AIRMOW “I looked at different art forms outside of electronic music”

We had the chance to catch up with Parisian electronic music artist Airmow. Find out what he had to say about his debut album “DYSTOPIE”, first steps when creating a new track, favorite plugins and much more.

You’ve just released your debut album “Dystopie”. Can you give us a little background story on how it came to life?

During the last 12 months, I had the opportunity to work on different projects that allowed me to evolve faster and learn new things.

Producing and co-composing for/with other artists (e.g. Rosenfeld, LissA, Lumynesynth, LEOWOLF) has allowed me to discover another way of working.
Working with brands such as PRADA, Xiaomi, L’Oreal, THE GLENLIVET and Philosophy, enabled me to have a different approach to production as a whole.

These experiences influenced me a lot for “DYSTOPIE”. I created and developed a whole new sound identity for Airmow: Something cold, enigmatic and threatening.

I looked at different art forms outside of electronic music to create the tracks you hear on DYSTOPIE. During the process of making this record I also drew a lot of inspiration from visuals I always had running intentionally in the studio.

Many of the tracks on the album have no vocals. Each track offers a different mood / atmosphere but remains within the same oppressive and enigmatic theme.
So it was obvious for me to put these tracks together in one project.

The electronic music sphere is very single driven nowadays. What was your motivation to do a full album?

DYSTOPIE exposes a universe that is both threatening and marvellous, somewhere between dream and reality. I hope you can see, sense and hear those feelings and various influences throughout the entirety of the album’s journey.

When you start a new track – what are the first steps?

It really depends tbh. Sometimes I start with chords, sometimes with drums or just with a vibe.

Through the years of producing, I have found that I am much more creative and come up with more interesting things when I start a project without really having a specific goal. However, I do have some routines and techniques I tend to reuse a lot.

I start a lot of sessions with the sole purpose of creating sound material. I call these sessions “sound design sessions”. During these sessions, I tweak synths, samples in order to create my own presets that I will reuse later on for other tracks, when I need them.

Name your top 3 plugins and tell us why you think that they’re awesome.

I use a lot of different VST and plugins but here are 3 plugins that I use a lot these last times.

I use DIVA a lot. It’s aiming for an analog sound they has a lot of presets. I used it a lot on my DYSTOPIE Album. Automatization is essential to make sure that my synths sound “alive” and not “flat”.

THERMAL from Output is definitely a plug in that I use a lot for saturation / distortion.
You can create and test a lot of different saturations.

Last but not least I also like Supermassive from Valhalla. It’s a mix of echo/reverb/chorus. The possibilities with this plugin are endless. I use it a lot too.

What’s next for Airmow ?

DYSTOPIE definitely marks the beginning of a new chapter . I have a lot of new stuff on the way that I can’t wait to share with my audience! I’m still developing my sound identity and my artistic direction but I’m already really of what we’ve achieved so far!
Expect a live show, video clips and a new project soon.