Sydney artist Frantik Krantik produces incredibly endearing music that’ll consume wholly. Walking into one of his hallucinatory soundscapes will leave you with the most wonderful feeling of disorientation.
Now, shortly after the release of his most recent single Rupa, we caught up with the man himself for a run-down on his incredibly unique and dreamy music.
Fresh off the release of his new single Rupa, we caught up with Sydney producer Frantik Krantik to chat the inspiration behind his dream-like music.
HAPPY: Hey Krantik, how’s it going? What are you up to at the moment?
FRANTIK KRANTIK: At the moment I am working on a bunch of things. Firstly, I’ll be putting out videos for the tracks Ayushi and Bapang in order to complete the whole audio/visual project (which is what it was always about really).
Secondly, I am working on my EP called Layers (Rupa is the first single from that one) which includes some collaborations from amazing artists so I’m really excited about that.
HAPPY: You collect recordings from your surroundings right? Are there any particular sounds on Rupa that you can tell us about?
FRANTIK KRANTIK: For me music is always inspired from people and places. In most of the cases, the music that I make has hardly anything to do with me, rather my observations in curating things that I find interesting or hold dear.
Rupa is an Indian word that translates to beautiful it is essentially about my good fortune of being able to know and spent time with certain people and sharing myself with them. Having said that, I have had to say very frequent goodbyes to a lot of people way before I would have wanted to.
As a result, there has always been a need for urgency to express the limitations of time and space. In my sound, I consciously chose not to limit the ideas of time and space because in my real life I am often chained under those elements.
As someone who has lived in three countries in the last four years, I feel extremely blessed… but at the same time it takes a toll on your understanding of home and familiarity.
Therefore like most of my music, Rupa is my attempt in curating and saving those precious moments of my life before they get completely lost and become unrecognisable. So you could say that music is my reality check amidst the process of adulting and coming of age.
HAPPY: You’ve got such a unique sound. Are there any particular artists that inspire your work?
FRANTIK KRANTIK: I’ve been listening to a lot of French house… which has the marriage of cinematic horns and strings with house music introduced me to that idea of the euphoria aesthetic.
Daft Punk have been very influential in that case. But the more I started digging into music and production, I discovered Bonobo. Simon Green’s music has been in some ways responsible for me in picking up electronic music.
What I admire about his music is how he can be anything you want it to be. It’s almost like a chameleon… you can listen to it with your parents at the same time you can hear him in a boiler room set, and that to me is courage. I feel that music must always entail courage.
I am also heavily inspired by lo-fi house especially the Sydney duo Alba, whose dreamy chemistry of jazz piano and downtempo house gets to me a lot. So those two are definitely my biggest inspirations at the moment.
HAPPY: When constructing your songs, do you strive for a particular sound? Or do you let the sound emerge naturally?
FRANTIK KRANTIK: When making music, for me the element of mystery is very crucial. I really appreciate the idea of ‘less is more’. It lets you cherish the things that are given to you with full freedom.
What I strive for are patterns, which usually in my case are influenced from textures. Anything from a sample to a progression that I play around in the keys as soon as my mind goes “wait a second what was that” not necessarily “that was good or bad”. As soon as the question pops up I get invested.
The production starts from there, originating from a culturally rich country like India, I have always been exposed to the percussive and melody driven elements of Indian folk music.
I have always wanted to glorify the joys of those textures with the relentless feeling of house and electro. As a fan and a listener, the idea of euphoria has always been my priority in music.
To me euphoria means a sense of joy and happiness that you have to earn. And that kind of joy according to me is attained when you come out of / live through something so that you appreciate the feeling of happiness that you are experiencing at the moment.
HAPPY: What other plans are in the works for Frantik Krantik? Anything exciting?
FRANTIK KRANTIK: I will be dropping the video of my track Bapang later this month, which I am very excited about. It really digs deep into the beauty of Australia with my sonic patterns. And I will drop the next single from the EP around that time as well so definitely look out for that.
Rupa is available now.
