Congratulations on your ‘Innermost’ EP.  How’d this release end up landing on DIVIDID?

Thanks so much man, it was a dream come true! I have always loved DIVIDID and their artists/music. So making this happen was an amazing milestone for myself.

I already had some contact with them in the past but I remember Mark (Abis) sending me a text on Insta to send him some music for the label.  I was really hyped and selected some of my tracks that I have been working on to see what he liked and maybe wanted to release.  Before I knew it he wanted to do a call and said he wanted to make an EP out of this selection of tracks, so I was super thrilled about it!

Can you tell me about the origins of the Innermost EP?  When you began compiling these tracks together and what prompted this more melodic musical direction?

Yes for sure! So, I am finally releasing more of my melodic stuff after a loooong time, the tracks from this EP are 2 or 3 years old. *laughs*

It's a kind of fusion between my current stuff and my first alias called “Josh Lovis” where everything is super cute and melodic.  It’s an alias dedicated to liquid, Lo-fi, futurebass and future-garage kind of stuff.

I knew it was possible to blend these two into one.  The goal was keeping the aggressive distortion with all the melodics, therefore creating a deep emotional value.  Emotions aren't always sweet and soft, they can be deep, almost like carving into your soul.  I wanted the music on this EP to sound the same way.

Tell me about the tracks, what made you select these ones for this release?

All of these 4 tracks have a special meaning to me. They all started very spontaneously but ended up being some of the most special tracks that I’ve made. For instance: ‘Too Much’ started as a Patreon tutorial and even though the lyrics were written quite fast and improvised, it worked well.  Unconsciously I wrote something I had to get off my chest.

‘Like I Won’t’ is a cool UK garage kind of try-out vibe when I put my whole studio outside in the summer. Enjoying the sun and feeling this vibe - bending into the music. The lyrics were my feeling of becoming stronger than my past. Saying sarcastically: Like I Won’t let you go. (Meaning I was definitely gonna let it go hahahah)

‘Everhollow’ has been one my coolest creations ever. I have personally loved this track for a long time before sending it to people cause it felt so special. This track doesn’t have much in terms of words or lyrics.  I have always loved to tell the story with the music, not the words as I’ve never really been good with words.

I feel like music can tell a story that words simply can’t. Music goes way deeper than words ever could.

‘After All’ may be the most special one to me. This is a really unique style I never did before but absolutely loved from the moment it started. I sampled some sounds from an old collab I started with a good friend (which we never intended to finish) but I made some glitchy chords which I loved, so that became the intro. If you’d like, I can go into greater detail on this one.

Please do

Okay so, ‘After All’ is a track where you just dive into it. You get engulfed into everything that it is and everything it wants to tell you. The drop feels more like a climax then an actual “going crazy on the dancefloor drop”. When I was making the song it felt like my mind was on the dancefloor.  But it happened silently on my own, in my room like a beautiful moshpit inside your head. The second drop is even more crazy and I sometimes describe it as my personal ASMR the way it tickles my brain.  It feels like a puzzle solving itself, as if all the pieces just fall together.

This all boosts the emotional value of the track a lot. It began as an instrumental. And after working on it for DIVIDID, I started to hear melodies for a vocal, tried some stuff, and before I knew it, the time was 4:30am and 4 hours have flown by of writing this lyrics. It brought tears to my eyes because these lyrics are about a seriously dark time in my life. I have battled with this for a long long time and part of the EP with my friend Maze also tells this story.  We share a very similar story, which is cosmically crazy.

The lyrics: “If I could save you, would you still be there for me. After all, all that we’ve been through”

I was trying to save someone that was heavily depressed and suicidal. Someone I dearly loved. And in the end, I managed to save her, but it left me a broken man. When our ways parted I started to realise how fucked up these 3 years had been.  I wondered, if I could have healed her from all her pain, would she have left me the same way?   Like I was nothing? She was not even aware of the damage that she did unfortunately.

Writing this song was very therapeutic for me. It helped me heal a lot from all of this, it helped me make sense of what actually was happening.

I’m glad you’ve music to serve as a catalyst for these experiences, we appreciate you sharing your story.

What are your thoughts on this progressive trend in Drum and Bass?

I absolutely love that this is becoming more a thing! I know a lot of small-minded dnb lovers think that this stuff is awful *laughs* but to me it brings more elements of all genres into Drum and Bass.  It gives it so much more depth instead of just the same aggressive sounds in every track.

I started doing Josh Lovis as my first project 10+ years ago, and this sort of stuff was my original sound.  It was only in the last 3 or 4 years that I first started to develop a harder and more experimental sound with ‘Trinist’.  A lot of people loved my Josh Lovis stuff as well as the Trinist stuff and said I should merge them. I always wanted to do this but never thought it would work out so well.

My main inspirations for this release are the same ones I had for Josh Lovis. Artists like Bon Iver or Flume and Madeon really shaped the way I experienced music. They were making music for my soul. With this EP I blended these influences with my ‘Trinist’ sound that I developed which is largely inspired by artists like Noisia or Mefjus back in 2016 or so.

The emotional charge behind the tracks really breathes through your stuff.  Its technically tight and precise but is also accessible at a more profound level as well.

I am glad you found a way to integrate your earlier Josh Lovis stuff into TRINIST.

Its crazy how sometimes it takes years for ideas to fully form/bloom/be fulfilled.

Can you say a few words about the title?  Innermost?

Yes, it speaks to my innermost feelings. My personal life and the way that I have grown and healed over time. This was part of my whole journey and so it is part of me. Part of my innermost self, the truest self, your childlike inner self. - it is like the purest form you can be, feel, and experience in life.  To me this is very important.

What usually motivates your music/creative process?  How do you get ideas for music?

My main motivation for music is to make the world a better place. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to change the world into all the bliss that it could be. Only to learn when growing older that the world is way beyond a level of fuckery than I could ever imagine *laughs*.

Instead of changing the whole world I found my own way of changing the people through music.  Even if its just a 3 minute listen to a track. Or a one hour set at a party. I realised slowly but surely when doing music, that I could make people feel better for a moment no matter how fucked up the world was. I decided to change the world by slowly changing the people and what they feel. Hoping to make them enjoy life a little more even if it's just for a moment.

In the past year I received countless messages of people sending me deep texts where they explain that my music has done exactly what I have always wanted. The impact on people has been even stronger, deeper and more beautiful than I could ever imagine. Making people cry out of happiness and texting me that it brings them so much joy. It is truly the most beautiful compliment a musician could ever receive. It warms my heart. And it made me even more inspired and motivated to keep on making music the way I intended it.

Sometimes art can be so emotional. . .  "I want to channel this feeling"  at othertimes more technical "I want to try this new technique or achieve this sound" and often times the best creations are a merging of the two.  Which seems like what happened here.  And sometimes we're not even conscious its happening

Exactly! I absolutely love technical nerdy shit in music, but also love the soul-feeding frequencies it can create. This merge was exactly that.

And indeed, most of the time I’m not even aware of it *laughs*.  I’m just doing my thing, making music how I like it and how I feel it. Make music that resonates as deep as possible with me, and for some reason therein, it resonates equally deep with a lot of people.

Sometimes you make these “happy accidents” where you are trying stuff, and a weird malfunction in the software creates something beyond of what you were looking for. I love these moments. It feels like a pinnacle of creativity that is synced with the flow of the universe.

Who did the artwork?  Meaning behind that for you or the artist?

Mark made the artwork entirely himself.  I just made a huge paragraph of what I wanted with the meaning behind it and stuff and every detail he added was spot on.  Really happy with the end result, it feels very fitting and it embodies the music perfectly

Your tracks bang live, I’ve had the fortune of hearing many VALE artists play your tunes out here in the states.  Hows gigging live been going for you?  I saw you have a gig in Switzerland soon with Locksnake on support?

Hahahah that's so cool, big up to the VALE crew for being the first label to believe in me and support me all the way through.

Playing live is amazing. I am doing more and more gigs now and bigger and biggers shows. It feels like the final stage of the whole music-making-journey. You start the track and after countless hours you finish it. And then when you play it... ahhhh... incredible feeling. Words cannot describe it. It feels like a soul purpose being completed.

How’s patreon been treating ya?

Patreon is amazing, big up for the whole Patreon community, I am having so much fun and receiving so much love from my patrons. I always love sharing knowledge and especially the music side. I am insanely happy that I started this.  It has been amazing, bonding with the community, teaching them what they need, and having fun while doing all of it. Making cool tutorials and patreon exclusives. It feels like such a warm and safe space to share my knowledge with the people who want it. I never watched a tutorial on how to make music, only when I tried to make dubstep in 2014 and those tutorials sucked *laughs*. And then when I went to HBA (the Herman Brood Aacademie, a music education in the Netherlands) I descovered the whole teaching side of music. We also had to learn how to teach properly and I loved this from the first day. Same with the Patreon, ever since day one it has been fantastic.

Any life plans or releases for the year rest of the year and 2024?

YES!!! A lot of sick releases for this year still, more and more gigs, to share an amazing time with more and more amazing people, I’ve got some lifelong dreams that are coming true. A lot of insane music in the making. I keep surprising myself like: how the fuck did I make this? Also a shit ton of music with Maze as well of course, we have a folder that is concerningly big hahahah.  And after a blissful year of living in Italy with my girlfriend, we decided to move back to the Netherlands to be more with friends, family and the scene as well.  So everything looks amazingly promising.

Thank you so much for this opportunity, it was lovely talking to you and being able to share the story in such detail. It feels important to me for the people to know. And I feel like it can give that extra layer of understanding/experiencing the music. So I can't thank you enough. ❤️

Thanks you!

Find Trinist’s new EP as well as the rest of his discography on all major streaming platforms, be sure to check out his patreon where he shares his production secrets, samples, and dubs with his supporters!