With a distinctive blend of atmospheric elements and emotive storytelling, Expathmia invites listeners to delve into realms where reality intertwines with imagination. In this interview, we uncover the inspirations behind Expathmia's unique sound, their creative process in sculpting their sonic landscapes, and the future horizons they envision for their music.
INTERVIEW
Your music, particularly in tracks like "americanalleyway," paints vivid auditory landscapes. Can you delve into the inspirations behind your unique and atmospheric sound, and how do you translate those inspirations into your compositions?
I take a lot from what I currently listen to. For this EP as a whole, I pulled heavily from Quadeca, Ethel Cain, Ohzora Kimishima, and Quedronol. But for songs such as “americanalleyway”, I pulled straight from my fears: death, darkness, isolation, and being misrepresented. I want to be known for who I am and what I can do regarding music, not the sex marker on my birth certificate. During the period of time that I made “americanalleyway”, these fears controlled me and what I did, sometimes they still do.
They were bottled inside me as if a tornado of massive proportions. I wanted to create a song that represented what I was feeling in that exact moment. Whenever I make a song, I dwell on how I feel a lot because that is what usually drives my songs. It usually takes me hours of creating new synth sounds just to properly recreate that feeling. Usually just clicking synth presets then editing it from there.
It’s all just trial and error, then trial and error again, and again. It also depends on what I’m recording at the time. My phone is usually filled with photos and videos of the most random things. It’s usually the moon or some random forest, but each of these videos, I like to attach to a feeling which then goes to a song. It made making my visualizer really easy since I already had so many videos! To conclude simply, it all comes down to just messing around and trial and error. I really haven’t been producing for too long so I just like to click buttons sometimes till it works out!
Ambient music often has a way of conveying emotions and stories without explicit narratives. How do you approach creating sonic environments that evoke specific feelings or take listeners on a journey?
I have a small background in writing stories! I’m not really all that good but I have written a full length novel. I don’t think it’ll ever see the light of day, but it has prepared me for telling stories. I like to create a small tale before I do anything, whether it’s just a certain feeling or a fully planned story.
Since I haven’t really written stories in a while, it has kinda taken over my music. I’m always trying to share a story with my music and that’s how I approach each song. I’m always asking what does this synth represent, what does this song title share about the song’s meaning, what does the instrumental tell about the overall story. I think each song has to have a change within it. It’s like writing a chapter with Chekhov’s Gun. It’s a principle that states every element in the story must have a purpose and be necessary.
I like to think of my songs like that. Each song has a turning point in the story I’m telling. I think that is the best way to draw listeners in and evoke specific feelings.
"Oceanwall" has a distinct sense of place and atmosphere. How do real-world environments influence your music, and do you have specific locations or memories that serve as recurring inspirations?
As I previously mentioned, I take a lot of photos and videos of scenery that draws me in and captures a certain feeling. I base my music on those feelings I get from the world around me.
Recently, outside of my place of employment, there was a street lamp and it kept blinking, surrounded by ethereal darkness. I couldn’t help but take a video of it. I’m captivated by things people consider to be normal. I think environments like that are the best for taking inspiration from. These places that capture me get released into each song. The only place of significance related to my current EP is a lakehouse I went to this October. The first night there I sat on my bed in the darkness. It’d been a long day and surrounded by darkness and my fears, I continuously thought about my place in the world. It’s where my profile photo is from. There was a tiny mirror on my bedside and I snapped a quick photo.
From the moment I looked at that photo, I knew it would be the start of my music career. Earlier that day, I had discovered Drama Trial and ever since then, I knew that I wanted to be a musician.
That house directly inspired “Oceanwall (the closet song)” and directly pushes me forward in my music career every day.
Sound design plays a crucial role in your compositions. Can you share insights into your creative process when sculpting the sonic elements that make up your tracks?
Although I've now upgraded to Logic Pro, I made this entire EP in GarageBand. That limited my creative process, but I didn’t let it hinder me. It was limited but I spent a lot of time dwelling on certain noises and synths. I think I’ve gone through hundreds of synth presets for my EP.
It was all in the pursuit of finding the right synth for the right song. Another element I think about a lot is white noise. In songs such as “Wayfarer” and “Oceanwall”, background noise takes up a major part of the song. In “Wayfarer”, it was a clicking noise created accidentally through a plugin I use. At first, I thought it was an issue with GarageBand. Luckily, it was just a preset on my plugin! For “Oceanwall”, it was a sample of waves crashing onto a beach. I’m very particular with each thing I add. I’m very careful of the effect it has on the full track. On “Wayfarer”, I made a guitar sample that plays towards the beginning but also plays towards the end climax moment. But towards the end, it was transposed down.
That was something new I had tried and worked pretty well with a synth bit I added inspired by the movie, Hereditary, and its theme. It is all about trying new things until something works out!
Your music has a dreamlike quality, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. How do you achieve this balance in your compositions, and what role does experimentation play in your creative approach?
All of my songs tell a story. A story based on reality, close but so far from the truth. I take events from my life and base music directly upon my own lived experiences. That is how I achieve such a careful balance between reality and fiction. I probably sound like a broken record by now, but experimentation is everything.
I’m not an experienced musician so it’s all about trying new things. I pull that want to experiment straight from my life. I used to be really scared to try new things, but as I’ve started to come into my own, I’ve started to release my walls and let new things in.
Collaboration within the music industry can bring forth unique results. Are there any artists or creators you would love to collaborate with to explore new dimensions in your sound?
Oh, for sure! There are so many people I want to collaborate with. If we are talking dream collaborations, definitely Ohzora Kimishima, Ethel Cain, or Quadeca.
If we are talking a little more realistically, then Quedronol for sure. Quedronol’s is a master at creating a huge and beautiful soundscape. I would love to try and interact with that. I also have a small friend group that is slowly expanding. We have a discord server and plan to invite more musicians soon!
Currently, it’s only me and my friends: Jish (@callmejish), Capernum (@capernum1), Light (@lighttonthebeat), and Autumn (@SlaughtumnsOST). We are all collaborating and it’s so fun.
When you listen to your own music, what emotions or experiences do you hope listeners will derive from the sonic landscapes you've crafted?
Hope. This EP spawned out of my hesitation in coming out to my friends and family. The title of the EP is a direct call out to myself. I used to be unwilling to even consider coming out and now with this EP, I’m rewriting that script and changing my despair to hope. We all may be buried in despair especially looking at the state of the world, but hope isn’t lost yet. It’s only lost when we say it is!
As a creator in the ambient genre, how do you see your music fitting into or challenging the broader landscape of experimental music today?
I think especially in this small music scene we all exist in, I think ambient music is a lot more accepted. Many people still refuse to call ambient music as music. I want to directly challenge that thought with my music. A big musician that comes to mind is thatcherblackwood.
Although he doesn’t make ambient music, he has a lot of elements I push into my music. He’s a master a creating a very vivid world out of noise and that is something I want to replicate.
Are there specific technologies or tools that are integral to your creative process, and how have they shaped the evolution of your sound?
My synths and my various plugins!!! I mainly use a granulator called Emergence.
Ever since I found that, it is like everywhere in my music. Another plugin I often use is Little Plate. That reverb is everywhere, like it’s so repetitive. Pitch bending is also very important to my musical process. Pitching notes up and down on the fly is very essential to each and every one of my songs.
These elements really pushed my music into an area that I don’t think anyone else occupies. I would love for someone to prove me wrong though haha.
Looking ahead, what themes or sonic territories do you envision exploring in your future projects, and how do you see your music evolving over time?
A huge theme that I still want to tackle and I currently do is being trans.
It’s kinda been beaten to death at this point by so many musicians, but I think I have a unique take on it that I want to accomplish later down the line. I’ve also been experimenting a lot more with guitar recently. I hinted at this in my EP’s visualizer on Youtube. Expect to see guitar in most of my future songs!
I think it could definitely head into the shoegaze region while still keeping a lot of my ambient elements. That’s my current goal.
One last thing I have to say is that I’m so thankful to Nefarious Supply and every listener. I appreciate you all!
Thanks everyone for this opportunity!!
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