Insight Interview: Singular Mind

We caught up with Russian duo Singular Mind to chat about their incredible music. Here’s what they had to say…

Hey Singular Mind, thanks so much for agreeing to an interview. Where are you based? Do you tend to travel a lot, or are you firmly rooted at home?

As you know we are duo of producers from Russia. Igor is based in Samara, Russia and Alex is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates at the moment. Mostly we are rooted at home since creating music takes up most of our time.

Can you recall your first real exposure to music? 

For both of us it was tape cassettes of different artists (Chemical Brothers, Aphrodite and Fat Boy Slim) that got us involved in music. We both got the cassettes from friends, parents or just simple crate digging in the record store trying to find something to listen to. 

How and when did you first begin writing and creating music?

We both begun writing music in 2009 but our first releases came out in 2014 which were Liquid Drum & Bass, but we switched to atmospheric electronica last year. We had our first release on Insight Music in November 2016.

How did you decide upon the name Singular Mind?

So we were both struggling with another Drum & Bass release and didn’t have any ideas and in that moment we decided to try our hands at Atmospheric Electronica. We both liked the same artists and listened to the same genres, but we also liked the same elements which were present in the songs. This similarity in taste was how we decided to name our project Singular Mind.

Have you made or released music under any other name?

Before we started Singular Mind we both were working on our solo Drum & Bass projects Igor was Jetfunk and Alex was Seirious.

Can you describe your music for us?

It’s a combination deep atmospheres and chilled instrumentation that puts the listener in the state of trance.

Have you played live recently? Would you like to do more shows or tours in future? Anything coming up soon you’d like to tell us about?

One of the members have performed in Moscow during Abstrasension showcase at 16 tons, however each of the members have performed under our own aliases playing Drum & Bass. We hope to perform more as Singular Mind in the future, because it’s a really unique experience to listen to atmospheric music on a big sound system along with a crowd of like minded people.

What have been your biggest influences?

Burial would be the first producer we heard in this genre, but as we got more acquainted with the music we have found more artist which have inspired us. 

Do you think producing electronic music requires technical or creative skill? Or both?

We think it’s both, with creative skill you would be able to produce something that is unique to you and with technical knowledge you would be able to take that creativity to the next level by being able to create your own sounds. 

Do you tend to find the creative process a cathartic or therapeutic experience? Has creating music helped you cope with difficult times in your lives?

We think that it’s a way to forget about the problems in our lives and just concentrate on making a good song. As we finish our production session the problems that seemed unsolvable before become something that can be fixed easily.

Any collaborations, remixes or joint projects on the horizon? 

We definitely have some projects coming up. Some collaborations and remixes are going to be coming soon.

Any new genres or musical styles you’d like to explore in future?

Atmospheric electronica combines a whole spectrum of different genres. We definitely will explore and try to experiment with them.

Do you have any thoughts on the future of electronic music? Do you think the scene will evolve further?

We see a lot artists and labels who are moving this genre forward and as long as there are people who will do that, this genre will only keep on growing and the audience will expand as well.

Any new releases coming our way?

As we mentioned there are some remixes and collaborations that are in work at the moment and we are discussing future projects with the artists.

Any artists or other individuals / collectives you’ve not worked with yet that you’d like to work with in future?

We don’t have any preference. We are open to work with any like minded person.

Do you have a favourite track / song of all time? Favourite artist?

It’s hard to say which song is our favourite of all time. Each song that we have in our playlist have something unique about it which makes it hard to choose out of all of them.

It’s been said that a life in music can be a hard one. Would you agree with that? 

We think that once you start working on music you start to lose some of your free time. It’s also hard to earn a living from your music when you’re starting up. However if you like what you’re doing it won’t be hard, instead it will be enjoyable.

Do you have any words of advice for aspiring young producers?

Listen, analyse and again listen to the every detail of your favourite songs. Try to notice the little things that you would not usually notice, after listening try to find out how they did it and try to recreate it yourself.

Any other projects on the horizon that you’d like to tell us about?

Not as of this moment, currently we’re trying improve our project.

And finally – are there any tracks / artists that are relatively unknown that you’d like people to know about?

Most of the new comers and new tracks are being played on a weekly SENSUS PODCAST, you can definitely hear some great up and coming artists in this podcast.

Thanks so much Singular Mind!

Thank you too!

Singular Mind’s amazing new album ‘Find Myself‘ is available now via Abstrasension Records.

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