Getting to Know… Abysmatic | Interview 🎤

Bulgarian experimental electronica collective Abysmatic serve as the latest intriguing interviewees on Interview #64 on The Musical Hype.

“Our music is an infectious mixture of industrial metal and old school rave, which really comes together in our live shows.” Sigh, doesn’t that just sound totally badass? It’s 2020, and the Getting to Know… interviews just keep on rolling on The Musical Hype. We’re on interview #64, really? Who woulda thunk? The latest interviewees are Bulgarian collective Abysmatic, who do a bang-up job of describing their style, per the first inquiry of our awesome interview.  That said, for further clarification, the collective, comprised of Dennis Nikov (vocals, DJ, producer), Hristo Simeonov (guitars), and Dobromir Vulkov (drums) is ‘an experimental electronica studio project transcending into a live electropunk band (Facebook).’ Although born in 2013, some of the band’s influences date back to the late 90s, including Prodigy.  But enough previewing already – time to dig into Getting to Know… Abysmatic: Interview #64.

Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype: Let’s get this started off right. For those who may not be familiar with Abysmatic, what would you say makes your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

Abysmatic: Our music is an infectious mixture of industrial metal and old school rave, which really comes together in our live shows. We’re a three-piece band comprised of a singer, guitar player and drummer, and we aim to bring that crazy punk rock energy reminiscent of acts like The Prodigy.

Faulkner: Rock on! Exploring some juicy backstories, how did Abysmatic form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

Abysmatic: Abysmatic formed around 2013 as an experimental studio project led by singer-songwriter Dennis Nikov and was a lot more dubstep and drum and bass oriented at first. After a while, the band was completed by guitarist Hristo Simeonov and drummer Dobromir Vulkov. Together, we decided to embrace our industrial metal roots, while going super vintage with the electronics, taking them back to the early days of trance and techno. As a whole, Abysmatic was always about mixing pop and dance music with a really heavy sound, whether it’s guitars or harsh synthesizers.

Faulkner: Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

Abysmatic: Perhaps there was a time in the early days when we wanted to please the audience and fit into a certain trend, however, this is something we totally stopped caring for in recent years and started focusing entirely on what we were personally excited by.

Faulkner: Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

Abysmatic: Growing up during the late nineties, obviously everything from the nu-metal era, and later the UK rave and grime scenes – everything from Nine Inch Nails, Static-X and Limp Bizkit to The Prodigy, Pendulum and Chase & Status.

Faulkner: Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

Abysmatic: Last summer, we played this festival in Serbia, and apparently, the local artists who were going on before us were really big with the local teens, so suddenly we couldn’t leave our hotel because of a Beetle-mania like crowd of kids who had the building surrounded.

Faulkner: Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

Abysmatic: That would probably be our single, “Disembodied.” It’s just a straight up drum and bass banger that always gets the crowd going, and the video we shot for it is pretty explicit as well, check it out.

Faulkner: Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?  

Abysmatic: We’re always trying to branch out into different types of media, and currently Dennis is working on a classic 2D hack & slash RPG game in the vein of the Diablo series, for which we’ll obviously also write the music for.

Faulkner: Cool! Closing this thing out, what is Abysmatic currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

Abysmatic: We just completed the demo for our next single and are planning to shoot a video for it soon. We were hoping to hit the festival circuit this summer, however we’ll see how likely this is in the coming months given the COVID-19 situation right now. Other than that, we just released our definitive self-titled album recently, which you can listen to on our Spotify, or check out our videos on YouTube!

Faulkner: Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.

Abysmatic: Thank you and rock on!

Photo Credits: Abysmatic, Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype