Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Meanetik
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
Honestly, I don’t have one single defining moment. Music was always just there, in the background of everything. But what I do remember is that feeling of hearing something and not being able to explain why it moved me. That never went away. That’s still how I work today.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
It came later than for most people. I was in my early thirties, going through a phase where a lot of things in my life were changing. The world was changing too, with everything that happened around Covid, and I found myself in this strange in-between space where the path I’d been on just didn’t feel like mine anymore. I’d been searching for something for a while without really knowing what it was. Then I started producing and it just clicked. It went from something I tried on the side to the thing my life revolves around. Because the music says what I can’t put into words. And somewhere in that process I realized this is actually who I am. This is what I’d been looking for.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
I’m working on something that’s really close to my heart. I don’t want to say too much about it yet, but the thread running through everything I’m making right now is this feeling of warmth, nostalgia, connection. It’s about those moments where you’re out in the city, surrounded by people and life and everything moving, and you suddenly realize how good it actually is. Not in some big dramatic way, just this quiet awareness of hey, this is pretty beautiful right now. A late evening with friends, a walk through streets you know by heart, the kind of moment you only really appreciate when you let yourself slow down for a second and take it in. I think we’re all so busy moving forward that we forget to notice what’s already there. That’s what I’m trying to capture right now. Music for people who feel a lot and sometimes just need a soundtrack that gets it.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
My music is rooted in house but it moves around a lot. Lo-fi, melodic, sometimes a little garage or breakbeat when the mood takes me. I don’t think too much about what to call it. What I care about is how it feels. Warm, textured, a little rough around the edges. The kind of music you put on when you want to feel something without having to explain what.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
That I don’t need to know everything to make something good. I do everything by ear and by feel. I never learned music theory the traditional way, I can’t read sheet music, and for a while I thought that was a limitation. But then I realized it’s actually a kind of freedom. I’m not thinking about what’s correct, I’m just listening for what feels right. And that’s not to say that working within strict rules or structures can’t produce great music, it absolutely can. It’s just not how I approach things, and that doesn’t make my way better or anyone else’s way wrong. There’s no one right way to make music. Accepting that, really internalizing it, made me a lot freer. I stopped second-guessing myself and started trusting the process more. I’m still very much experimenting, still figuring out my sound, but I’ve learned that in creative work there are no real rules. There are good habits and loose frameworks you can follow, but nothing you have to. And once you let that sink in, you start making things that actually sound like you.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
Studio One is my DAW, that’s where everything happens. I work mostly with VSTs like Nexus, Dune 3 and the Plugin Packs of iZotope and Arturia. Scaler 3 is a big one for me when I’m exploring chord progressions and harmonic ideas. I also use ACE Studio for vocal elements and I’ve been getting into using AI as a creative tool in general, for vocals or for generating ideas. I think AI works really well as long as you use it to support the process and don’t just rely on it to do the work for you. I spend a lot of time on Loopcloud digging for sounds, and I’ve recently gotten into more ambient textures and elements which have added a nice new layer to what I do. But honestly the most essential tool is just a good pair of headphones (I use VSX) and the willingness to sit with a track until it feels right.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Honestly there’s so much incredible music out there from artists that I wouldn’t even know where to start but Tom Vernon is one of those artists I keep coming back to no matter what. His style just does something to me, especially Amber Fade, that track is an absolute evergreen for me. Blimp and Fullempty are making really cool stuff too.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
Everything I make comes from somewhere personal. Over the last few years I’ve gone through a lot of change and growth and I think you can hear that in the music. I used to make more melancholic, introspective stuff and there’s definitely still some of that in there, but more and more I find myself gravitating toward something warmer. Not in a forced positivity way, I’m really not a good vibes only person, I think all feelings deserve space. But I’ve realized that all this negativity and cynicism and fear that seems to be everywhere right now, it doesn’t actually lead anywhere. And the more I stepped away from that, the more my music started to reflect what actually matters to me. Appreciation for the people around me, trying to understand others instead of judging them, being a bit gentler with myself. All of that found its way into my music. It feels like over time the music has slowly revealed who I actually am. And the more I lean into that, the more it feels like mine.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
I don’t really have a message. What I hope for is that something I made becomes part of a moment for someone. A walk home. A late evening with friends. I want the music to feel warm, close and familiar, even if you’re hearing it for the first time. And if someone ever tells me that a track of mine was the soundtrack to something that mattered to them, that’s genuinely the most beautiful thing.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
That you don’t always need words to be understood. And that the stuff that actually resonates with people is never the stuff you overthought.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
That’s a funny question for me because I’m a producer all over, not a performer. I feel most myself when I’m in the studio, using music as my way of expressing things. Being on a stage, being the center of attention, that’s really not where I like to be. So right now I honestly can’t picture myself performing somewhere. But who knows, maybe that changes one day. And if it ever did, it would have to be somewhere that reflects the things I care about. Something like Fusion Festival in Germany. The spirit of that place, the community and creativity, the fact that it’s not about showing off but about sharing something with the people around you… that would be pretty special.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
COMPUTER DATA or Harrison BDP. Those two were basically my entry point into this whole world. I discovered them through the EELF channel and something just clicked. Their music made me realize that a track doesn’t have to be perfectly polished and overproduced to be beautiful. That sometimes it’s exactly the imperfections that make it special. My music doesn’t sit purely in lo-fi house but everything I make takes influence from that world. So getting to actually create something with either of them would be pretty surreal.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
You can find me on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp and all the usual places under Meanetik. Instagram is @meanetik, that’s where I’m most active. Come say hi, I actually reply.
My website: www.meanetik.com
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
Keep making music that feels like me, keep connecting with people who get it, and keep growing without losing the thing that made me start in the first place. I’m still very much experimenting, still finding new corners of my sound, and I love that. I don’t want to arrive somewhere and stay, I want to keep moving.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
That the music always came first. I’m not trying to be cool or mysterious or build some kind of brand around myself. When I started out I actually didn’t tell most of my friends and family about it at first, not because I was hiding it, I just wanted to see if the music connects with people on its own. And when strangers started reaching out saying a track of mine meant something to them, that told me everything I needed to know.
I hope people discover that there’s someone behind this who genuinely cares. About the songs, about the people listening. Someone who’s a bit quiet at first, probably more introverted than you’d expect, but who lets the people in that matter and holds on to them. Someone who’s sensitive and sometimes a bit unsure of himself but learned that those are the exact things that make him notice what ends up in the music. I hope that over time people hear that and maybe recognize a bit of themselves in it too.
