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Rhythm of Love- connects our readers to music through conversation with artists as they share their experience with their love …… MUSIC
Music moves us, opens our emotions - passing all barriers. Music is a piece that we can all connect to so Readers get connected
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Vitolu Zhimomi who goes by the name Vitz is an artist to watch out for. Having been associated with many renowned acts he is no stranger to the music scene. The brains behind the electric duo ‘Automation’, he is one artist who produces some remarkable tracks.
He is upfront with his opinion and his infinite knowledge on music proves his sincerity for music.
EASTERN MIRROR: When and why did you start playing?
VITZ (Vitolu Zhimomi): Well I started playing music at a very young age. I remember my mom forcing me to take up piano lessons but I honestly hated the idea about going to class to learn how to play “Piano” because those days I thought a boy playing the piano was not “COOL” haha. I ended up learning how to play the drums instead, watching my cousin brother play and following him around when he went for praise and worship rehearsals. But ever since I started producing electronic music I am trying to learn as much as I can about all the instruments including our local made instruments.
EASTERN MIRROR: What are the genres that you play? Are there any influences behind your interest?
VITZ (Vitolu Zhimomi): I still haven’t started playing live yet. Maybe this year? haha. Being very new to the electronic music scene I have been experimenting with a wide range of genres. But I mostly produce Tropical House, Deep/Future House, Future Bass and stuffs like that.I grew up listening to quite a range of music. Everything from classic rock like Mr. Big, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin to electronic music and upbeat music like Porter Robinson, San Holo, Subtact, Oliver Heldens, and so on. The first tune that really hooked me was a remix track by Kygo of the song “Sexual Healing” by Marvin Gaye, I instantly fell in love with the music and became his biggest fan. I started to do my research on electronic music production, then I got hold of a pirated copy of the music production software FL Studio from a friend and literally spent hours and hours trying to create music on my crappy sounding HP speakers .So yeah, Kygo along with many other artists has been my biggest inspiration and influence.
EASTERN MIRROR: Talk us through your debut single ‘Electric Sky’ and the inspiration behind it.
VITZ (Vitolu Zhimomi): Ah! Electric Sky was kind of a leap of faith for me. Ever since I started producing along with a friend under the alias name “Automation”, all the music I produced were happy tunes with ambient feels and most of them were down tempo music. Well Of course Electric Sky has a lot of ambient feel to it too but it is more synth and bass driven, the beats are harder and punchier. It is definitely one of my darker tunes. When I was producing this track I knew I wanted Rugks to lay his vocals over it, so I sent him a rough mix of the track and he did an awesome job adding his rhymes over it. Electric Sky was even featured on HDdubRAVE, a YouTube Channel I have been following for a very long time. We didn’t expect the overwhelming feedbacks we got from the people.
This Track got me a contract with a digital record label called GAG Digital Records based in Guwahati. So Yeah, Electric Sky was totally a game changer for me.
EASTERN MIRROR: You are said to be the brain behind the electric duo “Automation’ which not many know of. Tell us about it.
VITZ (Vitolu Zhimomi): Well, I wouldn’t call myself “the brain behind Automation”, because all the tracks we produce have equal dedication and sacrifice into it. Automation is my first step into the world of electronic music production. It was just two neighbors talking about Ambient Music that led to the formation of Automation. Like I mentioned earlier we produce mostly Ambient Chill Music and happy tunes. Well, we are on a hiatus right now because the other half of Automation is pursuing his further studies so we don’t get to sit down and work on our music together. But hopefully, there will be new music from us soon.
EASTERN MIRROR: Describe in your word the music scene of Nagaland
VITZ (Vitolu Zhimomi): Nagaland Music scene is growing bigger and better every year, Naga musicians are progressing in every genre. These days we see our fellow musicians playing at the country’s biggest music festivals and concerts sharing the stage with the nations finest. Artists like Alobo Naga, Purple Fusion, and many others are paving new ways for other musicians to go out and expose themselves to the national and international music scene. The passion we Naga people have for music is a beautiful thing, most of us music lovers stay updated with what’s trending in the international music industry and that leads to new bands and artist with fresh music. People Call this generation the “Era of Electronic Music” , well we have artists like DJ Ina who is one of the biggest act in the electronic music scene of India and making us all proud.
EASTERN MIRROR: What changes would you like to see in the music industry of Nagaland?
VITZ (Vitolu Zhimomi): I’d really like to see the local artists take more interest in making the big time and to consider music as a CAREER and not just a hobby. All we do is talk about making it big but when the time comes for us to actually choose our career we always think about getting a government job and settling down (not being bias).
That fire in us disappears with time. We should all learn from artists like Alobo Naga, Tuden and Dj Ina who, despite of all the orthodox thinking in our society chose to be full time musicians and now they are living very successful and happy lives. The big record labels out there expect nothing big is coming from Nagaland. But with the amount of talent we have, the next BIG THING could be playing in their bedrooms right now :)
EASTERN MIRROR: What’s next for Vitz. What are your plans for 2016?
VITZ (Vitolu Zhimomi): More Music, More Releases and some more haha. I’ve recently been collaborating with many talented artists and have been working on something big (It’s a surprise haha). I also have plans to go out for further studies on production. And oh! to buy new gear haha. So I pray and hope that 2016 will be a fruitful year for me. :)
