Exclusive Interview: 5 Minutes With… An On Bast

Anna Suda – widely known in performance circles as An On Bast – is an electronic music producer and sound designer from Poland. With the upcoming release of the brilliantly-named Neuroplastic Brain Fitness through her very own label Ghost Kitchen (out March 17th), the talented young artist will soon have an opportunity to share her special brand of “dreamy dance music” (Red Bull) with listeners throughout the UK. We chatted to An On Bast about her dream music festival and what she isn’t listening to at the moment…

Hi there, how are you and what are you up to today?

Great, thanks. I’m preparing my set-up for Saturday’s live show, including a modular synthesizer, drum machine, polyphonic synth and loop station.

For those not familiar with your work, how would you describe your sound?

When playing live, that would mostly be warm melodic techno. But the music released on my albums varies from experimental, IDM and sometimes ambient tracks, to high-energy dance floor oriented songs.

What are the 3 albums and artists that have influenced you the most?

Arvo Pärt – Tabula Rasa
Autechre – Amber
Pearl Jam – Ten

What other artists do you really like at the moment and why?

At the moment I don’t listen to music, so I’m not very much aware of what’s going on. I lost the skill to listen to music just ‘as music’, in favour of a very technical method of listening which is only a pleasure from a producer’s point of view. So I cannot point to any current favourites, sorry.

If we gave you the budget to put a line-up together for a mini fest, who would you book and where would you play?

I think I would organise an IDM festival. I would like to show that music can be more unpredictable, and that it can be a great pleasure to experience more unknown and surprising structures and sounds. It would be great to have it organised on the top of a mountain, or at least somewhere in nature with great views around. Oh, that would be beautiful! I would have to think of who to invite, probably some artists from growing modular scene…

Do you have any information regarding upcoming releases, projects, DJ mixes or collaborations in the pipeline that you would like to tell us about?

My album Neuroplastic Brain Fitness will be released by label Ghost Kitchen on March 17th, and in May I will contribute a track on a Pets Records compilation. I’m also looking at putting out a couple of EPs towards the end of the year.