The music of Scott Cortez--be it lovesliescrushing, Astrobrite or STAR, has often been labeled "dreampop" or "shoegaze" but in all cases have had an originality that others who have had these labels attached lack. We asked how he does that and how much of it is related to gear choice.

"We set ourselves apart by not relying on traditional song structure; by doing away with extraneous drum beats that were put in as an afterthought. They also date the music. LLC still sounds pretty strange, like a Hugo Largo album," says Cortez. "It has a classical bent. The pop aspect is due to the fact that we still hold on to melody and harmony that is somewhat recognizable. We took a cue from the Cocteau Twins by having Melissa sing abstractly, vowels and whatever comes to mind. Hell, I don't know what shoegaze means anymore. All I know is that some of the songs that I made with LLC are just beautiful sounding."

Cortez compares the music to color field painters--who did away with imagery excepting color and texture. That is what Cortez aims at with his music. He wants color and texture without the hard structure.

"There are a slew of bands that think My Bloody Valentine and this sound is all about gear. They buy the gear and make awful fucking music because they are missing something," says Cortez. "It is like buying the same laptop as your favorite novelist thinking you will be able to write a book. No, you are missing the thing. It is about timbre and composition. You can get rid of the effects on a My Bloody Valentine song and the song is still pretty cool and catchy. You can play LLC songs with a small chamber orchestra, something I am working on, and the songs will still work. It isn't about effects, but the effects are just a technique to enhance the song. There is sympathy between the effects and the song structure in llc, They are one and the same. LLC was about structure and timbre simultaneously. That is why I got rid of the guitar for the new album. I wanted to expose the structure of an LLC song, make it completely transparent. "

As mentioned in the previous article on Cortez the Lexicon Jamman is is current favorite piece of gear.

"I have had it since 97 and it never ceases to deliver. It allows me to do what I have always done, which is to make a loop and overdub it to death," he says "Fripp in a box. I can't wait to do this stuff live again."

When it comes to recording these days Cortez uses Cubase through an iMac.

"I go through a Tascam 4 track into the computer. The analog mixer softens the sound. I don't use amps to record, never have. Always went direct. In the old days, I would record everything on the 4 track and then master that out to a DAT tape and voila! That was it."

Live gear for Cortez varies according to project--whether it is the more experimental lovesliescrushing or the more traditional sound of STAR.

"The live gear depends on the project. If it is LLC, then I use the Jamman, the Midiverb and the Quadraverb GT, plus some distortion pedals. Then you split the signal between a guitar amp and a bass rig," says Cortez. "If I am playing as STAR, then I just use two distortion pedals and the Midiverb to smush the sound a tiny bit. Then I run through a Marshall. In the studio I just go direct."

Cortez plans to take the show on the road sometime soon.