Nami glides into our plane, borne aloft on the Galaxy Swimming ep, the title brimming with evocation, mystery and energy: time as fluid suspension, sense of distance and gravity completely displaced…
And? Nami is in the mix for the AB podcast at end of this piece: do not sleep on this!
Hi Nami how is life for you? Tell us about what you do from day to day, in music?
Hi, everything is cool, going at 172 beats per minute.
All my life is now closely connected with audio, and so after my morning workout and breakfast I rush to my DAW and make experiments with sounds, create samples and look for something that inspires me and help to compose my music.
When did you fall in love with D&B? Is it big near you, where you’re from?
Decoded parties hosted by DJ Traffic in my hometown of Vladivostok had a great impact on me. When I first went to a Decoded party (it was 2004–2005) everything just clicked into place and I realized that I found what I’ve been looking for. Now I live in St. Petersburg and more often I go the Grechafunk parties hosted by Bop and his team.
Also, lots of D&B activities are happening in many venues. For instance, Noisia with the Outer Edges show came to the neighbouring city of Moscow on December 02. Lots of people are showing an interest in D&B music and I am very happy about it.
When did Galaxy Swimming come together? I love its vibe, and it takes me somewhere special!
I would say that everything came together just naturally. Out of all my most recent work in progress tracks, these four in particular had been haunting my mind. I decided to rewrite them from the ground up and get them into shape.
I figured out the main ideas behind the tracks at the start of this year; they gradually blossomed and developed along with my own personality. Well, if you combine four messages into one sentence, it may turn into a pretty philosophical quote:
‘When you are an eternity in the galaxy swimming, you never can say for sure that a vicious cycle exists… et voilà.’
Who is Black Barrel? Love the name.
He is a very good friend of mine; sometimes people also call him a ‘Neuro-Oilman of the Capital of Culture’ [Translator’s note: the ‘Capital of Culture’ – a short version of the ‘Russian Capital of Culture’, metaphor for the Russian city of St. Petersburg].
We met by chance at The World of Drum and Bass a couple of years ago, and since then we’ve been used to share ideas and grooves, and work on tracks together. Please follow his soundcloud – the upcoming 2017 will be full of surprises.
Apart from composing cool D&B, Black Barrel does very impressive back somersaults and makes perfect toasts! He has a great sense of humour and he is the life and soul of the party.
What are you favourite instruments to use in the studio?
I mess around with my tenor Saxophone and a guitar; I keep recording everything and anything… I mostly use Cubase and Ableton, and I prefer FM8 out of all synthesizers. With their help I try to create an illusion of a dialog or a message, which reflects an idea of the track, by using various effects.
Who are some favourite artists of yours?
Well, the music by Gustavo Santaolalla, The Cinematic Orchestra, Marc Moulin, Morphine, Jon Hopkins, and Lamb… truly an inspiration for me. The tracks by Stephan Bodzin, Robert Babicz, Kollektiv Turmstrasse, A Made Up Sound are also in my playlist.
And, of course, I cannot help but mention Akira Yamaoka – his music always boosts my creativity.
As for D&B, I often listen to the tracks by Duo Infernale and Cern, I just love the tunes of Icicle, especially what’s been recorded between 2007 and 2010; Zero T and Survival, his first album ‘Survival’ in particular; and Photek as well as many more other brilliant musicians.
Can you take us into ‘Never Can Say’?
The ‘never can say’ message goes round and round and bass along with synthesizers try to vocalize the phrase throughout the whole track. I associate these endeavours with the Truth, and one of its endless variations is the Lie.
What other thoughts/inspiration from ‘everyday life’ become part of your music?
I am mostly inspired by an idea that everything in the world is related to each other. There are a lot of communicating systems around us. If to apply this idea to music, one may want to create his/her own system where all the elements are linked together and inter-connected.
A name or a title is also very important. For example, we call a stone – a stone, and we have a clear picture of it in mind. The same happens in music: a name/title bring the scenes, ideas, images and various musical arrangements into the world.
I love the cover art: is art and design important to you? Which era/year do you like + what artists?
Big thanks to Mitchy Bwoy, he does have an awesome style! No doubts the visual part is very important. I am quite a fan of sci-fi books, and some scenes from the future in its all-possible variations always feed my imagination.
Illustrations by Mark Zug in the books of Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert, graphic design in the ‘Deus Ex Universe’ games as well as cozy and heartwarming pictures of my hometown of Vladivostok by painter Segey Cherkasov – all these give me food for thoughts and my artwork.
Do you have a pet? If so what’s their name?
I had a mouse; I used to call her Crunch.
Any shouts Nami?
Yep, a big shout out to my sister and the entire D&B community. Let’s discover and listen to good music, let’s believe in ourselves – and may the Universe be with us!
Special thanks to Anastasia Zhuravel for translation.
Addictive Behaviour Podcast 014 with Nami