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As 'Abandonware; Level Two' looms large (dropping on the 24th of January), we have posed some questions to both Marrow and INVENTA, asking them about their own track, what to expect from them in 2022, plus a whole lot more! A wide mix and match of questions that both have answered, starting below!
Q1. Welcome to Full Flex Audio! For those that don’t know about your style, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the dubstep scene?
INVENTA: "Hi! I’m Bee and I run the INVENTA project! I’m 16 and have been producing for 4 years. I got into the dubstep scene my freshman year of high school when I stumbled upon “Energy Drink” by Virtual Riot. I’d never heard anything like it, at least not of that quality. For the following few years (to my parents’ semi-disliking) I listened to nothing but dubstep, followed Disciple borderline religiously, and began trying to make dubstep of my own!"
Q2. Is there a meaning behind your alias name?
Marrow: "There is! I used to be picked on a lot growing up for being skinny and when I started producing music, I used it as a way to avoid seeing the people who tormented me. When I thought back about my beginnings as I contemplated alias names, this stuck out to me – something to do with skin and bones. I realised that ‘Marrow’ was the name for me after I also thought about the double meaning; marrow is in the core of a bone which in this context meant to me that music was in the core of my being and something that is obviously incredibly important to me. Marrow is also unfortunately a root vegetable which has been pointed out to me a few times too, to my chagrin!"
Q3. What can the listeners expect from your track?
Marrow: "Something I focus on when I write is complexity but with a catchy thread throughout the song. I really hope that, despite the complex and frantic nature of the tune, people can hear the rhythmic and melodic exploration above this. I like the ‘method in madness’ approach and it’s something I’m incorporating in my music a lot at the moment."
Q4. What are the inspirations behind your track?
Marrow: "Most of my tracks fall into a dystopian setting in my mind. In ‘Bounce64’, I wanted to portray the idea of someone exploring a facility and finding some kind of terminal which harbours something malicious. Overarchingly, there is a heavy ‘digital culture’ influence which I wanted to explore through a videogame style context in terms of sounds and energy (“64” from ‘Bouce64’ coming from 64bit operating systems). I would be lying if I said I didn’t take a large amount of inspiration from videogames such as the Half-Life and Portal series’ – these games encapsulate gritty dystopia in a way which really appeals to me and they’re some of my favourite games ever made."
Q5. Without picking your own track, which track from ‘Abandonware: Level Two’ is your favourite and why?
INVENTA: "I’m so torn between Aronsho and K3MARE’s tracks. I’ve been a fan of both of their styles for a while now and they both did such an incredible job of showcasing what different styles they’re both capable of."
Q6. When writing music, what are some techniques that you keep in mind to avoid a writer’s block?
Marrow: "The most important thing which I find works well for me is to listen to music from outside the genre you want to produce in. The number of ideas I have accrued from listening to artists like BANKS, Arca, SOPHIE, Björk, Poppy, Charli XCX and A.G. Cook is insane – the list is endless. Trying to write in different keys and using different scales and instruments definitely helps too."
Q7. What are your influences/inspirations into making your own music?
INVENTA: "I’ve always loved the music in video games, they stuck with me often more than the game itself would. Game soundtracks like what Toby Fox did for Undertale, all of Koji Kondo’s work with Zelda and Mario, and all of the incredibly talented composers behind the Sonic Colors soundtrack. And in terms of actual musical influences, Chime, Virtual Riot, Jacob Collier, NRVE, Harvester, kuatari, Penrose, and Cadofox have 100% been building blocks for how I go about writing and producing the music I make today."
Q8. Where do you see the future of EDM music going?
Marrow: "For me, I think genres and sub-genres such as hyperpop, dariacore and IDM will permeate into dubstep more. I think sound design as a vessel for creative tracks is nearing the end of its course and needs to begin to be complemented more with clever composition and musicality. That’s not to say that sound design can’t make or break a track but I think artists will be stepping back from it to focus on intelligent and musical solutions to songs for a bit before it returns to crazy sound design to sell a track – I’m hoping that both go hand in hand and become synonymous with dubstep soon!"
INVENTA: "Especially with how experimental color bass artists like sxth sns and Ximm are getting recently in both musicality and production, I can definitely see dubstep getting a lot weirder and leaving all of the stuff that’s been done thousands of times before behind."
Q9. Where do you start out when creating tracks? Do you start with the drums, sound design, or somewhere else?
Marrow: "Almost always I start with drums. I spend about 2-5 hours at the start of a song focussing on writing a good drum loop; I think drums are very important and lay the foundation for the track. Unusually, I add sub next. I think sub and low-end elements are some of the most powerful and valuable instruments in a track - I write a sub rhythm to complement the drums before I write and sound design over the top."
INVENTA: "Every one of my tracks starts with an idea, anything from specific as “a 6/8 waltz with a burst of energy every beat 4 of every other measure” to “keep it slower and just make noises.” I never have a plan aside from what the final result might sound like. Even then I don’t rely on that."
Q10. What are your favourite plugins to use in music production?
INVENTA: "Vital, the Anarchy Effects’ Convoluter, Harmonic Adder, and Length Separator, and Ableton’s stock vocoder (it’s too powerful to not mention)."
Q11. If music was removed from the world, how would you feel?
Marrow: "Sounds strange but: happy. It would mean artists would get to start all over again with millions of ideas being forgotten meaning millions of ideas to reimagine!"
Q12. Describe your 'Abandonware: Level Two' track in only 3 words!
Marrow: "Fun, Intense and OMGWHATISTHATSECONDDROP"
INVENTA: "Off to Miroptine!"
Abandonware: Level Two drops on all platforms tomorrow!
You can pre-save the whole release right here:
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