QuadratoX, usually stylized as ☒, has been making waves through the vapor landscape recently with his unique mixes of elements from vaportrap, darkvapor, and the parallax within his themes of nature and technology. With his notability growing more and more rapidly over the past year, I thought it would be a good idea to have a talk with him about his works, and what he has planned for the future.

S: Over the years, you’ve put out a lot of consistently amazing content, and yet everything manages to feel unique. How do you come up with all of these concepts for your albums?

Q: Every album is a chapter of a bigger story that is going on since my first album, I’d call it “Concept Discography”. I find inspiration in anything I make contact with in everyday life to make an album, I start from the cover and the title, then I work on the tracks.

S: You’ve been in the scene for a long time, your oldest release on your bandcamp dating back to 2011, some of the earliest days of vaporwave. How did you get into vaporwave so early, and what were your experiences like throughout the years?

Q: I made the first album without knowing anything about vaporwave (I learned about it in 2015): before that, the album was called “Post-Trauma Hallucinations” and had a different cover, while the project was known as DJ Zeta-N. In 2015 I changed cover and name of the album, and the project became ☒.

S: On that note, throughout the four years of absence between 人生は人間に無用です and テープおよび静脈, what were you doing in the vaporwave scene?

Q: I made that album when I got out from a rehab community because I was addicted to heavy drugs, I published it and let it be until 2015. In the meanwhile I dedicated myself into another project, Corkscrew N° 4453556, where I made Experimental Cybergrind mixed with Dadaist Music, Nonsense Music, Noise, Nintendocore and Goregrind.

S: Sticking around for that long must have given you many artists to look up to. Can you name a few of the artists that gave you inspiration for your music?

Q: Igorrr, Blank Banshee, Iannis Xenakis, Mega Drive, Kuroyuri Shimai, Wham!, Sébastien Tellier and Wilburn Burchette.

S: Something that ties a lot of your releases together though is the internet and technology. Where did these influences come from?

Q: The influences come from a period I lived in first person, the 90’s, a decade of change, of [the] Internet and with fantasies about the future and economic wealth, when it all seemed perfect and never-ending.

S: You’ve tried your hand at almost every style of vaporwave, from vaportrap to ambient vapor. Throughout all of this, which style of vapor have you had the most fun working with?

Q: My top 3 of most beautiful genres to work with [have been] Biotrap[,] a mix of Naturewave, Synthwave, Vaportrap and Deep House. I record it while in the woods near Florence, and it’s always a wonderful experience every time. Ambient Vapor: In my opinion it’s the best vaporwave sub-genre. It’s funny, creative and innovative. Vaportrap: I started with it, so I’m very tied to this genre.

S: You mention on your bandcamp that listeners will have the best experience if they listen to your albums from the “bottom-up”. Why is that?

Q: My discography put in order, as you can see them on Bandcamp (from At The End of The Universe pt.2 to Cryptoculture, and future releases), is a single story, a journey, that for now hasn’t yet a proper ending.

S: It’s been a while since the release of 1995 on Business Casual without any mentions of the cassette release. If you’re comfortable divulging any information on this, what is the status on the 1995 cassette?

Q: Cassettes will come out by March/April, but for now there isn’t a definitive release date.

S: On the note of physical releases for your albums, are there any older albums of yours that you’d like to see pressed some day?

Q: To be honest, I’d love to make a physical release of Alt-2002 on vinyl 7″. It’s one of my favourite EPs that I have ever made and seeing it printed on vinyl would be fantastic. I’d also love to see Computer Shaman printed on vinyl, and there actually is a crowdfunding campaign going on to make it come true.

Link to the mentioned campaign: Computer Shaman

S: Finally, is there anything big we can look forward to in February?

Q: On February I’ll take a break to find new inspirations and to make new albums, but on the upcoming months there will be lots of digital and physical releases!