Umut

Nice one guys! First things first, how are you and how’s the EP promo going?

ØZ Oscar

I think we're all pretty good. We're all really, really psyched for our first show in Manchester in April on the 12th for the Hub Mono guys. Personally, I'm about as busy as I've ever been. I know that Dan's busy right now with lots of 3D stuff, and Slava is always flying around the world doing crazy jobs. I think we're all good, and the EP promo is coming out nicely. The first track, ‘Shakedown’, has been received well. Obviously, ‘Somnolent’, the title track has been on my SoundCloud as a clip for a year now. It had a great reception, and we knew that that was a highly requested track of ours. It's nice to see how quickly ‘Shakedown’ has been picked up by people over the last week. We had a bit of a battle with SoundCloud about the copyright as they struck down my own tune basically. The world was trying to keep the bangers hidden. But we’ve totally surpassed any restrictions. Now we're going to take over the entire music community.

FLO Dan

Next up, world domination, eh?

ØZ Oscar

Yeah, for real.

Umut

Nice one!

FLO Dan

Yeah. We also didn't really do a lot of preparation with some promotional channels and stuff. We just figured that with a lot of people, all the previous releases and stuff did well on their own. At least, maybe I can speak for all three of us, but at least for myself, there's still this mentality of if it's good enough, you don't need to do a whole lot to reach the audience that needs to hear it, right?

ØZ Oscar

Yeah, I think a big part of our policy is doing it ourselves. We've been pretty DIY the whole time in terms of releasing the music, aside from our Infernal Sounds release. Then also just letting the art speak for itself, like Dan was saying, and trusting that the music is good enough. I've got to do loads of promotion for this release as part of my master's degree, but I'm with Dan on this one. We tend to just put the music out there and hope that it rolls.

Umut

Nice one. That makes me happy to hear because something I've been thinking about a lot recently or maybe the past year is that record labels and extensive promo campaigns and concepts taint or limit the artistic process. People tend to worry too much about outside influences.

FLO Dan

If you’re just starting out and you have basically zero following and nobody really cares, it's hard to break through. You still need to rely on some labels to work with you. But I think that nowadays, all three of us combined, we can do it on our own and we don't really need all that.

ØZ Oscar

A lot of that exposure you get from collaboration comes naturally. All three of us have our own projects going on. I mean, Slava has got Bass372. I'm running Too Much Collective. I've got my Patreon, Dan has got his. We've all got our own little communities that are building up on our own. Then every time we release music together, it's more people getting exposed to the stuff we do together.

Umut

Yeah, makes sense.

FLO Dan

If something is good and if you just send it out to a few people and maybe get a few DJ plays, then that's how it goes. You get more traction. But otherwise, that's pretty much how we do it. We did it also for the first release. We just went with the flow to see what happens.

Umut

With the flow, huh?

q100 Slava

Every time, I must drop that in the chat when we can't make a decision together. Just go with the flow!

Umut

I see, that's the reason why there's no label attached to the project. One of the questions I was asking myself was why no label?

FLO Dan

Between all three of us, it's hard even to manage sometimes. If I have a release coming up or maybe Oscar is doing something, we still have to schedule and plan things so we can all release at the time that's convenient for all three of us. Then as soon as we work with a label, there's another intermediate person involved.

ØZ Oscar

Yeah, that’s a whole other entity. We spoke about this and want to do not only self-releases, but still work with labels. We all really liked how the Infernal Sounds thing came out. It was a long, long time coming as it was written before the ‘Singularity EP’, which came out first. But eventually, we got there, the vinyl came out and it was a really nice product. We're not close off to working with labels, but for the extra effort and all the stuff that goes along with signing one of our projects as a trio with a label, they've got to be providing something we might not do on our own if that makes sense. So, like some vinyl or some shows or some this or that. I think that's the most important thing to consider for us when we're thinking about signing a project somewhere.

Umut

Yeah, sure. I get that. Coming back to the promo bit.

q100 Slava

I think it's important. Looking at how people do promo in dubstep, we see different approaches. I'm not really a big fan of that, but I would say ØZ is the most organized of us three. So, he usually has the ideas that we all accept because he's running Too Much Collective in a more structured way as opposed to myself running a label. I have good music. I just put it out whenever. I don't care. With this release, since Dan is so good with 3D production these days, we started exploring the visual aspect of releases which makes a huge difference.

ØZ Oscar

Yeah, shout out to Dan with the 3D, man. This guy is so good at it now.

q100 Slava

I didn't even think about this much but now I think this is essential for promoting your music because it's so catchy.

FLO Dan

It’s true, if you have something super bright, flashy or whatever, people will immediately stop for a second or whatever. Although everybody’s on TikTok, you don’t have to partake in the general buzz. You’ve got to do some cool visuals, but you don't have to do TikTok dances.

ØZ Oscar

I think we put the artistic stuff first. Then at the same time, you have to consider the reality of the world we’re living in. You gotta fight to capture people's attention nowadays. But I still think everything we've done, especially for this release, is just tight, it's concise, it's got a theme. It also ties in with the other releases that we've done. Somehow, we're forming this artistic and musical style together. It's quite special to watch it unfold, especially with the fact that I've met Slava once last year, fortunately in Riga, but me and Dan have never met. I don't think Slava and Dan have ever met. Most of our work and our connections have been all through the Internet. So, the way that we're developing a style is maybe quite different to the way that a lot of people might be working in a duo or a trio.

Umut

Nice one! As you mentioned a theme. I'm interested in diving into that more!

FLO Dan

I'm just all over the whole sci-fi, cyberpunk, anything. It just immediately gives me that vision. Especially on the ‘Singularity EP’, we were experimenting with that sound. With these new tracks, it's much more in your face, maybe.

ØZ Oscar

It was never a planned thing on a space theme, though. It just evolved that way.

FLO Dan

I guess it's because of the music. You can hear it in the ‘Somnolent’ intro and breakdown where we have these cinematic parts.

ØZ Oscar

Yeah, it's quite interesting. I think our connection to that theme came through the art style that was made for us based on other people. Our ‘Singularity EP’ cover was not made by any of us. It had this spaceman character, and then the same interpretation was given for the ‘Cruizer EP’ cover. The guy that did that immediately went for a spaceship type of vibe. Then Dan made the ‘Triton’ cover. And since then, we've just been running with that art style and that integration. It does feel like we're starting to build a little world, a little story around the music that we make.

FLO Dan

Shouts out to Eva and Prism on the artworks, respectively.

Umut

Nice one. I get that. Is that something you're going to expand further with future releases or you're going just with the flow?

FLO Dan

Absolutely. In both ways. At the end of the day, it depends on what happens with each track individually. But for me personally, I gravitate towards it.

Umut

Yeah, I feel that. Especially with that music, when it's not tribal and earthy dubstep, it just works with an art style like that! Like Drum & Bass, which often works with futuristic visuals.

FLO Dan

Or if you listen to some Future Garage, like Vacant or Sorrow, you immediately get flashes of black and white, urban environments.

Umut

Yeah, I get that. How does the collaboration between you three work out?

ØZ Oscar

The way that we work, it usually starts with Slava and then goes to me and then goes to Dan. I suggest we start with Slava on this question.

q100 Slava

Yeah, sure. I'm making a whole bunch of demos, usually. Then Oscar would choose something that resonates with him. I'd say we started a lot and finished a few. Which is totally fine and normal for the creative process. What I would usually do is maybe 16 bars, maybe 32 bars at best, and just send the stems to the boys. We never use any collaboration tools. I think we also use different DAWs. I really enjoy working with stems because it's all printed out. First, I have full control, and can visually see what you're doing, what's happening with the waveform. And second, it gives me more creativity, Then I pass it to ØZ.

ØZ Oscar

I normally pick up a demo, sometimes multiple demos. Sometimes I let them build up a little bit. Slava just sends me little bits here and there. We tend to go through phases with that where sometimes nothing will be sent in for months and months, but we'll be focused on getting the next release ready. Then other times, it's like he's sending me six demos within a few weeks and it's all rolling. Normally, I pick up a 16, 32 bar loop and then try to flesh it out to an intro and a drop section. I always feel like I am really privileged to be in the middle. I feel like I'm the filling in the sandwich. I get to direct where the idea goes a little bit. With many of those... With ‘Singularity’, for example, I can remember receiving a very basic 303 loop from Slava, and then I just ran with it. By the time I sent it to Dan, it was a whole different idea. The way that we work independently is really empowering, I think. We're going to finally write some music together in Bristol when these guys are coming to the UK. But so far, it's all been an individual, stem-based thing. For me, I work much better in that way. When I'm working with other people, I don't really like having a witness to my creative process. I feel like getting interrupted or vice versa, interrupting somebody can really disrupt the process. I feel a pressure to flesh out ideas quicker than I would normally do if I'm working on my own.

Umut

Interesting.

q100 Slava

I would like to sign under these words before. Sorry, Dan. Exactly. It was so much more convenient.

FLO Dan

No worries!

ØZ Oscar

I was just going to tie it together. From there, once I've fleshed everything out, I would be sending it over to Dan to expand on the idea.

FLO Dan

Yeah, usually by the time I get the track, we have a group chat together. Go over all the elements, maybe.I don't really like even touching a lot of the things they make unless there's something that bothers me. But this is one of the things between us that works out nice. We're not super attached to any project or anything. If things get changed around a bit more, it's all good for either of us. I feel that I have the easiest job out of all three because by the time ØZ sends me the stems, there's so much, so many cool sounds to reuse and resample and mess around. I also feel like it's convenient to work with stems, as Slava mentioned, because that way you can visualize things fast. Also, there’s no problems with different plugins or workstations.

ØZ Oscar

I think we settled on this formula when we wrote ‘Cruizer’. We knew that it was a cut above all the other tunes we'd made. It’s very rare that I make a tune which I think is the one, then put out and people also think that way. But with that one it was exactly that.

FLO Dan

Yeah, because up to that point, we were experimenting with what would be the best way to do things. We also tried to collaborate via Discord once. We did cool things. But it’s like ØZ said, you're feeling under pressure that you want to get things done a bit faster just because you feel the other person is sitting there being bored.

ØZ Oscar

After Dan had his fun, it's always good to pass it back to Slava at the end. The mixes have to come out super clean and there's not much discussion on technical things. We’re pretty much all on the same page!

Umut

Yeah, I get that. Speaking about collaborations and being on the same page, have you ever thought about an alias for your collaborations, or is it important to remain in your own artistic identity?

ØZ Oscar

We've spoken about this, and because I've always been the one to suggest an alias, I want the other guys to speak first.

q100 Slava

I can tell you one thing. We agreed that this EP, even before we had the tunes ready, would be coming under an alias, and as you can tell, it never happened. It's very hard to explain our answer.

FLO Dan

My thought was that it has its upsides to do it, but also means to start it all over again. Having another alias completely out there would just bring even more work to everything that we do. Maybe there would be more pressure, as well. Also, I was still a bit unsure in the very long term, like how many tunes we would end up making.

ØZ Oscar

I think the original conversation came up when, at least In my head, when I realized that some of my biggest tunes were with us together as a trio. It was making me feel like it would be nice to separate this so people don't only know me for this dubstep stuff. On top of that, I've also felt like if I could only ever make dubstep together as a trio for the rest of the time and everything I did under ØZ had to be other music, I would be okay with that. I don't want to do dubstep till the day I die. I love it, but I feel like the best dubstep that I've made is with these guys, which is for me where the initial conversation came from. I could happily write dubstep with these guys for a long time and not think about it so much under my solo project. But ultimately, it's been the most divisive conversation we've had as a trio, and I think we all agree that what we're doing is working. If it's not broken, don't fix it. It doesn't need to necessarily change.

Umut

That’s interesting to hear.

FLO Dan

In the long run, I'd rather not have a separate page that we would release two, three, four, five EPs with. At the end of the day, we live across different parts of Europe, and you never know what comes up or changes.

Umut

I'd like to argue that creating an alias doesn't commit you to a certain amount of releases.

FLO Dan

It comes down to the vision as well, right?

ØZ Oscar

Ultimately, I think there's space for this landscape to change. For now, I'm trying to take music full-time, but I still have other jobs to do, and not all of them are being an artist. The other guys, they both have other jobs that are not related to music. The thing that I think a lot of people don't understand about undertaking something like that is it's another project to manage for all of us. I’d be down for creating an alias but I guess this is one more case of let's go with the flow.

FLO Dan

I think it would be different if we’d be making an entirely different genre.

Umut

Yeah, I get that. Anything else you’d like to add?

ØZ Oscar

We are all in Manchester for Hub Mono on the 12th of April, and we're going to be there laying down all the dubs. We're going to be laying down all the other projects that we got hidden, that nobody's heard, nobody knows nothing. We got remixes in the bag. We got so much to play at that show. It's going to be a special moment. And in terms of the actual release itself, I think a lot of it was covered when we spoke about the promo and how this has come around. But yeah, mostly I just think for me, for me personally, this is our best release to date. I think it's the most cohesive. It tries so many different styles, and it fits together nicely. I think people should also, if they haven't heard, need to check out Ome and Skxllflower. Those guys are so good. They're both coming up massively right now. I mean, Ome is a bit of a staple these days, but I just want to shout those guys out because they just killed the remixes. I couldn't have wished for better remixes on the project.

Umut

Excellent remixes.

q100 Slava

Maybe just a few facts. If I'm not mistaken, ‘Somnolent’ is the oldest, and ‘Shakedown’ is the newest tune of the EP. I think Bite Force is probably my personal favorite, it stands out of the cosmic theme. Also, I think the toughest part of this release was agreeing on a track list because we have so many tracks.

FLO Dan

For me, it's cool that each one of us has their own favorite. For me, it was ‘Death Speed’. It was also cool to get the remixes done as well, especially for ‘Shakedown’. Awesome to see such a flip from Skxllflower. I think that we talked about remixes before because on the ‘Singularity EP’, we had two. It's nice to involve other people that are also close to all three of us. It's almost like a clique. On that note, dude, can I just lay down some shoutouts?

ØZ Oscar

I want to shout out Gisaza. He's such a bad man producer. I want to shout out Bisweed and his crazy hair.

Umut

Oh shit! His hair is so crazy.

ØZ Oscar

His hair is so crazy. I love it. I also want to shout out Ternion Sound and Deep Tempo for supporting us from the early stages. They really helped us out. I want to shout out Geode, who's also, behind the scenes, been very influential, especially for me and for Dan. I want to shout out Kursa, who also has been showing some support. Shout out to everyone who's listened to our project so far, man. The way it has been received is still crazy to me.