Updated July 20, 2017 20:46:50

Have you listened to a pop or dance track recently and wondered why some music sounds a bit too similar?

Clever music software allows even home DJs to create 'bangers', but this process often relies on the use of common drum or base sounds.

Enter the Gold Coast's Ben Wonder — he is drawing attention to the synthetic world of digital music creation by incorporating the humble loo roll.

In Ben's latest masterpiece, he uses the tearing, scrunching and tapping noises from toilet paper to create an entire dance track.

"With the toilet paper I was just playing around," Wonder said.

"I just see things and think okay let's try it, maybe it will be terrible but let's try it anyway, maybe it will be fantastic."

After creating several basic sounds, he then amplifies, tunes and stretches them, demonstrating how music producers can take even the worst singers or guitar players and make them sound incredible.

"I feel like most people know that anyone can make music now," he said.

"Making music requires basically zero talent and people like me can do it with toilet paper and all sorts of stupid stuff."

Music from strange objects

Including odd sounds in music is nothing new — Gotye used a fence for the bass line in his hit Eyes Wide Open.

A host of musicians have incorporated musical saws in their tracks, including Tom Waits, Jarvis Cocker, Gorillaz and Marianne Faithfull.

Bjork and the White Stripes famously used Tesla machines in some of their music, Bjork even toured with them on stage.

But making an entire song out of just toilet paper samples? That takes some extra commitment.

"I don't know whether it's a creative process or whether it's madness. I don't know what it is," Wonder said.

"I think many people would agree that I'm a lunatic."

While the home musician insists his work is "nothing special" his cheeky videos are increasingly attracting attention.

His first YouTube video, in which he records a woman rejecting him over the phone, and repeats the sample, has garnered about 400,000 views.

Topics: arts-and-entertainment, music, dance-music, industry, music-industry, australia

First posted July 20, 2017 20:24:19