Listening to Al Pagoda for the first time usually strikes a chord with people; the synth layers are strong, iconic, like a childhood memory that’s long been dormant. Originally from Valencia, Spain, he settled in Berlin in 2015, where he started working as a composer for movie soundtracks. During these years he experimented with new sounds and recording techniques. In 2018 a colleague of his, who had witnessed some of his free-form experimentation sessions, asked him to play at Loophole, a small club in Neukölln, Berlin. He accepted and came up with a few songs for the show.
A member in the audience described the music as “the early stages of falling asleep while listening to a tune and reality starts to melt.” He had listened to the tracks that make up ‘Lucky Veil’, Al Pagoda’s new album. “They’re the result of a vitamin D deficit”, he likes to say. The rawness of his first winters in the city had taken toll on him. “I felt like a zombie,” he recalls. “And I got tired – that’s how the songs came about”. His music is a reflection of this transitory struggle, a dreamlike journey of luminous memories that emerge from the dark corners of his mind.
Al Pagoda releases his first mini-album ‘Lucky Veil’ via Frank Wiedemman’s label Bigamo Musik. Recorded in Berlin, between his house in Tempelhof and his studio in Kreuzberg. Mixed by Nicolas Vernhes (Animal Collective, Deerhunter) in Joshua Tree, South California Mastered by Bo Kondren (Caribou, Moderat, Johan Johansson) at Calyx Mastering, Berlin.
Today he shares 5 tips to develop a joyful relationship with music making.
1. Cultivate curiosity
If you are always inside four walls, it’s hard to have something interesting to say. If you want to make art you have to cultivate your curiosity. Go outside the studio. Put yourself in challenging or uncomfortable situations. Dive into your fears. Get to know other ways of life and thinking. Go to nature. Then go back to the studio and make a song, write a book or make a painting.
2. Develop concentration
When sharp, it can tell you what’s going on. It will whisper to your ear what you need to do to achieve your goals. And it will probably make you understand what your goals really are. In a song, a project or life itself. Daily sitting meditation is my personal preference.
3. Trust your intuition
We tend to think our rational mind will come with a logical solution for our problems, but the mind has to deal with fear and memories and other stuff that gets on the way. Trust your intuition, trust your heart. It somehow knows already what you want.
4. Be an observer
We tend to think of the artist as this person who has to be tortured, but qualities like depression and anxiety are an enemy for creativity. You don’t have to be depressed to write dark music. You just need to understand darkness. You need to be an observer.
5. Find your own truth
The only way I find to say something meaningful is to look inside and be true to your own voice. This can take time, and I think it’s important not to rush it. Don’t try to please others. Do your own thing. In the long term honesty wins.
Al Pagoda’s ‘Lucky Veil’ is now available via Bigamo Musik. Stream and buy here.
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