New project MOAN originated in Moscow in 2014. Vocalist and producer Olga Lyalina is influenced by the likes of Lamb, Róisín Murphy, Röyksopp, Tori Amos and Maya Jane Coles, drawing inspiration from styles including UK bass and garage.
Olga’s debut single ‘Another You’ was remixed by Cream Soda, and last year, Lyalina began collaborating with drum & bass rooted producer Nuage. Aside from her musical influences, Lyalina finds inspiration in the work of groundbreaking designers such Alexander Wang and Maison Margiela.
The emotive and vivacious track ‘Always Love’ (listen below) is lifted from the new MOAN EP ‘Holy Heartbeats’.
We grabbed five minutes with MOAN for a glimpse behind the scenes…
Hi there, how are you and what are you up to today?
We are looking forward to the debut MOAN EP, now all our effort and time has been spent on the preparation and implementation. Now we can exhale a little bit, I’ll be getting on a plane to Barcelona tonight with Dmitri (Nuage). Yesterday was the release of his album, ‘Neida’, which had a smashing success in the network and got a lot of great reviews.
To those not familiar with you, how would you describe your sound?
The sound in which we work with MOAN is sensual electronic. A soft and smooth mix of deep and erotic with a slight touch of mysticism and rituals. This is still pop music, but we try to keep this classy mixture with underground in it.
What are the 5 albums and artists that have influenced you the most?
Portishead – ‘Dummy’, Massive Attack – ‘Mezzanine’, Lamb – ‘Lamb’, Tori Amos – ‘Abnormally Attracted To Sin’, The Prodigy – ‘Music for the Jilted Generation.’
Which other artists are you into at the moment and why?
I like different music, but the music I looked into the project is: [Anders] Trentemøller, Four Tet and Anjunadeep.
As a DJ, how important do you think it is to keep up with trends in music? Do you tend to take notice of what other big names are playing?
Yes, we must keep up with the times, otherwise you run the risk of to being viewed as a 50 year old teenager. I mean that music isn’t static. It’s moving, progressing, and also changes the taste of the musician: his life, the inspirational moments. But you can’t forget about your personality or your style. We followed this in the project work, the main thing for us is to keep and progress our own style.
What are some of the key pieces of gear you use to write your tracks?
Dmitry : I like a lot of reverb, deepness, air, into my work, love alot to work with vocals – cut, circle, reverb it – because we still do not a DJ project, and the vocal project – I work with vocals very carefully, in order to make it special.
If you were not a musician what would you be?
Most likely it would be creative professions, I have had experience working as a DJ on the radio and a producer for other artists, but music- it’s the air that I breathe, and so all somehow connected, and hope andIt will continue with it!
Do you have any information regarding upcoming releases, projects, DJ mixes or collaborations in the pipeline that you would like to tell us about?
With MOAN, we are currently working on new tracks for the album and it’s going to be magical! After the originals EP coming, we planned to make a remixes EP with a producers like a Cream Soda, KSKY, Street Choice, Matin, …Nuage. 😉
