GLOBAL PATTERN

[globalpattern]

Interview with desert sand feels warm at night

bandcamp | twitter | soundcloud

1. Hi! Can you tell a story about how your project came to life? Were you making music before?

I’ve been making music now for about 9 years and I’ve really never taken it anywhere because I guess I’ve never had any sort of initiative or motivation to do so. I went through multiple phases of making random things but then last year, after discovering vaporwave and listening to many ambient and slushwave artists, I thought I’d give it a go and finally get my stuff out there. And I am so, so glad that I did as it’s been an amazing journey so far and its the thought of everyone listening to my music and appreciating it that really brought it to life.

2. Indeed, that's amazing how quick your stuff was recognized! Besides the music itself, do you think that's because of being part of the community? Or you have some secret of success =)

I can’t say I really have any secrets in regards with the music, apart from trying to be as unique as possible with both my artist name and my style, that grew over time. I do strongly feel that the community has played a huge role in my success, some of the people i have met and the widespread coverage that my music is received on makes the community one of the best to be in. Especially now, after big events like Electronicon, the community has never been more alive. I’m not one for advertising loads, and I think generally the reason I’m known is because of how close everyone is in the community and the good word of mouth that spread about my music which has brought most of my listeners. It still amazes me to this day that despite it being only a year, my following has grown to numbers I would’ve never expected nor imagined. It’s a privilege to be a part of.

3. Speaking of 100% Electronicon, would you perform live if there will be a possibility? Looks like vaporwave is not just "online microgenre" now and community is ready for all kinds of IRL interactions. If yes, what kind of sound could it be?

I would certainly perform live and I’m actually performing at the Aloe City Records concert that is going to take place at some point. Nothing is official yet but it seems very likely that this will happen, which will be exciting. To be honest, I have no idea what it would sound like, I need to play around with my sounds and try and create something super hypnotic yet energetic at the same time! We’ll have to see…

4. Guess it will be your original tunes, not sampled stuff, right? Speaking of which, do you think it's the future of vapor (in general) or your project? Or sampled vapor is not over yet?

Well, I thoroughly enjoy working with samples and really don’t believe that the future needs to be driven by original content. Of course, as people get more comfortable with making music, it is really refreshing to see some original works out there, and I’m looking forward to releasing my next original slushwave album later on in the year. However, all my albums apart from 水に流す and Tomorrow, 2096 are sampled material, and they have all been very well received, and I will continue to make sampled albums as well as the original.

5. Tomorrow, 2096 is quite different from your sound, you also did two gorgeous ambient works for Seikomart, yet looks like slushwave is your primary style, right? Which other styles you'd like to try?

Well, I interchange between ambient and slushwave frequently, even sometimes into nature wave and mallsoft-like areas. I think if I were to try and make a dedicated album to a particular style I would go for mallsoft, with proper mall background noise and taking inspiration from artists like 猫 シ Corp.

6. Speaking of inspiration – what inspires you the most? Are there some things highly necessary, so to say, to make good vaporwave? Like being in love with certain time in the past or something?

I think to be passionate about something, you have to love something or do something regularly. All the music I sample I listen to quite a lot, as well as the many genres associated with my samples and hearing the way these are crafted and the way they affect my emotions really play a huge part in the inspiration for the project. Also, I would recommend listening to other artists who are doing similar things to yourself and think about how you could do that differently. Like with me, I listened to many hours of telepaths to gain a good understanding of elements in his music that made him successful, which I then tweaked and applied uniquely to mine. And it’s at the point where you have something that’s quite different and something that you are proud of, that you get the true inspiration to carry on with the project and really spend a lot of time on it.

7. That's definitely a good insight! And since you mentioned telepath, which albums are your favorites? And besides telepath and vapor in general, what are the three albums you'd take with you on a long trip through the desert?

アンタラ通信 is most definitely my favourite telepath album, also one of the first albums in vaporwave in general. I just love the etherealness and gentle swathes of otherworldly energy that comes through on that album, it’s a trip and a half.

Man, this decision was really hard, but the three albums I would take would be:

- t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 - アンタラ通信

- 譚詠麟 – 再見吧!? 浪漫

- killedmyself - Backyard Cemetery: Revisited

8. If someone "outside vaporworld" asks you about music you're doing, how would you describe it? Do you think it's possible (for a complete stranger, so to say) to get involved with the genre now when there are so much history and levels of subgenres in it?

Funny you should ask that as I’ve been asked many times by my non-vapor friends about it. Generally, I just say its a type of experimental music as I don’t really want to waste my energy on explaining it as most of them won’t really care. However, if there were to be a stranger who did care, then I would gladly explain it to them. Whilst the catalogue of releases has grown significantly in recent years, there’s always a place to start, and there’s plenty of subgenre communities to be involved in.

9. That's pretty much same as me trying to explain why we release & listen to cassettes =) Do you collect tapes or vinyl? Are there specific ones any you'd kill to get?

I do have a collection but its nowhere near as substantial as some of the ones I’ve seen. I have a few Japanese ones I’m looking for but they are quite rare and only pop up now and again, but really I’m not particularly looking for anything. If the albums really good, I buy the physical. Simple as that.

10. Do you have a dream album or something which you'd love to do with this or any other projects? Or maybe even a dream of life which you can share? =)

Man, I have no idea what to say to this one. In the way I think about music, I don’t have set goals or set dreams that I aspire for and rather just create with what I’ve got and see what happens, and to be honest I am very proud of all my recent stuff and couldn’t have asked for more support from my fans and followers. I guess if there was ever a dream album with any possibility it would probably be a collab with t e l e p a t h or Brian Eno, and it would be the most chilled album ever.

September 16, 2019

▼ globalpattern.bandcamp.com ▲

[globalpattern]

Interview with From Tokyo to Honolulu

bandcamp | twitter | soundcloud

1. Hey! Tell us how the project was born, what inspired at the beginning, what inspires now?

hi! to begin with, I encountered vaporwave only in 2015. honestly, I don’t already remember how it happened, but judging by last.fm I was mostly listening to sovietwave back then and somehow, in an unknown way, I got into a vapor. after a year of listening, one day I thought, why not to try to do something myself because everything is built on samples. I was inspired at that time by t e l e p a t h, I didn’t get my hands on listening to his full discography for a long time (which I regretted later, but now I regret that listened to everything he did hundreds of times). and so, i had to start with artist name and wanted something simple and at the same time unusual (without any unnecessary symbols), so this kind of topic of air flights came to my mind and without thinking twice, I opened the map, and then the first thing happened was Tokyo - Honolulu, that's all.

the first albums were made in Audacity, I don’t know why I chose it, I probably wasn’t going to do this like professionally but just for fun, just to try it for myself. and this audacity was terrible because cutting tracks there was just hellish! perhaps it could have been easier, but I did not understand it and at that moment I just proceeded. now it's funny to think of – the first 12 (!?) “albums” were made that way. but then it got even better, I switched to FL Studio... DEMO, and for a year I did all the tracks on the go because it was impossible to save the projects :) and only at the end of 2018 managed to buy the full version and get my hands on it. honestly, now almost nothing inspires me to continue this project, because I'm tired of sampling and I'm planning (in fact, already doing) my own original music without samples.

2. So is it true that vaporwave is dead? If you abandon the samples and make original music, then will it be something else? Or is it still vapor for you?

I believe that the sampled vapor is almost dead, but the thing is how to approach this. you can’t just slow down and pitch the tracks  for a long time and assume that you are doing vaporwave (though I’m still doing this (just kidding)). you can also do something unique [with samples], but I don’t really know how to do this, so, as I said above, I decided to switch to the non-sampled project. but it will still be under the tag of the vaporware anyway because even if I tried to leave it, it always overtakes me :)  vaporwave has recently become an independent genre and therefore you can refuse samples and still make vapor, despite his PAST.

3. By the way, about the past - recently 100% Electronicon happened, after which there were talks about the beginning of a new era in the genre, that now it exists not only on the Internet, but also IRL, which makes vaporwave kind of “more real". What do you think, in order to be a successful artist, is it necessary to play concerts? Would you like to do your stuff live sometime?

I think the opposite is true. first you need to have at least some listeners to give a concert for, heh. and then success will come. honestly, I can’t imagine how anyone can immediately reach this — take t e l e p a t h — as far as I know, it was one of his first shows, so here is a simple example. as for myself, I would like to for sure, but so far I have nothing to play *laughs*

4. For your music, which applications do you see, if not concerts & tours? Take Fantasy Labirynth – I think it could be a nice soundtrack for a game or some adventure film! What kind of game would you like to score?

I never thought about this, but if you fly from Tokyo to Honolulu, be sure to turn on some of my music! in general, yes, I could do something like that. but given that the Fantasy Labirynth samples were taken from games, then the game must be assembled from different games, huh.

5. And which, say, three albums (no matter vapor or not) would you take with you on such a long flight? In general, what kind of music do you listen to besides what your "profession" presumes?

I'd take the entire discography of 仮 想 夢 プ ラ ザ, it’s ideal for trips in general, I always listen and will listen to it. in fact, that would be enough! also I’ve been listening to Boards of Canada since childhood, I’m waiting and hoping that someday a new album will be released. by the way, about them – guess I can say that they invented vaporwave, as well as Aphex Twin and Autechre maybe, this is the first thing that comes to mind, probably because at the moment I'm listening to them too. in general, I can listen to anything, but I need a mood for it, and sometimes I just need to find it first :)

6. As for the mood, is it important for you in which mood you make music? Or is the music who sets the right state when you start playing?

generally I do all things only by mood. if something is wrong, I can’t do the thing and music is no exception. one day you can sit for a long time without getting anything - in such case, I immediately go outside and switch to something else - and the next day it can just go perfectly. and later, if everything goes as it should, then the music will set the subsequent mood already.

7. Since you are saying that you’re going to close the project and make original compositions, will you share some plans for the future? What is the fate of FTTH and what to expect from the new project?

FTTH lives on while cassettes are released, there are plans for several more new albums on physical media and subsequent reissues of the old albums. my goal here is to release as many albums on the cassettes as possible so that way it actually lives. I planned to close it a long time ago because the motivation was gone, there was a feeling that I was doing something for an unknown reason, not really knowing for who and why. but managed, so to speak, to "get hyped" a little. and about the new project, I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, because the idea came like today and the whole project literally changed, so we'll see :)

8. Do you collect cassettes or vinyl yourself? Do you think this is more connected with nostalgia and vapor or is it important for any genre of music to be on some non-virtual medium?

I used to have cassettes in “childhood”. I remember Gorillaz track recorded from the radio, I loved listening to it. but then they were all thrown away. recently began to collect cassettes again, but so far they are more of my own albums, but there are several which I purchased. at first, I was skeptical about this, but now they give me pleasure, listening online or on the media is a completely different experience – you can also feel it, touch it (xD), in general, it’s dope! but since I like to listen to them, and not watch and dust them off, I haven’t got any vinyl yet because got no player for it. perhaps the time will come. yes, as I said above, it is important for any music to be on such a medium, I recently saw an article that recently people began to acquire way more music on PHYSICAL MEDIA.

9. In your opinion, anonymity is an important part of vaporwave aesthetics? Or is it a matter of samples/copyright? Are you planning to keep anonymity with the new project too?

well, judging by the Electronicon, only one artist retained anonymity, which means that he wants to have such style. therefore, I do not think this is an important component. if we talk about live performances, then no, I’m not going to hide my face from anyone.

10. Do you think Russia will ever have its own vapor festival? Who would be the headliners?

I think everything is possible, but the problem is that there are just few performers, as well as the listeners, I don’t know anyone IRL, who even heard what it is, vaporwave! gather me all the russian performers and listeners in one place and then I will say. of the performers I know, just a few are doing really good stuff. so we get 5 people maximum, I don’t even know the rest. I’m sure you know better :)

11. Do you have a dream album that you would like to make? Or a project, or a global dream in general, which you'd like to achieve someday?

of course, I would like to do something that would become mainstream, but you never know how everything goes. usually, if you look into history, what is not recognized at one time, becomes something significant in the future, so I won’t know now. and the authors themselves often do not recognize something of their creations, so it seems to me that it always has been and will be that way :) in general, I am not a dreamer, I try not to abuse this so that these dreams don’t fall apart.

September 14, 2019

▼ https://globalpattern.bandcamp.com ▲