Prox: Have you ever considered dabbling in nature based ambient projects (or any other genres)?

SD: If you mean creating organic ambient, field recordings and such, then yes. I considered that and was planning on buying an expensive recorder to capture nature sounds a few years ago. I still prefer fiddling with knobs and sliders and modulating my own, synthetic sounds and when I really need some nature recordings, I can find them on the internet. I doubt I could use them anywhere else than just as a background texture, though I must admit, field recordings always give this richness, a certain fullness to a track.

For now, I'm trying to migrate a bit more towards rhythmic ambient, maybe something closer to psy-chill (psy-bient) and such.

Prox: In an era where music is so competitive, why did you opt to release all of your albums for free?

SD: I chose to release music for free because I believed I could reach much wider audiences this way, especially since not everyone wants to pay some arbitrary and predetermined price. And it is really hard to put a price tag on my own music, since I do not consider it my job, but a hobby. Something I do on my free time and only when I am inspired to do it. I could never create music on demand, mainly because I lack the proper knowledge, education, and skills but also because I just want to create music my own way, not someone else's.

I also never believed in labels, to me they seemed more like an obstacle than a useful thing. When I started creating music I promoted it myself on various websites and forums, some of which are no longer active. And it would be hard to do that if people had to pay for music in order to download and listen to it on their spare time. It is not a business for me and never was, I allow people to pay the price that they want or not pay at all. This way, I think, I reach many more people because sharing is way easier when artists encourage it themselves instead of asking for money so that others could be able to give my music to their friends, family etc.

Prox: What are some of the greatest challenges associated with making “engaging” ambient music? Are there any steps that you take to ensure that your projects are never boring?

SD: When I create I never think about it, because as I said, I do it for myself and only for myself. I want to be personally engaged and inspired and actually feel like I made something complete and enjoyable. Though the challenge has always been finding the proper amount of inspiration. Sometimes, I am inspired to just mess around with different ideas, sounds, and genres. But to actually create something, I need this one special kind of inspiration which allows me to start and finish about 80 percent of a track in just one night, when I do not need anything else but some quietness, my headphones, and maybe a midi keyboard (even though I still prefer drawing notes with a mouse).

Of course, to ensure all that I need to listen to music as much as possible which currently is hard to do. Also everyday stress and other personal issues make it hard to concentrate. I think I should try meditating to help me achieve this peace of mind.