Trying to start this introduction without getting too fangirly is proving slightly difficult as upsammy is someone I have wanted to feature on Untitled 909 for a while and is an artist who has shaped a lot of my music listening experiences. From her releases on labels such as Nous’klaer, Dekmantel, AD 93 and PAN to the archived live recordings, studio mixes and her pacing the platform NTS show – it’s so easy to get lost in the surreal world that upsammy is building.
After spending the first seven years of her life in Amsterdam, her family moved to Naarden, a small city in the north. When upsammy was 18, she moved to Utrecht to study Image and Media Technology at University Of The Arts Utrecht and it was at this point she started producing music inspired by the parties she was going to. Adopting the name upsammy originally just for her visual art projects, this expanded to her productions after spending the winter of 2016 obsessively making tracks on Ableton, using music as a way of escaping an unfulfilling internship. upsammy released her first tracks in 2017 as part of Nous’klaer’s ‘Paerels’ compilation which was shortly followed by her first solo release, also on Nous’klaer, in 2018.
Drawn to textural, shape shifting soundscapes, upsammy seamlessly fuses elements of ambient, IDM, techno, half time and drum & bass to create these settings that is playful with intensity whilst also being deeply emotive. Her ability to blend organic and synthetic elements into something wholly original has earned her a reputation as one of the most exciting and innovative figures in the electronic music scene today. This captivating energy has seen upsammy being booked at esteemed festivals and events such as Dekmantel, Le Guess Who?, Waking Life, pe:rsona, Ortigia Sound, Dripping, and Horst Arts & Music Festival to name a few.
With many facets to her artistic world, upsammy will be performing live with London-based drummer and composer Valentina Magaletti at this year’s Draaimolen Festival – an extension of their soundtrack that was originally commissioned for the Rijksmuseum. With just over a week to go until we witness this performance on The Chapel stage, we chat to upsammy about both her approach to DJing and live performances, how upsammy and Valentina have tweaked the live show to fit with the environment of the festival, who she looks to for inspiration and touching briefly on the otherworldly Waking Life set that we haven’t stopped talking about since it happened.
Hey Thessa, thank you for taking the time to do this interview! How are you doing? What has your summer been like so far?
Hello! I am doing well. Summer has been very good so far, some nice dancefloor experiences in beautiful locations and some inspiring studio time as well.
The inspiration for this interview came from your set at Waking Life, which I haven’t stopped talking about since (sorry to any friends reading this). It was a very influential experience in the way you created this very wild and intense wormhole where time stopped and nothing outside of that stage mattered. What was your experience like playing this set? What was your approach going into it and how much of it was influenced by the surroundings at WL?
This set was one of my highlights this summer. The surroundings played a big role, I was already on the festival site for a few days and had done a live performance with Valentina Magaletti on Wednesday, so I could really soak up the ambiance and environment. Before I started my set, I felt that I wanted to aim for a sort of twilight zone with dark and trippy, introspective moments but also moments of light and connectivity on the dancefloor. I wanted to build up from a very minimalistic and slow building energy to see who was ready to explore. As soon as I felt that people were engaged, I started with play with more and more intensity. I felt I could go in many different directions and keep the connection (some friends described it as an alien abduction), that was very special. The surroundings at Waking Life in a way represent this balance between connectivity with the people around you but also these introspective moments, like going on a small adventure in the water or the woods. My set was inspired by those dynamics.
When it comes to your DJ sets is there a particular narrative or concept in mind that you are trying to share with the crowd? Or is a lot of it influenced by the crowd itself and improvised during the set from their feedback?
I usually try to think of a starting point and an ending point, sometimes a middle point. What is in between is always decided in the moment and depends on the energy and connection with the dancefloor. But I also enjoy throwing the end point out of the window if I feel like taking a different direction. An overarching theme in my dj sets that I try to evoke is a feeling of mystery, that things are easily shiftable, that nothing is what it seems. That’s why I like to counter moments of melodic euphoria with darker, trippy moments and vice versa.
How does DJing make you feel when you’re doing it?
If it’s the right setting and connection with the crowd I get a sense of dissolving, like it’s not really me playing the music, a sense of just being in the moment and belonging, an intense connection to the sound and environment, like everyone and everything melts together into one mass. Of course this is not always the case, but it is always something I try to achieve during a set.
The soundscapes within your DJ sets play a lot with time in this very psychedelic way that has this push and pull tension release where you’re layering different tempos. What draws you to this style of DJing?
I like the idea that things are in constant flux, that there are hidden surprises or even moments that create friction. I think it’s nice to experience different energies and moods during one set, instead of one constant peak.
And who do you look to for inspiration?
I get inspired by artists and dj’s that are exploring a specific niche but still manage to keep things refreshing and innovative. Never falling back too much to what is expected. Dj’s like Dj Marcelle or Djrum for example, who treat DJing more as an art form and try to push the boundaries. Almost like new tracks are being made and remixed during a set, into a singular sound.
The tracks you play are quite organic and textural, something that is prevalent in your productions too, creating this otherworldly experience. What draws you to these natural soundscapes?
For me it feels natural to explore the environment that we are in. In my current surroundings nature is being pushed into the margins, and it shows all these insurgent and encroaching tendencies within the rigid elements of the city. In my music I try to give it a louder voice than the city soundscape and bring it to the foreground. With sound you can be very selective in which elements you let narrate the story.
Since a club or dance floor can be such an enclosed space it is interesting to think about how to bring other senses of space back in, inviting these natural elements for example. Sound is very good at drawing spaces, but it can also shift quickly into something else, compared to a real physical space, which is super interesting. You can travel through many different surroundings within sound.
How does the landscape of the Netherlands inform your work?
The landscape in the Netherlands is very manmade, every piece of land has its purpose. You will never see something left to decay for too long or they already have a new purpose for it. I guess that’s why I am drawn to the more rebellious parts of nature that slip in between these purposes. I am also inspired by the history of the landscape. In a way it is a scarred and hollowed out landscape, consisting of geometrical bodies of water where the peat has been removed, or these skeleton-like drainage structures to get rid of the water. In a way it has its beauty in a macabre way.
How would you describe the evolution of your sound and style as an artist over the years?
My sound has become more sculptural and abstract over the years. It has also become more informed by certain ideas, as opposed to just making music intuitively. It has become more of a world on its own, also connected to the photos and videos I make.
We’re also here to talk about your upcoming Draaimolen performance, where you’ll be performing live with Valentina Magaletti. How did this collaboration initially come about?
I was asked to make a soundtrack for an exhibition at Rijksmuseum and they gave me the opportunity to collaborate with other musicians.
What is it about Valentina’s work that motivated you to work with her? What do you usually look for in a collaborator?
I chose to work with Valentina because she has this very interesting way of taking everything out of her instruments (or even objects), producing unexpected textures and rhythms. This seems to come very natural and intuitive, it’s also a more bodily experience. I thought that was a nice contrast with how I work, which is mostly on the computer and more of a mental experience in a way. But still there is an overlap of course, which is taking everything out of a sound and experimenting with textures. That is also what I look for in a collaborator, the same playfulness and curiosity but maybe a totally different way to bring it into fruition.
The live show will be one of the first performances of your new soundtrack together, what can you tell us about this body of work? What are some of the concepts and ideas behind this?
The idea for the music started with the plan to record Valentina improvising in different rooms in the museum. I thought it was interesting to capture different spaces and sonic qualities they contain. Some of the sound was recorded while walking through the space which gives it a very spatial experience. Eventually I resampled a lot of these improvisations and combined them with my own sounds. Each track was inspired by a different room with a certain theme in the paintings.
How does your work with Valentina fit into your wider artistic narrative? Have you found that this collaboration has influenced your solo work?
I think it fits into my wider artistic narrative in the sense that it is very much an exploration of manipulating sounds, stretching them to their extremes and discovering how to capture the space around the sounds to create interesting worlds within music. In a way Valentina was triggering the space with her improvisations. By using different microphones provided by het Rijksmuseum I found different ways of recording that I now incorporate in my own work as well.
Has any of the work been tweaked especially for this performance in a way that may be better for the environment you’re performing in or any other external factors?
Yes, we have left some of the original tracks out and added new work to create some more dynamics in the performance, as the initial tracks were mostly ambient. Next to that some of the tracks where 10 minutes long, which makes sense if you are listening whilst watching art, but in a live setting it perhaps does not work so well, so we have shortened some parts.
What have you learned from your experience working with Valentina on both the soundtrack and live show?
This is my first time doing a live show with another musician, so it is still quite a learning process. How do you communicate on stage, when do you let the other take the lead and when do you take the lead yourself. I feel it comes quite natural and intuitively, which is a nice discovery.
You can catch upsammy performing live with Valentina Magaletti at Draaimolen Festival from the 6-7th September – buy tickets here.