Crystallisee - Interview

Interview Recorded 3/12/2025

Kathy: Hello! Welcome to Katy’s Post. Today we are interviewing a special suest… everyone welcome Crystallisee! Hi, how are you doing?

Crystal: I'm doing fine, a little nervous considering it's my first interview
Kathy: Thank you for being here today, it’s a pleasure to interview you!

Q: You are an ambient and experimental producer from the United Kingdom. Your artistic outlook is to create music that focuses on sound design and texture, using the concept of ambient music through raw constructions and texture manipulation. I was very impressed by your production, can you tell us more about your journey and who inspired you to create ambient and experimental music?
A: When I first started music, I was really influenced by SOPHIE, Arca and Yeule. Yeule was my gateway to exploring ambient and Arca was my introduction to more considerably "obscure" music at the time I had discovered her. I started by making brief ambient with drums but also trying to experiment with different styles and concepts. It wasn't until around Consumption or TDIDI EP where I really starting finding music I knew I wanted to do. Some of my current inspos are KAVARI and my peers such as Oligore/Anglboy, Oliver and Snakecharmer^† (bless his soul) are important influences to me in my artistic development, Oliver espically.
Kathy: That's very beautiful.

Q: Talking about your music, what is your creative and artistic process while producing it? What is something that is always present in your music production? And what goes trough your mind before starting to produce a new track?
A: I think my current creative proccess is more of a slow one. When I started doing music, it was often a one take thing, seeing what I could do. Over time I've harnessed a collection of demos and drafts to which eventually become final tracks in brief periods. In a lot of my music from the period of 2024 to now, they all start with some sound design or a sample, I play around and see what comes of it. Sometimes it's a one take thing or sometimes different ideas come of it. But I think as each song tends to be different, there's usually a different message or method behind that. For example, White Death from my album Purge was done in an hour, whereas Ghost Pane [from the same album] took a month to finish and went through various stages. I think another thing I try to keep present is distortion, I've used a lot of that In recent releases and trying to turn it into a somewhat texture. I once made something and by pitching up to 12 semitones, it sounded like a sledgehammer dragged on concrete.
Kathy: That’s so cool!

Q: In October 2024 you released your most recent album, “Purge”. Can you tell us more about the inspirations and influences in this record? And what was the process and ideas behind it?
A: Purge is almost like an ego death or a "concept" album. The first ideas for my third album were all different. At first it was going to be a noise album, and then a “blue ambient” album both of which are scrapped. Angyl helped with Purge a lot, the title came from Angyl and decided to make a double album. At that time, I was heavily into Soundtracks For The Blind by Swans, a double album with a mix of post rock, drone and field recording. I wanted Purge to be a mix of old and new. But then the more I worked with the album, I felt like pressuring myself to make 18 songs was beneath my ability and decided to just make whatever came to me. The closer I was to finishing Purge in the period of 8 months, the more it meant to me. Purge can be defined within two contexts: a violent ridding or an internal cleansing, both of which is an extermination. The violent ridding is more of my new production style compared to releases prior, and the internal cleanse is prompted by song names and the album title. Purge is the first album that I've felt proud to call my own, it's like a rebirth.
Kathy: Wow... that’s incredible! And such an impressive album too, I had the lovely opportunity to listen to it and it was mind blowing!

Q: Something that really stands out in your music is your photoshoots for each project you release. Is there a meaning behind each photo? What inspires you and what is the technique in the creation of each one?
A: A lot of my earlier stuff was just photos I thought were cool except for Consumption. That album was what I felt in that period of time of making it, and that cover visualised how I felt. The deluxe cover gives a somewhat extra prompt at that with the moon acting as a light, being further into the void or consumer of darkness. Purge was just a random photo of me taken on a MacBook, and it was intended to be simple. I want the music to speak for itself and not the visuals, unless the visuals can somewhat provide an additional context in whatever way. But I really wanted Purge to have it's say and not the album cover. However the aesthetic choices I made do compliment the sound in my opinion.
Kathy: Very well said. I love that your visuals attract the attention of the viewer!

Q: Going back to your music. What can we expect for your future releases? Is a new project in the works? Maybe new collaborations? Can you give us a hint?
A: Lots of collaborations in the work right now. Some of which are being finished, others are kind of stuck, but it is what it is. Sometimes you need to let stuff marinate before you can know what you want to do with it. Time somehow alters your perspective. As for new solo work I have my next album cover sorted, I haven't had time to work on demos or lay out a concept, but I'm really into Nine Inch Nails and the concepts and works of Trent Reznor. His artistic point of view is absolutely genius.

The following EP, Purge: Side B has already been released by the time this interview was published

Q: Rumour has it that you are dropping the B-side for your album Purge. I had the opportunity to listen to them earlier and all I can say is that it was a beautiful and mesmerising experience. Your production really shined in all of the tracks. One of my favourites is “Trapped in Their Lives”. I’d love to know more about this new project and is this B-side maybe hinting in a possible deluxe edition of Purge?
A: There won't be a deluxe for Purge. I kinda don't see the point of attaching more material to an already accomplished project. But anyway, the B-sides are mostly scraps from the album as well as material recorded after it. About a week or 2 after Purge was mastered and sent of to distribution, I had an incredible personal interference in my life, and some of those songs were made during periods where I was up at 4AM, and my sleep schedule was fucked up. Initially the B-sides EP was scrapped, but I relistened to them, and I felt like the songs were good. I scrapped them because I felt like I wasn't passionate about the music, or didn't have a good reason to drop them like I did with Purge. But really, the music speaks for itself. It's not about the internal cleansing in this chapter, it's about the music alone. Trapped in Their Lives is one of my favorites. Before Snakecharmer^† passed away, he helped me finish that song. It samples “Her Mouth Was Filled With Honey” by Swans, the track being from the album that originally inspired Purge. I reworked it as it was originally a minute and a half demo and submitted it to KAVARI CULT TAPE 002, which got rejected. I ended up reworking the song to focus on the quality and decided I wanted a sample for it. Snakecharmer^† sent me a scene from a film called Trash Humpers about life cycles and how others are "Trapped in Their Lives". That really gave the song a message and it resonated with how I felt recording the EP, that I was in a cycle of trying to outdo something I couldn't.
Kathy: That’s beautiful... and it’s very touching how Snakecharmer^†'s impact is always present here with us

Q: Going back to the topic of collaborations. Is there someone you would like to collaborate with in the future as a dream collaboration? If so, who would it be?
A: I have a lot of people I'd like to work with. I've wanted to work with Vividx for a while, we were meant to have a song in 2023 but the file was lost. Vividx has also sent me stuff before that I've kinda forgot about too. One day we'll have a song out even if it takes forever. Another person I'd love to work with would be KAVARI, although she mainly works with friends. Even just a studio session to see how she works would be really cool, her artistic philosophy and the way she makes her music really has helped me put less pressure on myself to how something should sound. Working with Michael Gira or Trent Reznor would be a really awesome experience too, even if that was just a session, both artists have 0 boundaries to approaching genres. And some honourable mentions: Jazy, Floor0, Augalas, Ebonii, Aphex Twin, Agatka Iskra and Spiky.
Kathy: That’s amazing, and I hope one day I'll will have the opportunity to see you collaborate with one of these artists!

Q: Talking about your collaborations with other artists, you worked with Oliver’s Bedroom Music. How did you two meet? What was your experience while working with him? And how did you guys work together creatively?
A: Me and Oliver go way back, we met through a Lana Del Rey group chat and became pretty close by 2022. He didn't start making ambient music until around mid 2023 and was inspired by me. I also helped co-produce and mix his debut album Solace. Solace was important to me as it was for him. I was giving advice for 6 months straight and the outcome was like "Damn I should take my own advice." I consider Oliver my second half or mutual inspiration. We had a song in 2023 called "Sorry Guys He's Just Mental", more personal to Oliver than it was to me, but the production was truly the kick to me turning to darker and more adjacent styles of music. I wouldn't be doing the music I make now without him and he probably wouldn't be making ambient without me. Therefore Oliver plays a big role in my artistic development that way, and for that I'm grateful.

Q: On the 12th of April in 2024 Kavari adds your song “Corrosion” to “CULT TAPE 001 - Selected Noise Works”. What was your reaction to it? Did Kavari reach out to you? How did you feel after seeing your song on a compilation project?
A: I was stunned. A friend in college whom I met through our love of her music introduced me to the Cult Tape submissions around the time the submissions would close on the friday of that week. Submissions were exclusive to members of her discord server. I was probably 3 songs into Purge at that time and had recently made Corrosion. I wanted to make an exclusive song but couldn't get anywhere and decided to throw in Corrosion, I had nothing to lose. A week later I get the email during a sick period that my song would be featured and I gasped. Being noticed by Kavari at the time was such a huge thing to me, I have a lot of respect for her. There were over 100 submissions if I'm correct and being one of the 43 members that made the cut was crazy to me. Everyone else had insane songs too, I'm more proud to be included with a selected list of talented artists.
Kathy: And lastly, besides your music, you created your own independent record label “Cult Crystal”, where as you stated: “Cult Crystal believes that all art should be as accessible as possible”. Can you tell us more about the idea behind this record label?
Q: Originally Cult Crystal was going to be a music collective of me, Daisy Decay, Mart!n and Kosmonavt and probably some others. But Agatka suggested to me on multiple occasions that I'd be good label owner. I don't have experience in that field and if anything, I intially formed the label to bring more attention to my peers who lacked access to distribution, but really anyone can release music through it. The label was set up last minute before Daisy's album came out. I'm surprised by the number of people that want to release through it, more stuff will be coming soon. The idea of free music came from M.I.A. wanting to make music free-er and a lot of music that was being released in the 2010s. Big names came from dropping free download mixtapes and creating a culture shock. They didn't do music for money and focused on authenticity in their art. Standalone art is what I want Cult Crystal to promote and the accessibility to music.
Kathy: That’s lovely to hear, I hope we see more and more artists finding out about cult crystal and hopefully more releases in the future! [Also, M.I.A. mention!]

Kathy: Thank you so much for being here today and giving me the opportunity to interview you!
Crystal: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to use my voice!