A Russian artist to-date known as Pavel Khvaleev, and ex member of Moonbeam founded together with his brother Vitaly in 2004, have recently teamed up with Miss Monique bringing new wave into the underground dance music scene.

Let's hear what both of them has to say about the new release "Rider" from Blackhole Recordings.

Q1. Miss Monique, how did you meet Pavel Khvaleev?

Miss Monique:

I knew Pavel around 10 years ago, at that moment he was part of the Moonbeam project. 

Personally, we met only last year. I supported one of his tracks in my podcasts and somebody sent that video to him. Then we added each other on social media and started chatting and now few months later we already made few collaborations. 

Q2. Last year (2020) was not easy and how did you interact with your fans and what lesson did it bring you?

Pavel Khvaleev: 

As soon as the borders of the countries closed and many went into full lockdown, I immediately realized that I needed to create a live stream show to create an interactive moment with my fans.

This is how my Russian evening show "Musical Quarantine" started. We went live every Friday and connected with other musicians from other parts of the world. I created a small platform to introduce themselves to a new audience and push their upcoming releases. Already in the first month I gained more than 1 million views with frenzied fan activity on the Russian social network VK. The visual part of the music took on a new meaning and made me be more creative in this direction.

Miss Monique:

Definitely yes, last year was difficult but at the same time very productive for me. I recorded new videos for my Youtube channel, produced many tracks, had much time for chatting with my listeners and worked on the development of my label Siona Records.

Of course, I miss the ‘real’ events and vibes that people return when playing for them. This year taught me to appreciate for every moment, how to accept some situations that do not go according to my plan and be more flexible.

Q3. Which genre direction in electronic music will be more popular in your opinion in 2021?

Miss Monique:

On my opinion, everything goes to the fact that Melodic Techno and Tech House will become even more popular. If the pandemic recedes in 2021 and we will return to a normal life, I think these styles will be the main at huge festivals and replace the usual EDM.

Q4. Tell us a bit about your collaboration on the track "Rider"?

Pavel Khvaleev:

This is our second collaboration and our workflow is very easy. Most important is that we have a lot of fun while working together on the project. For the Rider track, I started and experimented a lot with Dave Smith's favorite analog synthesizer Mopho and ended up with a fat bass sequence. Then I sent the synth parts of the track to Miss Monique and after a couple of days she sent me back the full drum parts of the track and some atmospheric fx sounds that allowed me to finish the track. It went super organic and as said the workflow is super easy between me and Monique, we are on the same page.

Q5. Pavel, the video where you playing the track "Rider" looks great, tell us about the shooting and what equipment you use?

Pavel Khvaleev:

The video is the second part of a bigger musical puzzle for my upcoming album later this year on Black Hole Recordings. For this album I collaborated with artist located all over the world and with the current lockdown and travel restrictions we had to create something new and interesting to look at.

The concept is to present a live show in an abandoned factory where other artist will appear as holograms plus cinematic visual effects. Besides a musical lover I love to play around with movie editing.   I think we created something unique and hope a lot of people will be amazed and hooked to see the full puzzle. Every month a little piece will be exposed, but for now piece two is all I can show!