Hi. Please tell us about your first projects. When and why did you decide to do music?

It all started in the heyday of hypnagogic music. I met Dima at one of the Kyiv universities, where I enrolled to study psychology. He was one of those rare metal players who would rather be seen in cool foreign skate videos. Dima was absolutely different from those metal players whom you could meet on the streets of Kyiv; he didn't drink alcohol, didn't smoke, and didn't eat meat; instead, he skated and played the guitar perfectly.

At that time, I dreamed of finding someone with whom I could talk about musical topics that interested me and, ideally, get together and make our own project. So, I managed to get Dima interested, and we began to gather in my village on weekends and record on the old 8-track tape Portastudio recorder the music that turned into the Mjatnaya Lovushka (Mint Trap) project. Everything we recorded back then was later released on CD by the German label 101io.

Then I moved to Poland and started making music alone. I bought a guitar, but I didn't have money for a sound card. At the same time, I wanted to play, and I found a way out by just imagining in advance how my music would sound. This way, I bypassed the sound delay, which is characteristic of recording an instrument on the built-in sound card of an old computer.

That's how I recorded several improvisational parts and layered them on top of each other, and as a result, this music turned into the Invisible Empire album which was released on tape under my name, Ross Khmil. In 5-6 years, this album was released by the Dream Catalog label.

But before this album was released, many events shaped me as an artist. I had no friends in Poland. In the case of my social phobia, any slightest trigger leads more to cutting off contact than getting closer, and that regards any social interactions. That’s why, when I entered the university, I stopped attending classes after the first week and for a year I just sat at home and recorded music.

At that time, my only listener was my girlfriend. One day she told me, commenting on another record of mine, that I was crazy; and everything beautiful that could grow in my music, I destroy on purpose. Her remark motivated me to make a willful effort. I felt that even if I went crazy, it didn’t negate the coolness of my music. That’s why, despite my poor knowledge of the English language, I just wrote several letters, adding demo recordings of my three different albums. Each of these albums was recorded using a fundamentally different approach in terms of the idea and its implementation. So, I sent these letters with the demo to all the labels of different sizes that I was interested in. I didn't really believe that I could get a response from the people I considered and still consider my musical heroes. But I hoped that one of the smaller labels would respond.

But it turned out the opposite way. The same evening, I received a reply from the American label Olde English Spelling Bee, and I was informed that they have plans for releases in the near future. But they liked my music and promised to show my albums to those friends who might want to release my music. And at that moment my world completely changed. It was a real miracle for me, which I had a hard time believing at first, because Olde English Spelling Bee was the very label that was at the origin of the hypnogogic era of music, and, basically, they released all that music, which I lived with and which I loved.

The same day, a couple of hours later, I was contacted by the label Hardvapour Resistance Front Central Command, who told me that they liked the album from my demo pack that OESB had shown them and that the music reminded them of ‘Watch out?!’ album by Black Joker project, one of Spencer Clark's music alter egos. This way, the label Hardvapour Resistance Front Central Command released my album Behind the Mask. It sounds extreme for an untrained listener, in the style of "free avant-garde electroacoustic sound". The album was released under my creative pseudonym Jesus Selin. Ironically, it was the same music that my girlfriend was commenting on and told me that I was crazy. A few days later, the guys from the Portuguese label Plastic Response contacted me and offered to release another album of mine, Walkman Pleasure. It featured music inspired by the Replica, album by Oneohtrix Point Neverproject. Walkman Pleasure was created according to the canons of vaporwave. But the difference was that I sampled not cartoons and pop music from my childhood, but favorite tracks from Armin Van Buuren's mixtape A State of Trance Yearmix 2006. It was my contribution to the vaporwave universe. A couple of months later Plastic Responsereleased ‘Walkman Pleasure’ on tape. This album was released under my pseudonym Beloved Woman's Milk.

The third album from the demo pack that I sent to OESB was the already mentioned ‘Invisible Empire’, a guitar album released by Dream Catalogue label. 

So, this is how everything began to happen and turn into reality.

You also produce and have a label, it seems, even several. Tell us more about the artists you release. Is it difficult to continue this work in the conditions of a full-scale war?

I started communicating with all these artists and people from the labels every day; observing, listening, looking, and diving into the new cultural phenomenon of the vapor community, which does not exist anywhere but the Internet and is actually a product of this Internet: Twitter, Reddit, various group chats. It's really a whole virtual reality that gets in touch with our reality only with albums released on physical media while remaining a multi-layered community consisting of anonymous people all over the world; and 90 % of them have never seen each other, they know each other only as fictional characters. To me, it was the embodiment of what the true spirit of underground music should be in the post-internet era.

The whole next year I also spent at home and was satisfied with everything. I felt that I was a part of this community and could make my contribution. Around that time, I had an idea to record the birth of the hardvapour movement (a branch within the vapour culture, focused on a heavier sound). After collecting all its diversity, I recorded the Hardvapour Essentials mix, which Сrossfader Magazine helped to present.

Afterwards, I started my label Pinkbox Teleport with the same goals. I was surrounded by a lot of cool music made by different people, not all of whom thought of themselves as musicians, not all of whom believed that their music was worth anything. So, remembering my experience with OESB and the push that allowed me to never doubt my skills again, I wanted anyone who is doing something cool, but maybe not in an environment where they can be understood, not to give up at this moment, but on the contrary, got the opportunity to give the world what only they can give it. With this goal, I made my label.

One of my favorite releases is the Berlin project INRA. All their music is recorded with live instruments, but it sounds like real post-internet shamanism. When they contacted me and I heard their album Suburbs of Utopia, I knew from the first track that I wanted to do everything, so that as many people as possible could hear this music. As a result, even though we were in different countries, we managed to release a CD, get press support, and organize INRA’s performances in Europe.

In Pinkbox Teleport, I also made a CD reissue of the iconic hypnagogic album of the American project P.A.R.A. called Pentacles of Life. Before that, this strange cave music was released in 2009, on tape, on James Ferro's legendary label New Age Tapes. Pinkbox Teleport activity also involved the participation of my friend Roma. He was my only friend during my stay in Poland. Roma was an admirer of alternative rock and was studying to be a translator. I seemed to him a very strange and incomprehensible dude. Roma didn’t understand how I could be in isolation for so long, and also in a foreign country. He didn’t understand why I didn’t go to university. He didn’t understand at all what was wrong with me.

Roma often brought food to my house. And once he came in and saw a guitar. We tried to jam together, and in this way, I invited Roma to the world of music, which was different from the alternative rock he was used to. For the next two years, we hung out together at my house, recorded music every day, talked, read, and discussed a lot of different literature. Thanks to Roma, I, after all, came once to my university, where we were invited to perform at some event. And we performed. One of our joint projects was called Highway Dept., which I also released on Pinkbox Teleport.

Pinkbox Teleport has a new release planned for this year, but details regarding what it will be are still in secret.

I know you made a release under the Hype Williams project name. Tell me about the idea. Was it an attempt to shake up the music industry, a pirate joke, or a concept action?

I was the creator and administrator of the public page dedicated to the work of Dean Blunt in VKontakte (VK), where I regularly published all the relevant news related to Hype Williams. Later the public page gained popularity, and all other large VK public pages related to the advanced electronic experimental scene drew information from it.

At this time, before the release of the new Hype Williams album, Dean stated that neither he nor Inga (the other member of the Hype Williams duet) have any connection with the project anymore and are not responsible for what happens to it, and now Hype Williams can be anyone. And then I thought, if Hype Williams can be anyone, then I'll put together an album of my 8 old unreleased demos, draw a cover, and post it to my Hype Williams public page. That's how the ‘Detection 8’ album by Hype Williamsappeared. An hour later a bunch of positive feedback appeared under the post, with commenters rejoicing that the classic Hype Williams sound was finally back. Literally, during the evening, likes, reposts, and thematic public pages spread the album around the world.

But the most interesting thing started later that evening. For starters, at the same time, they leaked the future album that was supposed to be released the next day. Then there were publications in foreign media that Dean and Inga were returning to the project. I also sent this album to a friend of mine at Ogritch Tapes who kindly agreed to release it on his Bandcamp. And he soon informed me that he had received a letter from the Bandcamp admins who had been contacted by Dean Blunt's lawyer; and that they were removing the album. To be more precise, the Bandcampadministration removed his entire label from their service three times, because he re-uploaded the album and did not want to give up, appealing to the original speech of Dean, who said that Hype Williams could be anyone. So, generally, once after all, Hype Williams is a director from America. So, if Dean is such a cool art prankster, then he should play the game that he himself suggested. And play it to the end, and according to the rules that he himself suggested.

But it turned out that Dean simply didn’t expect that someone could play with him and, moreover, beat him on his own field, where he, to put it simply, simply screwed up. After this incident, I clearly understood that it did not match with the spirit of the real underground. And that all of Dean Blunt's art performances and gestures are not a challenge to the industry, because he himself is unable to justify any of his steps and statements without this industry. And the project had to be renamed to Detection 8 by Unknown Williams, to keep it available for listening on popular streaming services, where it can still be found.

Tell us about meeting and working with Spencer Clark (James Ferraro's partner in the psychedelic project The Skaters).

What Spencer does, his radio show, his music, his myths and legends, and the general aesthetic of his work as a whole, is a true wonder to me. If you listen to his radio show, they just pick you up and send you straight to the ‘80s American dream. This is where I can feel the maximum vaporwave effect, which, by the way, interests me little in other ways. It was while listening to Spencer's albums that, at some point, I felt the way I should make my music, to be able to create the sound worlds I want to create. I don't know how Spencer makes music; I've never asked him. It's not about the technical stuff, it's not about the methods, but rather about the ray that passes through his sound and fills his music with life, creating a portal for the listener.

We talk, we send letters to each other. Thanks to Spencer, by the way, I released my last album on Retrac Recordings. It was Spencer who connected me with these guys who had previously released his ‘Avatar Blue’ album, as well as James Ferraro's ‘Hacker Track’.

This summer, I could go to perform with Spencer on his European tour. He invited me, but due to well-known reasons, only a small number of people are allowed to cross the borders of our country, and, unfortunately, I am not one of them. But I believe that soon everything will change to a positive side, and new horizons will open for everyone who goes forward.

Your albums were released on various foreign labels, in particular, on Dream Catalogue. I know you are also in touch with its founder. What is the process of album release? What label are they, and what are they about?

Dream Catalog is primarily responsible for the fact that vaporwave has transformed from music made entirely from samples of favorite cartoons from the 80s and 90s into music that is completely original and authentic, limited only by the dreams and imagination of those who create it. At the same time, the music resonates and develops its own original ideas embodied in such genre branches as vapour, dream-punk, and hardvapour. Behind all this, from the beginning to this day, stands Dream Catalogue. They were setting the direction vector from the very beginning. They were and are in the avanguard. All their moves, decisions, and experiments have always had a huge impact on the entire vapour community.

This is their merit. Everyone wanted to be like Dream Catalogue. Everyone wanted to be on Dream Catalogue. Then everyone freaked out about what Dream Catalogue is at all when their music stopped meeting any acceptable canons in the community. This is a phenomenon both within the framework of the vaporwave world and in today's culture as a whole; the way David plays this game and wins at it. Because he does it the way absolutely no one else does.

We communicate with David as friends. We discuss everything in the world, often our own difficult life situations. When some important events take place at the label — the release of albums, and compilations — David often invites me to participate. Sometimes I send him a demo of my music that I am working on at the moment.

On 20ft Radio, you had a show called Black Market Trade. What was its main idea?

I saw the news about the creation of 20ft Radio while I was still in Poland. The ideas and ideals stated by the radio team resonated with me. I felt it as something new, something that had not happened before in Ukraine and something that should have appeared here. Almost immediately, I had the idea to collect all the music that passed through me into regular mixes and broadcast them. I wrote to the guys and told them about my idea for a show that would be dedicated to music born on the Internet and they agreed. That's how the Black Market Trade radio show was born.

I made the first few episodes while I was still in Poland. I accompanied the two-hour mix with a video, where I edited a huge pile of movie cuts from 90s films for each track.

When I came back to Ukraine, I continued to host my show from the radio studio, where, by the way, I met people who became my friends in real life. At the same time, I started hanging out a lot with different people, and each of them was interesting in their own way, each had their own taste in music. This way, I came up with an idea for another radio show. For each episode, I invited one of my friends who were not musicians, but had their own special musical universe. I suggested that the participants compile their tracklist to show their general vision of musical preferences. And I took over the technical part, gathered the selected compositions into mixes, which later appeared on 20ft Radiounder the name of Hotel Magnolia.

You also have a blog Newage Apocalypse Magazine. What is it about?

I made this blog to tell news about my releases and the releases of friendly musicians. I posted track lists of my radio shows, and sometimes I did overviews and critical reviews of albums I'm interested in. Now Newage Apocalypse Magazine has moved to Telegram.

The music you write can often be attributed to such genres as hypnagogic music or hauntology. How do you feel about these cultural phenomena and why are you attracted to this sound?

I write music in two ways. The first is when I have a certain idea of what I want to create using a certain method and I record music following it. The second way can be called hypnagogic or hauntological. I can watch a movie, read a book, any event, any experience can happen to me that I want to save; and I want to do it in the form of music. For example, if I had some cool adventures with my friends, after coming home feeling impressed by the walk, I just press the record button and start improvising. I don't know what will happen in a result. I don't know where it should lead me. I just move to that moment when the picture finds its completeness. And, as a result, it surprises even me

How did the war affect you and your attitude to the world, to creating music? What changes have you noticed?

I gave up taking drugs, and alcohol and broke up with my girlfriend. I narrowed my circle of communication as much as possible and discovered that I absolutely do not know how to go through most life situations. And that has been this way for the last 10 years. I realized this, was horrified, and understood that I want to live. And I began to learn to live in a new way.

At the very beginning of the full-scale war, David from Dream Catalog wrote to me and suggested that I record an album that would express how I feel about what is happening now. This is how the album Love 2022 appeared. The first track I consider the best track that I generally ever recorded.

Finally, please tell us about your mix, its mood, and concept.

This mix could be the soundtrack to the story above. It continues it and creates a portal to the present moment. Before, I hadn't recorded anything for probably a year because I couldn't listen to music at all.