Howdy! Synthapex was started as my one-man band last year. This year my friend Masha joined the lineup to help me with the gigs that will happen later this year, I hope. I also found out that she’s an excellent songwriter and I’m very glad that our upcoming album will have her music as well. Her song is very atmospheric and I can’t wait to share it with the world. As for the type of Synthapex’s music, our first single sounds like synthwave eats metal, but our debut full-length album is going to sound less heavy. No metal drumming this time I guess. I'd describe our new songs as a melancholic synthwave. But we'll see what the final arrangements will sound like when we're done.

A favorite album of all time? Man, you must be kidding asking me to pick out only one album. It’s hard as hell. Well, let it be «De-Loused in the Comatorium» by The Mars Volta, although, it's just one of all those albums I love. Stunning progrock, it also has one of my favorite intro-tracks ever created!

Not only fans. Some big artists related to this type of music such as Perturbator, Gunship, Carpenter Brut, etc. also have a metal-related background. For example, Franck Hueso known as Carpenter Brut produced some metal bands’ albums before he started writing his synthwave project. As I know, he was a producer of Hacride and Deathspell Omega at least, but please correct me if I’m wrong.

From my own experience, I can say that when you work on metal music your mind doesn't work the same way as it does while making electronic music. When you've explored one genre as a songwriter more or less and you’re going to switch yourself to another one, there's a chance that your way of songwriting thinking won’t be based on specific style's clichés. That’s why it’s so important to work with different genres to write good music and create your own sound.

The sound of some big synthwave/darksynth influencers had been worked out also by the help of their metal-related experience. So, let’s say, metal music created synthwave that we know to some extent. Not only metal music, of course, but I think it may explain why lots of metalheads love synthwave stuff.

I guess lots of music I listen to inspired me more or less to write «Gone This Night» the way it’s written. And yeah, it actually took time to make both the song and video. I started writing the track a year before it was actually released. It was planned to be a song for a heavy metal band of mine – Descenery, but since it didn’t fit Descenery’s stuff stylistically, I decided to start a new project. Said and done – that’s how Synthapex was born. But as you may notice there’s still a metal vibe in the track. That’s why I’m pointing out metal as one of the sources of inspiration. It's related to my so-called metal activities.

As for the video, last fall Arthur Lesnitsky and Andrey Bulgakov were making a music video for Descenery’s «No Way». When it was done and released we had a little party to celebrate it. At the party, I showed a demo-version of «Gone This Night» to the guys and asked them if they’d be interested in working on a music video for this one as well. And, as you can see, it wasn’t the end of the story. All the CGI elements were made by Arthur Lesnitsky on his own. It took about four months and the entire process of video-production took six months or so. Just imagine how happy we were the moment we realized that the video was finally done. It’s just beyond words!

There were some difficulties, indeed. For example, it took months to decide what should go after the second verse section. I tried to put something aggressive there, but it was out of place. Then I came up with an idea to make something completely opposite to that – a bridge based on a soft sounding pad. And it worked well I think. As for gear, I recorded some rhythm guitars for the song using my Edwards E-I-85 LunaSea Inoran guitar, Planet Waves jack-cable and Line 6 POD UX2 audio interface. My 2 octave Wordle Easykey MIDI-keyboard was also very useful for making the song.

Nothing can explain the story better than the YouTube description of the video, so, let’s quote it:

As we already know, the video was directed by my friend Arthur Lesnitsky and since we had almost zero budget, it was challenging as fuck! For example, we didn’t have an opportunity to use a green screen and Arthur decided to use the fresh-painted blue wall as an alternative. But it turned out really cool and I bet no one is going to notice it in the final video. But it may be seen in our «making of» video available on our YouTube channel. Arthur is a real hero in the world of video production and I’m really thankful to him for what he’s done for Synthapex.

If all goes as planned, our full-length album will be released somewhere this fall. And there will be limited editions of CDs and cassettes for sure! If someone would be interested in vinyl, we’ll see what we can do for them.  Anyway, It’s very important for me to release my music in a physical form, not only digital. A fact that your album is available on CDs gives you a feeling that your big project is actually completed and you don’t need to get back to these songs anymore writing or producing wise. Great to feel!

Recently I wrote a soundtrack to a documentary (directed by Arthur and Andrey once again) about Olkhon Island which is the largest island in Lake Baikal. Lots of people know about it as a place with beautiful sights, but how many people know that the island’s locals have to struggle with lots of difficulties to survive? For example, the government has barred them from hunting and fishing. Nobody cares that it was their main way of earning on the island lying hundreds of km away from civilization. Olkhon's soil is inappropriate for agriculture and the only ways to earn the money there are cattle breeding and giving tours. There are lots of problems and this documentary's mission is to attract the attention of as many people as possible to them. We sincerely hope it may be helpful for the people who live on the island. More details about this documentary project will be announced and I’ll share it through Synthapex’s social media for sure! As for our gigs, it may happen later this year. Follow the news!

Thanks for your questions, mate! I hope people will enjoy our new music video, we also would appreciate if people share it wherever they can. It’s not easy to promote your stuff these days but absolutely easy to get lost. 

Dear reader, if you like our stuff, please share it with your friends or tell about it in your social media, it helps a lot even if you think it doesn’t. Also, we started a competition related to our latest music video recently. If you want to get a special gift from Synthapex, please visit our Facebook for more details.