Music Makers

a peek behind s4khi's mysterious and intriguing album '1056'

One thing about writing about music is you receive a lot of emails. If you write about music, you should definitely like music, but you should also like receiving emails as well. And I got a great email a while back from the Washington D.C.-based artist s4khi, containing a link to his latest album, which is called 1056. It was a short email, which of course intrigued me! I know sometimes context is important and a promotional email has its general info requirements, but I am a sucker for mystery...I must always know more...

1056 is an enigmatic piece of art, formless and ambient with occasional ventures into structure and repetition. It is layered and atmospheric—there are snippets of sampled dialogue, wind chimes, various artifacts from recording that appear when the music dies down—and it is both gauzy and harsh, with ghostly vocals wafting around sharp bursts of distorted guitar and pounding drums. And it gives off an aura of devotion: devotion to expressing oneself through music, devotion to bringing a listener onto your level. Even if you are listening in the middle of a sunny day, it takes you to the Night Zone, so beware.

My favorite track on it is "Folie á..." which kind of reminds me of the Clams Casino stuff I listened to when I was in college...mellow but propulsive, it counter-balances different flavors of vocals (intimate rapping + chopped up, sample-y treatments of singing) in a way that could end up feeling too overwhelming, but instead is soothing, encouraging contemplation.

I knew needed to understand more about s4khi's creative process and motivations! So I emailed him some questions, and he was kind enough to respond (plus share a REALLY GOOD playlist of inspirations). Below...the feature...

[Molly Mary O'Brien] Why do you make music?

[s4khi] I think that when I started around 2019, it was really just me looking at all of my favorite artists and thinking "if they can do that, then why can't I?" But then it slowly became very obsessive, and I kind of had it in my head that I needed to do this, and I still do think that. I think most musicians stick around with it for a while because they have something to prove. I hope I keep that drive in me, that I need to prove it not only to others, but to myself as well. I've been making music for over 6 years now, and I feel that at this point, being an artist is who I am.

What is your music-making process like?

I would say usually I try to produce before I write. But when I do write lyrics first, I often do it to the tune of a song I'm listening to at the moment. Then I adjust it accordingly to whatever it is I'm making on the production side of things. I use FL Studio to make music, which I would say is mainly because before I got into making more alternative music I was pretty much only making hip-hop and electronic, which I think FL is totally the best at. When it comes to production, obviously I use my guitar, which is a Squier CV, to just figure out a good melody, or even just to mess around in FL and edit random sounds I make on it (I did this on my song "ICPO" in the second half of the song.)

If it's a more electronic leaning track such as the title track, I'll open up some synth presets I made, go through my drum kits, find a one-shot sound that I can make into a melody, something like that. As far as arrangements go, for 1056 and what I'm currently working on (haven't decided on if it's an EP or an album), those more rock influenced songs, like "Do You?", "Wash", and "Tranquility" were made very gradually. I think that's more because this alternative sound, this mix of electronic, underground hip-hop and alternative rock doesn't come as naturally to me from a songwriting standpoint, compared to that cloud rap sound I had been doing.

What do you hope people might experience when they listen to 1056?

When I was first making the album, from about August of last year to the end of May, I really wanted it to be that people saw that I made it at the age that I did and go "holy shit! he's so good for that age!" But I realize now that I don't want people to view it as "good for [insert age]." I just want this album to be good on its own merits. I hope people listen to the songwriting and understand what my headspace was making this album, like exactly what I wrote, I want the listener to feel that exactly. I don't even want the listener to even relate, but just listen to not only the lyrics, but the production, and vocals, all of that.

Even if, let's say someone doesn't enjoy this album, I want to know what they don't like. I only can see myself improving, and for that to happen, you always need someone to be that critic. I know at least for myself, I was very critical of myself making 1056, constantly cutting and adding tracks, just in this ultra-perfectionist mindset. But I think that in particular is what made my album so great, especially on the vocals and lyrics, I improved so much. I hope I keep that mindset in me going forward.

P.S. I just need to put you all on game. This is my playlist, if you want to understand more about my influences (and also hear some good ass music), listen to this.