Found Frequencies Artist Q&A

We here at SILKENWOOD wanted to shed some light to these brilliant artists involved in our new non-bass venture “Found Frequencies“. We let you ask questions in our discord server and they responded here’s some of our favorite questions and responses.

What is your creative process for writing songs?

Ranipla - “I’ve always found that starting from different parts of the song helps keep the process feeling fresh. Sometimes I start with some lyrics and a flow, sometimes it’ll be some random sketch on a guitar, maybe it’s a weird sound, a cool beat, etc. Something I found very valuable in my songwriting is the pacing and structure, like what should the next section be and does the previous section build up to it adequately? Does the whole runtime and pacing of the song feel satisfying? When you get to the big moment, does it feel deserved?“

lillybug - “It depends on each song, but I’ll usually try to think of a story or scenario that I want to communicate with my instrumentation and my lyrics! A lot of my music is based on little short stories I write or think up and then make a song about either the world, characters or events inside said stories :3“

Syonide - “Recently, I’ve been starting out with a base melody or chord progression and start layering it up from there. A guitar riff tends to build the structure for me as I started with the first drop in CYAHI and then went from there.”

Mazey - “Normally I would just do a bunch of random stuff and hope it becomes something I like, but recently I've found out that I put a lot of my own emotions into my music without really noticing them so now I try to add and focus on those emotions more.
Hopefully this way I can make people feel less alone in their problems, while at the same time working through my own.”

NOISE PUPPY - “most of my songs are built around my own personal issues, they’re a form a therapy for me to help work through a lot of stuff that i need to figure out.”

Sarajevo Noise Beat - “I always start by trying to get a good rhythm with a bunch of drums & sound effects bouncing around and usually an idea for a melody & lyrics come into someone’s head while working. From there we ship it off to Jack and work on vocals & guitar.“

QVEST - “What I’ll tend to do is browse Splice for a sample I like, then if it’s good enough make an entire song based around that one sample using a bunch of free VSTs I’ve accumulated over the years; and serum lol. Vibrant atmosphere and quality drums have always been my strong suit with music, and so I embrace that as much as possible in my music, always striving for pure vibes.“

What are your inspirations for the songs on Found Frequencies, Vol. 1?

QVEST - “I actually made this song for my girlfriend, she wanted something similar to Aethoro’s 2023 album and so I made ‘a moment in time’ with that album, and her, in mind.“

Syonide - “I tend to work best after listening to some of my favorite artists or works in a specific genre so I can incorporate my favorite parts from each in my style, such as midwest emo, metalcore, ambient, and electronic music. I had been interested in trying my hand at color bass because it’s been dubbed an “easy genre” to do, but the production on those records are always really interesting so I wanted to see how that production would sound on heavy guitars. I can’t say I’ve heard anyone else try it before!“

NOISE PUPPY - “I keep on finding myself slipping back into old, bad habits that i thought i finally made my way out of so the song’s honestly a vent piece if anything about how scared i am to go back to being the person i was. A lot of it’s about my irrational fears so i tried to make the instrumentation noisy and drowned out to reflect sort of how it feels to be drowning in your own thoughts i guess haha“

Sarajevo Noise Beat - “I downloaded some sound effect pack from a game called Ridge Racer which is where some of the vocal samples in BEAMS come from. I immediately got hooked on the racing aesthetic for the song and everything fell into place from there“

Mazey - “I personally struggle a lot with confidence and think I’m not good enough pretty regularly. people didn’t always tell me the most helpful things, and sometimes in my life even damaging things when i was young, which made me think i couldn’t do anything right. Now I’m trying to learn that taking risks is a good thing from which you learn a lot, and that I’m allowed to be proud of myself and happy with myself.
But this process is a long one and I’m definitely not there yet.“

lillybug - “It honestly started out as just a little experiment with syncopation and trying to see if i could make something minimalist, but the more i worked on it the more i was like “okay wait this one’s special” hehe. I was also having a lotta anxiety about how fast my life seems to be going by, like im 20 tomorrow and thats just insane to me and i get worried that im not spending my time right, so the lyrics are just sort of a reminder to myself that its okay to grow older and theres no wrong way to spend my time, and the people and communities i surround myself with make it all worth it, no matter how i waste my time! <3“

Ranipla - “Since a couple years ago I’ve held a lot of baggage for things that, while honestly not really all significant, would occasionally weigh on me. On one particular evening I think I was just thinking about it more as I just happened to be writing lyrics, and that’s what spilled out. The lyrics at times focus on specific people and other times broaden to multiple at once and there’s no 1 characteristic defining every case, it was a song for the friends that I something something, I don’t know, you can’t really chalk up every situation to one thing.“

How did you first get affilliated with the almighty label known as SILKENWOOD?

QVEST - “I commented something silly under a Twitter post, then we followed each other and a couple months later I submitted this track!“

Sarajevo Nosie Beat - “I’ve been a fan of Silkenwood for ages. Right when we started making music it was a goal of mine to release here. Jayson (What the PUP!) is a long time friend of mine and we agreed to do a collab for Better Together 6, and thankfully the staff team liked “catch me if you can” & “BEAMS” enough to release them too!“

Syonide - “Some of my closest musical friends have released on the label (What The PUP!, voxkai, and more) and so many awesome underground people are affiliated with this place, along with some former Xpanse artist friends here! (RIP XPANSE) Really happy to have Silkenwood be my first label release in years.“

lillybug - “Honestly i saw QB!K’s video on silkenwood a few years back and was like, blown away so i joined the discord and saw btv4 was happening, so on a whim i signed up and the track i made with nshvll got accepted! I’ve been a proud part of the label ever since! Ily guys <3“

NOISE PUPPY - “It’s a long story”

Mazey - “I honestly don’t remember when I first found Silkenwood, but I got a Dm from Sph3re asking if I had any stuff that would fit the Found Frequencies compilation.
So that’s how I got here I guess. :)“

Ranipla - “I heard of Silkenwood like 2-3 years ago when 2 of my friends (in different conversations) told me about it and I thought “oh hell yeah”. And then they were like “yo we’re looking for non-bass demos n stuff” and I was like “omg that’s so me”.“

If you were being shipped off to a remote island and could only bring 3 things, what would you bring?

NOISE PUPPY - “Unlimited water, unlimited food, unlimited games. cheat code bb“

Syonide - “A cruise ship to go back and two oranges“

QVEST - “My girlfriend, my dragon plushie; kya, and an extra large tent :)“

Sarajevo Noise Beat - “Stephen, JJ, and Jack“

lillybug - “Chaia my wife, a sergal and a sneppy, bc i love my wife, itd be fun to talk to a sergal, and a pet snow leopard omg thatd be so cute :3“

Mazey - “A hammock, an unlimited supply of watermelon and sunglasses. (I’m chilling there)
Also I assume there's turtles on the island right? Cuz that’s enough entertainment.“

Ranipla - “the earth“

If you were a Pokémon type, what would you be and what moves would you have?

QVEST - “Dragon/Flying type; I love wings & dragons hehe. Fly, Rest (so I could actually go to sleep normally lmao), Dragon Pulse, and Endure.“

Sarajevo Noise Beat - “Grass type! It is a SNB trade secret that we roughly theme all of our songs around a pokemon type so my 4 moves will represent our 4 released singles: Ingrain, Bug Buzz, Thief, Charge Beam“

Syonide - “It’s an interesting question! Like, there’s so many things you can do and so many moves you can utilize like how you can pick your gag tracks in ToonTown? If you’re playing Corporate Clash, I really recommend going for a squirt/zap combo to start. Oh also, play as a cat, they’re awesome“

lillybug - “Water type. iykyk. I think id have water gun, aqua tail, razor shell and water pump!“

NOISE PUPPY - “Hmmm, i think i’d be a psychic type. Espeon’s kinda gender envy. As for moves, i think i’d have psybeam, future sight, confusion, and psychic“

Mazey - “Dragon type. Space is cool and exploring it would be cool. As for moves, spacial rend, eternabeam and roar of time. They just sounded cool.“

Ranipla - “btw i just noticed im reading like 30% slower than normal why is this whole f*cking document in comic sans“

(For reference we pooled our answers in a google document before making this blog post…and it was comic sans font)

Do y’all have any genres that you didn’t do but wanna make in the future?

Sarajevo Noise Beat - “When i first started producing i really wanted to make super loud and euphoric future bass. Think artists like Deon Custom, Rustie, KRANE, etc. I never really got the hang of it but its still a sound that I love a ton and would totally be down to try again one day.“

Mazey - “I’ve made a lot of different genres and still do, but I haven't released something in color bass, midtempo and ukg which I do have some projects for so maybe those?“

Syonide - “I’m always trying new things as I went from midtempo to color metal, but I’d love to produce for some of my favorite rappers as hip hop is a genre of music I’ve grown up on and have always wanted to try. Naming specific artists because manifesting or whatever, but I think Danny Brown, Denzel Curry, or Pusha T would be a ton of fun to work with.“

lillybug - “honestly ive been listening to a lotta early 2010’s dubstep so idk i think itd be fun to branch out and try something like that! also color bass could be fun too“

NOISE PUPPY - “i mainly do shoegaze and noise rock, but itd be fun to branch out into more electronic hardcore stuff. kinda like femtanyl. idk we’ll see where it takes me.“

Ranipla - “I wanna get really good at boom bap, also I wanna do more like mindmelting sound experiment shit, like a whole album of relentless crazy unique ideas, no breaks. I’m gonna make a rap album one day. Dude I was gonna do this project of like, asexual headbangers n stuff I feel like the spark has been reignited. OMG IMAGINE A RANIPLA LOWERCASE ALBUM, BUT LIKE LOWERCASE+POP MUSIC OR SOMETHING THATD BE CRAAZY“

Favorite cartoon?

QVEST - “Steven Universe & Bluey; SU was one of the greatest experiences I’ve had watching TV and Bluey might just be the best show ever, rarely does an episode not get me emotional. Plus, being Australian just adds an extra layer of comfort to the show.“

Sarajevo Noise Beat - “The Sopranos. (I’ve never really gotten into any cartoons besides the Pokemon anime when I was really little, sorry lol)“

Mazey - “Definitely Amphibia. I watched it recently and I mean a cartoon with good energy, chill vibes, nice animation and FROGS!!. It was really good and had some good messages in its story. Would recommend it. Oh and also an amazingly chill outro song :)“

Syonide - “I don’t even remotely care if it’s “not a cartoon”, but Shin Kamen Rider is an acid trip in the best way. Watch the Shin Kamen Rider (2023) movie and tell me it’s not a live action cartoon. In that movie, the main character kicks a bad guy’s head clean off in the first THREE minutes of the movie. THERE’S NINE MAIN VILLAINS IN THE MOVIE!!!“

lillybug - “over the garden wall, by a longshot. its literally an annual tradition for me now; whenever the leaves start turning i rewatch over the garden wall, i think it might be the best cartoon i’ve ever seen its so incredibly good“

NOISE PUPPY - “i really love avatar the last airbender so probably that for me, steven universe is a close second though.“

Ranipla - “I think i actually forgot what I used to watch as a kid so we’re going plan B: One of my favourite pastimes is to watch random Gacha Life mini-movies. I’m not even lying there’s a charm to seeing varying degrees of quality in this type of youtube content, it’s entertaining to watch people interact in very unorthodox ways and also kinda charming to see it as a genuine outlet for some.“

One album to listen to for the rest of your life, go:

QVEST - “Brambles - Charcoal. Close second is Nurture but nothing matches the vibe Brambles is able to produce on Charcoal; every song can fit most moods and so I’ll always be able to find something new when listening, either within the tracks or within myself.“

Sarajevo Noise Bet - “If compilation albums count, feel trip vol. 3 from night owl collective. 49 songs, some of which being all time favorites. If that doesn’t count, nurture because im basic :3“

Syonide - ““Somewhere City” by Origami Angel is the perfect pick-me up. It’s half an hour of pure fun, nostalgia, and single-handedly got me into Midwest emo, 5th wave emo, and all other acts in that style. A few other honorable mentions are Nurture by Porter Robinson, Long Awaited Journey by Alon Mor, To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar, Discovery by Daft Punk, and New Age Filth by Hail The Sun.“

lillybug - “god thats so hard, its a tie between what do you want! and there must be something here by acloudyskye. skye is genuinely my favorite artist of all time and literally no matter how many times i listen to those albums they will never ever get old for me“

NOISE PUPPY - “punisher by phoebe bridgers. never before in my life has a musical project changed me as much as punisher did. i listen to that album religiously“

Ranipla - “False Noise’s ‘Floral Strobe’ is my current favourite album of all time, though for the rest of my life maybe something like clipping.’s ‘There Existed An Addiction To Blood’ or maybe even an album I don’t consider a 10/10, since that means throughout my life I could learn to enjoy it.“

Mazey - “Take Me back to Eden from Sleep Token. I'm loving this album right now it's so good. :)“

What a wonderful pool of questions and answers. Thank you to the incredibly talented artists that took part in this compilation. We hope you enjoyed reading these just as much as we enjoyed answering. Remember to stream Found Frequencies, Vol.1 on your favorite platform and have an amazing day <3

-The Found Frequencies