by Abstrakt Reflections | March 8, 2010

AR: Good day to you Steven, thank you a lot for your time to answer us some questions. I would like to start this interview asking you of your musical background and maybe introducing In A Mindset to us a little bit more.

Steven: I started playing guitar by the age of 10 and got involved playing in a band very early. We just played cover songs by lots of punk bands and some classics. By the age of 14 I got into the metal scene and 2 years passed until I played in my first metal band Foresaw The End. The band existed for about 3 years, we recorded just two tracks and were about playing some gigs until it all broke up. We had lots of line up changes and at the end nothing really was working out well. I started Mortheim a few months later, which seemed very promising but all members were busy with their main music projects as well and it passed out of our minds. That time I discovered all that dark underground electronic stuff and I started to work on tracks all on my own, just guitar and synths. I added more and more electronics to it and In A Mindset saw the light of the day.

AR: You first were’nt sure about releasing on Abstrakt Reflections, what changed your mind?

Steven: I really was’nt sure about it. I helped them out by collecting and doing some research for artists for their first compilation and found some very good, almost unheard stuff and most of them replied and said yes, “we love the concept”. All the artists on there are helping out each other and some even became friends. I will put all my faith in this label and I’m glad to be involved within this project.

AR: Speaking about your first release, “Devastation P2″ is very different from all the other tracks on the EP. My personal interest is in the triptych of that track. Is there any conscious reason for putting it on it and will you make more tracks like it in near future?

Steven: Definitely. Well, I listen to Dark Ambient and Martial Industrial a lot and when I started In A Mindset it was a very different style and almost non-electronic. It’s like a step backward but forward as well. I will work with guitar way lot more and improving my songwriting; working with other musicians and instruments, even If I think that making electronic music gives you a lot of opportunities in creating your very own sound.

AR: What inspires you the most to create music and how do you go on writing it. Most of it seems very melancholic, but uplifting at the same time. Please tell us something about that.

Steven: I’m just doing it. I’m a very dark-minded and thoughtful person, and…what you hear is what I am. I really can’t explain what I feel when working on tracks. It’s my own personal soundtrack and I can’t write/record anything I don’t like just to attract other people. I will never do that, no matter how much money someone would pay me for that. From what I read people calling it a “a dark desperate love theme”, “Arcana meets Gridlock” or a “haunted desperation of romance”. I love and appreciate all that, really.

AR: What are your plans for the future, you’re involved in lots of projects as we can see. So how do you handle all that?

Steven: There will be a follow up release entitled “Delusionist” which contains 5 tracks, 3 were planned but this is going to be a CD release and it will be delayed due to some actual happenings that I’m very proud of. It’s completely different from all my works so far, it’s live electronics mixed with neoclassic influences. I’m also recently working on my first album “Artifacts” to be expected this autumn. There’s also sec 1nine13, a collaboration between me, Apparent Symmetry and Miktek. We’re all very excited about the project but it will take us some time until we can come up with a release. An EP is scheduled for this summer, though. Apart from that, I’m still active in Serapeum and planning to do a Funeral Doom project with a friend in near future.

AR: Finally, anything special you wanted to leave us with?

Steven: Thanks for the support and thanks to all who appreciate what I’m doing. That’s all.