Interview with Subterranea

August 07, 2020

Interview with Subterranea

By Mick Michaels

The Cosmick View: Hello, and welcome to The Cosmick View/MBM Ten Pounder! Thanks for taking some time to chat with us!

CV: Describe your definition of the band’s sound and style and how does that definition uniquely describe the music?
Subterranea: The sound and style is definitely of a darker, avant-garde variety. If sound can be described in those words at all, I would say my music is very earthy and visceral. I am a multi-instrumentalist and a classically trained singer, I use live instruments recording in my music as much as possible, but I am also a score composer, producer and audio-engineer, so there’s definitely a marriage of both acoustic and electronic in my music. But this also depends on the project I am involved in. When it comes to my main solo project, Subterranea, I probably am landing somewhere between symphonic dungeon synth music and progressive doom. There’s definitely a lot of mythological themes, and darker, doom sound in Subterranea. If you would like something more concrete, imagine the place where a sea shore meets the water, but after the Apocalypse. That’s Subterranea.

If we are talking overall about my sound as a composer, there’s no direction, predictability or “form” so to speak. Vocal experimentation is important to me, so there’s also an extra dose of “weird” and “unconventional” in pretty much everything I do. I had so much musical training of various varieties…improv, classical school, lessons, jams, and have encountered so much variety in compositional approaches, that all this made me a kind of a “monster.” I mix the weirdest stuff together and that pleases me.

CV: Today, everyone talks about artist and audience connection. Is such a level of connection actually achievable for an artist and if so, how have you made the connection to your fans?
Subterranea: I definitely think there are many levels to artist/audience connection. If we are talking about the kind of connection that forms during live performances, there’s definitely things like audience interaction, body language, and etc. This was always a part of live performances of any kind: theater, debate, music. It forms somewhat organically and it is definitely achievable during a live show.

If we are talking about a more long-term connection that allows the members of the audience to connect to artists on a personal level and first-name basis…as Facebook friends, pen pals, close circle of Patreon supporters, it is definitely possible, albeit limited. And things change once the artist’s popularity and reach grows.

I do stay connected with my fans as much as my time permits.

CV: Is fan interaction an important part of the band’s inner culture?
Subterranea: Very much so. Sometimes fans compose 80% of people I interact with…for example during tours.

CV: Can a band truly interact with its fans and still maintain a level of personal privacy without crossing the line and giving up their “personal space” in your opinion?
Subterranea: Fan interaction is just like any other personal interaction - it depends on the artist’s comfort level with being social and defining the terms of interaction. I am fairly introverted, so it is easy for me to get exhausted in bigger venues, so I personally prefer hiding rather than getting social. But I definitely know musicians and artists who would go bar hopping and go on trips around the city with their fans.

CV: Is music, and its value, viewed differently around the world in your opinion? If so, what do you see as the biggest difference in such multiple views among various cultures?
Subterranea: In my experience yes and no. It depends on how you define the value of music. Music has intrinsic universal value to every single culture on earth; it has expressive power, a power to connect and communicate. In this sense, it is absolutely viewed and valued the same; but in the current state of mass commercialization of literally everything, the access to economic prosperity defines also the commercial value of music and making music.

For instance, in American countries, as well as in most countries in Europe, purchasing a music instrument might seem like a fairly commonplace and unremarkable occasion. In Russia, where I was born, buying a piano was a carefully weighted decision, a responsibility, and a commitment to practicing regularly that you could not get out of easily. To this date, some of my friends back home can’t afford instruments. Buying/making music for a living follows a somewhat similar trajectory. In a place where people can’t afford instruments, piracy is fairly wide-spread and somewhat is even integrated into the culture. DIY Musicians making stable living off their own music is not a reality in Russia, so the sense of responsibility to pay for music doesn’t come from a place where one would like to support a starting musician.

CV: Do you feel that a band that has an international appeal, will tend to connect more so to American audiences? Would they be more enticed or intrigued to see the band over indigenous acts because of the foreign flavor?
Subterranea: I think music can land popularity in most unusual places. It’s not as straight-forward as “liking something because it’s foreign.” Some places have more musician traffic, because they are common music destinations…LA, New York, London, Paris, and tend to have established “scenes” - appeal for certain genres of music, and more remote places that get less musician traffic, tend to appreciate more experimentation and musical variety. But I don’t think I have seen this often that a band would become popular in America just because it isn’t local. In contrary, I would imagine it’s much harder for smaller non-American acts to gather an audience in America regardless of what their international appeal might be like.

CV: Has modern-day digital technology made everyone an artist on some level in your opinion? Have the actual lines of what really is an artist been blurred?
Subterranea: Those lines have always been somewhat blurred. Almost everyone has some kind of artistic skill even if they don’t pursue artistic paths…the internet and digital spaces just made it easier to share art, so it is more visible than ever before. But being a professional artist is actually a lot of very hard work, and being able to share one’s art doesn’t constitute immediate artistic success. So in that sense, being a professional artist is not as lucrative of a choice as sharing one’s art on social media once in a while. Boundaries haven’t really been blurred.

CV: How would you describe the difference between an artist who follows trends and one who sets them?
Subterranea: I think that setting a trend is a pure coincidence of being in the right time at the right place. The best we can do as artists is just to allow ourselves to experiment and be creative and keep figuratively throwing stuff at the wall to see if it sticks. Sometimes the people who happen to “invent” a trend are not the ones who are benefiting from it…changes are, the first 10-20 followers of that very trend would be the ones you read in newspapers about.

CV: Has music overall been splintered into too many sub-genres in an effort to appease fan tastes in your opinion? And has such fan appeasements, in actuality, weakened music’s impact as a whole by dividing audiences?
Subterranea: As much as this might sound odd, the kind of artists who make it are usually not the ones who chase the dragon of appeasing the audience. Yes, the audience definitely plays a role, but personal connection with your own art is a much better system for calibrating one’s inner compass of what kind of artistic choices you want to make. Personally I see the myriad of sub-genres as an attempt to navigate an ever-growing world of music where new musical experiments are set and tried every day…a kind of a roadmap. There’s nothing wrong with roadmaps as long as you treat them for what they are.

CV: What can fans except to see coming next from you?
Subterranea: There’s been a lot of COVID albums in a pipeline. A very exciting collaboration EP with my Toronto colleagues, The Databats…we are musically exploring the concept of post-apocalyptic desolation. I love working with The Databats. We create and write music differently, but collaborating so far has been very enjoyable and every time we exchange tracks, I get very excited to see what parts got added. It’s a bit of a Christmas morning for me every time a track gets sent.

Other than this, a couple soundtrack EPs for video game projects I was composing for and a few more collaborations that are still being worked on/negotiated.

CV: Thanks again for taking some time and talking. It is greatly appreciated.

Check out Subterranea at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/subterraneato
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aliasynesthesia/
Bandcamp: https://subterranea-witch.bandcamp.com/
Bandcamp: https://aliasynesthesiamusic.bandcamp.com/

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My name is Mick Michaels...I'm an artist, music fan, songwriter, producer, dreamer and guitarist for the traditional Heavy Metal band Corners of Sanctuary. Writing has always been a creative outlet for me; what I couldn't say in speech, I was able to do with the written word. Writing has given me a voice and a way for me to create on a multitude of platforms including music and song, articles, independent screenplays, books and now, artist interviews. The Cosmick View is an opportunity to raise the bar and showcase artists in a positive and inspirational light. For me, it's another out-of-this-world adventure.