Cereal Music Talks x ŽIVA
Real conversations about sound, creativity, and the journeys that shape them.
Join me (ŽIVA aka Lucija Ivsic), a Croatian-Australian musician and new media artist, as I explore the complexities of music careers with emerging fellow musicians and sound artists. Through honest discussions, I dig deeper into the challenges of navigating new scenes, forging unique paths, and finding success in niche genres.
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Cereal Music Talks x ŽIVA
Building your Own Scene (When you Don’t Fit Anywhere Else) feat. Rita Bass
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In this very first episode of 2026, I sit with producer and DJ Rita Bass at Russian House venue in Fitzroy to hear more about what stand behind her drive (and burnout), and the search for home, being raised in Melbourne by Russian-Armenian parents. Our conversations moves from to-do lists and routines to the deeper pull of identity, language, and authenticity in sound. From EP milestones to staging theatre-meets-electronic nights, Rita shows how to make the space you wish existed.
Music: ŽIVA - Idle Heart, Rita Bass - Earwave
More info on the guest: https://www.ritabass.com/
More info on the venue: https://www.instagram.com/young.guard/
This episode has been supported by City of Yarra.
To stay updated and get access to exclusive content, subscribe to my monthly newsletter. You can also connect with me on Instagram for more updates.
Intro
SPEAKER_01Are you ready?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Hey, this is a little guy diva, and you're listening to Serial Music Dalks, a podcast where I sit down with niche musicians and sound artists based in Melbourne to talk about the real challenges we face in the industry, from creative process and identity to burnout, social media dread, and the question of whether it's even possible to be a full-time artist in Melbourne. In the 2026 season, I'm also spotling venues across the city that are run by local musicians and enthusiasts. But this episode in January, I sat down with Rita Basta, a producer, performer, and DJ whose work combines vocal experiments layered over heavy bass and fractured brake beats, often using regulation. Since Rita's family is Russian Armenian, the conversation actually took place at the Russian House, a venue that might look traditional from the outside, but is run by a group of young people who've been transforming it into a space for events, festivals, and exhibitions over the past few years. Here we go.
Setting The Scene: Rita At Russian House
SPEAKER_00This is so funny. This is the first time that I'm doing a video. But I'm so happy that you're actually my first guest on the video podcast.
SPEAKER_02Me too.
SPEAKER_00Because I I don't know, I feel comfortable with you. So while I was in Croatia, I actually knew about your work. That's crazy. Um I didn't know anything about you, but in but you know, I've seen some of the footage. Um I loved your sound. And then um I remember when I moved, you were the only person who responded to my email. Or was it a message I forgot? And I will never forget that. Well, I'm glad. I didn't even know that. Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't know if you ever experienced uh something that's called ghosting. Yeah, yes, and I've heard of this before and experienced it.
SPEAKER_02But I forget about it.
SPEAKER_00True. I I yeah, I I try not to call the what it's called, like grud grudge. Grudges? Do you ghost accidentally? Like, what about accidental ghosting? Accidental grow ghosting. Uh I don't think, well, you know, maybe someone will call me out when I but I I really don't think that I do that. Really? Yeah. I definitely I even have like on my to-do list, I have a thing like respond to this person. Respond to messages. Yeah, I go through messages to see that I've responded to everyone. Oh my gosh, you're such like a type A.
SPEAKER_02I I actually recently started adding that to my to-do list as well because I forget to respond to people, and then I have, but I remember, you know, in those down moments, down time, in the middle of the night, I just remember and it keeps me awake. So I've started putting it on my list, but it just happens. Not much. Not much.
SPEAKER_00But while we're at lists, do you have to-do lists? Are you the person who like yeah? Do you have a to-do list? I do have to-do lists, yep.
SPEAKER_02And I have to-do lists across several categories. You know, life admin to-do list, a music to-do list, maybe it's an event project to-do list, a grant to-do list.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02And do you a work to-do list, but that only lives within work, and then I forget about it outside of work. Where do those to-do lists live? In my journal.
SPEAKER_00Ah, in your journal. Wherever it is in my diary. You can you can bring your journal. You can you do it. You want to see it? We don't we won't we won't look at it, but yeah, let's let's just Where is it? Oh, here it is. It's over there.
SPEAKER_02Okay, don't don't don't zoom too.
To do Lists, Work vs Rest balance
SPEAKER_00Because it's curious, it's a bit revealed. It's like I I think it's really interesting to know that it's like um. You know, you're in this response to you. I think we should zoom in on the response regime. So that's my to-do list. Okay. And do do you uh ever um finish them? Uh they just grow.
SPEAKER_02I think they just grow. I don't know. I'm not sure if I feel if I ever feel have the experience of finishing them. That sense of completion. Not for a full to-do list, because that just doesn't exist. It's always moving, right?
SPEAKER_00So does that mean that you I'm in a constant state of panic? Uh-huh. Yes. I guess you know, my next next question is like, do you know how to not work?
SPEAKER_02Ah, great question. Yes. I do know how to not work. Whether I do it, no. But coming out of the holiday period, obviously, I had two weeks off from my job, and I felt just utter tranquility and bliss. I was walking through life very languorously, just going to the beach, reading, writing, and I felt incredible. But then as soon as I become, and that was with an expansive time, right? So when I have an expansive time, it's very easy to fall into that chill, relaxing life. But then as soon as things start coming back, whether that's gigs, work or anything else, like some things start to populate my life, then suddenly everything explodes into crazy dizzyness. Like I there's no I don't have any middle ground.
2025 recap: EP release, ABC Rage feature, And Live Shows
SPEAKER_00But if if we go back like 2025, it was really big for you. I feel like there was a breakthrough from what I've, you know, you've been active on the scene with your um Dream A. If I okay, I pronounce it well, project, like event projects, uh, but then also you released your EP in May, reimagining. You had a lot of shows. I've counted around eight shows just in Melbourne, and they were big. Like you had a launch in Miscellania, which was like a full house. Um and you know, how was that for you? Was it intense? Was it so intense?
SPEAKER_02I actually feel like I'm busier now. It's interesting what the social media sees versus how you feel. Uh it was it was intense for sure, and like you said, everything had a lot of build-up. Like reimagining then reimagining alone was quite a big project. And then filmed me in the first music video preparing for my set. Which was also featured at ABC Rage. It's true. It's true, thank you. Very much, very exciting. I love Rage so much, and I love music videos. Music videos are one of my favourite forms of art. I could just watch music videos non-stop all night and be so satisfied. It's so exciting that I really don't want it to be a dying culture. I want music videos to persist and push through the fire and blaze. But yes, it was a big year for me. For reimagining, I guess I finished those songs the year before. Actually, like almost an exact year before the launch party at Miscellanea. I played live for Rocky, ever, Who Runs Night Shop Records, that the uh EP was launched on. I played live for her show about a year before, and I made a majority of that music for the show. And only after that show did I realise, oh, I probably have an EP's worth of music that I can work on. So then I finished it at the end of 2024. So by the time 2025 was happening, and that was already that was already done. I had moved, started to move on stylistically. I don't know if you have this experience, but I feel like my mind is in a thousand places, my creativity's in a thousand places, and I move on really quickly. So by the time I'd finished those songs, late 2024, I had already moved on. My style was different, but still I had to wait for half a year for them to come out, just by the nature of releasing cycles. So this is not really answering your question at all.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, my brain is also like, I will have this question, I have this question, I will have this question.
SPEAKER_02And I'm like, But yeah, launching Dreamake, that was very exciting and a big part of last year for me, and that's going to continue. And I have a really exciting Dream Make show coming up
Building Your Own Scene
SPEAKER_02as well, as you obviously know about. And that kind of was that was a necessity for me more than a desire. And it was really related to my EP, actually, now that I'm thinking about it. Not this exact EP, it is related to my EP and also just the music I was making at the time. And I realized that if I w that that I couldn't even think of who I'd want to support me in the community because there's not that many people that have this kind of sound. So then I decided to make an event to nurture it.
SPEAKER_00So it seems like you're actually, you know, from from I really resonate with that because I feel like what you're doing is actually creating a space for the things that you're doing. Absolutely. Instead of like a lot of artists that I'm you know aware of, and like generally, um, you know, I've been managing artists in in my past, and like often, you know, they would ex some of them would expect things to fall, but not necessarily fall in the lap. I'm not saying I I really don't think that artists are lazy or something. It's just more sometimes it's like, oh you know, why don't you know why there are not more events like this? But then it's like you actually have to create them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh and I feel like you're doing that and you've been doing that. It like it seems like it was a busy year in a good sense, but also so much of it was your your initiative.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, making things for yourself, definitely.
SPEAKER_00Like literally making yeah, and then you can only get annoyed at yourself when you're busy because I did this. Yeah, but do you how do you that's why you know, like to go back to that question of like can you not work? Because I feel everything that you do is somehow related to your own project. Like, so what how is the balance? So you had a holiday. Was it it was a holiday? You said that you were like, It was a holiday, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay, lots of reading, writing, beach, partying, which I feel like is that.
SPEAKER_00Because I do wanna like uh you know, just touch point of like one moment where we had a conversation and you were actually actually twice, I think, once over email or message. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And once in person, you were like, oh, I'm burnt out. Definitely. Look, last year I was definitely burnt out. It's probably only because it's summer and so I have this rose-tinted glasses. Yeah, you're you're like replenished the the energy levels are back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But okay, may I I don't wanna I don't wanna I won't I don't wanna sound negative, I but I I just sort of feel like it's something that we need to talk about.
SPEAKER_02Totally, totally. Look, I feel really good right now, but I'm almost certain that come April, come April, I'm going to crash and burn. I'm just like getting I'm just getting through what that
Burnout Signs And Real Recovery Tactics
SPEAKER_02what's left. Yeah. Okay, oh my gosh. But I love it as well. It's like it's it's interesting because you're so, like I'm so, and I'm sure probably you as well, I'm so energized by by doing things. Having, you know, at work during the day, and then going straight from work to the library, and then straight to the studio, things like that really energize me, and I feel so excited and hyped on life, like it's a drug. But then that can only last for so long before you realize that you're burnt out underneath the surface, and you've just been pushing through it, and of course, summer and the energy of summer helps you get through it.
SPEAKER_00So you like when you when you think of a burnout, like how does it, you know, you just realize, oh, I can't, you know. Like, how do you experience it? Is it like for me, for example, is like every single message, oh yeah, same email, yeah, everything like move this from here to here is like I can't do it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I don't want to do it. I hate it.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, same. It's very all encompassing. It's it's it's it's all in the body for me. Like it's like not being able to get out of bed, struggling to do basic tasks, like you said, can't respond to people. Yeah, responding to people that becomes like last of the list. Like anything social, yeah, push to the side, and you just get through what you have to get through.
SPEAKER_00And do you so like just taking a break? Yeah, that that's you found out that that's a solution to that that helps you.
SPEAKER_02That's not a solution. No, no, no. What I said just then, that's not the solution, that's like the state. That's what happens to me. But that's not even a band-aid, that's like that's the forced state. Um propelled into, but that's not the solution. Do you have you thought about a solution? Have you I would say the solution would be to do things that aren't related to your projects, like for example, and actually probably what got me out of burnout last year is I started becoming like I just started reading a lot, and I became addicted to playing the piano and other little things like that, just like singing aloud, just doing things that give you going for walks. Like I tried to walk home from work from the city at least once a week, or try to try to exercise, cycling, just like those things, they're not related to anything. That's what helps. Oh, true, okay. What about you?
SPEAKER_00You don't know yet. Oh my goodness, I'm like, yeah, it's it's it's literally like I've been really trying to find out. I'm I'm getting better at it. I think I'm now at the stage, you know, it's it's been years of therapy and like just you know, really addressing my mental health. Therapy helps, but I'm only now at the point where I can recognize that I need help or that I need to stop. Like be just maybe two years ago, I was like a complete machinery. I was just like machine that's like doing stuff, and then I would crash, just like no battery, complete drainage, like nothing, right? Which is really not good. I relate to that. And but but I also think you know, I wanted to ask you, like now that you're saying, I feel like you're really uh unfortunately I I guess fortunately and unfortunately, you have the same approach. Yeah, because I have a problem with that. It's like a love-hate relationship because I feel like so much of the things that I am and what I've accomplished is actually because I'm like that. Totally. And then I'm like, I can't let it go. I'm like, oh my goodness, if I stop being driven, no, you know, I'll disappear. Yeah, yeah. So I self-identify.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I really relate to this so much, and it's like when you're in the first state, you lock yourself into all these commitments because you're so excited by them, and then you're in the second state, and you're like, oh no, but you have to do them because it's like that moment where you're opening your journal and you're like, Oh, I really just want to have a day without anything, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it's like and I get a panic attack. I'm like, oh no, this week, this week it's like it's everything. Does that mean that you self-identify with all your projects? Like, I guess um uh to clarify the question, like, does that mean that everything that how much of you as
Identity, Longing, And Russian Heritage
SPEAKER_00Rita is in your music? Is in you know, in your projects? Like, do you is your identity tied into all of that? Do you think?
SPEAKER_02It's a good question. It really is a good question. Uh yes, I think I'm entirely tied into it. All of my art is a representation of me and an extension of my identity. Whether I want it to be like that in the future, I don't know. You know, I really idolize or idealize performers, like pop stars, for example, that form an entirely different persona for their artistry. So that when they're on stage, that's them, or when they're creating that's them, that's their their
Building Your Own Scene
SPEAKER_02artist, them as an artist, but then as soon as they're out of costume, they are like Joe, just some random person. So I do I respect that, and I wonder whether I'll go towards that in the future. I don't think I think that's less possible in whatever type of music that I make because it's not that performative, it's not like I have a persona that I wear on stage, it's more just myself expressed.
SPEAKER_00But I guess when you're doing music, you know, for example, you in 2023 you did like a commission work um for uh Tosca uh for uh for City of Melbourne, um, and you know, from what I've read from what you've explained, it's about home. That seems personal. And how much of your reimagining EP is personal because it's all personal. Yes, where you go. No, no, no, you go so it is personal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it is it is all personal. I I like the idea of it not being, but probably it is all possible it is all personal. Well, because that's because I've been thinking about this a lot actually, especially in the sound world and and reading a lot has made me think about how there's kind of two different ways to approach sound art and electronic music. There's the first way, which is very intuitive and emotionally driven, which is what I how I how I make music, or there's the second way that's more in a searching for truth in sound in a more scientific way, which is how one of my best friends approaches music, and a lot of big prolific sound artists do that as well. It's kind of science first, but I'm emotion first for sure. And I find that when I'm emotionally driven and and intuitively driven in in my practice, it has to be related to myself. And Tusca, that sound work, that was actually one of the easiest things that I've ever made because it really just flowed out. I've actually not experienced that since.
SPEAKER_00And um, it's about home. So I wondered if it's when you when you when you think of home and when you were making the track, what is home? Is it also you know, you have Russian heritage, your parents are Russian? So what home are you talking about? Is that the thing where you're missing?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, home is is definitely Melbourne for me, but Tusca is a bit more complicated. It's more, it's less about my home, and it's about the sense of a home, a possible home, that's eluded me, never having had the opportunity to be actualized as my own. That's the words I used when describing it. Because, you know, it's about Tusca's like a longing, like a deep longing with a bit of sadness in it. And that's how I feel about Russia and all my family that live there, and then Arminia as well, because all of my family except for my parents live across Russia and Arminia, and I it's so far away, it was so complicated. I never got to go as a kid. I was there till I was four, and then we moved here, and then I only got to return in 2019 and then 2022 to Arminia and connecting with my family, kind of like that loss of culture and that potential for another home and all those familial connections that I really long for. Like I've I find that a lot of my music is really deeply inspired by a sense of longing and yearning. I think that I'm quite like I'm a really social person, but I think I'm deep down quite a lonely person in terms of familial and cultural connection, and I really think about that a lot and it frames all of my work. So Tusca was about that sense of longing and what could have been and what still can be, and kind of reconnecting familial and cultural lines that I've lost by virtue of my parents or by the fact that my parents brought me here and we've kind of lost. We haven't lost touch. I still talk to all my family, you know, daily, um, my extended family, my cousins and everything, but it's not the same as having grown within a culture. So it's kind of that experience, and I think it's very, very relevant for so many people that live in Australia because so many of my friends, uh, if not all of my friends, have parents that are not from Australia, and yet most people don't are not fluent in their native language. They might have learnt it like myself in my first language, and yet now it's very difficult for me, and I had to learn it again in my later years, and it's still a challenge.
SPEAKER_00You spoke Russian whilst growing up?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was essentially essentially it was my first first language, but by the time I was in kindergarten primary school, my parents stopped speaking to me in Russian because they were really it's a very classic experience, immigrant experience. They were terrified that I wouldn't assimilate, that I wouldn't like I wouldn't be an Australian. They also had to start their their lecturers, they also had to start teaching in English. They were also afraid that they wouldn't be able to speak English very well if we were all speaking Russian. So because of that, I lost it then. And I just feel like that's extremely heartbreaking and very a very common experience. So essentially, Tusca was about that a deep longing and sadness for something that could have been, and I'm still searching for and yearning for, and I still kind of feel like it's like my life's greatest mission.
SPEAKER_00But now you're you're on the like the positive thing. I guess it's now I feel like because uh maybe a few months ago when we met, and then I introduced you to some of the community, some of the Russians, and we it here we are today at the Russian house, this amazing venue. Um they run a Russian language cafe here. So you I think you you were here maybe once or twice. I have come into it, I would love to come more. It's great. So it is like, and you're gonna go to Armenia and Russia this year, so I guess you're on a so it plays a big role in your um work.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm a very emotional person, so I can hold on to a f I can hold on to some small feeling, and like it will blossom into a huge feeling and it will compel me. I'm very emotionally guided, and that will guide all of my work. And do you think identity?
SPEAKER_00Do you think that there's a difference that also affects the way you you know, because we just talked about how much you know you work, you're driven. Do you think that part of it is also you know coming from you know parents who were migrant, uh hardworking? Because there is a different culture coming, you know. I'm from Eastern Europe. Work, there's a lot of validation that comes through work, a lot of identities connected to work, worthiness. So I'm just curious if it's the same. It doesn't mean that everyone isn't the same, but yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02My parents are definitely like that, you know. But the funny thing is that they think that I'm very lazy. They think that I'm so lazy and they don't understand my life at all. And for them, you know, they they think I'm lazy because I'm not an academic, you know, or because I'm not working in some sort of traditional form of form of work. Artistry, they don't understand. They don't understand that I spend all my hours working on the lecture in what? What what what sort of um uh they do like the math of economics.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_02So they don't understand.
SPEAKER_00They don't very exact. It's very uh engineering uh numbers game.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's very exact. And but yeah, growing up definitely it w it was like that. Had to be hard working, had to listen to, had to watch math videos after school, had to write essays if I wanted if I wanted something, I had to write an essay and why I wanted it. So, how did you end up being an artist? Yeah, well at the same time, videos and then you like. Yeah, well, you know, you rebelled. You always re I was very intrinsically rebellious from a young age all the time. And I think they taught me that without realizing it, because my dad would always say things like rules are made to be broken, things like that. They're very unique people and they're very anti like that they're they're they're they're not traditional at all in like in their in their ways of thinking, and I definitely picked up on that, but used it against them, which I'm sure was annoying to them. So I feel like I rebelled because of that, and I always just loved art and music, and they still put me in in art programs, like I was doing theatre, I was doing musical.
SPEAKER_00They obviously supported you.
SPEAKER_02They've supported they supported me to do arts as long as I was also doing math.
SPEAKER_00But you know, they were just worried about your future. Yeah, well, they're still worried. That one hasn't changed. Okay, yeah, but but do you um so you you started doing all those like theater things a little bit, and then when when when did you um when was the first time that you wrote your own track or like oh so young, so young.
SPEAKER_02It's funny because um while their their math brains and their science brains, I feel like European culture, Eastern European culture, art is embedded within it, right? So we're still, even though that wasn't their main thing, we were still listening to music, we were still reading Pushkin, theatre, going to theatre, things like that was very much part of my childhood. And I I was singing for as long as I can remember. I don't know how I got into singing, and I remember being super young in primary school, and I would go to the lake near my house, Coburg Lake, and I would write little poem songs, and then record myself on like a digital camera and doing things like that, and I would write musical songs, so I was doing that all throughout primary school and being really young, and then when I was in high school, I kind of moved towards more indie music, so I was playing guitar. Uh, I stopped playing, I played keyboard for a little bit when I was a kid, stopped doing that. Singing was really my main dream and passion. And then in high school I moved on to indie rock, indie pop, and just like I feel like every day I was writing something on guitar. Do you miss the guitar now? Do you guys know? I actually don't know if I miss the guitar. I know. That's that's a big part of it. Genuinely, whenever I whenever I just have the the urge to play guitar, which isn't that often, it's when I have nails on, and I'm like, what the hell? But yeah, I've moved on to piano in the last few months, and that's become addictive for me. My housemate said that I look like I'm on crack when I play the piano. It's become a real joy. What film do you love? I looked normal than it. It looks very normal.
SPEAKER_01Very normal.
SPEAKER_02I feel like I lost my heart.
SPEAKER_00I'm curious about your creative process like. Um, I guess first of all, do you have do you is
Creative process
SPEAKER_00there a routine like a yeah say Mondays?
SPEAKER_02I try to go to my studio. I have a shared studio in Brunswick to have a different space to create that's not my bedroom. Otherwise, it's all in my bedroom. And in the studio, I tend to work on a particular project. So now I'm working on my next EP right now, and that's so every Monday I try to go to the studio and work a little towards that. It's almost done. And then uh then I work four days a week. I find it quite difficult to make music after work. I'm quite depleted. It's only that only happens for me if I'm very if I'm like stuck on a deadline, then I will be doing it at every possible moment. But what I do try to do in terms of creation every day is that I probably write every day in my journal. I just write like whatever comes to my mind. It might be poetry, it might just be the most boring day-to-day recovery. Stream of consciousness. Is that artist way? Was it inspired by the. Oh, you can be after. I'm not a morning person. But uh, but I I've always journaled. Actually, recently I went back to my family home in Coburg North at the end of last year. And I saw all my child luckily, I was an only child, you know, because of because of being an only child, my sibling was my journal because I didn't have anyone to talk to. My parents were occupied, my journal was my best friend. And it's so interesting going back and just seeing that I can recount all of the thoughts throughout my entire life because they were all written down. It's pretty incredible. And actually, I think that inspired me to return to journaling because I just want to have I think it's very important.
SPEAKER_00It actually like keeps the I journal. Uh I've I've started morning pages like ages ago, five, six years ago. But then I also started doing uh journaling right before I go into writing songs or writing mode. Oh, I love it. Because it's sort of like it's like opening up this, you know, like you know, like dusty, taking off the dust from from this Pandora box, and then you open up and it's like rah. Sometimes it's shit. Like sometimes it's like it's shit, right? Like, it doesn't matter. It's about getting it out. It's all about like because you know I don't know if you agree, sorry, uh, but it's all about like you have to be doing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not like, oh yeah, I'm gonna write this song and it's gonna be the best song. No, yeah, yeah. You're gonna write 10 shit songs probably, and then they're gonna have the 11th thing will be all those shit combined together in a great song. Yeah, I completely agree. Yeah, so okay, sorry. So you have a journal, and um you go on Mondays, you go to your Brunswick studio and the night journal.
SPEAKER_02And then another thing I've started doing, which I've obviously mentioned a lot right now, is just coming home from work and just going straight to the piano and playing and singing has been really good. And it's a you have to sing as well, like playing is not enough. And usually I just play some folk song or a pop song, just anything, like anything. I just think of a song, Google the chords, and just play out loud. It's kind of the same as journaling, but getting it out in an audio way, and then the dream is that one of my housemates or friends joins in with me because then it's group singing, which feels really good. So those are the two things I do every day, and then I work at Mess, which is a synth studio collection of many, many synths, and one day a week I work in the studio there, and when I'm there, I also like to fiddle on some synths and some instruments, and that's also really important for me because again, it's related to kind of the aspect of play and just getting things out, like journaling, like playing the piano, whereas Monday is the more structured, I'm completing something, and I find if I'm not doing that play, whether it's on a synth or whatever it is, just like playing with no with no concept of what's gonna come out of it of the outcome, just unadulterated exploration, then that feeds into everything else that I do. And if I'm not doing that, it's it feels like it's unbalanced.
SPEAKER_00And what about like so so you just mentioned that you're uh uh uh finishing your second EP? Um do you ever um share it with someone else while it's like how what what's your relationship with you know uh work in progress? Do you share with it? I love feedback.
SPEAKER_02I yes. I love actually I would love to get your feedback on it. I'm happy to listen to you after. Yes, I look, my parents are Russian, I have no issue with critical feedback. Received it my entire life, it's fine. It's essential. It's essential. It's essential, it's necessary. I've been told I'm too blunt. I don't experience that because everyone around me was way too way more blunt than me. Yeah. So maybe because of that, I don't have an issue with feedback. I think it's incredible. Like I need it. At this point, actually, I've already sent my EP to a few different people, like four different people for feedback. People that I respect as producers, probably send it to different people depending on what I'm what type of feedback I'm looking for. But like the thing is that I hate to send, I don't like to send something out and just receive positive feedback. Like, no, I'm usually sending to people that I know will give me something critical.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like constructive criticism. Yeah, I do I do feel like that's something that um I miss. Well, I I surround myself with people who can actually tell me, you know, like some constructive criticism. That I think that's that's feedback. Yeah, you know, like, and then it's up to you to sort of like okay, see it from that angle. Oh not take it, yeah. And not take it. You don't have to take it all the time if you can. You can just take it, and it's nothing, you know, personal. Yeah, like it's actually really necessary. And then it might reinforce why you like why you made those creative choices. Yeah, and I also think uh I I wonder if you ever like while creating tracks, do you ever get into your head? Like, do you you know, does it happen to you? Is that why we seek feedback sometimes? Or uh you know, when you're like you wrote a song and you've been or like I guess we can go back to actually I'm I'm more curious about the creative process of the song. So let's say you're you're working on a track. Is there like how long do you work on one track or do you work on five tracks at the same time? Um, do you have any rules around that? And I guess you know, because sometimes for me what happens is like I actually set really, really straight deadlines on track. So I'm like, okay, so I'm gonna work on this track, but I will not sit up and go have coffee until I finish uh like a version of it. And I will just work on that, but then what happens is sometimes I have 20, 30, 50 versions of one song, and then I'm like, you know, like I I'm like completely sort of all you know, like just just not in the right space with the track.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Does that happen to you?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I definitely work on many tracks at a time, and actually every session of a track that I do, I rename it to be a new version. So every day I'm working on it, it's gonna have a new name of that day. Okay. So you can always return back to everything that you did in case you hate all the changes you can do.
SPEAKER_00Are you good at uh managing your library?
SPEAKER_02Nah. I'm not good at managing most things. Is your desktop clean?
SPEAKER_00No. I can show you my desktop, you should see it. I just cleaned my desktop the other day, and my partner was like, wow, and I was like, wow, it actually feels like it felt good.
SPEAKER_02It was like wow in person, you know, like we can start from scratch. I just ignore it by never having like always having a tab open, so you never see the desktop. So it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00I want to see it. You'll send me a screenshot, maybe. Yeah, you don't have to. Look, it's like my room. I can send you a screenshot, yeah. You can see. Um, but yeah, so track multiple tracks at a time and sharing feedback. Well, that's good. But but what about um so you're now working on the EP? It's still gonna be so what is I feel like a big year is ahead of you as well because
New EP, Dreamache event : Eternity is a Terrible Thought
SPEAKER_00uh you're playing at the Pitchwork Festival. That's true. That's big. Uh bravissimo. Uh you're finishing EP. Yes. And there's that event that you wanted to mention.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes. I'm running, I'm very excited for this. On March 4th, it's a Wednesday. I'm running an event that you will be part of called, it's very exciting, called Dreamake. Dream Make is the name of the event series. It's called Dream Make Presents Eternity is a Terrible Thought, which is a quote from one of my favorite plays, Rosencrantz and Gildenson are dead, by Thomas Stoppard, who's an absurdist. Absurdism is my favorite type of theatre. I love it, you know, pioneered by Beckett. I'm a huge Beckett fan. I literally have a shrine to him in my bookshelf with like all of his short stories, so many plays in French and English, even though he's not French, he learned French. Wow. Anyway, I I love him. But the event, the event is something I've been thinking about for a long time, which is bringing together theatre and music, electronic music, electronic sound. Because I grew up with a lot of theatre, methespian. Lots of people actually don't know this about me, but I I love going to the theatre. And there's such not much theatre here, which really depresses me. And it's something I got from my mum. She always says it's your fault. She always says it's her fault that I'm so into theatre. It's funny like framing it like that, because she thinks, oh damn it, now I'm working in the arts. It's my fault. Um, and she always talks about how much how much more, how many more theaters there are in Moscow and how there's nothing here. Especially even the independent theatre, it's really not supported here. Anyway, that's besides the point. This event, Dreamake, is bringing theatre and electronic music together. Because often in experimental music spaces, there's performance art and there's other forms of dance, but not really theatre. When I'm talking about theatre, I'm thinking words, like I love words, but people when people people think of theatre thespians, they inherently think it's cringe, which is something that I hate. The concept of cringe is like absurd to me. Anyway, so the idea was bringing theatre and music together, but now it's formed into it's formed into like more traditional plays, pieces, play pieces, performances, sound performances, installation. So it's gonna be a whole multimedia experience. And I'm very excited about it. Very glad to be part of it. I'm very excited about it. I'm very excited.
SPEAKER_00But I feel like, you know, uh this is also going a little bit back to the beginning of our conversation about you know, you creating things you want want to happen. So, you know, apparently you feel like there's a lack of theater and you're creating a space for that, especially it's all genre bending, and a lot of things that you've been doing, it's interdisciplinary, like from verb verb magazine that you've run, like it's a big project. And I also wanted to ask you, like, you know, do you feel like um okay, you do work at Mass, you do, you just mentioned everything that you do, but I the first first thing is like I do feel that everything is there is a common denominator, like arts is the common denominator of everything that you do, but also like do you is there a goal to which you strive in terms of like I don't know, being a full-time artist? Is that even something that you believe is possible or is it something that you want to do?
SPEAKER_02It's definitely something I want to do. That would be my my dream life would be to be a full-time artist and that's a thousand sense. Is that and that's like definition of success in your life? Is that all? Yeah, actually, yeah, because then you're doing everything you're doing to live is something you want to be doing. But of course, in being a full-time artist, you have to make sacrifices, which may might mean that that's not the case. Sacrifices like what? Well, an example I can think of is maybe I'm a full-time artist, but I have to take DJ gigs I don't want to take because that's my only source of income. So that's a balancing act. Uh that's not something that's happening to me right now because I'm not a full-time artist. I rely on my work. Uh whether I think it's possible to even be a full-time artist, I think it's very difficult in Australia. People succeed a lot more in Europe. I'm not sure what the US landscape is like. Obviously, a lot of people move to Europe. You moved here, so I don't know what you think.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, I feel like um Europe is competitive. I think I feel like there is a possibility to do it here in Melbourne. But um at this stage, like it's been a year now that I'm fully doing art at full time. That's awesome. Um it is a balancing act. I but and like not to lie, I do uh teach sometimes to get some money in, but it I still teach in like the artist space and music. So I would like to do that. So it's like and it's something that I would love to do, but because as I mentioned, like I really have this tendency to get into my head, and that's why I just uh need moments where I'm in something that's structured. But yeah, but I think um yeah, we're gonna see that event, and it's great that uh it's actually gonna happen. People can see this podcast and then um go to the event. Where is it happening?
SPEAKER_02You didn't say a quad club, a quadraphonic club in Brunswick. Okay, so it's part of Brunswick Music Festival Wednesday, the 4th of March.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Be there, be there, be there, be there, be there. Um a few last questions. What is the best advice that you were ever given? Oh my gosh. Is that the right crazy?
SPEAKER_02What is the best advice you ever given?
Best advice
SPEAKER_02Ever, ever someone gave to you. Um I some one that in instinctively, or the one that instantly comes to mind is that in about 2021 I was doing a mess foundations course, a sound design course online, and my teacher was my friend, well now my friend, Laws Lauren Esquire, full name, and at the end of the at the end of the course, you Had to make a track, and you'd also have like there was like a midweek presentation, mid-semester presentation of the track as well. And I remember at some point showing my song, and this is at the time when I was quite confused musically, and I wasn't sure whether I was making dance music for the club, or if I was making pop music, and I didn't really know what space it occupied. And this is something I still this this is still the case now, but now I've come to terms with it, and the fact that I don't don't care. It's like in-between music, and that doesn't matter, that's good. Um, so I was showing my song, and it was kind of a dubstep song, and then there's lots of vocals, and then about midway through the song, it just went to this like one-minute spoken word piece, just like completely flips the switch, becomes a spoken word, and then the dubstep came back. And then I remember in this feedback session saying, I think it's really random that I added this, but I didn't know how to not add this because it felt like I was inauthentic if I wasn't adding something more personal, more vulnerable, more vocal-based. And she sent she, I can't remember the wording she said, but essentially she said, you just have to do you regardless. Like if you didn't add this, it wouldn't be yourself and it wouldn't be you, and that just means that it's it would be rubbish. Like it doesn't matter if it's not fitting into this stylistic framework that you've set in your brain of what this classic dance track is supposed to be, because then it wouldn't be you. So it's a matter of integrity. Yeah, authenticity.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, authenticity, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's great. I I feel like that's something that um I have uh in my head all the time. But whenever I'm like, if I'm if if if I'm asking for feedback, some someone is like, oh you know, you should actually split this into two tracks, because that often helped like sometimes I really suck at at transitioning, and then I end up like just creating another segment that's like I don't know, even if an in a different key, but I'm like whatever. Whatever, yeah, but that's why I love it.
SPEAKER_02That's why I love your music, right? Like I feel I've come to at peace with this now. Like it's not an issue I had any I have any more, but I do think it kind of dulled me and pulled me into some kind of creative block for honestly for a few years, like between then and like 2023. I was working on writing and verve instead, so obviously that was taking up my time more than music as well. But also I got into my head about this because I was in different spaces and people could play at the club, but only if they were playing just straight dance music, and of course, I like to sing and I like to do all this other stuff, and I felt really confused about where my music fit, and that was even though it wasn't necessarily an external pressure, like people weren't saying that to me, it's reflected in bookings. Like, I won't be booked for this club set, obviously, because that's not where my music fits. And but I also felt that I don't that's not where I wanted my music to fit, so I was getting really confused about it. And now that's why I saw the dream make about having about a space for like the in-between, like in-between kind of band, in-between electronic. And this is something that's not very obvious if you just listen to my music, because my release music is more dance floor-ish, but like my live side is very different, it's more experimental, it's more performative. But yeah, it's something I've made peace with and I love, and I don't want to just make straight dance music. Maybe if I ever get medicated for ADHD, I'll make straight dance music. But right now, no, you my mind is in too many places.
SPEAKER_00I feel like I think it's also interesting, you know. Um, I think it's very you mentioned play, and I think it's really important to just like do whatever you feel like doing. What I mean by that is like you might be working on an EP that's experimental, but maybe you know, in the afternoons you just want to do folk stuff on the piano. Yeah, exactly. Why wouldn't you release that as well? Yeah, I could actually. And I feel like that's actually something that a lot of artists are doing right now. And I think genre bending and just like being free of the genre categories or whatever um is really yeah, like taking like I don't know what's the word. It's it's it's going well. It's kicking off, kicking off. Um but yeah, do you have any I don't know, is there anything oh one more question that I had. You brought a book.
SPEAKER_02I'm just curious what you're reading. Oh, I'm reading, I'm reading Agua Viva by Clarice Lespecta. I have a lot to say about her, actually, so you might have just started. You might have started something. My my friend uh has my best friend Sachin, he has been telling me to read La Spector for a while. He's a big fan of hers, especially her short stories. At the end of last year, I picked up one of her books. Since then, I've read four. I just went like this just so quickly. I mean, I've almost finished this one. I already have the fifth one in my bag today. I've been going to a paperback bookstore in the city after work, and every time I'm halfway through one of her books, I'm already picking up the next one because I know I'm just gonna get through it like this. Like I'm I've become really addicted to her. Okay, I will definitely quickly write that down. And she's she's so interesting. She's actually born in Ukraine to Russian parents, but she, as a kid, moves to Brazil, so she's you know Brazilian in her affect, and she writes in Portuguese. I would love to learn Portuguese in order to read her in her native tongue. She's very interesting, very elusive. She writes, I think she's like the perfect ADHD writer because she writes in these fragments. She's very existential. So the first book I read about her, the first book I read of hers is called The Passion According to GH. And it's about, you know, she kills a cockroach. The whole premise of the book is she kills a cockroach, has an existential crisis about it. But how she writes in this um uh kind of like stream of consciousness way, making all these realizations is just so incredible. I really resonate with her. And something that I do, and I don't know if this is because of my parents, but I've been told it many, many times, is that I speak weirdly. Like I have like a weird way of speaking and using grammar. Maybe I'm speaking really normally now, but I've been told this many times in my life. Like you probably don't know because you're a second language speaker. For me, for me, English is just like, I don't know, pig words.
SPEAKER_00I don't know how to explain it. That's what this book is. Just like words.
SPEAKER_02She uses very unconventional grammar, and apparently it's even more random in Portuguese. And I love that. Like it's really, she's just she's just the same thoughts as they come in this book, Agua Viva. So the fourth of hers that I've read is the I think it's her last book as well. I need to double check, is the most that's like that. But everything I like I two of her books, I think The Passion According to G H, I finished and I just cried. Like last few pages, I just cried. And then the next book I've read of hers, um, An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures as well, many teary moments. That was a love story, which I don't really read that often, but so many beautiful moments. Then I read The Hour of Star and also finished in that book, just cried. And I came home and I couldn't. My housemate who introduced me to her was asking me just normal questions about my day, and I was like, I can't answer these because I'm I'm stuck in this. And he was like, It's okay, I get it. I get it.
SPEAKER_00I will read. I'm going to write that down. Like, literally, uh, as soon as we put press uh stop, yeah, which will we do? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But what happens is I get like hooked onto these things, and then they just like I feel like I'm about to enter this phase and enter a new phase, but I get hooked on sometimes.
SPEAKER_00That's exciting. But that's that's very exciting. I feel like that's actually great because I think uh I've been experiencing that when you know growing up as you know, like being part of a subculture. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, you know, you get so hooked up with this one band or something, and then you make these great connections with other people based on that one band, like you know, whatever. And I feel like that a lot of people lose that in their adulthood. Totally. Whereas I think this is like this is what you're passionate about. Like, this is like it's amazing, and that's exactly why art exists.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and you should never lose like childlike whimsy. Ever. That's the most amazing thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Oh my goodness, I have a lot of more questions to ask, but I think I think um I think we can wrap up. Do you feel like that? Spacebo. Thank you. Thank you. Woo. Alright.
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