Q: We love your style of music, how do you usually craft your songs?
PAVEL KHVAKEEV: The most important thing in creativity is the feeling of freedom and the ability to experiment. At home I listen to a lot of different music, ranging from Royksopp, FKA twigs, Bicep, etc. from which I get certain emotions that I can later transform my tracks.
Q: We notice that you also work in independent films. How has working with Netflix and Amazon Prime been?
PAVEL: Cinema is another creative path in which I took my first steps. In 2015, we were able to sign a five-year contract with Netflix to release our movie “III – The Ritual”. And during that year, we traveled almost the whole world with the premiere of this film. We attended more than 25 international film festivals from Frightfest in England to Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre in Argentina, and also won several prizes in Australia and America.
The budget of the movie was 15 thousand euros only, as all the actors were my friends and I myself was making all post production, including colour grading, CG and music, for several months. My next thriller movie is “Involution”, which has been recently released on Amazon Prime in the US and Canada, was sponsored by a Russian investor, who had believed in our small team.
Q: A lot of our readers are artists who are working hard at their craft and wanting to get to the next level. What kind of advice would you give to other up and coming bands trying to get their names out there?
PAVEL: I have said many times and after a while I still adhere to these thoughts: I believe, the most important thing in a creative career is to find balance between creative madness and ability to get the job done. As I know very many talented people, who can create genius things, but lack determination to put them into life. On the other hand, one can totally lose inspiration getting stuck on some idea, that in the end will prove shallow. Value your time and learn several languages.
Q: What do you do when you AREN’T working on music?
PAVEL: I’m working on a new movie/music video. Really, no joke.
Q: What is coming up next for you?
PAVEL: At the moment we are in the active stage of releasing a new album, or rather two of them: “Inhale” and “Exhale”. And now singles from them are released every month. The album has a release date around November.
Q: What would you like to tell your supporters out there?
PAVEL: The most important thing is LOVE, love for music, love for people close to you! No matter how trite it sounds.
Interviewed by Stephanie Pankewich
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