Nature and Perceiving Reality with SILA

Sila is a DJ and Producer whose style is shamanism and understanding when it comes to music, we interviewed him 2 years ago if you want to read his background story here. Currently back on the island after a two year gap, Phanganist catches up with him again…

Hey Sila, you were here 2 years ago and before then, what brings you back this time?
It’s quite hard to explain. I feel some kind of magic starting just from the first second I step from a ferry boat on Koh Phangan. It’s like some special mind tuning, which I definitely enjoy and which gives me resources for making new music. I’ve experienced that only in a very few places in the world, for example in Thiruvannamalai in India, but I need faster internet for work so I come back to Koh Phangan every time.

The main thing on Koh Phangan is it’s a very balanced mix of nature and people’s energy. I actually almost never go to local parties, I just don’t have time because the music production and running a record label takes almost all of my free time. So I mean peoples energy is more like local people seeing the nature and perceiving reality in general, that’s inspires me a lot.

Not for Fun (your record label) is now up and running, how is it going?
We’ve aced out the first release in a techno genre by SILA. Aeterna EP includes 3 tracks I recorded here on Koh Phangan. A very talented Moscow visual artist team 17Hz made some hypnotic motion graphics which were edited by Russian artist Victoria Re.

We received good reviews for these 2 music videos from famous techno producers and experimental guys as well. Digital release is distributed everywhere including Itunes, Beatport and Bandcamp, but we see music sales mostly in Germany, UK and US.

Are you now based in Berlin?
We registered the label and plan shows in Berlin because it seems our main audience is there.

How is the scene there?
We feel that it is very comfortable and open for our ideas at the moment. Nothing can be too experimental for this place, and the technical level of sound production is very high, that’s what attracts Not For Fun Records to Berlin.

You have an experimental style, what's the inspiration behind this?
I was making absolutely different music for the last 4 years collaborating with 2 very talented music producers as well. So this Phangan - Moscow - Berlin connection finally brought us to finish releases in different music genres - techno, ambient, krautrock, experimental hip hop, abstract electronic and some kind of futuristic avant garde music I don’t know how to name the genre of it.

It looks like everything Not For Fun records do is highly mixgenred music, where different music languages are used in a very unpredictable way, so maybe that’s why we can call it experimental. But at the same time Not For Fun tries to be accurate with the highest sound production and mastering standards and we definitely don’t see experimental music like some weird stuff nobody really can listen to. It’s more like toward the futurism and avantgarde development in modern music genres.

Will you play on Koh Phangan?
Hopefully, but my main goals are music production and preparing for shows in Europe, Hong Kong and Japan. I just love to produce here in silence and meditation.

What's your plan whilst here?
I plan to release 6 EP, OST and VA compilation from here to global distribution and make more music, that I can’t expect.

And what do you want to achieve for 2018?
Not For Fun Records is planning to seriously develop the Youtube channel for this year and make a lot of different music videos collaborating with modern visual artists. After releases launch for SILA, AO AQOOA, Teenage Arab, Annie Fisher, Caustic Camo, ACIDHOP and music for a film - OST “Learn to play the Game” we plan to make first Various Artist compilation and go on tour.