Where was the album produced and when was the album produced (tools, diferent locations, any collaborators)?
Melt { λειῶ } as a projectbegun somewhere in 2017 and took a little more than a year to come together.
The record was recorded and produced mainly in my Bermondsey based studio in London. In regards to field recordings, which can be heard in the record, these are from my trips around the world and would vary from the deserts and rainforests of Australia, to the busy Shoreditch Sunday market and Berlin suburbs.
Regarding tools, this would be quite a list since every sound you hear on the album has been either recorded or originally sound-designed; a fair amount of creative sampling has also been involved with theexamples most worthy of reference being the vocal hook on “Stepa”, which is a sample from a Greek theatre play and of course the vocal of Sofia Vembo on “Misirlu” which is pretty much the last thing you hear on the album. The intention of this being used intact was to give a message regarding my intentions to bring my Greek heritage to a bigger audience.
The instruments that I recorded the most, would be the Greek strings “tzouras” and “baglamas”. These appear on the record in their traditional form on most compositions but they also appear in heavily mutated forms and could easily be confused with synth acid lines and percussion. A lot of experimentation went on with these (since they are my favourite instruments) running them through various analog boxes, granular sampling them, heavily distorting them and resampling them and so much more.
A fuller list of instruments used:
- Greek Strings (tzouras and baglamas)
- Fender Stratocaster
- Gibson Les Paul
- Fender Jazz Bass
- Korg Ms-20
- Roland SH-101
- Prophet 6
- Vermona DRM mkiii
- Various percussion from around the world
- Field Recordings from around the world
- Various guitar fx pedals
- Acoustic Violin / Electric Violin
- Modular Synthesizer (Eurorack)
- Various modern and vintage mics
Regarding collaborations I was lucky enough to work with some very talented people on this project. Singer/songwriter Djanan Turan was a massive inspiration and a delight working with. She brought so much to the table creatively and she is the reason why you hear a lot of Turkish influences on the record. Violin virtuoso Master Dani (aka Daniel Aparicio and Egyptian poet/glitch producer CERPINTXT (aka Alaa Yussry) were also involved in a lot of the pieces and their contribution was very significant.
What was the main goal when you start producing the album (any particular concept / subject you wanted to address)?
This is an interesting question. As an artist I never quite cared about trends and always did music that felt true to me; I am not the right person to judge the significance of the music itself. However, I always felt there was something missing. I always felt that I had not quite found my unique voice as a musician; and I have zero interest in following safe paths for wider acceptance. I truly believe that if you are not taking risks you are not being creative.
At some point in 2017, when I was in Greece, my father gave me a book about “Rebetiko”, which would be the music that he raised me with, as a gift. It was a very powerful moment due to the wider context of that story. As I was reading that book, in the following days, I had this moment that to me it all made sense. Bringing together the two things I love the most, Rebetiko and electronic music, is my purpose and my voice; and that is how Melt { λειῶ } begun.
I want to sincerely thank at this point Marcus Blacker and Sam Pauli who run Chapter 24 Records, for believing in my vision and helping me take it out to the world.
Who did the artwork? Can you explain it?
Artwork is a creation of the very talented Simon Vaeth. Melt is the story of 13 animals trying to reach the space. Each animal represents a figure in my life, accompanying the others in the difficult journey. Nobody knows where space is, what it looks or feels like. The way I see space is where our fears disappear, our loved ones stand by us, and the fights in our mind cease.
Who do you think influenced you most when producing the album?
My family.
What are your plans for the future (in terms of producing / gigs)?
Production-wise, I am working hard on creating new compositions that bring together Rebetiko with electronic music and there are quite a few pieces that I am excited about. On the live side of things, I am working with my good friend Baptiste Cusimano and live musicians Justin Wilman and Master Dani to make our live performance a unique audio-visual experience that brings together the organic world with the electronic one; we had the album launch on the 2ndof February with those wonderful people from Lost in Sound in London and the reactions of the crowd were incredible, we are so excited to share it with the rest of the world.
At the moment, we are taking the live show to Amsterdam on 16thFebruary (Church of Ruigoord), London on 23rdFebruary (The Steel Yard), Athens on 2ndMarch (Space Paradise), Berlin on 7thMarch (Klunker Kranich) and Saint Petersburg Russia on 23rdMarch (Venue TBA). I want to sincerely thank Michael Bosacki (Lost in Sound), Col Sturge and Steven Marlow (Dusty Love Tribe), Anett Kulcsar (Comport Records), Thodoris Triantafillou (Space Paradise), Matti Mistfink and Ivan Ilyashenko who are responsible for the above excellent events.
Original Interview Link: https://www.clubbingspain.com/especiales/2019/02/5-preguntas-para-stevie-r.html
