Introducing: Andrey Malinin (InVR)

Where can we find you right now and what are you up to?

Right now, I’m at home trying to spend more time with my family and working on EP for InVR.

Your musical landscape is massive, how do you write your songs?

I always start with the general idea of a track, it’s really important to understand what result I want to get in the end. To be honest, sometimes it takes a lot of time but I can’t do it otherwise. As soon as I have a concept I begin with a drop, then I make bass and choose kick and snare. At the same time, I am trying to use new samples and fresh sounds in each of my tracks.

Tell us a bit about your gear (synth/software).

First of all, my daw is Reaper and my favourite synth is Serum. As for my gear I have Midi keyboard from Akai and Yamaha studio monitors.

I am getting strong Blade and Ghost in the Shell vibes from your music, do you watch movies? Favorite genre? Would you write music for a film?

Recently I started to get into cinematography because films can sometimes inspire and give some ideas for new tracks especially that cyberpunk vibe like in Ghost in the shell. But most part of my life I wasn’t fond of films and I’m not a big specialist in this field. Now I prefer watching series and the last thing I really liked is The Sopranos. But I can say that I got some offers to write soundtracks for some films but we couldn’t agree on the terms. All in all, I’d be happy to try something like that.

What's the one thing you find difficult with today's state of the music industry?

I think the most difficult thing is to reach out to the audience who can possibly like your music. Nowadays an indie musician has to compete with major labels and their extra-large budgets they have on the promo and the big amount of new releases from other producers. In my opinion it’s vital to get the team for this purpose and it’s impossible to do it on your own.

What do you think will be the future of music artists and creators in general?

In general, I can highlight some tendencies in commercial music such as reducing the length of track to 2 minutes, using very simple sounds and making the mixing a bit sloppy. Musicians have started to create more entertainment content rather than music and I guess they will continue to do so.

What do you feel sets you apart from other artists?

As for me, I pay much attention to the details and it takes me a long time to create a track comparing to the other artists. I know that some producers can write a track for about 3 days but I need at least 2 weeks, sometimes even a month.

Οtvs.art is responsible for your visuals, do you get a say in the creating process, what is the general process?

InVR is basically me and otvs.art, I couldn’t have worked without him, because while he is making the visuals, I can write my music. I usually suggest main ideas for covers and some other stuff and for him it’s important to know what I wanted to say in a track. Sometimes he can say that some of my ideas are not easy to achieve and even bad and sometimes I can say that I don’t like some things, we have democracy in such questions.

Do you play video games? What is your favorite?

Yes, I am a big fan of video games and they always had great effect on my life. For example, I met my wife playing Overwatch. In general, I can give a chance to any new AAA game, but I like shooters most of all. I guess my favourite game is possibly Call of Duty MW3.

Tell us about your latest or upcoming release.

As I said before I am in the process of creating EP. Some of the tracks are ready to release but I think most of them will be singles so that there are no long pauses between them. My latest release Mind has set more commercial course to my music and I am going to develop in this saving Midtempo features in the tracks.