Artist: Penta

[NEMO.BOFH]

Very glad to receive an answer from you Mr.Penta

 

Ok here are the questions:

 

Hello Penta,

and thank you very much for sharing your time with us.

 

01. Can you please tell us something about yourself? (You know, name, where have you been born)

 

My name is Nikita Tselovalnikov and I have been born on February 11 1976 in St. Petersburg, Russia, at that time called Leningrad. I have spent first fifteen years living in Russia, studied piano in a music school, and eventually immigrated to Silicon Valley in California.

 

02. So how did Penta started and why did you choose this nice name?

 

Penta is name of a character from a Russian Book Doctor Aibolit. It’s a boy who played music for animals, I somehow associated myself with him. Also, the name appears quite often in the news as part of Pentagon, which creates a repetition effect, getting stuck in people’s minds. It also means “Five”, which is a good number, I think. I always require 5 pluses on the guest list when I play.

 

Penta story began in the late1998, when I bought my first gear (it was Kurzweil 2500 S) and started fiddling around with the sounds. Nothing finished came until December 2000, which I consider the official birth of Penta project. In that month I wrote 7 tracks for the live show for my friends in a Lake Tahoe house in California we rented to celebrate New Year. Everybody was wasted on that night, I don’t think anybody remembers my first live. The more official Penta live presentation was actually on my birthday on February 11 2001. It was a proper party, but still very small. The first big debut came on April 20 2001, when our party collective Red Tribe threw a Parasense party in San Francisco’s King’s Garage club. There were about 500 freaks from all over California there. After that party I received the first offer to release a track from Spectral Concepts’ Jeremiah. The track was called Zeynep.

 

03. Can you please tell us about your released albums?

 

Later in 2003 I released my first album “Pentafiles” on that Spectral Concepts. Now this pioneering American label doesn’t exist and “Pentafiles” belongs to AuraQuake Music, my venture with Catia Leitao. “Pentafiles” was supposed to be an intense dark night trance album, however it came out pretty melodic and morning. I was even not sure if I should have released it. I always wanted to make music for the night. Initially the response I was getting that the album was total shit, poor production, too many samples, etc. Now, however, some people consider it a psytrance classic, I guess… It is still in demand, and I am selling it along with t-shirts on my Website www.auraquake.com.

 

Funraiser came in September 2005 and became a success. Funraiser was trying to be a little bit heavier than the first album. I didn’t mean to follow the sound of the first album at all, and tried to evolve my sound a little bit. However, - there are still some parallels to Pentafiles in the sound design and the use of funny samples. I continue to play music from the second album a lot, and the dance floor goes crazy.

 

04. What really make you to create this kind of music?

 

After spending years creating punk, gothic, industrial, noise and rock music, playing in bands, I wanted to start my own project where I could be my own boss. This format suites me quite well: I like to implement my own ideas in a quiet setting of my room without arguing with the band members. Most of my tracks require an intense meditation.

 

05. Is there any chance you can share with the new artists about what music equipment do you like to use?

 

I used to use a lot of outboard gear like Virus, Microwave XT, Kurzweil, Novation Bass Station… These days are gone however, and now I am using my laptop exclusively. I use standard VSTi instruments like Vanguard, Albino and Pro-53. I also us the whole line of Native Instruments and lots of samples. I have pair of Fostex monitors in my second studio on the Azores Islands in Portugal and a pair of Event PS6s in San Francisco, both of which are pretty simple speakers.

 

06. Your new album "Horn Please" is about to be released soon. Can you please inform us what it is all about?

 

The album is going to be released on March 30th 2007. The name “Horn Please” is derived from “Horn OK Please”, written on Indian trucks. I have dropped the “OK” to make the name shorter. The whole album is a dedication to the crazy traveling life of the last few years that reminds me of the chaos of Indian street traffic. Speaking of that traffic, I have chosen the design of a Mumbai taxi as the basis for the cover instead of the obvious Indian truck design language. I like to mix slightly different concepts to stay away from directly communicating my ideas. I let the viewer form the picture. I suppose it is the same way I make music.

 

The music of the album is faster than anything I have written before; however, it still follows the familiar quest: me trying to make night trance and ending up with the morning sound. This album is also made in Cubase after the years of using Logic.

 

07. What is your music influences?

 

Since childhood I am influenced by Italian pop music with the likes of Toto Cotugno, Adrian Celentano, Ricardo Fogli, etc. Later I have become influenced by The Beatles, Russian Rock, Dead Kennedies, Sex Pistols, Einsturzende Neubauten, Can, Sisters of Mercy. In trance I am influenced by Tim Shuldt, X-Dream, early Tortured Brain, Dado, Boris Blenn, and lately by Nommos, Danish psychedelic musicians and all my San Francisco, Berlin, Thessaloniki and the rest of the world friends who make powerful trance.

 

 

08. Which one of the events you took part will be in your memory?

 

All of the events I have played at will be in my memory. Each time I play, I get a pretty intense experience, the memories of which are easily triggered later in life. The more strong impressions will stay from Boom, Voov and Burning Man festivals, as well as Universo Paralello, and Ypy Poty in Brazil. Some prominent big parties like Sinergia in Portugal and Howeird Street Fair in San Francisco will affect me for a long time. Also, some small freak California parties like meltdowns with Goa Gil in the forest and in CCC warehouse are very influential to what I do still.

 

09. How do you find psynews.org?

 

Psynews.org compliments my Isratrance reading quite well. I come here quite often to check for information I cannot find elsewhere. I like the fact that you can format your posts here and the people are nice.

 

10. Is there any future plans?

 

Catia and I are planning to move to Azores Islands in Portugal starting in May. There I will try to improve my studio, purchase some new equipment. I have a lot of new ideas in mind. There is a 125-130 BPM happy melodic project cooking as well as Penta’s 4th album for the end of the year. I am also going to continue working on my label AuraQuake, improving our brand and continue making t-shirts and releasing more CDs as well as digital downloads on iTunes, Beatport, eMusic and the likes.

 

Thank you Nikita,

Wish you all the best.

 

Thank you very much. It has been a pleasure indeed.

 

www.pentafiles.com – Penta Website

www.auraquake.com – Penta’s label Website