Interview with Andrei Orlov & Nash Albert

Andrei’s remix has been a firm favourite of ours this summer, so we wanted to sit down and have a chat with Andrei Orlov and Nash Albert about their recent collaboration. Enjoy this Miami Encode Interview…

How would you present/describe your work to someone who doesn’t know you?

Andrei Orlov: I write, produce and perform romantic electronic music with a strong emphasis on melody.

Nash Albert: I am a singer/songwriter in a psych-rock/alternative rock suit.

And your last record? How was it born? And where do you want it to lead?

AO: An aggressive techno remix for a prog rock song – it was born quite unexpectedly, to be honest. Usually I don’t do this kind of stuff,
I write much milder and softer music – but it was real fun to hear and share the final result.
I just followed my first insticts when I heard the voice and the guitar riffs of the original track – I worked intuitively and fast.
Regarding future work – I want my music to sound spontaneuos, individual and interesting.

NA: It’s a genre I know little about: I never danced 8 hours in a row in Berghain. However I love our remix a lot and it’s great to see positive feedback from big names in the industry like Severino Panzetta, Mia Mendi, Dave Pianka and others. I spent a month in Berlin in September 2021 and when back we both (me and my co-producer Ilya Mazaev) decided that we should do a dancefloor banger for ‘Lost in Jerusalem’ with Andrei. Our album wasn’t released yet (album Yet came out in January 2022 on M.I.G.) and the label picked the song to be the lead single. I hope there will be some story with this remix and people outside of prog rock/alt rock scene know about us.

What message would you like to convey to the public?

AO: follow you gut feelings.

NA: Love. Love. Love.

How do you make music? What is most important for you?

AO: I have certainly developed a number of my own technical methods and approaches, and I naturally keep them a secret 🙂
On a serious note – I have learned to leave no demos unfinished, and learned how to reach maximum intensity during limited time of work.
I think these are important skills aside from technical things.

NA: The first trigger could be a line, a phrase. Sometimes a guitar riff – that’s something unexplained it just evolves. Then the goal is to write all the other stuff around it that feels good enough. Then you have a song. Or sometimes a song in one piece comes to you when your sleeping or daydreaming.

Is there a unifying concept behind your art?

AO: No special concept. I am thankful and privileged to bring a little bit more beauty and harmony to this world…

NA: It’s all about love, unity, peace. I want to share more of these emotions with people.

What makes you unique?

AO: I have never deliberatly strived to be ‘unique’. But I guess every person inevitably receives a number of very personal experiences during his / her
lifetime, which do leave a unique mark upon our psyche. At the same time, we all share typical experiences too, which enables us to communicate and understand each other.

NA: My emotions. And my ways of expressing them.

As for your studio, what is it currently composed of?

AO: Lots of classic and not so classic vintage analog and digital gear. I like to mix equipment from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s with modern software and plugins.
The most interesting results can be achieved when a specific piece of gear is used out of its original context – but you have to really put hours and efforts to get the most out of it.

NA: My home studio is my acoustic guitar, a blank A4 and a pen. That’s it. Our studio SVAS where we record things in Georgia is pretty minimal but very good and inspiring. A pair of Universal Audio sound cards, some preamps, some mics, piano, Rhodes, several elctric guitars. Some synths: Moog Grandmother, Roland Juno-60, digital Mellotron. Nothing very special but enough of everything needed to make a record.

What is the one instrument you would never get rid of, no matter what?

AO: There are quite a few such instruments. But if I am to choose – it’s probably my trusty Pro One 1981 monophonic synthesizer I bought in Tokyo in 2014. It is soooo good and sweet.
I used it on this remix too, of course.

NA: An acoustic guitar. At least I won’t be starving hopefully.

Do you have hope for the future of music? How would you like the future of the music industry to be?

AO: Definitely. As The KLF once put it, the best music is yet to come – I totally agree with it.

NA: I’d like it to be sincere and fair.

Can you reveal some future projects to us?

AO: Sure, I plan to perform a one-off audiovisual live show, at the 150th anniversary of Polytechnic Museum in Moscow,
in January 2023 – I am looking very much forward to it. This will be a small mountain of super expensive and rare analog synths onstage
plus a very intricate and emotional abstract computer graphics real-time film made by very talented Russian media artists I collaborate with
– their collective is called ‘stain’.

NA: At the moment we are preparing for the release of our next album roughly scheduled for 2023. We did it together with my friend producer Ilya Mazaev who currently lives in Georgia and a famous British producer Tim Palmer who did David Bowie’s Tin Machine, U2’s ALl that You Can’t Leave Behind, Tears for Fears – Elemental and many other albums with great sound and feel. It’s our second album in collaboration with Tim and I feel that he brought a lot to the way my music sounds now. We are making another remix with Andrei Orlov for the opening track ‘Thought as Time’. I am sure the audience will love it.

What makes you happy?

AO: peace, justice, communication between different cultures.

NA: Peace, love, music, family

What bothers you?

AO: war, injustice, miscommunication and separation.

NA: restrictions