ImiAFan started as a solo-project set up by Imrich Vegh in 1999. Later on Miki…
ImiAFan started as a solo-project set
up by Imrich Vegh in 1999. Later on Miki Bernath joined in and ImiAFan moved on
as a duo sometimes completed by extra guests. ImiAFan is mainly dealing with a
minimal-electro style. Most of the productions got released on 4mg Records,
which is a Slovakian label run by Imrich Vegh. ImiAFan this year released a new
album entitled “Videnie” on the French label Falco Invernale Records. It gave
me the idea to get in touch with Imrich Vegh to get a bit more information
about ImiAFan and 4mg Records.
Q:
Let’s start with the beginning! Can you briefly introduce yourself and tell us
how you got involved with electronic music, which brought you to set up ImiAFan
and 4mg Records?
Imrich: My name is Imrich Vegh. I
live in Slovakia. Music has been my favorite hobby since my childhood, which I
spent in the 80s listening to synth-pop and new-wave music. Later on, I was
listening also to EBM, dark-wave, ambient and many other music styles. In the
90s, I felt a need to exhale my musical creativity and my first computer gave
me an easy opportunity to play with sounds. Computer worked well as a recorder
and sampler using tracker type music software. That was in around 1998. The
idea of creating the label came up a bit later in 2003. At that time, I lived
in Canada and I needed some kind of platform to socialize with musically like-minded
people. This has been working since then till today. I made many friendships
from all over the world thanks to my music activities.
Q:
You’re hailing from Slovakia so how does the electro/industrial/goth scene
looks like in your country (referring to artists, labels, event organizers,
media, DJ’s ao)? What are the main difficulties you encounter when operating
from Slovakia and how do you try to reach a wider/international audience?
Imrich: Slovakia is a small
post-communist country in Eastern Europe and the scene here is specific of that
kind. There are not many club activities in the electro/industrial/goth scene.
I know about Aliens Production label releasing dark-ambient, EBM music on CDs.
I am aware of EBM bands like The Dark or Terminal State, the death-rock band
Last Days Of Jesus and a harsh industrial project called Einleitungszeit. The
local media support is poor. I exist musically mostly by being connected to a
virtual world of friends and supporters without borders. I live in the countryside,
in the middle of a farm land with my family; I have a daily job, etc.
Moreover, I don’t even listen to much
new music anymore, compared with the past. I enjoy the outdoor noise without
wearing headphones.
Q:
When I’m listening to ImiAFan I immediately hear a connection with 80s
electronics. What do you try to express with this music project and how do you
see the evolution in influences and the composition process
from your early work till the newest release “Videnie”?
Imrich: I got into minimal-synth
music accidentally by releasing my first 12” and later 7”. Those releases
generated some interest of people from the minimal-synth scene, but till then,
I was not aware of that such music scene even exists. Then I found out about
Veronica Vasicka’s weekly Minimal Wave radio shows she used to air in around
2004 from Brooklyn. I still keep those shows downloaded to my archives. She
even played my tracks and later on we made a track together. Of course, the
main influence is the 80s music because that was the time when I inhaled the
music the most. The life was slower and we were able to spend a lot of time
listening to entire albums in a very relaxed mode on repeat for days and weeks.
I have been a huge fan of early Depeche Mode. It was a very intense love for
their music behind the Iron Curtain that time. There was also an interesting
social phenomenon of Depeche Mode-fans and heavy metal fans here who were
sometimes even fighting among each other in gang style. Funny times.
Our composition style is not changing
much. In the last 7 years I have worked with my music partner Miki Bernath who
comes from the neighboring village. He is coming from the minimal techno scene
so our sound is affected by his own influences, too. Miki is the studio
producer, mixer and engineer in ImiAFan right now. It seems to me that our
sound, thanks to him, became a bit cleaner with more depth. The sound changes
also depending on what gear we use. The tracks are built from basic ideas
-often random or accidental ideas/loops/demos brought by him or me, but the
final word on each track is mine. Sometimes, we are jamming in my house,
playing over rhythms and record on fly what we like. I always try to catch the
breath of a moment when the ‘accidental’ melody comes.
Q:
What is “Videnie” all about? Tell us a bit more about the composition and the
lyrical content?
Imrich: “Videnie” (“Vision” in
English) is basically a bunch of songs recorded from 2015 to 2018. Those six
tracks on the 12” were selected by the label from a collection of (I guess) 9
proposed tracks. Using the poems of the Slovak famous writer, Ivan Strpka, whom
I know in person, works well in our music. Many years ago, I was his driver and
translator at a poetry festival in Hungary. Mr. Strpka is happy that I use his
poems this way. I have a few of his books, which I am reading while listening
to loops and music ideas and in last years I found many of them fitting nicely
to our music. I like Strpka’s surreal pictures and situations created in his
short poems. We have more unreleased tracks (even a few newer ones) with his
lyrics. I think, it is a good idea to use poems in this kind of music. The
vinyl format also gives space to put the lyrics on cover with translations so
everybody can read them. The cover design gives the first visual feeling before
listening, so the release is artistically a quite complex artefact with music,
poetry and graphics in one package. I also love using various languages in our
music.
My first language is Hungarian (same
for Miki), because we are members of the Hungarian minority living at the
border with Hungary here in Slovakia. Therefore, we use that
language as well and it sounds totally different. In the past, I worked with
other vocalists, such as Sololust, using English, or Dario Seraval, using
Slovenian. There are no limits. I love all languages of this planet.
Q:
“Videnie” has been released by the French label Falco Invernale Records. This
label is run by Makina Girgir who had a side-project with you called Képeslap!
Is this project still active and/or are there new plans for the future? And how
comes you don’t release your own work on 4mg Records?
Imrich: Képeslap is in a lazy mode
right now. We had a nice 5 tracker mini album called “Power And Darkness” out
in 2010 at Falco Invernale Records. Since then, we recorded 2 tracks for
various compilation releases. The last track called “Este Van” released on the
“Wave Earplug”-compilation is the one which you reviewed earlier this year. We
work remotely between France and Slovakia. All depends on our free time and on
what life brings. We never plan anything, but to be honest, I would love to
make a new mini-album under Képeslap moniker again.
I have to correct you though, because
most of the ImiAFan releases came out on 4mg records. Please, just
check our discography and you will see.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/92744-Imiafan
I am always open for releases on
other labels so I don’t have to take care about distribution and finances that
much.
Q:
Can you give us more information/details about the label philosophy of 4mg
Records? I also want to ask you for a bit more details about the real
interesting “Wave Earplug”-compilation series you set up and, which is
featuring a great canvas of electro-minimal artists?
Imrich: 4mg Records exists as
non-profit organization and it is basically a platform to support the music
scene and the artists I like. This support happens often in the form of
compilation releases. It started in 2003 with a CD series “Melodies &
Structures” with 2 volumes. It continued with the “Vinylized” series with local
underground music of various styles with foreign guests from time to time
–giving the chance to local projects to release their music on vinyl format.
This year we have just released the 8th volume. Additionally, 3 volumes of
“Experimental Studio Bratislava” on LP and CD in one package, mapping the
archives of the Slovak national radio’s music concrete recordings from 60s, 70s
and 80s were released.
You mentioned the “Wave Earplug”
compilation. We released the third part earlier this year and this is the one
which is the closest to my heart. It’s focusing on new-wave, synth-pop,
old-school EBM, minimal-electro and similar stuff. The “Vinylized” and “Wave
Earplug”- projects are both financed by the participants themselves or by their
supporters. It is kind a collective self-release. The whole pressing is equally
divided, sent to each participant and he/she/they may use it for their own
needs of promotion, trade etc. This way we don’t depend on any distributor. The
release is out in various parts of the world depending on who participated and
cross promoting all artists involved at the same time.
During the last years, I also
released cassettes from two of my ‘music heroes’; namely Edward Ka Spell of
Legendary Pink Dots and Adrian K Smith of Click Click. I love cassettes, they
bring back memories of the old, analog times of the 80s. Thanks to my label, I
see myself more like a music activist. It is not about business at all. I am
just doing my small part.
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