading songs on my soundcloud and kinda just went from there. In 2016 I started learning much more on how to use a DAW like ableton, since I had begun using logic at first but I really didn’t like it, so when I transitioned to ableton it was a completely different world and I was very inspired with the new workflow it brought. Fast forward to early 2017 and by this point I had enough material to put an album together, I titled it Fantasmagórico and I released it on El Cuarto Elástico, a fantastic little label from the Dominican Republic which focuses on experimental music, pretty much the only one at that. And yeah! By this point I really felt connected in making music and I found out that I was able to express much of my thoughts and feelings through music, so I said to myself “might as well keep going and see where this takes me” and here we are now 🙂
2) What inspires your sound?
It’s kinda hard to pinpoint exactly. In the electronic spectrum, lots of IDM, video game music, detroit house/electro, rhythmic noise and ambient. In recent years I’ve been a massive fan of late 90’s/early 00’s Argentinian electronic music and I’ve defo taken lots of cues from that, but aside from music genres, I feel like living in DR (The Dominican Republic) has also inspired me sonically. DR is extremely chaotic…I guess I could say it’s beautifully flawed. It has a lot going on all the time, and it’s quite often you see and hear about very strange situations and dynamics in the streets, and it’s just really bizarre. Despite all of that, it all works together very cohesively. It’s very expected and unexpected at the same time.
3) What is your favorite release, and why?
Al Tiempo Real is definitely the one for me currently. I began half of this EP in 2019 during some months which felt very transitional in terms of my outlook of the world, Dominican Republic, and my feelings and thoughts in general. I was really looking for a new direction to take my music forward and settle myself sonically to what I’ve wanted to achieve. During these months I got together a lot with very close friends of mine, Fidel Lopez and Fernando Orellana, both amazing artists, and just shared a lot of ideas and concepts which really helped bring to fruition two of these tracks. Despite that, I wasn’t able to finish those tracks last year and they were just sitting there on my computer, until March of this year. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it, but I felt like I received an answer (I don’t even know of what!) but this answer truly let me finish the arrangement of those two tracks (No Te Pierdas En La Pista, Global Transpose). I ended up basing the concept of the EP around this answer; I wanted it to be like a call, a call for something to be seen and dismantled, something which I haven’t quite figured myself, but I think that’s the fun part…it’s about searching those answers that end up being more questions. It’s about transformation and process.
4) What is your creative process like?
I don’t exactly have like a fixed process. It usually ends up being very situational, like I mentioned before, sometimes just getting together with my friends and discussing and sharing things we’ve been doing, feeling and thinking is enough to spark an idea for a new song. Other times, I might get an idea of some little melody I have in my head, I’ll write it down, and it just sits there on my computer for months, until I’m working on another project and I might notice this sketch from months ago actually works in the context of this new song. It’s extremely fun, kinda like working with a future version of yourself without even thinking about it hahaha. But yeah, it’s usually lots of resampling and re-contextualizing things and making them into completely new stuff, but sometimes I might write a whole track or even an EP in a single day 🙂 It depends!
5) What is the electronic music scene like in the Dominican Republic?
It’s a little bit complicated… In my opinion I feel it’s quite segregated. You’ve got lots of DJ’s/artists that play/make tech house and minimal (it almost feels like the majority at times), and others play/make more house/micro-house/techno but it mostly stays in this circle of genres. Now, that’s not to say these aren’t good genres or that there aren’t good DJ’s/artists. I’ve heard some absolutely amazing selections from various locals here, but to be honest I feel it’s really lacking in depth. I don’t think there’s enough exploration sonically, there aren’t enough risks being taken in sets and track selections; There’s no questioning of what exactly is “dancefloor worthy”. The amount of times you’ll hear the most boring 909 pattern with a meh bassline is superfluous. It also seems like barely anyone here plays faster than 128 BPM, which is pretty disappointing. I feel like the surface has been barely scratched in terms of what could be done, but thankfully, newer generations of younger DJ’s/artists are starting to take notice of this and are starting to bring a fresher selection of tracks, sounds and experiences in general, something I wish more of the old heads (which it mostly consists of) in the scene would learn a bit from.
6) In your Spotify bio, it mentions that you explore and experiment with sound as a trigger for experiences. What kind of experiences, specifically?
Hahaha I actually don’t quite know myself. I’ve always wanted to leave it up to the listener to decide what they want to experience and interpret listening to my music. I guess I’ve wanted it to function as a little door for the listener to have their own otherworldly experience. I always like to give some sort of narrative up for interpretation with my songs…The blissfulness of doing nothing, the act of letting go and how things flow.
7) Who are your favorite artists currently?
Some of the artists I’ve been listening a lot currently have been: Actress, Susumu Yokota, Gustavo Lamas, Harold McKinney and Spinetta Jade.
8) What are your dream collaborations?
If I could ever get to do anything with Dean Blunt I’d be starstruck! He’s pretty much my hero and also a massive inspiration for me.
9) Any new music in the works?
Yes! I’m currently working on my next full length album. Very very excited to see how it’s gonna come up. It’s my most ambitious project yet and I can’t wait to show what’s been in the works 🙂 Trying to push for a 2021 release!
Support Boundary’s music on Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp. Keep up with Boundary on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook!
Interview Conducted By: Alexa Terry