Aziz Motawa: Your new double single, “Atlas” and “Can’t Stop,” evokes a sense of chaos, urgency, and cathartic release. Can you share more about this release?
Raffertie: That sums it up well. Everything I make feels like purging something, after which comes catharsis. Because of that it sometimes takes a while to remember how or why I’ve made it that way, I’ve shed that layer of skin into the music. The process of making my own music feels purest when I’m not thinking too much about it, as much as possible I try to let it be instinctual. ‘Can’t Stop’ and ‘Atlas’ are expressions of this approach, instinct drives the urgency, urgency projects the chaos into form.
AM: There seems to be a mutating quality in your practice, transitioning from being a classically trained multi-instrumentalist to experimenting with electronic music and creating film and video game scores. What can you tell us about your musicological process as you navigate these shifts?
R: I wish every change was planned but often I’m following what feels right or interesting. It’s hard to stay in one creative place, but each change is informed by what I’ve done before. I used to think of each part of the practice as discrete but whether it is making my own music, or music for a score, they all originate from the same place, it’s the context in which they are applied that changes.
