Interview / 18 Sep 23
Xplore
What's the music scene like in your area?
The Bucharest music scene has been blossoming for the last 10 years and it is filled with mostly house, minimal, ro-minimal (a genre that started in Romania), and all the other electronic music genres to a lesser extent.
How did you get into music/production?
My journey started with making 4-channel tracks for the demo scene back in the day (Amiga, MOD, S3M, IT), and continued with exploring the realms of house, speed garage, drum and bass, house, trance, and progressive house. My journey was full of low and high notes and I tasted the friendliness of the electronic music scene worldwide that meant a lot to me. I am still producing music, not like in old days, because now I am also an author and audiobook producer, and that takes up a lot of time.
Tell us about your creative and production process..
I work now in Ableton (although back in the day I produced in Fruity Loops for a few years, when it was at its early stage, Cubase, Nuendo, and I also spent a lot of time creating tracks in Reason). I use mostly samples for rhythm, although I love also making beats from scratch. I start with an interesting bass line usually, and then build from there. Or if I come up with an interesting chord sequence or some nice pads, I also start from there. The journey of making a track is like a wave in the sea, that keeps coming and going, until the track is done. I usually work a few days in making the initial core part of the track which I later on fine-tune and master within a week.
Tell us about your studio setup and favourite gear?
I have a Scarlett 6i6 Focusrite external soundcard, a dbx processor and Rode mic for my audiobooks, a good DAW (i7, 16 GB Ram, 4TB HDD Raid), and lots of VSTis that I use (among my fav are Sylenth, FM8, Massive, Absynth, and many many more)
What's your favourite of your own tracks and how did it come about, is there a story behind it?
One of my fav tracks was done recently and is called Altaria IV. It has an out-of-this-world atmosphere, breaks tune, and it sounds like a little "symphony" of synths, that progress in and out of the tune. I really like how that one came out, it has a sci-fi concept behind it, Altaria IV being a very evolved planet, far away from Earth.
How have you released your music so far?
I have my own label called "Subspace Transmissions" and I also release on other major labels such as Balkan Connection.
Who would you love to collaborate with and why? What kind of music would you make together?
I used to collaborate a lot in the past in the 2010s, but now I mostly work alone.
Tell us you how you got into live performance. What were your first performances like?
I had very few live performances when I was younger, and the electronic music scene still was forming in Bucharest. Since then I have only produced in my own recording studio.
If you could choose any location/venue in the world to play a gig, where would you perform?
London
Who has inspired you?
Many many many good artists, electronic music, pop artists, I listen to all kinds of genres and I like to see the best in any musical genre, and that influences my tracks a lot.
Who are you enjoying listening to lately?
18 Carat Affair, they do "vaporwave" and they are among my fav in this genre.
If you were a food, what food would you be?
French Fries.
What made you start your Label
I needed a place to get out my tracks that I thought no one would :)
What were your most notable releases/ surprise successes.
44 Light Years, an album which featured Time Travel (incl. in Hernan Cattaneo's Renaissance compilation), that I put out first on Pure Substance Digital / Malaysia, and then on my own label as well.
Related
rominimal
romania
xplore
trance
house
drumnbass
