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"Five Rituals has its own history and prologue, but mostly a story about two minds coming together and accepting the one"
Five Rituals creates music that works in all settings and transcends genres. Their openness to a wide range of sound is what has both made them a widely loved favourite, but also someone who operates in their own parallel musical world. We had a chance to talk to them, so enjoy your reading and check out their latest releases.
Hey, thanks for taking out time to answer these questions! So just to start seeing as this is your first time on the site, I thought we could talk about your first foray into dance music? What kicked things off for you? Can you tell us a little bit about your background? Where are you from / how did you get into music?
Deividas:
Personally, I believe it was quite late in my teens. I was a big punk, emo, metal music fan trying
to play in bands and stage dive on people's heads and just go nuts and express myself this way.
Dance music came together with Vaiper’s (DESPOTIN) DJ set @Granatos and the Supynes
Festival (Minimal.lt, SHN). I have been hooked on raving since then. Another thing - this
craving to express myself without other people's opinion. (like in bands, usually, everyone
wants something and it’s hard to find a middle ground). Also dancing is a form of
self-expression and I love to dance. I want to make music to dance too and share my world with
others. It goes beyond club music too.
ANDRIUS:
I was hooked on hip-hop music and the culture in Lithuania. Antanas Laukaitis was a
hip-hop artist and producer who showed me the ropes in production and beat-making. I
was interested in the craft and then the Stereo45 happened. Together with Club
Gravity, these venues shaped the electronic club music taste for a lot of people around
Lithuania. It was the mekka. I saw Monolake presenting his Monodeck2 for the first
time there and all those nights dancing there shaped me into who I am right now.
Well partially, later then I went to the UK to learn music production. I went to Pointblank
Music college. This led me to the sound of UK streets and Burial’s revolutionary sound
shook my core and finished the equation. This is what forms me as a fan of electronic
music and a devoted nerd making music for a living.
Five Rituals has its own history and prologue, but mostly a story about two minds
coming together and accepting the one.
Give us a little background on "V Rituals" and what’s the story behind that title?
ANDRIUS:
This an album title that presents our duo and our vision to the musical expression. The
duo stands for cinematic storytelling in the realms of music, dance and visual art. This
is our intro into a vast world of music styles, influences, experiences and revelations.
The theme is - Love, despair, inner work and pollution in the outer world.
Deividas:
I always wanted to find a partner that wanted to expand the boundaries in music and creative
expression. We both wanted to find a balance and give in to the momentum of the creative
psyche and to fill each other with different perspectives and create our own entity that is
connected to the present moment. So it starts as the first chapter named after our Five Rituals
name and I just wonder where it takes us next.
What can you tell us about your "V Rituals" ? What did you want to transmit?
What inspired you?
Deividas:
We wanted to create a collaborative environment to invite talented musicians to go
beyond the club or “cinematonica”. The key foundation was letting the space to take
place and use live musicians (guitarist, saxophonist, violinist, etc.). We wanted to be
true to ourselves and explore our moods, problems and boundaries in the ways we
gave ourselves into. Album establishes vivid audio-images of experience and memory.
Utilizing a selection of field recordings from now destroyed places. The isolation
allowed us to dig deep into connections in a moment creating a cinematic journey
challenging preception personally.
What has led you to emphasize this "V Rituals" in multiple genres? What draws
you to these genres?
Andrius:
We have distinct musical backgrounds and influences. We love a wide spectrum of
music. Deividas and I agreed that - there is no bad music genre or style it is purely
personal and subjective. We also noticed our connections in taste and philosophy
behind the sounds and compositions that go beyond traditional ways of categorizing
music and I think in the future we will form our distinctive creative voice in even more
styles as the years go by. It doesn’t matter if it’s techno, bass or classical it will be Five
Rituals interpretation with the story behind it.
What does your studio look like right now? What type of hardware / software do
you like to work with?
Deividas:
We mainly use Ableton Live as a master brain and a bunch of hardware connected
with blokas.io midi hub and UAD soundcard. The most important pieces are by Arturia,
Erica Synths and Native Instruments.
Just like the album, every single piece of furniture, sound absorption tools or even
walls was made from recycled materials. Andrius handcrafted the structure of the room
using wooden boxes made from wood scraps. This how one-room space was turned
into production space, recording boof and chill out area. Our table was made from 6
different trash wood scraps and design to look smooth with black cloth that was found
laying around.
We invested only our time in making the room how it looks.
With the equipment we use, we constantly swap gear and perform live performances
(before covid), so the studio is designed in a way that we could quickly unplug and
change the gear. Deividas is close friends with Latvian brand Erica synths. So we got
some gear from them which we perfected using and you can hear in our album. We
use Octatrack to manipulate samples to create fractal textures that you hear in the
album. We use Push for all melodic content and Ableton live to complete arrangements
and make ideas that we create with hardware and we always have a story to tell with
every single song.
Who have been your main inspirations (Both musical and in ‘life’)? And how
have they affected your sound?
Andrius: Besides Burial, the whole UK bass music culture and music production
community would be the main inspiration for me. Soundscapes and the present
moment affect my sound and the music I make.
Deividas: I have a wide range of influences as I connect all the dots of different worlds
and practices, that form the first look might be totally different. For example, I am
interested in Esoteric practices and Religion dogmas and I create my own view
blending everything together. I love Zen Buddhism and eastern philosophy in general.
I do yoga and meditate. In music and art, I try to escape the mediocre and accept the
moment. Now my influences go to free improvisation and texturised sound-design. Two
different approaches but I find ways to connect them. I love Extreme noise walls and
delicate sleep ambient waves of peace - so it tells a lot about me.
How would you describe your own sound in 2021, and how do you see it
developing in the future?
As we mentioned before it is a constant change and it will just shape a distinct and
unique voice and language that is Five Rituals. We try to implement dance, theatre and
visual storytelling in our project too.
Can you clue us up on any acts you are loving right now, especially any that
other people might not know?
It’s hard to decide on this one because we love a lot of distinct and unique voices that
are making music at the moment but here are a few:
What makes you happy?
The present moment of creative flow and our second halves that support us at home
when we are not in the studio.
What projects are you working on at the moment?
We are making a couple of EPs as Five Rituals and are planning a new live show that
is a dance theatre for night clubs.
Do you have any final words of wisdom?
Stay present and enjoy the moment. Don’t forget to be honest with ourselves and
others.
Five Rituals ‘V Rituals’ LP is released on Ledomat Musique on 5 March. Buy at https://ledotmatmusique.bandcamp.com/album/v-rituals
