Born in 2021 amid these chaotic times, BIONYK is a musical adventure with the idea to fuse organic sounds with technological know-how.

Shifting our focus towards a more balanced and benevolent
exchange with nature, the project highlights an incredibly important topic. Somehow humans lost their touch not just with nature but with themselves. Modern technology and all the perks that come with it intentionally are supposed to bring us closer together. The harsh truth is though that we're alienating ourselves with one another.

Under the mantle of anonymity, BIONYK have created a truly refreshing take on familiar concepts naturally shifting between Drum & Bass and Electronica. Their work with the Belcanto Children's Choir and vocalist Niila takes a heartfelt moment to remind us about the important things in life. We hopped on a call with them discussing the symbiosis of nature and technology and of course their 'Burning Tree EP'. Released on December 16th, the four-tracker has found a home on renowned German label Hanzom Music. The label has quickly grown into a respected imprint within the Drum & Bass circuit in the past two years.

Glad to see us getting together here! How was your second half of the year?

It was difficult to keep going, to stay positive. But we were able to keep our spirits up and ourselves distracted with creative stuff. To blend out everything that is outside of our cosmos as far as possible.

So you made a lot of music?

Lots! Especially Corona played on our side. We could use our free time and let ourselves go. That's how the EP came about so quickly. At the beginning of lockdown in early 2020, when you really couldn't do anything, some cool ideas came through. Hopefully, the EP will bring them across well.

Despite or because of all the current events happening, you decided to form BIONYK. Tell me more about the project!

The project started just before Corona. Two of our members moved in together and produced an enormous amount of music as a result. Sometimes, we would just make sounds for a week. It was clear from the beginning that we want to implement different musical aspects. To set us up broadly to show diversity so to speak. We agreed that we want to bring in a guitar player, for instance, singers and so on.

The name BIONYK gives another hint. The mixture of nature and technology, of organic and synthetic. Natural intros work their way up to technical songs. It doesn't always have to work against each other but also intertwine. This theme is also the current zeitgeist and we want to emphasize that. There is a lot of unrest at the moment in which we forget our environment very quickly. We think it is important to engage with nature, but technology, advanced or not, has become one of the most important things in our lives. We support the idea of going to new shores but we are aware that without protecting our environment we won't get far.

The lines are getting more and more blurry. All too often, it's not that easy to distinguish what is natural or real and what is not.

Exactly.

With all the virtual and augmented realities. Kind of confusing.

Are we living in a simulation?

That's exactly the question you can always ask! How does it work then? Are you always together in the studio?

There were often ideas where we sat down together with a plan like with the guitar story. But a lot of ideas came up autonomously via our Dropbox folder. It's often the case that you want to convince the other person of your sketch and hope for little to no negative feedback. So we throw everything into a common pool and decide how to proceed.

Aside from the zeitgeist, what are your influences for BIONYK?

Musically, definitely Drum & Bass, Techno, Goa, and acoustic music. We like to blend the genres stylishly.

What should we know about the 'Burning Tree EP'? I mean, apart from the fact that it's a round mix between Drum & Bass and other genres.

It's a project of the heart and a starting point for more. The diversity of the songs reflects us as a group. Especially the song 'Burning Tree' is our way of saying that we see that not everything is good. We ask the question at the end what would be if we would leave. With this allusion, everyone can hear what they want, but would the world be a better place if we weren't there? Leaving it open like that makes a lot of room for self-interpretation which we think is good. It makes you think.

It was also clear from the beginning that we didn't want to produce a one-night club banger. The musical aspect was much bigger as well as reaching a wider mass and maybe being played on the radio. We want to reach everyone with it.

This topic concerns us all! What happens to nature and how do we behave towards it. For the title track, you worked together with a children's choir, right? How did that work out? Must have been a recording mess.

In the last year, there were various possibilities for artist grants from the German government. We received such a grant for the creation of a choir in the digital age. We then sat down and wrote various sketches. You have to imagine that the whole project was spread over six months. So the first few months we then wrote the sketches, also Drum & Bass, Dubstep, and Breakbeat. We finally decided on the version you can hear now.

We then sent our song to various choirs, from Braunschweig, Hannover. The first two weeks we didn't get any feedback and suddenly two or three at once. We were very happy about that! The Belcanto choir from Braunschweig had done a lot of digital stuff, especially in the recent past. That was the reason for us to choose this group. Our idea was that the kids sing this with a cell phone or microphone as well as our music sheet under the guidance of the choir director. In the beginning, we thought that many of them would only sing their parts with a cell phone, but we got so many high-quality recordings. That was super cool. We took another month to do that. Fortunately, the choir director works in Ableton so we just got the project file and could easily continue working with it. There were about 20-25 tracks if I remember correctly and we used almost all of them.

Wow!

It was cool! Also, the exchange with the choir director because he is just a super chill dude. Then came the mixing. There was a lot of good stuff but also stuff where you just had to shake your head. Niila should also be on board because she had sung in the children's choir in the past and could bring a bit of security and guidance into the project. She sang the song beforehand so that the kids could sing along. It took another two or three months until we were satisfied. We didn't want to just smash any effects on there and that's it. It was maybe a bit more organization and clicking around than producing but the experience was more than worth it.

Nowadays it's also a bit more about set procedures instead of just jamming!

Yeah!

Where will BIONYK go next? Where is the journey going? Collaborating with other artists and artist groups?

We make a lot of music but are still a bit cautious with big plans. The dropbox is always filled. Releases are not planned at the moment. Gigwise we have also nothing planned because you just can't plan such things in Germany at the moment. One is no longer so uninhibited at parties. You don't want to infect yourself or someone else and stuff like that.

You can't dance so freely anymore.

Exactly. In terms of collabos, we would like to have songs with vocals. Since we all can't sing rely on the voice of others.

Finally, one last question, why did you choose anonymity for your project?

Because we see ourselves as a collective we don't need faces. Too often we forget what this is all about. We want to draw the attention of the listeners back to the essential. The music. It also gives the whole thing a mystical, not quite graspable touch which makes it all the more exciting!

Wicked! Thanks for that!