Part 2

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, performance or album that is particularly dear to you?

I'm going to describe the creative process of the song “Abans Abans” that you can find on the new album Pripyat. Because it's quite particular, I could say the song was the result of a mistake, or a very random action. I was making another song for the record, I think it was “ubuntu”. And I needed a transition from one section to another - or maybe I was trying to add some layers on top of the arrangement. And so I thought that I would put some piano on it. I made a loop in the section and started improvising with the piano for a few minutes.

It was late at night and I started to play and forgot about time. Finally I had been playing for 20 minutes. I finished and was going to go sleep and grabbed this track in the digital audio workstation and put it at the back of the session. The next day, when I opened the session to listen to the piano the piano was sped up. I thought it was quite interesting. And I figured I could create a new song. This happens regularly: that songs come from ideas for other songs, but they end up being too much an entity of their own to be in that initial song. And so they become new songs.

So what I did is I chopped that improvisation up into 1000s of really short sections, one second here, three seconds there. In each case, never more than four seconds of the original improvisation. And I also chopped the reverbs because as the piano was sped up, the sustain pedal was now shorter. So I had to chop the sustain of the song so that it looked like it had reverb or sustain. It was a very detailed process. It was like making a big mosaic.

The way I created this song was quite artificial, because it was never composed. It's just a reorganisation of very little chops of an improvisation that was meant to be in another song. So once I had constructed the track, and it had made some sort of sense, I added sound effects that fed some texture into it. And I added the voice and I made these beats. I wasn't sure if I should make them longer or not, but in the end left them the way they were.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

Until recently, I had never made music from scratch with anyone else. I did collaborate with other people, but it was always more like a game of ping pong, you know, like, that person makes a track, or I make a track, and then we send it to the other, and then the other puts something on top, and then they send it back.

But last Easter, I was making music with a friend from scratch. Initially, I was a bit prejudiced against it, because I take so long, making things and discarding them. In fact, I discard and reject most of the material I come up with. So it's very tiring. And I wouldn't want to do that to another person. For myself, I have a lot of patience in that regard, but not if I'm with another person – it's like I can sense the other person becoming tired. So I was reluctant to make music with other people. But this collaboration worked really well.

After the experience, I'd say I like both the collaborative approach and solo mode, I trust in both and both are enjoyable, but they are a completely different things. When you make music on your own, at least for me, I'll sometimes lose the plot. You kind of have to fight your own demons, or your own personality. Sometimes you deliver your best, but your ears are not satisfied yet and you need to fix what feels wrong. Or when you realise what's wrong, or what can be improved, you see that that's a lot of work. And so I might end up exhausted, I might not end up liking the whole process of of making music because it's it will be unpleasant. So sometimes I'll consider if I shouldn't just skip it and make an easier version of the song.

But usually, I end up doing the complex thing.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world? What is the role of music in society?

I'm not sure and I don't know if that is for me to determine. This should be an easy question to reply to, but I'm not sure about the answer. I'm not sure to what extent my process relates to something external. I guess if I were living alone on this planet, I wouldn't make music. I would do other things. So there's a relation to the world. But at the same time, when I'm making music, I'm not thinking very much about what impact it is going to have on people.

What is the role of music in society?

It depends. Because there are different kinds of music. And by that I don't mean different genres of music. I mean  music that was created from different perspectives and with different intentions - music that was created with the purpose of dancing to it, or music that was created with the purpose of making money, or music that was created with the purpose of investigation, or breaking rules or preconceptions.

If we talk about experimental music, I think there's an intention to go further, to challenge or tease conventions or the current principles of music and take things beyond what it is now.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

I'm going to name two occasions, one related to, to my role as the listener and the other as a creator, or musician.

When I was in conservatory, when I was 24, or so, I was studying a lot of classic pieces on in the piano. And, of course, I was performing them, but in a sense I was feeling more like a listener than a performer. Simply because I didn't write those pieces, you know, so I was performing them, I was understanding them.

For example, you're performing a Nocturne by Chopin, and you're playing it for months. So you start developing a kind of relationship with the piece, and even with the composer. It sounds weird, but you start to merge. You understand that music or any form of art, or any craft, or any sport or something that you do with profound dedication, is big. It's not just entertainment, nor it is something you study, it's not a skill you have, it's something bigger.

If you if you happen to deal with loss, or some big things going on in your life, music can be a gateway to heal. It may even save you in a way - which might sound cheesy, but it actually does happen. You go through a breakup, you go through a bad moment, and you know that you can go to this space and get lost in there. And the more you give to music, the more it gives a back to you. And usually, all that it gives you is good. It makes you go through some moments of struggle, and doubt about your self and doubts about your confidence. But, like an exam, it gives you good things and makes you wiser in a way.

When you're a kid and you're just starting to play the piano, and even when you're a teenager, you may not be able to grasp those things yet. But when you become an adult, you start feeling them. This is not something I'll casually do on a Sunday afternoon when I'm bored, at least for me it isn't. The connection I have with music is something really important in my life. When you're making an album you kind of lose contact with the world a bit and with yourself even. You're allowed to detach from yourself, from your identity and the things that happened to your. You feel lighter because you feel that you are not that important in the world.

There seems to be increasing interest in a functional rational and scientific approach to music. How do you see the connection between music and science? And what can these two fields reveal about each other?

If we're talking about science as an investigation into the roots, as mathematical patterns, I see a strong connection. These patterns exist, as do proportions. There is a lot of maths in the circle of fifths. And in the tonalities.

I find it really interesting. No matter how many patterns there are, the human mind will find ways to subvert or slightly modify them. With an emotional purpose or with a  purpose that is related to the Zeitgeist of the moment that we live in.

Music is like a science, but it's not fixed. It's not static.

If we're talking about technology, I'm not particularly fond of it. Or rather, I am lazy about it. I did end up using computers and technology eventually, because they give you so many opportunities and so many new resources. I don't see it as an enemy when making music.

Another thing is that we tend to talk about spontaneity in the creative process. The more naturally and the faster it comes, supposedly, the more honest it is. And I don't agree with that. I think that music that is kind of artificial or music that is very rational or that has had a lot of changes applied to it is also valid. As long as as you're making it from an honest point of view, both options are valid.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

No, I don't think it's different. I see a big connection between being a musician and being an athlete, for example. I don't know if you've seen the documentary about Ayrton Senna. Or the one about La Chana, who is a flamenco dancer. What we share is this strong dedication to our craft.

Sometimes, it makes you be a bit crazy, because you live in that other world. When that happens, it doesn't matter what you're creating or doing, because it can be the same thing. Sure, a piece of music and a great dish of food are not the same thing. But they can be created or made from the same point of view. Vice versa, two songs may be the same thing, but they have not been created from the same point of view, so that makes them different in that regard.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

I have no idea. And that is like a mystery and like magic, right? How do these revelations transform into emotions?

When I was 18, in high school, we had to write this big final essay in high school before going to uni, and we dedicated months to it. The subject was the brain and music. I studied quite a bit about it and read a lot about the topic. But I still find it magical.

There are some things that the ear or that your your brain wants or expects, because of tradition, because of the music that it's been exposed to since childhood. So as a music maker, it's interesting to know what the brain expects to respect it or to break it, depending on your goals. You try to be that listener and to know what you expect and to decide if you are going to give yourself what you expect or not.

Ultimately, I don't know if I want to find out. After all, wouldn't it make it less impressive and less mysterious?