Part 1

Name: Arms and Sleepers
Member: Mirza Ramic
Nationality: Bosnian
Occupation: Composer, performer
Current Release: The new Arms and Sleepers album What Tomorrow Brings is out via Pelagic.
Recommendations: Nobody’s Home - a book by Dubravka Ugresic; Aftersun - a film by Charlotte Wells

If you enjoyed this Arms and Sleepers interview and would like to stay up to date with the project's music, visit their official homepage. Arms and Sleepers is also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.  



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

One of the biggest reasons I create music is a selfish one: to provide a form of self-therapy for myself. Music has always been an important way for me to process difficult personal moments and past traumas, and it has become an absolute necessity for my own sanity and mental health wellbeing.

My impulse to create music often comes from an emotional reaction, a trigger that brings back a difficult or painful memory. Music is my way of dealing with it directly, intimately, and most of the time, effectively. Of course, other art can be and is inspiring too: music, film, literature, a visit to a museum. But ultimately, the root of any worthwhile musical endeavor for me has to do with something deeply personal taken from my own past.

Since my past is fundamentally rooted in politics — I experienced war and lost family members and my home because of political, social, religious reasons — I have always believed that music and politics are inseparable. I’ve heard plenty of voices telling me to keep politics out of my music, but I think those voices are foolish and come from a place of privilege and shortsightedness.

So yeah, for me, inspiration comes from my own personal experiences, which have often been encapsulated by politics and the reality of the environment I was in.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

For me, planning has to do with organizing emotions into a story or a theme that I want to express and share with the world. The actual music creation often has to do with chance — and I think that’s what makes it both challenging and exciting.

Every piece of music I write feels like a stroke of good luck, and I will often truly believe that I will never be able to write another piece of music again. So creating music is about sitting down and doing it, trying things, often failing, and then getting “lucky” with a good idea and expanding upon it.

But the emotional glue that is the backdrop to this experimentation has to be strong, and that’s where the planning element comes in for me. My emotional processing of thoughts and feelings has to be genuine and it has to evoke enough meaning for me to want to start telling a story through music.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

Not really — for me it’s about sitting down and getting to work. Whatever is available in front of me is what I will use.

I am really not that versed technically or demanding of music gear — I often say that I’m a scrapper when it comes to writing music. I’ll use whatever is available at my fingertips to start creating something — if the moment is right, as in, if I am in the right emotional state, then I’ll scrap together an idea with whatever tools I have access to. That could be a fully equipped studio or just a laptop, or a one-string guitar, or a melodica. Whatever.

I very much enjoy composing, and I’ll make it happen no matter what. But if my state of mind is not conducive to wanting to express my emotions, then I’ll be unable to write something meaningful regardless of the instruments or music gear I have in front of me.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Again not really — coffee is of course an important part of my everyday life, but not something that sparks creativity for me.

So no rituals that I can think of.

What do you start with? And, to quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

I start with a highly emotional response to something, then sit in front of my laptop, open Reason music software, connect a small midi keyboard, and start experimenting. Usually either with samples or synths or piano.

I think I both create and discover ideas when it comes to writing music. I create because I set out to do it, work at it, have an inspiration driving it. I discover because there is a lot of experimenting involved, trying ideas and sounds which at times come unexpectedly and I get lost in a flow.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I think both are true for me. Sometimes I have a specific idea of how I want a song to turn out, and at other times the chance discovery of a sample or a sound lead me down unexpected paths. I try to be open to both experiences, depending on my mood.

I think my mood and emotional state dictate a lot of the creative process, and I just try to follow that mood toward something productive.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

Yes, continuing on with the previous answer, sometimes an idea will definitely take me in an unexpected direction. If it feels right, I go with the flow. But it doesn’t always feel right, and I usually try to have trust in my feelings and instincts. For the ideas that do take me down unforeseen paths, I try to allow myself to be open to whatever — even if it’s a very different style of music.

I listen to everything and anything, and I also enjoy working on music that is not all the same. So sometimes these unexpected directions can be exciting, and I try to be as present and open as possible. It often doesn’t end up well, however, and that’s ok.

So it’s also important to remember that sometimes sticking to the original plan is the better way to go. I think it all comes down to instinct, which is very important to me.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

I don’t believe in spirituality at all and tend to view life and our time on earth as a very random and absurd experience— that’s just me.

I would describe my creative state as highly emotional. I cry, I feel depressed, I feel anger, I feel desperation, I feel regret … all these states of emotional reaction. Music is my drug to deal with those very human feelings.

It’s not that I always feel like that, but I can’t help but feel like that sometimes — and when I do, music helps me survive it and get through it. For me, I don’t view that as spirituality but rather as a basic element of human existence: suffering, in one word. Sounds over the top, I know, but that’s really what I think of life.

It’s comedy, and those moments are for friendships, walks in the park, entertainment. And it’s tragedy, and those moments, for me, are for music.