American sensation Vaski has spent the better part of two years touring, shaking the globe with his electro-derived dubstep. With releases from the prestigious Hot Damn and Smog Records, Vaski is no stranger to the top of the Dubstep kingdom.
2016 sees the dubstep veteran launch his 10-tracker debut album – Night Sessions! We interviewed Vaski and spoke about his inspirations while producing the album, the story behind the name – Night Sessions and loads more. Read our chat below. :)
Azasia – Hi Alex, how are you? Thank you for taking the time to talk about your debut album. Where in the world are you at the moment?
Vaski – I am 30,000 feet in the air on a plane heading to Baton Rouge Louisiana to play a show. Thank you for the opportunity!
Azasia – How long have you been working on the album?
Vaski – Id say about a year, hard to know exactly because some of the tracks I started a very long time ago and never did anything with them till now. It really came together over about 5 months but that was after I had a lot of them started.
Azasia – Why have you decided that now is the time for a Vaski album?
Vaski – Over the last years I’ve released a lot of music, and wanted to do an album for a long time, but I always knew I wasn’t ready. I feel I’ve gone on a journey with my music, and that journey ended up in a similar place to where it started. At this point I really know what I’m about, and what I feel I have to give the world.
Azasia – What is the concept behind the album’s creation? What story does it tell?
Vaski – I have a very specific and quantifiable story, however I feel strongly that it’s better that I only share it through the music. The whole story is right there, Ive put it out for the world. Its up to you to listen to it and decipher it for yourself. All I can say is there is a lot of symbolism and layers to it. I spent a very long time choosing the order of the songs, its not like a dj mix, but the tracks all work together to create the full message.
Azasia – You’ve mentioned finding your sound, the sound that you are truly comfortable with. With this in mind, briefly tell us about the writing process of “Night Sessions” from a creative and/or production point? What plugins have you used etc?
Vaski – Everything was written in Logic Pro X. I used a lot of different samples from all over the place, and most of the synths were made in Serum. I feel serum is the best digital synth for this style of music. I think part of why I feel so good about it is because theres so much diversity. I like a lot of different styles, and it was really important to me that it not all sound the same.
Azasia – What was the inspiration behind the title “Night Sessions”?
Vaski – I brainstormed a lot of names, and that was what stuck. Ive always felt my music sounds best at night, so I played off of that. The word sessions I thought worked because like I said before, there is a lot of diversity to it. Its not one session, its “sessions” plural. These songs were ideas that I feel are expressions of many points in my life.
Azasia – What or who are some of the influences that have helped you in creating “Night Sessions”?
Vaski – Nero, Flume, Nightmre, Pink Floyd, Kill the Noise, but the biggest part is that I moved from my hometown of Minneapolis to the big city of Los Angeles. Its been an experience and this shows partly how its made me feel.
Azasia – What are your expectations of the album from the listeners’ perspective? What message or idea do you hope fans will hear when they listen to “Night Sessions”?
Vaski – I really don’t know, I hope people are able to understand it as a whole, I know in dance music culture people have short attention spans and like individual songs more, but I feel an album is a much better way to get the whole story accross. I think its important to listen to it all the way through at least once, and I understand if you want to skip part of “percolator”, haha cause that song is fucking crazy and theres only certain times where it makes sense to hear that one through.
Azasia – Are you planning to do an album tour? If so, please give us some details about that.
Vaski – First of all, I want to put it out there that I would absolutely love to come to India. I have friends from there and It sounds like such an interesting place. If any promoters are reading this lets make it happen. And yes we are working on north american shows now, plus theres a lot of exciting international stuff in the works.
Azasia – In this day and age where dance music is the mainstream, many producers may struggle to keep the balance between being relevant and at the same time being creative. How do you keep this balance in this competitive music industry?
Vaski – I don’t think its possible to achieve this perfectly. Everything seems to swing to one side or the other, It all depends on who you ask. Once you put something out there, people have expectations of whats next, and if you deviate far from it then people notice. If you don’t deviate far enough, people also notice. Everything is out in the open for public scrutiny and everyone has their opinion, but as the artist, its up to you to decide where you want to land.
Azasia – Thanks a ton Alex for the interview!
Vaski – Thank you!
Stream it below.
