Romanowitch
by Mister Mime
31st May 2021
Hyper-glitch noisemaker Romanowitch released one of the hardest hitting and unconventional sounding EPs of the year so far. In ‘Inner City’ he channels all the angst and uncertainty of the pandemic, along with a plethora of other dark emotions associated with living in the deep end of human ‘civilization’ - the “inner city” of any metropolis - and brings out a sound that is definitely not for the faint-hearted, but one which everybody who has lived in a big city will relate to. His raw and gutsy sound takes the element of noise, both inner and outer, and puts listeners in a test of their own resilience. Try out the experience for yourself and you may actually feel a sense of accomplishment that conventional music fails to deliver. It is the same kind of feeling that Batman, the dark knight, must have attained when he conquered his fears, the kind we get when we make peace with the darkness within us.
MM: How did you decide to call yourself “Romanowitch”?
Romanowitch: I initially had trouble finding a moniker that suited me, and which wasn’t emotionally clever or over-thought. But the more you think about it, the more it gets utterly out of control. In the end, I remembered this nickname my dad called me when I was a child.
Looking back, maybe this choice is questionable. A lot of people think I’m somewhat Slavic, or Russian, or randomly Sovietic, most don’t know how to pronounce it, nor to spell it correctly. This makes it unsuitable for the social/promotional aspect, but I think it’s still funny to scuttle my own business. I like to be on my own. As time goes by, I think, I’ll switch to another moniker that goes along another concept to come, less abrupt, more ambient but still noise-related, and played live.
MM: Why is the EP called “Inner City”?
Romanowitch: Entitling a project which is conceptual and rather extreme, is always something to seriously consider. There are lots of efforts, researches, certain sacrifices and mental troubles involved in the making of this kind of material. As I explained earlier, I didn’t want something too complicated or conceptual, but something more about what the actual release is about. It is about greyness, contrasts, depths, rain, unsettled mindsets, angriness, frustration, brutality, emptiness, fullness, overwhelmed feelings, drugs, violence, rust, noise, pressure, social illness, love and hate.
The EP was written entirely during the pandemic period which was tough for the whole world with an unknown global feeling of uncertainty. Writing this EP was a way to channel my emotional tides, mostly the angry ones. The urbanistic/concrete-like aspect was quite clear, by its colour and ruggedness, and the « inner » word symbolises all the feelings squeezed out, which I’ve talked about earlier. I knew later that « Inner City » is actually a way to call a city-centre in English, which totally made sense afterwards. Big chaos where everybody and everything comes and goes without real structure. I liked it.
MM: Are there any stories behind any of the tracks or the making of the EP that you would like to share?
Romanowitch: There are quite a few details about each track that made them what they are today. For instance, the first title « They said … » is a hidden way to throw a mid-finger to those who had criticised and lowered me about my inclined taste to roughness or didn’t take me seriously. These 4 minutes of condensed noise is the answer, the words I didn’t say: « Take it, face it and stand up now. »
« Habitat 67 » is a reference to a Brutalist building in Montréal that was built for Expo 67. During a break while writing this track, I’ve lost myself digging, reading and documenting about Brutalism, I really love it for its concept considered heavy and ugly by the mass, and I eventually found a pic of this building. A massive structure of edgy concrete square blocks colliding and stacked onto each other creates a big something that somehow makes sense as a whole. I felt it was exactly the physical representation of what I was trying to achieve with this track. It made so much sense.
Romanowitch: « Idarecauseudnt » is a reference to the album of Richard D. James « I care because you do ». I think this album is a « classic » because it brings the concept of IDM (or whatever genre it is) to another level. It was like a new door that Richard opened. The idea was to go as deep as I can in the concept of noise, texture, storytelling, creepiness and sonic oppression to try to open another door that usually people tend to overlook. Because facing assumed dark, or unknown, emotions is considered as weird or bad.
I consider bringing dark feelings as the most intriguing and interesting things to express in music, as it is hard to handle, as a listener as well as a producer. But they are in every single one of us. It’s quite easy to do happy and entertaining songs. The opposite requires going deeper in your guts, and I think that’s where real emotions lie. The ones that you’re trying to escape from. (That relates also to the title « Inner city ».)
When I hear a track that makes me go in some depths I didn’t expect to originally, I feel good to be enlightened in a way, and I usually laugh to myself, like «well-done bruv’ ». Some people say my approach is violent, I’d say it’s raw, intense and unmade up, which may be scary at first for some listeners.
MM: Can you tell us a bit about your musical background?
Romanowitch: I began to play with music as a scratch DJ when I was 16 or so. I loved this sound that didn’t look like anything else, and the wonky aspect of it. There were no notes nor tones possible, no scales, it was just about the rhythm and the flow. It’s a real bastard way of making music and I loved it for that. I just did scratch stubbornly for like 6 or 7 years, with the most underground and weird rap music as a daily soundtrack.
Later, I met a crew from my city called « Herrmutt Lobby » who were also into hip-hop and scratching back in the days, but in a wonky way. They were about broken off-beats, heavy basses and synths sound, with crazy rappers flowing over it, instead of dusty samples and breakbeats. They literally opened a door and said « do whatever you want and whatever feels good, or bad ». They’re actually still in the game, coding music apps and making beats. So much love to them.
From there, I opened my mind to other styles like Dubstep, Dub, Idm, Breakcore, ambient, or drum & bass that really blew my mind. I wondered « how the hell is this music made?! », it had so much unknown energy and feelings. What really made me go deeper into the experimental aspect of music was the «Low-End Theory». It was a weekly party in a club in LA that gathered some of the finest producers every Wednesday, and released a podcast once a month with the purest fire existing back in the days.
I discovered a really new type of sound and energy, it really clicked to me like this was what I was seeking for years; melted genres of beat-music with a new sound, clearly electronic oriented and heavily loaded basses. There were a few albums from that period that really changed my perception of music and get me into the rabbit hole such as:
- Slugabed - Ultra heat treated
- Amon tobin - ISAM
- Lorn - Nothing Else
- edIt - Crying over pros for no reasons
- Nosaj Thing - Drift
- Shlohmo - Shlohmoshun & Bad vibes
At this time, Facebook and socials were just emerging, and it wasn’t that easy to find new things. You really had to look for them. I began to dig a bit more in that direction, and that’s how I gave up scratching to download banging tunes and began to mix them. My idea was to bring the most energetic beats I could, keeping the pressure high as long as I could. I was quickly in charge of the end of the line-ups of the local scene, to finish a well-cooked audience.
Later on, I developed more and more interest in experimental artists, especially in the dark/heavy/bassy sound design fields. The last ones who really blew my mind were: « Mutants » by Arca, « Midcity » by Clipping., « Demiurge » by Emptyset, or artists like Iglooghost, Noer the Boy, Qebrus, Gonçalo Penas or Aho Ssan.
I’m still mixing tunes nowadays. There’re a couple of podcasts on my Mixcloud where I tend to dive more on a global vibe that I feel like fitting my mood, rather than a list of bangers. You can check them out here: https://www.mixcloud.com/romanowitch. Around 8 years ago, I cracked an Ableton version and began to write my own beats. « Inner city » is my fifth project, after 2 albums and 2 EPs, that you can get as « Pay what you want » on my Bandcamp: https://romanowitch.bandcamp.com/
MM: Can you give us a glimpse into your music production process? It could be something that you consider to be the main or unique aspect of your process, some techniques you like to use, go to plugins, or any other angles to your creative process that you’d care to share.
Romanowitch: The main thing I use on almost every sound is the « warped time-stretch » option of Ableton. Globally, I always try to stretch, detune and granulate a lot, on most of the sounds I use. By the way, I don’t have a massive sample folder. As of now, including the ones I’ve done myself over the years, it’s less than 50 Gb, collected over 6 years or more. I think it’s the way you treat your sounds, the effect chain and modulations you apply, that makes it yours, not where it comes from or who did it at first. I often end up using the same kicks and percs all the time but treated differently.
When I begin a track, or what may be a track someday, it’s always first about a sound design session. I open Ableton, drop a few samples into some simpler, and/or drop a bunch of semi-random effects and add some more randomisation and LFOs. I resample a lot to create new material that I re-use in the same way or in some granular sampler or Reaktor and max4live devices. I use a LOT of the « Simpler » and Arpeggiator devices of Ableton to create random grooves and sounds. Both combined can do a lot more than expected. Technically, for soundscapes, I use any type of sound/bass/recordings/foley/whatever and drop it into a « Simpler » device.
I warp it and stretch it like hell. Depending on the shape of the sound, I’ll choose different algorithms, and then the experimentation begins. I usually drop some delays, filters, reverbs, different types of saturation and distortions, transient shapers, OTT’s, in no particular order, and almost randomly map some settings to the macros. Then, with automation and/or random Lfo’s, I play with this chain to see if there’s anything interesting coming out. I don’t hesitate to layer a lot of « Simplers » that play together and interact with each other.
Romanowitch: Recently, I’ve begun to mount a Eurorack modular case which opens up paths to new sound territories. Eventually, something comes up like a groove, some hidden melody, or just raw noises and textures to begin a structure with, or a story around it. I never play melodies directly or set up a chord progression, I pitch things up or down to fit the vibe. I’ve been asked a few times about which key the track was in, I don’t have any clue and I really don’t care about it.
When I’m working on the rhythmic aspect, it’s usually done sound by sound, with a BIG BUNCH of automation, and little clicks and layering here and there to break the « loop » feeling. I try to get a structure and overall vibe pretty quickly, in a couple of hours, and then work and refine details for days, sometimes weeks. I work on certain parts, playback the track from the beginning and fix everything that doesn’t work until I can reach the end of the track.
I mainly use Ableton stock effects as they are pretty low in resources and can get you to very good results. The only other go-to third-party plug-ins I use are « Reaktor » and some Max4Live devices, mainly the ones designed by Woulg, who is a real wizard in designing efficient and crazy-sounding devices. He’s also the one who did the Mastering of « Inner city ». Way too much love to him also.
When it’s about mixing/finalizing, I use some EQs straight on the master track like API and Pultec emulations to give some colour and taste, plus an Izotope Ozone at the end to shape things finely. I never compress anything too much, except for a side-chaining effect.
MM: How do you go about the sound selection or sound synthesis for your music? Especially since in the realm of Experimental hyper glitch/IDM there are really no rules or templates at all as compared to other types of music?
Romanowitch: Well, I went over this in the previous question in some detail. Hyperglitch is a sort of new genre that tries to redefine what and how glitches and an unconventional approach to electronic (but I hope acoustic will turn to it someday too) music can look like nowadays with all the background, tools and technologies we have now.
As I said earlier, Ableton really gave me the opportunity to go deeper into sound design than I ever expected. There are only a few things I miss, but overall, this is a MASSIVE tool to get into experimental music. For instance, I love to experiment with stacking LOTS (maybe too much) of the same destructive effect device in a row and see what’s coming out. Ableton’s makes it obvious to break the rules.
Romanowitch: I think the rule is simple: « if there is one, nuke it and make it yours ». Within the crew that Woulg gathered to make the « Hyperglitch » series, everybody has their own approach, which makes it super interesting as it has some sort of guideline with so many different shapes and taste.
Seskamol (cfr. Seskamol - Reasons) went hard on the details and roughness with a global charming story structured almost upside-down. Sunnk (cfr. Sunnk - Weaving Rituals) went more in an intricate and emotional vibe that sweats some sort of pain relief, I’ve heard some glimpses of the other, like Abroxis or Jim Kimchi coming next (on Detroit Underground too), it’s yet another story and sound signature. Keep an eye on them in the coming months. I personally chose the noise way. It’s where I feel comfortable and where I somehow, understand what’s going on.
MM: How do you interlink music with other art forms like dance for example?
Romanowitch: I actually work a lot with dancer/performer friends, especially « JulianneK » with whom I’m collaborating for almost 3 years now. We met each other and began to improvise around weird themes and quickly, we understood we connect very well to each other around experimentations, sound-wise for me and movements for her. It has been taken a big part of my journey to develop my way of doing music and globally try to tell stories within.
She helped me to point and develop certain hidden aspects of what I do that I didn’t see at first, and on the other hand, I made her get out to further unexpected territories. The combo is really enjoyable and fertile. Our collaborations went from movie clips (cfr. « She » or « pE.HSen ») to noise and performative band (cfr. Nyxx) to some one-shot performance and residencies (cfr. CLCKWRK) with two other noisy-fellas (Amul & SpaniB. way too much love for them). Every time, it led to a similar but also different result, far from what has been expected initially, in the best way, with raw and pure energy. I have so much love and respect for her.
Romanowitch: Concerning other forms of arts, I’ve to say this kind of music relates directly to some mappings and sound-reacting lines and shapes imagery, which I really love, but I think it’s been a bit over-done, or maybe too obvious, and I wanted, and still want, some more « real » filming to accompany my music. I’m actually directing all of my videos, except one from my previous album that was done by another awesome human being, friend and multi-task audio-visual artist called Mourad, from Montréal, best known as IVOPA (Indistinct Voices Over P.A.). Much love for him too. I’d never been here telling you all this without all the people I’ve mentioned before.
I think music uses one sense that cherishes the heart; as good as images (photography, paintings, movies, …) uses eyes, or food uses taste. It’s all about communicating and arousing emotions in the « user ». Combining different aspects can emphasise the impact of the actual piece or do the opposite. That said, recently I’ve been totally blown away by visuals from 404.zero, Ryoji Ikeda, Tarik Barri, Nonotak or Jung An Tagen.
MM: Who/what are your musical and non-musical influences? (Musicians, artists, things, places, people, etc. that inspire you)
Romanowitch: My musical influences are really wide. I spend a huge daily amount of time on Youtube and Bandcamp to find hidden gems in any sort of style. I try to share something every day on my personal Facebook, like a track, or something that I find inspiring, or not, but even just for the sake of sharing.
My biggest inspirations are my friends and the people doing things around me. One of my flatmates is a painter who realises massive paintings around the world (@PSOMAN), one of my best friends makes sculptures from waste and street material (@KALBUT DSGN), or Amul Dechambre, another amazing dancer I mentioned earlier. All these artists are such an inspiration with their own energies and sensibilities that may help me to refresh my mind when I get stuck in some deep/weird vibe. Having a beer with them, just looking at them at work or talking about a project they are working on just opens a new way of considering things that are very important for me. Never lay on what you know.
I’m also directly surrounded by amazing and talented musicians such as Richard Colvaen, Galli Gani, BOthlane, Herrmutt Lobby, Mers, Clement Dechambre, Mtwn, Mehbian just to name a few, and great DJs with amazing tastes. I can’t get enough of their knowledge, even if they don’t know I’m stalking them. They’ve got all a certain part in the making of « Inner city »
Romanowitch: Besides that, for the « cliché » side, I take inspiration also in situations, generally chaos-like, to gain some raw energy to be translated into sonic moods. I also like to be in a social place, and stay silent, observing what and how people play and interact with each other. Something I never really understood too well, to be honest. That was a bit of an issue during this pandemic period actually. As everybody had to slow down their activities or keep them hidden, I felt empty of new energy and vibes.
I also used to work as a bartender in a club in the city where I live, in Belgium. Every weekend I would assist the party, from beginning to the end, just a cig break here and there, listening to music I generally hated, serving drinks to people I barely can stand, or being «taught» by DJs with too much blow in their noses. This sort of anxiety turned actually into a huge inspiration and motivation for me like, okay, so this is the music that YOU like, I’m gonna make sure you won’t like or understand mine. (cfr. related the meaning of the first track « They said … »)
MM: What do you like to do apart from music?
Romanowitch: Trying to find out what I would like to do apart from music…
Follow Romanowitch on:
https://detund.bandcamp.com/album/inner-city-ep
https://romanowitch.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thisisromanowitch/?hl=en
All Images courtesy of Romanowitch
