“Mirrors All The Way Down” by Antypica is a unique dive into IDM offering a distinctive perspective, characterized by intriguing chord progressions and beautifully minimal arrangements. Read our discussion with the artist below!
Describe your sound in 3 words
Exonerated Rollercoaster Technician
Congratulations on the release of your debut album, “Mirrors All The Way Down”! Could you share with us the inspiration behind the title and the overall concept of the album?
Thanks for the interview, I really appreciate it. So we try to understand ourselves, but how are we supposed to understand the thing that’s doing the understanding? We can’t actually properly understand our own consciousness. It’s mirrors all the way down. To me that’s a great visual metaphor for this fundamental mental limitation, and that’s what the album is about, mental limitations that we’ll all have to face at some point because we’re human. For example, the songs Yesterday’s Supercomputer, You’re Very Special, and Reaching for the Stairs are about confronting obsolecence, mediocrity, and loss, respectively. Expressing that literally sounds so bleak! I think choosing poetic titles is essential when dealing with dark subject material.
Each song on your album tells a story. Can you walk us through the creative process of crafting these narratives through instrumental music?
When writing instrumental music I can just focus on the change in feelings as the story progresses. Lyrics often function as exposition, which isn’t always the best way to convey a story.
In terms of process, I’ll start with maybe an unusual chord sequence or some modular synth idea that I’ve been messing about with. Something that captures a feeling I can’t quite describe but intrigues me. I’ll then develop that into an embryonic song – maybe a rough cut of a verse and a chorus. At about that stage the song will suggest to me a story that fits the feeling.
The process then becomes two-way: I use the story to further guide the development of the song, and I experiment with musical ideas which might alter or add detail to the story. And there’s lots of experimentation. For every good idea that makes it into a song there’s easily 10 bad ideas I throw away. And even if I love a particular musical idea, I’ll ditch it if it ultimately doesn’t serve the story.
The album has an experimental touch. Should music as a form of art always challenge the listener?
I love experimenting. Some people will like the results of those experiments, while others will dismiss them as weird. And the latter group don’t appreciate good art! Seriously though, the skepticism of the latter group has some rationale to it, insofar as I don’t think challenging people is necessarily good. Let me explain.
Firstly, I respect human psychology. I’m conscious about how I’m playing with the listener’s expectations. I sometimes intentionally defy them, but if I did that all the time my music would be a frustrating listen. Like someone who goes overboard playing too hard-to-get so the object of their desire just fucks off. I don’t want to be either too predictable or too unpredictable, and I hope that the intuition I’ve developed as to what feels right maps to a decent audience.
Secondly, I don’t want to be complex for the sake of being complex. I’m quite militant about removing extraneous musical details – everything needs to be as purposeful as possible. I think beauty lies in simplicity. I get bored of music that has random meandering flex sections, no matter how impressive the sound designer’s glitchy farty wobwobs are.
Artists and people that have influenced you?
I’ll pick 3 electronic artists:
Autechre – they’re like the Bach of electronic music. I endlessly dip back into their material for inspiration.
Boards of Canada – their sounds are beautiful; their rhythms are super pockety; the development in each song so graceful.
Jon Hopkins – the Immunity album is insane. The attention to detail, the grooves, the drive. It’s timeless music.
Favourite album of the past 3 years
Well according to my Spotify Wrapped 2023 it’s Jockstrap’s I Love You Jennifer B. It’s so much fun and so creative. For example, in Concrete Over Water I love when it deconstructs this highly produced sound into a rehearsal with just a voice and piano, creating this unexpected moment of intimacy. It’s clever yet feels completely natural. And it’s the kind of thing that seems simple when you hear it, but I suspect was quite difficult to pull off convincingly production and arrangement-wise.
How do you approach live performances or translating your studio recordings into a live setting, considering the intricate layers and textures present in your music?
TBD. I’m currently living in Tbilisi which has a pretty welcoming experimental electronic music scene, so hopefully I’ll find out the answers to this question soon. One thing I can already say is the less reverberations the venue has, the better. What enhances a choir makes electronic music sound like mud.
What isn’t a crime but should be?
Autotune & trap hihats. They’re the gateway drug to marrying robots. The survival of our species is at stake.
Thank you!
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