- What is the meaning and the concept behind the name of your music project?
To be completely honest, there isn't a really deep meaning behind "John Lithium", apart from being a (hopefully) catchy pseudonym. From what I can remember, I probably came up with the name about twenty years ago following the punk/industrial tradition of a 'regular' name and the last name being an object/concept/etc. Later on, I felt there was some significance in the fact that "Lithium" can be indicative of emotional and mental stability (though I should stress that I have never taken it myself, despite suffering from long-lasting depression and anxiety throughout much of my life).
- What equipment do you use for create music?
Currently I use FL Studio for the DAW. As far as soft synths, I mainly use about 95% soft synths, mostly Native Instruments these days, including the Kontakt Komplete suite (which features too many instruments to completely list, although Straylight/Ashlight frequently get a lot of usage in my music). Reaktor, Massive/Massive X, Absynth, and Battery 4 also gets used on a fairly regular basis. Other than that, I use Omnisphere 2 on occasion. I do still use freeware synths sometimes, although as the software gets older and older, more unexpected bugs and errors can pop up, and often the UI cannot be scaled up for modern computer screens, which can make them harder to use.
I have been slowly getting into hardware recently, including getting a Sonicware Ambient0 ambient synth and the Blackbox Compact Sampling Studio unit recently, but it may be a while before I can integrate them into my workflow on a regular basis.
-Tell us a little biography about your project, when you started to make music?
Like a lot of people, I have been musically active for most of my life, including piano lessons during grade school and middle school, and alto sax in high school in college. While I enjoyed those instruments, I probably never really thought I would pursue ac career with them or perform live.
My parents got me Acid Music 2.0d around 2000 or so towards the end of high school. Despite it probably seeming somewhat primitive by today's standards, it was a good way to learn how to sequence song elements, mixing, FX, etc. I created a few albums under one or two project names, but these were mostly just for friends and interested people. I started using FL Studio around 2007 around the end of college and was instantly hooked. It could just be by virtue of it being the first, but I have yet to find a UI and workflow in other DAWS that works as well as FL Studio, at least for me (my choice of being a mostly dark ambient and soundscape/cinematic composer may have something to do with that).
After a few small releases around 2007 that were never publicly released, I started recording 'professionally' around 2009 under the "John Lithium" title. Had one album released on a third-party label, but due to poor communication and other issues, I have basically self-released most of my material, apart from compilation appearances and the rare collab album.
Also, in 2009, I founded my netlabel Argali Records Netlabel with my friend Reon Moebius, partially as a response to the bad experiences I have had with other labels at the time, both with regard to full releases and compilation appearances. Thus, over the years I have had less time overall to focus on music but feel that when I can work on music it has turned out better over all.
Over the last few years, I have been a bit more active, mainly because due to being much less depressed and, without getting too specific, having to constantly deal with curve balls being thrown constantly by life.
- Who are your main music and artistic influences?
Quite a few, but some of the main ones include Bad Sector, Atrium Carceri, Lustmord, Nadja, Yellow Swans, IRM, Ulvtharm, Strapping Young Lad, Coil, Drew McDowall, Lead Into Gold/Paul Barker, Beyond Sensory Experience, K. Meizter, Horologium, Illusion Of Safety, Tim Hecker, Skinny Puppy, Controlled Bleeding, Scott Walker, Pan Sonic, Cyclobe, Bones Of Seabirds, Aphex Twin, Mika Vainio, Inade. Could probably go on but this sums up most of the direct influences.
-What underground artists from the netlabel scene do you like?
As a label head I try not to play favorites. John7 (aka John M Myres III) from Timetheory Netlabel was a HUGE influence in what Argali Records would become as well as how to make a good Archive.org album release. Other than that, I would be remiss if I did not also mention Cousin Silas and Neal D Retke have been hugely supportive over the years, which is always so appreciated given they are both respectively titans in the experimental music community.
Typing this reminds me that in the early 2000s, I was fairly active in the StillStream internet radio community. As far as I know, most of those people have gone their separate ways, as well as StillStream itself closing up shop late last year due to ongoing health issues with the owner.
-Do you have some influence from your country in your music?
Not in particular. As someone who lives in the USA, this is probably not too surprising, although the theme of "industrial society" shows up in my music every once in a while.
- What is your favorite album/ep composed by you? And why?
This changes on a fairly frequent basis, but more often than not, the album "Insomnia" from 2010 tends to be the album that I have the most regard for, both on a compositional and content level. It comes as no surprise that I have had insomnia on a regular basis, and this album was basically my attempt to sort of capture the dark feelings that can come about when experiencing that state of mind. It is also one of the first albums I really focused on having a specific sound and aesthetic after mixing and mastering the tracks.
-What are your preferred music platforms/websites? Why?
With regards to distribution, I mainly relied on Internet Archives for the first few years. To be honest, while I appreciated the platform to distribute both my work and that of others on there, it never struck me as particularly suited for musical works.
Bandcamp was a huge boon to the music scene, and in short basically addressed most of the issues I had with hosting on Internet Archive. I seem to recall that there were one or two platforms that preceded Bandcamp, but they fizzled out fairly quickly. One of them might have started with a 'C'.
When it comes to promotion, I really enjoyed Myspace in it's heyday. People forget but there really was a thriving experimental music scene there at the time, and while I do not know if algorithms were much of a thing at that point, but I feel people could get way more exposure for their music then they can now. These days, one has to utilize up to half a dozen platforms, with most of them punishing your reach one way or another for daring to include a link that directs off the platform. Quite frankly, it sucks and it's definitely anti-artistic, which is a huge shame given that these days, it is easier than ever to learn the basics of electronic music through DAW demo trial periods etc. At the end of the day, music promotion is a huge grind, but it is a burden one has to bear if one does not have the backing of a major music label that can shill your work on Spotify for a pittance.
-Any funny anecdote in the composition of a track or an album?
Not as many as I would like. The sad truth is, a lot of my earlier composition was directly connected to the amount of depression, insomnia, and life turmoil I was experiencing at the time. Throughout the 2010s, this gradually improved to the point where I am now, in a mostly good place. There was one time, back in 2009, where the noted experimental musician Frans de Waard trashed an album of my noise side-project Nihil Obstat in his long running music review zine "Vital Weekly". Honestly, I didn't mind the criticism as much as the fact that he mocked me and another project for being on a recent compilation. Thankfully, the label head at Twilight Luggage was a good chap at the time and included one of my tracks along with Waard's on a subsequently released compilation. The 'funny' result of this series of events is that it extended the lifetime of Nihil Obstat as a project for another year or two, as criticism and a desire to mock naysayers can be a potent catalyst for inspiration.
-Do you play live? How was the experience?
Never played live, for better or for worse. All of my projects are a strictly studio experience. I'll never say never, although it probably isn't on the radar for the foreseeable future.
Any news for 2025?
As far as my own musical projects, I rarely plan them out in advance. There are always a few compilation appearances every few months or so. Would love to do another full length album in the near-future, but it may be a while before that happens. Also, over the last few years, a lot of my spare time has been spent on Argali, with compilations happening every quarter or so. Will let everyone know when inspiration strikes again.
Do you want to say anything else to your listeners?
This isn't so much to my listeners, but anyone who read this, but a reminder that, more often than not, you (yes YOU) have more agency in your life than you may think. Yes, this isn't always the case, and yes I am speaking from personal experience. It's a bit of a sobering experience to realize that I wasted huge swaths of my life thinking I was being helplessly carried down the stream of life and fate, when I could have at least dodged the incoming obstacles and even attempted to move to safer shores. Thus, I am doing my best to spend my time in a more productive and creative manner, at least some of the time. Hope you are all doing well. Take care and stay safe out there.
LATEST RELEASE: Sounds In Clouds:
https://lithiumindustries.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-in-clouds-2024-remaster
