Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with MIR.FLAW
Hello my dear friend, my name is Maxim and I have a tiny music project called MIR.FLAW. Name has 3 meanings (or you can come up with yours). Word “mir” in russian language has 2 meanings: world and peace. So the list is: world’s flaw, peace’s flaw, mirror’s flaw. Choose your fighter ☺
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
According to my mom I was the loudest kid in a block and only 2 things could shut me up and calm me down for a while – mint Mentos and A-HA songs, which worked as a lullabies. Maybe I hated it so much so I felt asleep not to listen it anymore, but being a grown-up man I love A-HA, a little childhood paradox.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
Middle school. It adds some points being related to music I guess. Seeking for attention seemed to be more entertaining thing rather that studying biology. But I’ve screwed up a big time deciding to sing on a big stage during my graduation, now I only remember my shaking hamster cheeks and weird dancing ballerina like moves. Then it’s a pretty common story – cover band where we’ve rehearsed in a nuclear bunker and where I enjoyed screaming and jumping from a drum kid (sorry and hello to my lovely drummer), throwing microphone around and screwing the maximum amounts of notes possible. Then I’ve moved to USA and my American girlfriend played couple songs for me on a piano with a lake view, sunset and a bit of wine. At that moment I’ve promised myself to learn a piano. Well, I didn’t.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
Back in 2021 I’ve owned a video production business, was pretty fit and life was ok overall. Then burnout happened. First I closed my eyes and randomily booked a flight to Brazil and stayed there for a while, didn’t help. Came back to my home city and realized that I want a different life in a different country with a different people around. I was 30 back then. I came up with an idea to shoot a documentary abour recording an album on-the-go in different countries. Sounds good but it never happened – war started and I’ve decided not to come back home. That was tough 4 years – I’ve been walking all alone through unknown cities, rest of the time I’ve spent in a bed. Only energy left I’ve invested in music – learning new instruments, how to record and produce. I’ve stayed in antisocial limbo and it seemed impossible for me at that time to collaborate with musicians so I’ve decided to record everything by myself and someday start a band to play those songs live. Many songs been recorded in 2022-2024 and never been released, they’re still cooking. Now I’m feeling better and freaking love what I do musically, the only problem I face is speed – takes me eternity to release new tracks.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
A24 drama feature film told musically in under 5 minutes.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
To keep it interesting for myself and not trying to satisfy a potential listener. I’m very stubborn in my process and barely listen to other people advices. Some might say tracks are overproduced, some like to compare it to Radiohead, but I know what to do and why I’m doing it- I want to have fun and make my own mistakes.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
Hands and taste, the rest is different each song. Mostly I try to record as maximum instruments as possible live, but sometimes you may find me in the middle of a jungle with no internet access and any instruments and I do a lot of stuff with VSTs. Wish I could play drums better cause I spent weeks and weeks just to make a groove work and maybe a bass player lives inside of me that I didn’t know about earlier. I would like my songs to make people cry and dance at the same time, groove is essential for this mission.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
It seems like I’m constantly in a recordning process lately and I don’t listen to music at all, it distracts me and I’m starting to chase ideas which are not mine. Couple days ago I’ve watched KEXP live perfomance of a band called Bambara and it made me feel really good. Somerimes I listen to a random shoegaze playlists, just love that guitars wall of sounds, they’re warming and welcoming.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
All the time – sad times create sad songs.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
Adventure and discovery. I’m crazy about music layers and try to leave an easter eggs all the time. I hope that a person listening to my music will discover new interesting things and twists everytime he listens a song, it’s there, you just have to find it. We are quite defocused nowadays with amount of information we consume everyday, so I wish to you, my dear listener, pour yourself a glass of wine, put your headphones on, close your eyes and enjoy the music for a moment. It’s rare but worth it. Like a good old vinyl days.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
Write, record, repeat. Songs are memories and emotions storage. Wish my kids could listen to my songs one day and feel the things I felt while recording them.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
Don’t have one to be honest, but as a visitor my favourite festival is Primavera Barcelona. It would be a blast to sing some songs at that beautiful seaside.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
Leonard Cohen for sure. Love him as a poet, author. I think musically I could have bring something fresh to a table.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
Almost every streaming service of your choice.
I’ll leave a Spotify link (btw fuck Spotify) as it has a bigger amount of subscribers.
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
To release 8-10 songs more and find a musicians to make it work live, start playing shows. Let’s see what future brings (hope it has whiskey sour in it as well)
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
If any of my songs will make a listener feel something I did my work well. Music is nothing without a listener.
