The nice people over at Soundhitectures came to us with a request for a premiere for one of the tracks of a fantastic to be released album. We had the choice between two tracks. Both are very nice but we had to pick one. We did not hear the album at the time of the request, this only came afterward. And when we did, we were really surprised.
What surprised us was not only the length of the album, 15 tracks to be precise! It was more the title that caught our attention: “While we’re here, observing stars, the world keeps burning and we keep playing games. But all those beautiful mysteries we don’t have time to think about will stay hidden from those who are trapped inside the mind, unable to see the garden in front of us.”. Doesn’t this sound amazing? We think it does.
We get to premiere a part of the sentence, ‘Trapped inside’. A melodic yet minimal approach. Feels happy and makes you wonder how it fits in the entire package. You can read all about that in interview we had with the Slovenia-based producer.
Hello, How are you doing?
Hey! Just came from outside, it’s spring and everything is blooming. It feels wonderful after the long winter.
You are about to release an album. Don’t you have stress for your upcoming release “Mysteries We Don’t Have Time To Think About”? What are your expectations?
None. Honestly, I have no expectations. It was a long winter, I had time. I just had to do it, it was now or never.
The titles of the tracks read like a phrase: “While we’re here, observing stars, the world keeps burning and we keep playing games. But all those beautiful mysteries we don’t have time to think about will stay hidden from those who are trapped inside the mind, unable to see the garden in front of us.”. Beautiful. Where does it come from?
A few of those came from the vocal samples from the track. And I wanted the titles to form some sort of a story on its own. While I was making an album I was figuring out where to put which track and how to name it.. so there was a lot of juggling around. Then at some point, I wrote down those final phrases and I just left them as they came to me.
They still make sense to me. And every time I come back I find myself thinking about something else … and I just love that about the title. It didn’t fix me to one mental form about it.
We get to premiere a part of the story called “Trapped inside”. Melodic yet minimalistic approach. How does this fit in the entire story?
Trapped inside has this feeling inside the track that makes me tingle. It’s like being on a rave. It’s very loud and in the middle of the track, the synth moves to the background while vocals come to the front. It’s just kick and delayed vocals. This is like the feeling I get sometimes when MDMA starts working. You’re floating just a little bit in the air and the music does not sound loud anymore, you absorb the music. The track gives me the feeling I just described and it’s on the release because of that feeling. I’m emotionally attached to its groove and those delayed vocals as it fits the title. It originated from a different track I made and now remixed especially for the album.
What about the other tracks? How did you come to create this magnificent story?
I had this one very long track that was actually an album on itself. So I started to work and cut up this track to make separate tracks out of that one long track. When I had few cuts, I remixed them again. While performing this work I became aware that I really do love remixing my own tracks. It’s like the first version of a track that isn’t good enough and you keep working on it. So I sampled the shit out of the first version and made a second version which usually sounds a lot different. I leave it for a day or two and then I finish it. This I did with 3 or 4 tracks on the album. Furthermore, I made some ambient versions of some tracks as well (the first two tracks on the album). This album really is the product of my obsession with orient sounds. I sampled heavily but to me it made sense. This album was actually a process of remixing myself and figuring it all out over and over again including the message that came to me piece by piece. I just had to follow the signs, just to see where they took me.
It’s quite an intriguing journey with no less than fifteen tracks! What were your influences when you created this album?
I find influences a tricky thing. You can quickly get trapped by what you carry with since a very long time and that is shaping you in some sort of way. I believe you have to find a way on how to transform what influenced you into something original, or at least something intriguing. At least this is how I feel about influences. What influenced you music-wise is in your DNA, so you don’t really stand a chance of getting away from it. I tried to do, but I figured out there is no way to escape. You can only mold and shape. If you ask me about this tomorrow I’ll probably tell you something else.
What do you want your audience to feel when they listen to your album?
To be honest I don’t want them to feel anything specific. Hopefully, my mood on the album can be translated to them. The music that interests me is also the one that I can return back after a while and find something new. Hopefully, I was able to do that. Everyone finds something else in anything anyway. At the end, I’ll be very happy if you find a track or two you like. If you like more, even better.
If you could describe your perfect creating environment, what would it be?
This is changing for me a lot. Sometimes I need dark, sometimes I need light. Sometimes I want to be alone, sometimes I want to have someone to lay out the vocals for me. Sometimes I want this sometimes I want that. The trick for me is to be in different places once in a while.
On a normal day, I just need to be calm, have nothing else important to do and be alone. My perfect studio would be in the forest. It would have a big wooden, concrete but comfortable room. And the room would have a huge view from the mountain down to the sea. No cars, no planes, no telephones.
Let’s move on to you as an artist. Describe yourself in three to five words.
Haha, I’d probably give you different answer any day of the week. I’d leave this one to others.
“Evident”, a powerful word. Why did you call yourself like this as an artist? What’s the story?
For a long time, I was signing everything with my own name. And when I didn’t want to do this anymore I started to find me a new name. I remember thinking “Recondite” is such a good name. Damn. It has a strong pronunciation, a beautiful meaning and it looks good. I was reading a book and I read this word “evident” a lot of times. I underlined it along with some other words. I picked ‘Evident’ at the end.
To me it represents the process of searching – in this case; the process of making music. And the deeper you go or the longer you stay with something, the more evident it becomes, the more aware you become of something in its entirety. For me, the name ‘Evident’ represents that.
You are based in the beautiful city of Ljubljana. What’s the local scene like over there? What do you find inspirational about where you’re living?
Yeah true, it’s beautiful. It’s like when went away a longer period and then come back, you understand the beauty of the city you live in. At least, I do. It’s small city, but that’s part of the trick.
I believe we have a strong scene with a lot to offer, but we’re unaware of that. With the SolvdMag(.com) we’re trying to shift this into the right direction at least a little bit. My personal favorites are Christian Kroupa, Vid Vai, Alex Ranerro and Paoli. To be honest, the more I’m traveling the world, the more I see Ljubljana’s (music) potentials. Maybe the city overall music politics are not in our favor, but still. There’s also a generational shift happening which is hugely apparent. And a lot of times it feels like it’s up to the young generation to go with the head through all the walls to change something. I don’t know.. maybe it was always like that. Maybe it should be like that.
Sometimes I’m missing a little bit of freshness, continuity, professionalism and a sense for art direction in our scene. We’re small and we don’t have that much of people fluctuation, so building something can be tricky. Especially if you’re not happy with the mentality that’s at least 5 years behind everything in music (think our ex. superclub Ambasada Gavioli), but still not happy with creating a ‘micro’ scene.
But on the other hand is the best learning ground you can have. The city is small and has a lot to offer, a lot of internationals guests almost every week, a few good places, interesting people, artists, labels. it’s very green city and you can be in the forest in 15 minutes, education is almost free and you can find good opportunities for everyone, everything is close and it’s fairly cheap, we’re free to go live and work anywhere in the Europe, we have near airports where we have cheap flights to almost any country. It’s up to the individual how you look at all these things & challenges. I try to stay optimistic, be aware of the problems, work to make it right and don’t bitch too much in the process haha.
Full focus now on the release. But what’s next after?
I’m finishing two mixes and a remix for Timo Chinala. Right now I want to make an EP or maybe two with some fresh ideas. Something unobtrusive, smooth and organic, probably without vocals. After that, I’ll probably buy a guitar and make some 105 bpm slow house tracks. Or a long ambient album with a lot of field recordings, organic melodies and drums – with my close friends. Who knows.
Random question. When in the car, what music do you listen to?
90% of the time I’ll connect my Soundcloud and play tracks and mixes I liked. In the car, I have time to listen to them properly. When I’m out for a walk I’m listening to old ambient albums, when I’m running I check new promising tracks that I’ve downloaded. At home the speakers are always working. Change is only in the volume 🙂
What is one thing that would make your musical career more successful? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Everyone defines success differently. To be an independent musician and make a living out, to do it on your own terms, based on your own instinct … that would be a success for me.
For me it’s going solid, not many accomplish that and I think that’s a healthy way of looking at success in music. Other than that I’d be really happy if I will be able to play at some places that I love. And being able to continue to make music.
Good luck with the release of the album! Thanks for this interview.
Thank you and thank you.
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