Hello dear Voyager! I’d like to thank you in advance for your time and for sharing your thoughts in this space, the Sanctum. Let me start with my classic question: Why ‘Voyager’? What is the story behind this choice?
Well there´s two reasons behind it, firstly it´s named after one of my favourite songs of all time "Voyager" by Daft Punk, the other reason being to represent change and constant movement, experiencing a non-stop journey without looking back twice, also I think it´s a pretty sick name to be honest.
Can you please name a few artists you grew up listening to? Also, what lit the fire to create your own music?
For as long as I can remember, my parents played me arists like, Gorillaz, Björk, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Air, Portishead, Massive Attack, Daft Punk and many more, my parents definitely had a massive influence on my tastes in music and the types of productions I orient myself towards. Answering your second question I´m not too sure if I can think of one specific thing that made me want to make music, as I said my parents have been playing a lot of music around me since I´ve been born, I played the drums quite a bit when I was younger and I´ve always loved hearing new music and different genres, when I was about 15 I got my first DAW, which was the intro version of Reason 10, which my parents got me for my birthday, I did ask for it but I don´t remember having a reason for it, it just appealed to me. Since then I´ve now spent 3/4 years producing from a DAW, although now I work from Ableton Live 11 which I personally enjoy a lot more, but regarding there being a standalone reason for me to create music I can´t think of one, it feels more as if over the course of my life I´ve been slowly guided towards it to the point where I have no choice but to accept it and follow through.
Is music a full-time job? If not, what else keeps you occupied?
It´s definitely my primary occupation, I don´t make a living off of it but I´m very lucky to have my parents support me, so for now it´s by far the activity I spend the most time on. I also spend time reading (mostly philosophy), drawing, anything with my friends, anything with my family, but it´s by far the most recurring activity that I always lean into more than anything else, pretty much everything I do revolves around my art and everything connected to it.
Would you share the story of losing your work and deciding to create an album out of what was saved?
Yes, it was a bit sudden but early/mid July I had my bag taken from me which had my laptop inside, of course it wasn´t recently backed up so I lost all my project files, sound files and proggress for the things I had planned for the future. Originally, I was planning to release a short House oriented EP with maybe five or six tracks, and then a much larger release with more experimental electronic music in January, but after losing my work and progress the only material I had was the most recent version of 19 tracks that I happened to send to my phone within the week of my laptop being stolen, most of which I was planning to tweak some more, out of those I picked 17 which I thought worked well together overall, 4 of them were meant for the House project, and with those sound files I did some fairly limited mixing and mastering on my pc at home and strung together what is now "Lost Files". It wasn´t what I was planning for or expecting but in the end I´m happy with the project that came out, it´s definitely gone above my expectations regarding the quality, coherence and how much I enjoy it.
How did you process the feelings that come with losing work you put your soul into? As a musician myself I can’t even imagine myself in this position.
For a short time it did feel like that was it, that I had failed to take care of what I loved and that that was it for me with music, but that only lasted a short moment, I quickly accpeted that it was gone and that the only choice I had from here was to move on and grow with it, to realise that these instances are necessary for growth and without adversity it would take longer than our own lifetimes to achieve what we have in mind. It was definitely not pleasant or enjoyable to lose my life´s work in mere seconds but it was very important for me to be able to let go, it definitely was mostly due to my decisions that it was taken, but if I just spent my time being angry at myself and those who took the bag then I won´t go anywhere except further away from where I want to go, it was meant to happen, and it slingshot me into the direction I was looking for, without that incident I wouldn´t be here right now and for that I am grateful.
Now, to the point! What did you need to communicate through Lost Files and what does this album mean to you?
Well the name of it definitely relates to loss and everything that surrounds it, however the intention behind the sound is more directed towards experience, and exploring new experiences, being okay with unexpected turns and embracing them, even enjoying them, it´s also a journey, as the title of the tracks suggest, from one point in time to another, from an aggressive ball of energy to a light, peaceful and playful landscape. Overall I think the main things I intended to express through "Lost Files" is embracing change and also simply enjoying things, not indulging in something to be impressed or to have a life changing experience but just to enjoy it and bathe in that feeling alone.
Are there any tracks in this album you feel closer to for some reason?
I love them all very much, but if I had to name one it would have to be "Crush", it´s a track I originally made in early 2022 (the original version is on my bandcamp) and it´s one of those tracks where there was so little thought involved in the production, it was just purely feeling and intuition whilst paying homage to a song I really love "Inner City Life" by Goldie, I made the song before I learned how to mix and master, so I made and updated version of the track with significantly better mixing in my opinion, also I felt the need to include it in an album as dear to me as this one because I feel as if this track deserves more spotlight than just a song on my bandcamp from more than a year ago. It´s one of my favourite songs I´ve ever made and it´ll always be one I identify with personally when describing my sound, again I still love every other track on the project but this one does stand out to me sentimentally for these reasons.
Please name some artists/bands from the contemporary scene that you’d like to recommend.
I would love to focus more on smaller acts but I can´t help but name more well known people like JPEGMAFIA, Vegyn, Conway the Machine and Death Grips, but for smaller artists recently I´ve been loving avvay who recently came out with an amazing electronic album "digital me" also DEAR THUNDERSTORM who is always releasing something and is wildly consistent with a weird folk/rock electronic sound which is awesome, as well as God of Delusions and Heather Knife. I´ve also been loving the newer releases from Parannoul, Aphex Twin and Yung Lean, there´s also SPELLLING whom I desperately need to listen to the newest release because I loved "The Turning Wheel" and finally I will always mention, recommend and be a fan of Freddie Gibbs.
What are your plans now that Lost Files is out?
I´m not too sure, recently I´ve been working on a lot of rap beats so I´ll see where I go with that, but I´ve been planning to focus on collaborations with various people I know, but for now I´m just acting on new ideas and I´ll see what goes from there.
Where do you see Voyager 10 years from now?
Honestly I have zero idea, the only answer I can think of is that I´ll be further down the Voyage, one thing I can say for sure is that I´ll have ventured into other genres, I also wish that by then I´ll have inspired multiple people in some shape or form to help them advance and grow with themselves.
Find Voyager here: