Interview with Unpropped.
Interviewed by Laury Verdoux
Boundary-pushing producer Unpropped recently released his debut EP, Acausality. The artist sat down with us to talk about his artistry, inspirations and the challenges he had to overcome in his music career.
Hi Unpropped! Can you tell us about your journey as an electronic producer and how you developed your unique sound?
Hi there! First of all, thanks very much for having me.
I started crafting beats a long time ago, as a teenager, in a very informal way, and throughout the years I kept at it on and off. At some point, I decided to level up the game and enrolled in a 2-year program at a music school with the goal to properly learn how to produce electronic music and be able to channel my creativity.
That said, I always felt attracted by textured and dark sounds, and so my method is based on exploring the uncommon, or the puzzling if you will. Whether it was through digital synthesis (at the beginning) or analog (more recently), I never paid much attention to melodies, chords, harmonics, and the like: my drive was to create mysterious, evocative atmospheres. I’d say that creating just by exploring, without any specific result or tangible outcome in mind, is a great way to get to a unique sound signature.
What inspired you to create the Acausality EP? Can you share the creative process behind it?
Acausality follows an unpublished 9-track album which I had been putting together during 2021 and 2022, with the support of Christopher Kah. It was a bold, experimental piece of work based on thorough sound research, comprised by some very interesting tracks able to trigger surprising, disparate sensations left and right.
Nevertheless, after some thinking, I decided not to go on with the concept of that album and instead started to focus on the elements that made those specific tracks so captivating to me: the overarching mood of all the sounds combined, instead of their individual details. How could I amplify those particular atmospheres which resonate much more with my own way of perceiving emotions, dreams, nature, society, and the world in general?
This EP is the earliest crystallization of that exploration process.
You mentioned drawing inspiration from artists like Floating Points, Amon Tobin, and Alva Noto. How have these influences shaped your music?
Those are representative examples, but there are several other artists such as Caterina Barbieri, Rival Consoles, or Rrose who are also a huge inspiration for me.
In general, what gets my attention is their highly specific sound signatures, which can transport you to unknown places or make you feel uncommon emotions; please note that I’m not speaking about the mood, rhythm, arrangements, technical ability, etc.
To me, it’s that type of magic, how they can appeal to feelings purely via the sound in ways that other musicians can’t what I find the most fascinating and becomes useful in my productions.
What were some of the challenges you faced while working on the EP, and how did you overcome them?
My main challenges derive from those moments when work stops flowing in a natural and pleasant way: ideas stop making any sense (or plainly disappear), and nothing seems to fit anywhere or comes out as you wish. These moments aren’t necessarily related to fatigue, it’s just that the spark is not there.
I’ve learned to identify those moments and try not to waste any time fighting them, because I’ve also understood that that’s a lost fight; at the beginning I used to try to find ways around only to discover that, after a while, I haven’t moved forward and I’m feeling tired and frustrated. Nowadays I quickly switch everything off and move to something else as far away from producing music as possible… and it works wonders.
As an exploratory electronic producer, what excites you the most about pushing boundaries and experimenting with sound?
The fact that each song will end up painting a different image in the mind of each individual listener, everything based on sounds that they likely never heard before.
I love listening to the descriptions of the different pictures that people build when listening to my tracks, plus it’s very satisfying to observe their surprised reactions.
With your diverse cultural experiences in Brazil, India, Morocco, France and currently residing in Germany, how has travel and exposure to different cultures influenced your music?
To keep it very short, in my opinion, living abroad opens your mind in radical ways, both for the good and the bad. It’s probably going to make you look at yourself, the others, what you are, what you want, what you can do or not do... from very challenging perspectives. Maybe I should mention that when I say living, I don’t mean spending a few months here and there; I’d call that travelling, and my views might be different in that regard.
When you spend so long getting constantly exposed to such different cultures, you’re going to build a rather solid and battle-tested view of everything that’s important for you, and in my case that includes the type of art/music that most resonates with me and that I want (or need?) to create.
Looking ahead, what are your goals and aspirations as an artist? Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations you can share with us?
Well, besides the EP Acausality, which dropped at the end of June, I’m already working in the first full Unpropped album, which I expect to finish during the first half of 2024. I’m very excited about this one, because it’ll be a full display of the Unpropped sound and universe, something that has taken quite some time to mature and develop which is finally coming to life. And after that I’ll be able to dedicate more time to the design of a live show, which I plan as an immersive experience based on sound and visuals. It may take a while until it hits the road, but I’m confident that when it does, it’ll be worth checking out.
I’d close this interview by saying that Unpropped is a project in its initial stages with still a lot of ground to cover. But it’s here to stay, and over time will only continue to expand and evolve. Stay tuned.ur loved one enjoying the weather and happily simmering in each other's arms,"