45 - RVRSRVR

Giannis Kampiotis
January 24, 2023

Hello music people 👋

Today in the spotlight, RVRSRVR

Coming from Italy, he started playing the guitar but quickly fell in love with percussion. From exploring raves to playing live he now co-owns a record label

Lot's of energy in this one 🎶

Read Time: 7 minutes 📰

Studio

Gear List

Elektron - Octatrack
Elektron - Analog Rytm
Elektron - Machinedrum
Soma Laboratory - Pulsar-23
My Unmissable Modular System
2X 303 Clones
Waldorf - Blofeld Dektop
Roland - TR8
2X Old Boss Drums (one is circuit bent by me)
Delay, Reverb, Distortion Pedals, and hardware compressors
Mackie Mixer

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Interview

Who are you and what is your relationship with music?

Hello I'm Ravi from Venice, Italy.

My first approach with music was at young age, around 10 years old, when I started playing guitar.

Going forward the years I also started studying drums and I loved it. I learned rhythm and I fall in love with it.

Percussion are my life. I'm always playing everything that comes to my hand from a simple desk to a bottle with the fork while eating dinner haha.

Anyway after studying drums I discovered electronic music and I immediately found myself on it.

I started going to raves and free parties and I immediately felt the need to start producing my own music. So i started saving some money and bought my first pieces of gear: a Korg ESX and a Roland mc303.

Shortly after I started proposing my first live set and I was very happy with the results so I started playing around those free parties.

After that I started studying other kinds of electronic music and started sending out some demos to the labels .

Finally in 2020 I reached out to my label partner Fabrizio and released my first EP on vinyl with Øpium Trax, COGNITIVE DISTORTION.

Making music isn't my only income atm, I worked for years in the fashion and eye-wear industry but I really believe in art and music and in what I do :)

Which piece of equipment in your studio is essential to your production process?

I think my studio wouldn't be the same without my Octatrack. There's a love-hate relationship between us but I sure could never live without it. Also, surely my drum machines also deserve a space.

What is the most budget-friendly piece of studio gear that gave you the most results?

I would say the Blofeld. It always gives to me something unexpected just rotating some knobs, but also my modded boss drum is so sick :)

Walk us through your process for creating and producing music.

I really don't have a defined process.

Usually I go to the studio and let the art take my soul. I let the sounds and noises carry me where they want, sometimes I start with a more precise idea in mind and start sketching down some percussive loops or whatever comes to my mind (bass lines, sparkling melodies, arpeggios... also some vocals if I feel like it) so I try to get inspired from my studio but also i can find inspirations playing some old vinyl or in films, travels...

How would you describe your style?

All my productions start from a blank canvas.

I love the idea to push towards horizons I've never visited in terms of sound. I love to experiment and mostly I put the attention on the percussion parts. My productions must have rolling kicks, crispy percs, and obviously some crazy synth parts.

I would define my style as retrofuture-industrial.

What’s your biggest struggle?

I struggled a lot with my hardware equipment in the past but after studying deeply now I can enjoy all their functions. Although, sometimes I feel oppressed by the limited time available to stay in the studio.

In some cases I can't find the right inspiration to start or continue a new track and it sucks :/

Has building a hardware setup changed your perspective on music or life in general?

I always thought about music in terms of hardware.

Could be a guitar or a synth but I couldn't do music without a piece of gear. I need to touch and feel the music also with my body not only with ears or by the hands on the computer.

I could never be totally satisfied making music only with a PC.