FSpot –The Next Level of Aural Stimulation By Kyle Gregorowski Fspot is an act that embodies everything that I believe great music should – it is dense, appealing, and takes the listener on a journey towards alterity and retrospection, without losing that deeply sexual approach. Despite reaching unprecedented levels of success on various social media and open listening platforms, Fspot remains somewhat elusive. This enigmatic, mysterious aspect of the work only serves to make it more popular, as if hearing them is akin to discovering a rare gem that you aloe can treasure and share as you see fit. With some shows on the horizon, we thought it best to introduce you to Fspot and let you make up your own mind… UP: Your sound has a lot of distinctive jazz influences – where do they come from? The Fspot sound comes as a collage of different styles, textures and visualizations. It’s all about painting a landscape in the listener’s brain and putting him or her in different states of mind, for example a desolated space where the listener can find new textures or “objects” every time the song is played, I love making music that’s not spoon-fed and which the listener finds him or herself going back to that track to find more and making her or his own interpretation and resolution of the song. There is a pinch of Jazz in the recipe, a Jazz of the likes of Miles Davis “Bitches Brew”, that kind of hybrid jazz, there is Rock, there is Ambient, there is Electronica, all elements are used to set a canvas where we can splash different colours on it to tell a story or situation. UP: You have been quoted saying you want your work to take listeners on a journey – how do you go about creating a narrative through sound? I treat Fspot’s tracks as landscapes, lyrically I put myself in situations and describe them as if I was there to take the listener with me, so I create an atmosphere, a tone, a palette that each of the listeners will interpret their own way; and then I start splashing that with instruments that suit the situation that I’m in, even the voice parts serve to comfort or discomfort the listener, the drum sound, the guitars sound the type of synth used for that specific track will take the listener on a journey. When I started Fspot my aim was to make music to take the listener for a conscious/unconscious journey where sound becomes visual, tactile, songs to have sex by. The Fspot tracks are like corridors with doors, and the listener has the option to open the one he or she is attracted to the most. UP: The South African scene is prone to copycat work, but you maintain a defiant sense of originality. What makes your sound so unique? I guess it is that I make music for myself without taking in consideration what’s “in” or “out”, I really want to make art and I give everything for art, real art don’t follow trends but marks them, sets them. I once was caught in the “make money, make it big” rock n’ roll philosophy, but destroyed my soul, left me empty and I couldn’t do it anymore, that’s when I decided to put every artistic side of me towards a project that would fulfil me and not “the crowd”, that’s how Fspot was born, and seems to be a lot of people looking for something honest, real and different. On another level, when I play the tracks live, what I see is what I’ve always wanted, people is quiet, there is not chatter like in rock n’ roll, people wait patiently for the next song and… I see people closing their eyes and going on a journey even when the Fspot shows use visuals on stage to reinforce the input of the music, but some of them… I saw them closing their eyes and feel the song, that for me, is priceless. UP: Is the tendency to stay somewhat under the radar intentional, or are the masses simply misinformed? The tendency is to make art and not to conform people, I’m not doing this to make a million buck, I’m doing this because I want to and it’s a form of self-expression that I need. I’ve embraced the fact that Fspot won’t be played on commercial radios and it is a big compliment for me, I don’t want Fspot to be the flavour of the day, I want Fspot to be a word to mouth experience, plus, the fspot show is not an everyday kind of show, and the venues are limited, so what we do is to transform the venues into an Fspot playground with visuals, dimmed lights and couches, the very essence of the underground scene, small, dark, smoky, where you are not there to do socials but to let yourself go. People will get it and other people won’t, but there is an underground cult following forming and that is simply amazing. UP: Darkness is a clear trope in your work, but you have chosen not to embrace the brutality of metal – why not? The darkness I portray is a sexual darkness, I don’t need to use heavy guitars to make it dark, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Metal, it’s just it’s not what Fspot is about and on some tracks I have recorded heavy guitars but to serve the purpose of aggressiveness, frustration or to shake the listener’s tree. Fspot is dark but at the same time it’s more introspective than a scream, Fspot is spacey so the listener can absorb it. For me darkness can be attained through several methods, it can be the sweetest melody but darkness can come from a lyrical place… No need for metal to create a dark environment. UP: If you could collaborate with any local artist, who would it be and why? Right now I’m finishing the last touches of a new album that will be called “Synesthesia”, and as the title implies, I try to stimulate via sound various parts of the brain so the listener can see colours, feel temperatures, feel textures, even almost touch the elements in the song. It’s being mixed by Robin Walsh and the knowledge that this genius has in respect to space is absurd, he showed me one of the mixes and I SWEAR, I could touch the elements in a 180 degrees screen that the track constructed in my mind. But said that, I am planning (just planning) an album after “Synesthesia” where I want to collaborate with different artists while the mood will be always Fspot. UP: Are you fans of Rick Genest? No, I am not a fan of him, I respect him but, luckily enough my Fspot character or alter ego, can step out the character and be a husband for 13 years with two kids and a pretty simple life  UP: What does 2014 hold? 2014 has been incredible so far and we are just in February. A new album finished, South Africa waking up to Fspot, and amazing team behind it, and I just received an offer from a manager in New York who listened to Locust and contacted me asking if I would like to be represented by him, his name is Bernie Walters and his street cred is amazing, so now he’s been doing the ground work over there (he started a week ago) and he already had some offers from some labels that I unfortunately can’t discuss now, but 2014 is looking amazing. We have the honour to play with The Awakening on their S.A. tour in March and with the Vuvuvultures too, two amazing bands. And keep playing sporadically, I don’t believe in playing all the time as the Fspot shows are pretty special. UP: How do you maintain density and beauty so effortlessly? I don’t, they do by themselves, I just play with them, but that’s Fspot, slick, minimalist, sexy, one of a kind. UP: Lastly, should someone wish to thank you with a beverage, what should it be? Absinthe, of course. Thank you Kyle, it has been such a pleasure answering your interview, I love intelligent interviews and this is one of them, respect and much love.