- Describe your sound in three words
Scientific: If I have to pick three, then layered, organic and atmospheric.
- Your music sounds organic indeed. What is your secret? What advice would give to a young producer that tries to achieve this warm organic sound?
Seinna: Sci is probably better placed for this one but I think in my experience of producing the hardest part is believing in your own sound. It’s one thing to like what you make at the time you make it but it’s another entirely to believe in the uniqueness of your sound. I think once you have that confidence you make different decisions which put you on a trajectory that sets you apart from others and that’s organic. Working on a project with sci where I didn’t produce showed me the importance of having your own workflow.
Scientific: First of all thanks for seeing it this way, I always really hope it gives that sort of impression! I’d say there are two aspects to this. A more technical aspect, I believe, lies in my sound selection. For instance, I choose a lot of foley recordings of sticks and stones cracking for drum sounds or field recordings as background layers. And then whenever I add instrumentation I tend to go for softer sounds, from the synthesizers all the way to the instruments originating from traditional African and Asian. And the other aspect is more about the approach. We took a lot of time to add details and layers to our tracks. The “scaffold” of the beat often together quickly but then we spend a lot of time building it around the vocals, adding and taking away elements and just letting it come together. So my advice for a producer is pretty much in line with Seinna. If you are trying to achieve such a sound, or any kind of unique sound, a way to do so is to give yourself the time to discover what sounds work together, and most importantly what sounds work best for you. After you have made many attempts and tried tons of combinations you will start to develop a taste for what likely works together and gain the ability to make these combinations work.
- What is the main topic of your lyrics?
Seinna: I wouldn’t say there’s a main topic. If I’m honest it feels like we chased something that we couldn’t really describe very well at the offset. The topics are just musings on experiences that were pertinent to me in this period of time. Most of the tracks are between 3-6 years old with the exception of Max Payne which is slightly less old than that. Max Payne felt like the song I waited for but I didn’t know I was waiting for it. It is definitely a topic I subconsciously wanted to leave in this chapter before we closed it.
- What is your favorite album of the past year?
Seinna: Khruangbin – Mordechai
Scientific: King Krule – Man Alive!
- Tell us a few things about the Rhythm & Reason. Where this collective and label is focused on?
Seinna: Rhythm & Reason is a UK based collective and label comprised of 9 or so artists/producers who are pretty much family in a sense. The focus internally is really to be a network for each other in the creation, packaging and distribution of music. We are brought together by circumstance, held together by loyalty and intention. We have all been around for a long time regardless of the number of official releases. There is a lot more in the works from the artists involved that I am excited for people to hear no doubt.
Scientific: I just want to add that I’ve met them in London and Berlin a couple times and they’re such a great circle of friends. I spent some of my favorite times with them in the past few years. And then you listen to the music they’re making and you’re just blown away, beyond talented people. I hope they all get their flowers while they can still smell them.
- If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
Seinna: I feel music is very disposable in part due to the way we consume music. Ultimately the decommoditisation of mechanical IP through streaming and the like has led to a major revenue stream for artists being nuked. I also feel consumers are a lot more disengaged with finding music, with a reliance on algorithms to bring them more of the same. Consumers are in essence less open to something fresh, but always wanting something new.
Scientific: Yeah I agree. Another thing that came with this way of music consumption is the tendency and pressure to release a lot of material in quick succession, just so that your music can receive some attention. Since the algorithms are made to highlight the newest things, today it would probably be smart to release 8 tracks in 8 different weeks, instead as one EP – and so the album format is weakened. I just would like it to be less about clicks and plays but luckily there are still many people who consume music the way they like and who stick around with some albums for longer.
- What was the best film you have watched during the quarantine?
Seinna: Haven’t really watched any decent films but been binging on interior design makeover shows lol
Scientific: I really ended up liking “Russian Ark”, even though I didn’t expect its concept to work. And “Dead Ringers” was probably the weirdest one.
- One last thing we should know about you?
Scientific: This is probably a good time to say something about how this collaboration came about. We actually met through Soundcloud. All the way back in early 2013 Seinna sent me a message there, asking to collaborate, when we both had almost no tracks out. In fact, I think he heard one of my beats through Dani Sofiya, who is also singing on our EP and who recorded some amazing vocals on a track I worked on at the time with another rapper. Seinna and I then began exchanging ideas, working on music together and soon noticed it clicked – similar tastes, ideas, and vibes. We agreed to work on an EP together around 2015, so it has been a while actually. The project grew over time, ideas were added and removed a lot but the patience was totally worth it for me. I feel like this is a project that got the time to be created that it needed and I hope our listeners will be able to hear that.
- Thank you!
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Secret Eclectic 