‘Click Interview’ with Tineidae: ‘I Love Telling Stories With Melodies’
TINEIDAE is a project I discovered back in 2012 by the “Lights”-album released on the now defunct Tympanik Audio. The next album “Shadows” released in 2014 featured a similar taste for IDM and Electro-Ambient Electronics. But after that second album and the end of Tympanik Audio it became quite silent in the TINEIDAE circle. A lot of things happened and one of the main changes was Pavlo Storonsky left his homeland, Ukraine, to relocate in Warsaw (Poland). He started to compose new music and this year signed to Cryo Chamber to unleash the Cinematographic work “Exo”. The opus reveals an important evolution in sound, but a similar passionate and overwhelming sound experience.
(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)
Q: After the “Shadows”-album released in 2014 it took you several years to release a new full length. You last year released “Slowly Drown In Static”, which already was like a real album and this year you released “Exo”. Why did it take that long to release a new full length and what kind of work did you want to accomplish with “Exo”?
Pavlo: A lot of things have changed since the last full-length album released on Tympanik Audio; from moving to other countries and a job change to having a family life and becoming a dad. So quite naturally it wasn’t an easy thing to come back to music the way I did it before. There was a lot of getting used to, a lot of changes in habits and especially, time management (which I’m still pretty bad at, I have to admit). Music-wise there were small bits and pieces that I’ve started every now and then, but a lot of bigger ideas had to be postponed. Some are still a work in progress since early 2015 to this day and some were finished.
When it comes to “Exo”, initially it was an experiment with a limited amount of tools to be used. You know with a lot of possibilities come an everlasting problem of choice, while limiting yourself you both eliminate that problem, as well as getting deeper understanding of the tools. Well, first iterations of it were just that –seeing what can be accomplished with the bare minimum. Later on it started to grow into something more personal, more meaningful.. There is the narrative, ‘lore’ of sorts, which describes the imaginary story behind the album, but also it is a tribute to my father.
Q: I already mentioned “Slowly Drown In Static” released in 2019, which revealed a different sound approach than what you released in the past. Tell us a bit more about this work and the move towards a more Cinematographic/Soundtrack driven work?
Pavlo: “Slowly Drown In Static” was a change indeed. It is mostly the way it is due to all of the above, like when things change in life drastically, it has an impact on creative output for sure. And this EP/album, I don’t know how to call it myself, is a catharsis of all those happenings. It’s rather short, but I would say it’s condensed, a brief summary of metamorphosis if you can call it that way. We tend to perceive life as a journey from A to B, or at least I was like that, but then you suddenly realize that in the wait of that B point you actually miss your life passing by each second, and this exact moment is the meaning, all that you feel and all who you are in this moment, and not the imaginary point B.
As for the Cinematographic/Soundtrack driven work, it really is something that shapes to be a thing on its own, meaning I don’t really aim to make that, it just becomes what it is naturally. I think it’s fair to say that I’m into more melodic stuff rather than technical and I love telling stories with melodies, so if you take away all the fanciness (which was there at times) of the older works, it will likely result in, maybe less refined, but still quite Cinematic sound.
Q: Your early albums were released by the defunct Tympanik Audio while you now signed to Cryo Chamber. How did you feel about the end of Tympanik Audio, which was like a kind of ‘family label’ and how do you see Cryo Chamber, which is another ‘family label’?
Pavlo: Tympanik Audio is being missed by many for sure (as well as some other labels close in the genre at that time, which do not function anymore). It was an era in Electronic music for me at least which kind of ended at that time, the very mixture of Glitch, IDM and Ambient with a more Industrial sound was introduced and carried over the years by those labels. Some artists still continued making music and experimenting with sound; many stopped and those who continued were harder to find and follow.
It was pretty big at least in my eyes, that too, at least partially, caused a halt in my musical endeavors. The decisions were made, there were personal reasons behind those, so I can understand why it was that way. No hard feelings, only hopes for good future of the people behind Tympanik Audio, including artists. It did feel like a family after all.
Cryo Chamber is another tight-knit bunch of friendly people. We share the same goal –retelling stories with our music. The label is known for a less flashy/synthy music compared to what I usually do, but it turned out my stuff fits in 🙂
Q: “Exo” is for sure your most ‘cinematic/soundtrack’-driven album. What have been your main influences to compose this work and how do you see your evolution as musician/artist from previous releases towards “Exo”?
Pavlo: From Original Soundtracks my main influences were mostly sci-fi/cyberpunk films, games and animation (suffice to say I’m quite a bit into cyberpunk and sci-fi genre in books and films), namely “Ghost In The Shellt, both Bladerunners, Tarkovsky’s “Stalker”, Deus Ex: “Human Revolution”, Nier: “Automata” and some others. When it comes to musicians it’s mainly Access T Arasaka, Lorn, Bad Sector and older works of Atrium Carceri. In general –a pretty mixed bag, but all these are melody-centric and very immersive if you consider the storytelling aspect, and I enjoy it a lot.
Q: Tell us a bit more about the writing- and production process of “Exo”? What have been the different stages to release this album and tell us a bit more about your way of composing (equipment, noise sources etc)?
Pavlo: Starting off as an experiment “Exo” (it didn’t have a name at the time) quickly formed into a rather long monolithic track, which I later on separated. At that point I realized that it sounds good enough to make something bigger so some parts were dropped (those that clearly were out of the realm of sci-fi) and new parts/movements were created. You know swhen you make something without a bigger idea initially, not all of it fits, and you don’t often know what sounds good and what is just some, what I call, artistic bullshit. So you then work in iterations, creating more stuff and then filtering out and changing and separating what doesn’t fit. Some of the tracks that are now part of “Exo” were the filtered out older stuff which didn’t quite fit the more dynamic earlier sound, so I resampled/re-recorded a bit and it started fitting the mood/narrative after some adjustments.
I feel like I’m in a forge talking about how I hammer some metal parts and what not, but essentially it’s almost like that. Like whenever you create a sound, or work on some recordings/samples and tie them together you act more on what ‘sounds good’ in the moment and only later on you piece the whole picture together, if that makes sense.
Equipment is scarce –most of the stuff is in the box, I only have my Roland JD-XI and some guitar pedals (old Boss distortion and chorus). For the noise sources I try to have my Zoom h2n at hand, good enough field-recording device for most of my needs. I also enjoy lurking on websdr’s and recording some radio static, occasionally some weird modulated voices.
Q: Artistic life has been badly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. How do you look back at this experience and how do you expect things evolving? What are the further plans for TINEIDAE?
Pavlo: I am thankful for what I have: family, music, work. The lockdowns and all the things happening around helped me to re-evaluate what’s worth in life. As a pretty closed/introverted person, I can’t say that the lockdown impacted me a lot psychologically. I’m still member of online communities I was in previously, I still try to stay in contact with people close to me and also my wife and kids are a tremendous support and help as well as I try to be for them. Hard to say how things will pan out, I’m not sure everything will return back to how they were pre-Covid, or at least not suddenly. Or maybe they won’t at all. I’m trying to keep on creating regardless, monthly singles that are way further from what one could expect genre-wise from me, remixes, collaborations, but also bigger works too, likely back with Cryo Chamber if I don’t go too far off with my artistic bullshit 😀
Thanks for taking your time and asking me some questions. Stay safe!
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