Wavelength EP. 1 - Confound Sound
To kick off the first of many Wavelength episodes, Thomii from Confound Sound shares how he creates music from everyday objects and found sounds, rejecting presets and sample packs to craft something truly authentic. He discusses his creative philosophy, use of Ableton for audio-visual work, and offers advice to keep music-making fun, personal, and imperfectly real.
Tell us a bit about yourself and why you started Confound Sound...
Hi there! I’m Thomii, a sound designer/musician from Antwerp, Belgium.
When I started making music about 17 years ago, I was compelled to find “The Perfect Sound”. For me back then, the “perfect” sound would be like the crazy drums and basslines by Noisia, KOAN Sound, Skrillex, Culprate, Ivy Lab, Moderat, etc. Electronic music like that seemed so meticulous and perfectly mixed and mastered, like controlled chaos.
Later, I realised I didn’t really want the “perfect” sound. I wanted “my” sound. Music that’s uniquely mine, and I dreamt about making my very own genre. I started singing and rapping a bit, as my voice is the only sound that’s truly mine. I got more into artists like Radiohead, James Blake and Kendrick Lamar, but I never tried to actually sound like them. I stole a lot of chord progressions from Radiohead though… and still do… Who doesn’t?
I made a lot of different things under countless aliases, while my favourite compliment I sometimes got, is that my music really sounded like “me”. Authenticity is very important to me in general. To come across as 100% myself, quirks and all (preferably in a good way), is what I strive towards.
Nowadays, I think it’s harder and harder to stand out and make something that moves people, while still remaining authentic. Today, you can just download infinite kinds of perfect loops and presets, throw 'em together, sync and quantize and call it a song. With AI, you can just generate a complete song within minutes. I’m not saying I’m against all of that, but it’s just not inspiring to me.
Eventually, everything really started to click when I discovered artists like Yosi Horikawa, who creates incredible music from found sounds, without it ever feeling gimmicky. His albums Vapor, Spaces and more recently Impulse are perfect examples. I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of making music entirely from sounds recorded outside a musical context, but Yosi Horikawa showed me just how beautiful and expressive that approach can be.
So that brings me to Confound Sound. I ditched every sample library like Splice, stopped using stock sounds, sample packs, presets and synths like Pigments, Serum, Massive…, quit watching endless tutorials on how to sound like whatever is “cool” right now, to go back to the basics: recording all of my own sounds, sonically and visually, and sample memories to make music out of my actual life.
The word “confound” means to surprise or confuse by doing something unexpected, and that’s exactly what this project is about. Sounds that don’t behave like you think they would.
It’s not about sounding “perfect”. It’s about turning everyday moments into music.
I'm always amazed by the music you create with what people might consider as boring or everyday objects. How do you find the inspiration in them?
Well, thank you very much for saying that! I think it’s because I enjoy showing myself and people there’s more than meets the eyes and ears in life. For example, I really like digging deep into the hidden meaning of a movie or why an artist used a specific lyric at a certain moment in a song. I can get really nerdy with that.
The thing is, I like escaping into fictional worlds through movies and music, but if I also escape when I’m making music, I can start to lose the connection to my actual “boring” life. So that’s why I like bringing the boring and everyday things with me in the creative process. It’s like finding the magic in the most mundane things. It keeps me from taking things for granted, because I learn to love what I have by making music out of it.
Some examples:
A massage gun I bought for my girlfriend, we barely use btw, can turn into a sick reese bass.
Our microwave has everything to make an entire beat: the beeps for notes, the buzz kinda sounds like a G major chord, knocking the door without closing it has a nice UMPF to it, while actually closing it, sounds like a sick snare drum you just won’t find in any sample library.
The door to our living room has a horrible squeak to it, and I’m just not ready yet to put WD40 on it, because I believe, with some pitch correction, I can make an amazing melody out of it.
Even when I’m not recording anything, I’m way more mindful of my surroundings because everything and everyone can be an inspiring sound.
It’s also waaay cheaper than buying crazy synths and other instruments.
You recently collaborated on an Instagram Reel with us using sounds from the Haunting Metal sound library. Did you have a vibe/genre of music in mind going into creating the track?
Yes, I instantly felt an eerie cinematic vibe I really wanted to explore by making music with it!
Back in the day, I used to make a lot of creepy electronic music, so it felt within my comfort zone. Everything came together pretty quickly, because every sound fit nicely for what I had in mind and it’s just such an inspiring collection of sounds. The videos you made also made it so much fun to play around with it.
Confound Sound tracks are usually pretty “happy” sounding, because it’s mostly made out of fun memories, but making this track with the Haunting Metal was actually closer to the type of music I enjoy listening to by other artists.
A dear friend of mine told me this track gave him serious Blade Runner 2049 vibes, which makes sense, as I absolutely love that soundtrack. It probably influenced me subconsciously as well.
What DAW software are you using to manipulate the sounds and create your music? And why do you prefer it over other DAW softwares
Ableton! I used to make music in Logic Pro X and I do sound design and post production for videos in Pro Tools, but Ableton feels like it’s made for Confound Sound.
The biggest reason being I can just throw multiple videos on audio tracks and they look and behave like audio clips, with endless warping possibilities. With some kinds of modifications, like reversing a sample, the video is no longer linked though, but you can still go on with the audio.
Making this kind of music in Pro Tools is very clunky, especially when there’s differences in codecs. It would just crash at the slightest. Logic Pro X can only import one video per project.
Another reason for Ableton is the endless Max For Live devices out there like EboSuite, which is a huge bundle of video plugins you can use within Ableton.
It opens the door to countless possibilities for live shows, which I want to explore more one day.
Finally, I always knew I wanted to switch to Ableton after many years exploring other DAWs, and now I know why. It’s just so much fun.
What microphones and recording devices do you use for Confound Sound?
I’d like to say I use my Sennheiser MKH 416, MKH 50 and other great gear like my Sound Devices MixPre 6 II all of the time, but that would be an overstatement. I do use them sometimes for Confound Sound, but they’ve mostly been reserved for my day job as a sound guy.
For Confound Sound, it’s mostly the inbuilt mics of my iPhone 15 Pro, the Røde Wireless Pro’s and DJI Mic Mini’s, because most of my tracks/videos come from spontaneous moments (travelling, family and friends stuff, random funny moments,...). Sometimes it’s even just sampling videos I get from other people. This first year of Confound Sound was about finding out what I really want to do with this project.
Projects like this Haunting Metal one made me realise I want to go out more and do actual field recording sessions and shoots. So thanks for the inspiration, Ollie! This year has just been so busy with my other work and daily life. In 2026, I’ll be able to dedicate a lot more time to deliberate sessions though!
Finally, what advice would you give to other creatives who want to use found sounds in their music?
Just keep it as fun as possible! I try not to get too perfectionistic with it, because making music with found sounds kind of lets you off the hook for trying to sound perfect. You can’t really expect a sound recorded on your phone in a busy airport to sound like a Splice sample by some random person you don’t know, who made it in a controlled environment with professional gear.
It’s the story behind the recording that counts. It can offer an endless amount of inspiration and keeps you focused. That’s also why I include the video as well, to help tell the story behind the music. I’d rather limit myself to making a song out of a crappy video recording of a fond memory, than spending hours scrolling to look for the “perfect” snare.
Some practical advice:
If you use Ableton, I can recommend slapping a Drum Buss on the sounds you want to use for drums and play with the ‘Transients’ knob to make it snappy. The ‘Boom’ knob is also fun to bring out a single bass note out of a sound to give it some ‘UMPF’. It’s a great stock plug-in for quick and satisfying results!
Of course, it’s nice to first try to get your recordings as clean as possible. Maybe do some iZotope RX stuff cleaning the recordings before throwing it into the DAW. Separating the “cleaning” and “composing” sessions saves you some headaches and processing power down the line. But I try not to get too bogged down by that part.
Finally, a trick that has saved many crappy recordings of mine, is to isolate sounds from the background by using AI music stem splitters (like lalal.ai). For example, I once recorded a dude hammering on a dock about 20 meters away from me, with my iPhone, as I was standing on a touristy place with loads of people around me.
I managed to recover only the hits by asking the AI stem splitter to isolate the drums out of the recording. By refining it a little, I was able to make a great kickdrum from a lovely memory of me and my girlfriend traveling through Prague.
A message from us.
Big thanks to Thomii for being the first person to join us on our new Wavelength series. We really appreciate the time you took to answer these questions and your content is dope as always!
If you want to check out more work by Thomii, head on over to the Confound Sound social media pages which are linked below:
Instagram: @confoundsound
YouTube: @ConfoundSound
TikTok: @ConfoundSound
What is Wavelength?
Wavelength is an opportunity for us to shine a light on the creatives that are part of the Rare Finds Community. Showcasing talented individuals in the audio visual space.
If there's a creative that you'd like us to interview, drop us a message via our contact form and we'll reach out to them for a Wavelength interview.