I’ve been leisurely exploring dungeon synth and related music for about a year. One of the artists whose work has completely won me over is Erang, a musician who I was lucky enough to correspond with over this past fall. He has deep roots within the dungeon synth community and a well earned reputation; based on his last couple of albums, I believe he is going to keep following his heart and pushing himself to evolve as a musician and a person. Seriously, if you haven’t taken a deep dive into his retrowave work, you’re missing out. Furthermore, he is a genuine and kind person, which I think comes through in his music.
This is an interesting interview for me, in that Erang has already answered many of the basic questions I would have asked him in his own videos, such as this one:
CR:
Can you tell me how you constructed the persona of Erang and how that entity (and your conception of the persona) has evolved over time?
E:
Erang has been in my life since my birth and will remain a part of myself forever. Even if someday I completely disappear or stop releasing music, it will still be there. We are bound together.It has evolved over time in the way I present it to the outside. Years after years, new characters and places appeared and, musically, I've explored new territories as well. The Land of the Five Seasons is more " structured " today so to speak... even if I like to keep it vague and misty because I strongly believe that the power of Imagination lies in the shadows. The more you put light onto your art, the more it loses its mysteries and what makes it unique (that's what I tried to express in my track " All The Beauty We've Lost")...
CR:
I am interested in how adopting this creative identity liberates and/or focuses you.
E:
Well, first of all, as I replied before, I wouldn't really say that I've "adopted" this identity. Erang has adopted me the same way I've adopted him, and it was there a long time ago before I start making music. However, the day I decided to use it as my musical identity was liberating. From then, everything clicked together and made sense. Because before that, the music I made didn't have a foundation... or a "soul" if I may say so. I was doing it seriously and with passion but something was missing. It wasn't enough emotionally connected to me. And that completely changed when I decided to channel my music through Erang... It was something really intimate and meaningful to me. And I think that those who listened to my first album and appreciated it, could felt it.
CR:
Do you find it limits you in anyway?
E:
Like for everything in life, from time to time, you have this feeling where you want to throw out of the windows everything you made and start a new life... but, most of the time, it is just normal to feel that way and you just need to step back a little bit, refresh your inspiration, try new things and then come back stronger. I particularly felt that around 2018 when I went silent for almost 2 years. I really needed to breathe. On my private life as well many things were changing so I needed to reorganize myself first. So, artistically, I tried new stuff on my own and even made some albums that, finally, I didn't release... Because, again, it was lacking the soul and the real emotional meaning behind. That's when I realized that I needed - I physically needed - to come back with Erang. It was the right time and I made " Imagination Never Fails" like if it was the first days of Erang! It was the best feeling ever.
CR:
Do you have projects separate from Erang?
E:
I've made some things here and there but nothing like Erang. To me, Erang is more than music so, when I make an album, it can't be the same as if I find a new pseudonym and release an album under another alias... Musically it could be fun, for sure... but emotionally it will lack what makes Erang so special to me and, hopefully, to others who appreciate my musical world. Furthermore, I have today the strength and confidence to do everything I'd like to with Erang. And the people who appreciate my work know that I'm always moving and that what "makes" my music is not really linked to certain rules but, rather, to a peculiar vibe and feelings. Don't get me wrong: I will always be part of the dungeon synth scene, that's for sure because I was part of the revival around 2011/2012 and that was a really great time and special period for me and the people, musicians and labels who were there. But I will always keep my freedom and will always do what I want, what my guts and heart tell me!
CR:
Can you tell me about how you make your music? I am interested in both your compositions and in how you develop the themes you are working with on individual projects.
E:
Well, that's hard to explain with words... It is always some kind of accumulation... I "collect" signs all around me: a sentence I read somewhere, a scene from a movie or a cartoon, a song, a memory from my childhood, things I see on the Internet. I'm always really attentive to coincidence and to what David Lynch calls "happy accident". For instance, I'll re-discover an old cartoon by chance in some Youtube recommendations and, 2 days later; I'll notice that the guy who made the music for this cartoon also made the music from a movie inspired by a book I've recently read, etc. Then I connect all the dots and it inspires me... I start to draw what I call an "inspirational map" : a folder in my computer (or sometimes a playlist or just a list in a text file) where I put pictures, songs, snippets of sounds, that are all connected together, through these happy accidents/coincidences. At the same time, I'm doing music everyday, just sketches of song or I noodle with synths or sounds. So I have pieces of sounds or music all over the place. And, as I start to accumulate "signs" I also try to collect sounds or synth or presets to fit the atmosphere of the albums that begin to take shape in front of me. For the last one, "PRISONNIER DU RÊVE" it was obviously old school retro synth so I really spend a lot of time, before actually composing music, to collect the sounds and the soft synths I needed. But I also took a long time to collect sound fx from the episode of the cartoon I use to watch and voices from the actor who dubbed them. Not samples from the cartoon, that would have been obvious, but to find who was the actor who dubbed it and then find old recording of him to take few words out of context and re-incorpore them in my track. I also recorded the voice of my daughter saying quotes from the cartoons, etc... I was also reading interviews and albums notes from records & 80's TV cartoon's music to know what synth they used etc.
Also, I always incorporate here and there in some songs, what I call some "totems" who will watch over the album. For instance it could be the voice of someone from my family or simply a foley I record in a place important to me, or a subtle sound FX from a movie that means something to me and to the album: sometimes it could be something that nobody could recognize... Like, on the beginning of " DEMAIN LES MONDES " (which means " Tomorrow the worlds ") there is a voice over saying something. Behind this voice there is just the recording of an empty room, the presence of a room, just the air : that "empty room" comes from a cartoon important to me ( The Sun Beneath the Sea) from which I took inspiration for the aesthetic of this album. So, no one could recognize the sound of an empty room from a cartoon scene... But I know it's there and it means something to me. It adds a layer of feeling for me that, I believe, will pour into the music as well... or maybe I'm just crazy, haha.
What I often do, just to tell you how far I go, is to set the number of a setting on a synth, depending on a number that means something to me... For instance, if I need to turn the volume of an instrument around 75%, I will instead put "76%" because the year 1976 is the year of birth of my elder brother so it means something to me... That's how far it goes when I say that my music is so intimate to me... Everything means something to me and I've never revealed anything to anybody... There are also tons of easter eggs here and there on my music or track titles, etc... Like on my previous album the track "Shipbuilding Memory" is a reference to "the big ship" from Brian Eno and “Shipbuilding” from Robert Wyatt, two musicians very important to me...
CR:
I am quite taken with and inspired by your willingness to stretch beyond the boundaries of dungeon synth in your later works. It seems to me that you are remaining true to your inspirations and consistent and connected to your earlier stuff, which I appreciate. It doesn't seem like you have left dungeon synth so much as added layers of meaning and context to the narratives you have constructed. From my perspective, your works have an internal integrity which I find appealing.
E:
Thanks for noticing it and feeling it that way, that is a really important aspect to me. You know, my music process is so lonely that having from time to time this kind of feedback means a lot to me. I don't play in a band, I don't go to live shows and no one around me is interested in the kind of music I like... So, it really is just me and the people who listen and enjoy the Kingdom of Erang & the Land of the Five Seasons... And I will remain true to that. I mean, I have no choice: I can't force myself or really make music if I'm not emotionally involved in it... I sometimes think: " well, maybe if you would this like this or like that, more people might listen to your stuff... " but it never works. For the last album for instance, I knew that to put all the titles in French might maybe confuse some listeners or take them "away" from the album... but in my heart it couldn't be the other way around for this album. It has to be like that... And concerning the musical genre itself well, I'll forever be linked to Dungeon Synth because it is how it started and I was really active in the revival back in 2012. So, even if I will always explore new sounds and style within my own world, it will always be "Dungeon Synth till I die" I guess... That being said, I have no gate and will always go musically where I want or where I need... at this very precise moment, I'm working on some material and I will give you 2 names : ULVER and Jóhann Jóhannsson.
CR:
I love the layers of meaning that you are incorporating. I find that to be fascinating~ I don't think that you need to be aware of the meanings to pick up on the energy of creative processes of that nature. I think this might be part of the source of that integrity I am perceiving when I listen. I also really appreciate that you are letting your creative spirit guide you instead of trying to create for people, it makes following the creative evolution of artists far more enjoyable, even if you don't particularly find yourself in tune with where they stop along the way. I can think of numerous artists in many genres who go places I wouldn't have expected based on their initial trajectories. Sometimes it is off putting to the extent that I don't follow their trail anymore, but more often than not I find it to be a growth experience for myself. Those accumulated stretchings are invaluable to my own development as a person (and therefore as a creator). I really enjoy your journeys into retrosynth, the last three albums of yours are my favorites (though I really appreciate your earlier work as well).
I know you have created videos offering advice to creators, especially of dungeon synth, but I was hoping you might be willing to expand on those some. What have you learned from your creative pursuits that might be helpful to others who are involved in lonely creative pursuits? How do you keep the faith, as it were?
E:
Well, I guess that the best possible advice I would humbly give to anybody regarding anything would be: do it and do it now.
I'm sure you know that funny meme video with Shia LaBeouf "Just do it" ? We laugh and forget that everything in this video is 100% true.
During our whole life, most of us build up excuses for not doing what we really want to do. And I'm not talking here exclusively about music.
How many people work in a job they don't like or are in a couple with the wrong partnair or don't feel that they are "where they belong" ?
Of course, you might have people in extreme suffering situations where they have very little choice because of huge economic or health problem.
But for the vast majority of people in "wealth" countries we're spending all of our life finding excuses (and I include myself here) and the thing is that, one day, you'll be dead and forgotten very quickly... So why not trying your best to do what you really want during the short time you're here?
So, coming back to music and applying this to art, I know that most of the time, people are stuck with their music because of psychological boundaries such as: I'm not good enough, I don't know what genre I want to do, I'm not sure if this or that... Well, there is a (short) time to think but there is a (big) time to act. So just do something and, most importantly, do it in its entirety from front to end. And do it everyday like a craftsman and not like an "artist" who tries to make a masterpiece that will change the face of the world.
Last, but not least: patience and persistence. You might be lucky and have a huge feedback right from the beginning but, most of the time, it is because you haven't give up that things are going to pay back.
So, to sum it up:
1/ Do it now, not tomorrow. Stop looking for excuses.
2/ FINISH what you're doing. From the music to the release, from A to Z. Stop collecting thousands of pieces of song. Finish them and release them.
3/ Do it everyday like a craftsman, not with an "artist" mindset.
4/ Never give up: patience and persistence are key.
CR:
Erang, I usually ask people I speak with if they can recommend creators that might be flying under the radar or you think your listeners might be interested in checking out.
E:
Don't know if we could say "under the radar" as he is very well known within the DS community but I'd like to give a shout-out to Adam Matlock.
You know, the Internet is a strange thing: I've never met him and only messaged him a few times during all these years but, reading messages on social media from other people, listening to their music etc. for so long, you start to feel as if you knew them in some ways. They are part of your weekly routine per say and, sometimes, you "hear" more from them than from real people around you. Anyway, I've always found that he is a very talented & interesting musician. He plays so well so many instruments and is always trying new things. Furthermore, he is a very kind and humble person. I've heard him say one day that he thought he was lacking a "visual representation" of him or that he was not good as visual but, in my opinion, I find that it is precisely what makes "his" image so unique and specific. Something very direct, raw, honest and sincere. The thing is that he has so many projects that I will only plug 2 here:
Nahadoth: https://nahadoth.bandcamp.com/album/faces-of-winter
Conqueror's Mourn: https://conquerorsmourn.bandcamp.com/album/no-more-for-the-battletrance
CR:
Also, are there things pertaining to your creativity and your music that you are surprised no one ever asks you about? Or perhaps that you wish people would ask?
E:
Hm, not really... As I said, there are many easter eggs or hidden references or links from one album to another that, one day, I'd like to write them all down and share them online.
Thanks for this conversation: it was really in depth and truly appreciated! As always, I like to end with a greeting & huge thanks to the people who follow me: really, they can't imagine what it means. My music is all my life, the only things I've "built" by myself that means something to me... So thank you for keeping the Kingdom & the Land of the Five Seasons alive!
Many thanks to Erang for taking the time to correspond with me. I think there is a lot that anyone can take from his approach to art and life.
You can find out more about Erang and his music at his website:
https://www.erang-dungeon-synth.com
You’ll can also check out Erang’s Bandcamp page: https://erang.bandcamp.com
You can also listen to Erang via streaming services such as Spotify or Amazon Music.
If I were the kind of person to make weird lists at the end of a calendar year, perhaps a list about albums which impacted me the most in terms of emotional connection, positivity, and just straight up pleasurable listening~ PRISONNIER DU RÊVE would be at the top of that list. That album is, in my humble estimation, a work of retrowave genius. I can’t wait to see what Erang does next.
