Radial Gaze are St Petersburg based brothers Andrey and Stas.
Both are musical professionals, working in contrasting areas of the industry – Andrey as a mixing engineer, producer and DJ, Stas as a sound designer, theatre and musical director.
Their collaborative project as Radial Gaze is a culmination of their respective backgrounds, and of their natural synergy and personal understanding as siblings.
Their forthcoming EP Refined will be released on Thisbe Recordings on April 23rd, featuring remixes from Theus Mago and Romain FX.
We spoke to them recently to find out more about their collaborative workflow, their new EP and their homeland.
Radial Gaze
How did you get into doing and when did you decide to start making music?
Andrey: I have been DJing since my time as a student.
I got quickly attracted to electronic music back then, first as a DJ, but I later got dragged further into producing our own music and projects.
In the process, the Radial Project was born.
Stas: I have been studying music since my school days and graduated from University at the Faculty of Musical Art.
I am well versed in instrumental music and have developed a professional skill set as a guitar player.
You are brothers, how does this influence how you make music? Are there often disagreements?
A: I think the fact that we know each other well has a positive effect on our creativity.
Of course, we trust each other and listen a lot to each other’s opinions.
Although for us writing music is always a bit of an experiment, we rarely encounter serious disagreements.
So any bold ideas are embodied in our tracks.
How often do you meet up? And how often do you make music? And is there a routine when making a track?
S: We live quite close to each other, so we often meet up.
Not only to write music and produce the Radial Gaze project but also to see each other.
At first, we were constantly together in the studio, it was a complete collaboration.
A lot of trial and error has been done at the start of the project, and it was somehow time-consuming.
However, it was about finding an efficient way to work. Recently, the process has changed.
We don´t get together as often as before.
We first write the basis of the track together, and then, when it comes to other aspects, such as arrangement, mixing, …, we work remotely.
We thus see our best sides and spend less time on the routine moments.
You are from Saint Petersburg. What is the electronic music scene like there (before Covid)?
A: The electronic scene in St. Petersburg is definitely on the rise right now.
We see how, with the availability of new music technologies and knowledge, new names and labels appear, new venues open up.
It’s nice to know that we are involved in this process, to feel like a part of the vanguard.
How is the situation with covid 19 in Russia? Are clubs open and events happening? How has the situation influenced you?
A: Most recently, there was a second wave of the virus during which the clubs were closed, of course.
Recently, the statistics got better, and most of the lockdown restrictions got removed: the music scene comes to life again.
Music festivals for this summer have already been announced.
This is a great joy for us because even locally we can do our favorite activities.
The situation has definitely hit the music industry hard.
At first, it was not easy both financially and morally, as we all know.
Several of our releases have been postponed until 2021, and we are now waiting for our releases on the labels FeinesTier, Playground, and Thisbe Recordings.
There are still planned releases on which we worked hard, and are hoping for those to be well received.
Finally, we hope that the situation will stabilize as soon as possible, everywhere in the world.
Radial Gaze
What unknown places in Russia would you recommend for people to visit once traveling is easier?
S: In order not to be banal, we invite you to the region where we live ourselves, the waterfalls in Karelia, the ski slopes in Khibiny, and, if you go up to the north – the deserted landscapes of the White Sea and the Northern Lights.
Although by the standards of Europe, these are long distances between each of those spots, and hence, can’t really be done over just a trip.
What are your top 10 favorite electronic music artists at the moment?
A : It is difficult to make any tops, we have a pretty large musical horizon.
Stas and I like different music, and it has an influence also on our creativity.
Of course, we listen to a lot of music of a similar vein as what we write ourselves.
You can listen to the Radial Gaze playlist on Spotify, which we recently put together.
This should give a good idea of what we are listening to at the moment.
Can you tell us about your upcoming EP Refined?
When and how was it produced? How did you choose the names for the tracks?
A & S: The tracks were written at different times.
“Refined” and “Fluffy Corn Syrup” were written almost a year ago, and “Dense Rays” is a track from our early work, when we first released on Calypso and other labels at that time.
We think that the EP “Refined” turned out to be complete and interesting.
Everyone will find a track to their taste and the remixes perfectly complement the overall picture.
In general, these works are united by the richness of ethnic percussion parts, which create the direction of the musical trip, as well as a somewhat dark mood, which is typical for us from the beginning of the Radial Gaze project.
You will notice how this music is collage-like and author-like complex.
We indeed spend a lot of time creating a track from start to finish.
We always come up with names in different ways: sometimes it’s something that connects us to the track, for example, the mood when we wrote it.
We can also take the theme of the name from the samples that we use in the track.
We are not trying to look for a deep meaning in the title, but rather its form and associations, which become part of the musical perception, and not vice versa.
Radial Gaze on SoundCloud
9. What led to Theus Mago and Romain FX doing remixes? And how did you end up releasing on Thisbe?
In order to make the release more versatile, we thought about who we could invite to produce remixes of Fluffy Corn Syrup and Refined.
We are very pleased to have had Theus Mago and Romain FX not only agreeing to be part of the “Refined” EP release, but also for producing both of them a great remix, faithful to their own style. As mentioned before, this really completes the overall picture we wanted to provide to the release.
Regarding the EP being released on Thisbe Recordings, we already collaborated with David last year, when we produced the” Colours (à l´infini)” remix for his second EP “The Pace of Everything that Lives” as Pyrame.
Since it was a very successful collaboration, we decided to work together and release a whole EP on his label. This is very pleasant and comfortable for us, we are very grateful for this opportunity.
10. Any plans for the upcoming months?
A & S: The next plan is definitely our release of the EP “Refined” on Thisbe Recordings, out of which a vinyl will be printed.
We are very much looking forward to it.
Furthermore, we continue to work hard on new material as well as on other projects.
We are interested in performing live and also always searching for new directions.
For instance, in trance music, psychedelic rock and ambient, but we will not get ahead of ourselves at this stage.
Get in touch with us!