Last month Alien Pimp released a minimal techno EP on techno record label Black Mirror Recordings. Next to producing, he also is a very enthusiastic traveler. In this interview you will read more about how he combines his music ambitions with being away from home!
Introduction?
Hey, this is Silviu Costinescu, aka Alien Pimp / SubJazz / half of Marginal etc… I am usually seen as a Romania-born international artist and media specialist, the man who figured bass music doesn’t need genre segregation, and promoted the idea until it became a recognised genre. One of the first electronica artists to emerge internationally from Romania and so forth. But I don’t identify as human, I am a free universal consciousness, with an appetite for creation, beauty and harmony. I like to pimp good vibes and energies, it’s an alien way of pimping that has nothing to do with human exploitation.
At this moment in time you are travelling in Morocco, how’s your trip so far?
Morocco is becoming another home to me actually, wandering around this area will be a default state for me soon, I hope. Not only is it very beautiful, but the people are very nice, warm and genuine when you get to know them, and that’s what makes it even more welcoming than the views.
What is the most beautiful country you have ever visited?
I wouldn’t know how to rank them even aesthetically. Same as with music sometimes, and I don’t know a country entirely, not even my home country. Portugal seems the densest in visual wonders per square mile from my experience, but does the beauty reside only in that.
Any other places you would love to go to some day?
Oh man, the list is so long… Eventually I’ll take whatever life brings, if it’s beautiful and peaceful enough. A beach is usually required though.
Travelling and making music
That’s actually what I’m working on: getting the two to support each other, but not like normal touring, which limits your options a lot. I’d rather choose the place myself, many times outside of the club circuit many times. And there I’ll find an opportunity, or I’ll improvise on the spot. Travel is definitely food for soul, therefore for music. It can be clearly heard and seen in my work. I invite everyone to check the Music Travel Vlog series on my YouTube channel, which features a sort of travel music videos, an original concept I’m developing now. I’m working on two new episodes as we speak, the one about Sevilla should be out around the time this interview reaches the public.
If you would have to choose between never travelling again or never being able to make music again, what would you choose and why?
This is a tough one, but I had to solve it before already, because the turmoil in this world will make travel difficult at some point, and then what. Music is your steady friend, even if they take all instruments from you, you can still make it with your bare hands and mouth and give your mind and soul a sense of beauty. The feeling I get from a majestic natural monument or from an epic song are quite comparable, nature being more intense, but less accessible.
Latest release EP ‘Weapons Of Mass Hypnosis’
This is simply music I love to hear! I can find many similar tunes, but not quite like these, so I made them for myself, in-between sessions in which I made songs for other projects. Then the tracks came together naturally in an EP.
I start by creating a groove that is hypnotic and capturing. It’s a therapeutic and energy cleansing process more than a craft at this stage. 4-16 bars. Then I put it on loop forever, and if I get sick of it before one hour, it’s not good enough. If I feel like it could go on forever, I develop the groove into a full track. That’s usually, but not always, the process.
Why the very interesting name ‘Weapons Of Mass Hypnosis’ ?
Because this is what’s up. We’re bombarded 24/7.
What is your favourite track of this EP and why?
Like most artists, I love all my babies, but I gotta admit they’re not all the same. In this case though, I can’t choose. I find this release very homogenous and coherent, even if it goes from shadow to sun over the span of only 3 tracks.
Goals for 2020
All I want for it is to reach more people, and be self-sustainable again. The new paradigm in this industry has given me a serious financial blow the last few years. But I’m recovering and if my creative life is going to get balanced again, I’m going to up the level and innovate constantly.
How and where can we follow you or your work best?
As mainstream social media becomes unbearably toxic. I’m slowly retiring from it so the best way is to regularly visit my personal website www.alien-pimp.com (you can subscribe via Tumblr). And I guess Spotify will be holding most of my music catalog from now on, so I don’t see how I can skip them any soon. I’m going to do a newsletter again, hopefully this year. We should all get back to that and free forums, like in the early 2000’s. Everything else can disappear at the whim of a Silicon Valley mogul or something like that.
I’m also starting to be more active on MeWe and Minds.com. Especially the first one seems to be committed to free speech and works beautifully. One way or another, I’ll maintain an online presence and hopefully some search engines will point to it. The more support I get, the more quality I will put out and the easier it will be for me to reach you, if not the other way around.