Muziktology
"MUSIQUE AVANT TOUTE CHOSE"
What is your main motivation to create and be creative? Being able to share ideas and emotions not easily conveyed through words or visuals is the reason I create. There are strange surfaces to explore, and Off Land is the vessel I share to experience these aural realms.
What are the actual steps that you take when you are creating? Do you need to enter or go to a certain setting in order to get creative? For me, the best environment to create something is set up by having a lot of time, no disturbance through internet or people and a pleasant, quite atmosphere and enough food and coffee ;-). I can work very good at home. But sometimes I have to compose in between appointments, rehearsals etc. which can be inspiring too, because then you do not overthink things to much.
What do you consider the most important traits that a song and an album must have before you consider it to be completed? The songs have to tell a story. Take the listener on a journey. What are the actual steps that you take when you are creating? Do you need to enter or go to a certain setting in order to get creative? It usually starts off with a melody hook or a riff. Then we build the song off of that. Whatever’s triggering the idea, whether it’s a beat, guitar riff or a synth chord. Then we’ll start puzzling the song together.
What is the main art form that influenced you in creating? Was it only music or did movies and other forms of art influenced your creative process? Yeah movies, early memories of TV - quite a lot of sci-fi as a kid. Kubrick’s 2001 had a big impact on me as a precocious 10 year old. Influences can be, I don’t know…interpersonal and socio-political vexations, the new Bladerunner film’s cityscapes provided a mental image guide for me on new song on the forthcoming EP. Certainly the mood of some books e.g. the Sorrows of Young Werther, imagery from that guided me on once. Nausea (Satre), Hesse. Poetry. Other music mainly - musicians doing something authentic, truthful and with edge.
What is your main motivation to create and be creative? I think it's one of the most important things to do in today's climate. Tribalist and isolationism are in fashion again and artists have a duty to break down barriers and bring people together with base emotion.
How long does it take to go from a song to an album from scratch to the fully recorded version? I think it's all dependent on how much you work on it. For me I think 8 months to a year is a suitable time frame. Usually when I think a track is complete, I will go for a week to a month, months of not working on it at all, and revisit it later to see if I feel it needs to be developed more.
What are your future plans and what advice do you have for people that want to get into creating music? Keep making music and live shows. I would suggest anyone making music to make it for them self first. Never try to impress others, just yourself and you’ll never be disappointed of anything you’ll make and will keep evolving your sound.
How hard was it for you to create, record and release your first material? Poetrip: Our first material was a DIY/lo-fi, in which we tried to make a short version of a 20 minutes groovy flow of consciousness. It was nice, unlike the experiences we had later in proper studios, where we realized we feared the red recording button. We didn’t promote that song in any way, we just posted it on soundcloud, but, to our surprise, it became some kind of a hit, as people still call its name at us on the street: Pufuleeeți!
What is the main art form that influenced you in creating? Was it only music or did movies and other forms of art influenced your creative process? My main influence was my inner drive. I knew I had to make music. I never really had the strong wish to sound like a particular band, or to write music out of social contexts. To be honest, I wanted to integrate spirituality in music, since the beginning, even if it wasn’t that clear in the beginning.
When did you start making music and what was the contributor factor that made you to do so? It's hard to remember exactly but sometime in the early 90's I started playing guitar and me and some friends tried to write some very basic (and very bad) songs. By 1997-98 it was finally starting to sound like music. Just listening to music and discovering new things made me want to be part of it.