Fresh off the release of his latest single, ‘Got it Used’, we spoke with producer and vocalist, Zanski. Tom Probizanski, AKA Zanski, has established himself as a true DIY musician – with involvement in every step of the creative process from writing to producing to providing vocals and even creating his own album artwork. The Toronto-based musician first garnered attention in 2017 after releasing his EP, Collapse. Since, the genre-transcending work of Zanski has continued to evolve into the current form of his label debut album, Phenomena. Check out what Zanski had to say below!
BTS: Your music transcends several genres, to create a sound that is uniquely yours. Was it a natural process to get to where you are musically, or was it through a lot of experimentation?
Zanski: I think it’s always enticing to ascribe a romantic process to the journey, as if historically it was always leading up to a specific goal or sound or something, but in all honesty it’s only through this sort of brute force experimentation that I get anywhere. My process is completely chaotic, with the only real relating factor being that I want to try to do something new with each song I create, whether it’s learning new instrumentation or a new process or genre.
Sometimes looking at my work from a birds-eye view also is limiting. Viewing my work with any sort of quantifiable metric instantly puts it into a box that you subconsciously work within. It’s like when people ask me to describe my sound, the second i say something like ‘its lofi punk rnb’ or ‘its psychedelic indie electronic’, that instantly puts this baggage on my work as if I have to stay in those lanes i’ve now historically and prophetically painted it with.
So in all I’d say it’s through trying to dismantle those sort of pigeon-hole quantifiers and just being authentic to music-making as an art form (with all the consequences that entails) that’s led me to where I am.
BTS: You are involved in the entirety of the production for your music, whether it’s writing, mixing, mastering and even creating your own artwork. Is there a process you enjoy most when creating?
Zanski: There’s a moment when I’m mixing where the song goes from a collection of sounds to something cohesive and musical. Hitting that threshold is always subjective and dependent on what the song is, but each time it feels like a light switch is turned on and I can see the song as a real piece of music. Definitely the most cathartic part of music making for me.
BTS: You just released a new single, ‘Got It Used’, in advance of your upcoming LP. Do you want to talk a bit about this track?
Zanski: It’s the oldest track on the album – it was originally a less energetic demo (aka: no 808 bass) that was meant for my previous EP, but thematically it didn’t end up fitting.
The song itself is a sort of loose collection of thoughts about how I navigate relationships and people in general while under this barrage of negativity and nihilism that clouds it all. The primary tone I tried to set was this lazy apathy, where I’m not exactly giving finality to any of my opinions because its incredibly difficult for me to emote properly and to give my all to anyone around me. The song ends with a sort of two fold punch where I ask the world to understand me, and am received with the same apathy I was giving in the first place. It mirrors a lot of the social commentary and general dissociative aspects of the album in a more personal way.
BTS: You’ve released several fantastic videos on your YouTube channel outlining your process for your new album in a series called ‘Phenomena TV’, what drove you to share how you create?
Zanski: When I was starting out as a producer, it was really difficult to find clear, concise pedagogical content that I could easily understand and learn from. It was always either extremely basic stuff, or obscurely mathematical concepts that felt unrelated to just wanting to make music sound good. So I figured I would jump in that space and bridge the gap a bit. Plus, I’ve just always liked to teach and share with everyone around me. There’s no point to horde knowledge.
Also, I really like filmmaking and editing so it’s an excuse to bust out some interesting techniques and learn as I go. I stumbled on this sort of vintage video vibe with a tape saturated vocal track – I wanted it to be comfy.
BTS: ‘Phenomena TV’ has given us a taste of your process – what can listeners expect from your new LP, Phenomena?
Zanski: Well for starters it’s 15 tracks. So, a lot of music!
It’s the most personal project I’ve ever worked on. Contextually it’s a marriage between how I feel as a person living in a time of over commodification and hyperreality and trying to bridge that between wanting to just exist and wanting others to be afforded that. It touches on a lot of the pessimism and apathy I feel as I navigate through this complexity and how it manifests as this break in my psyche; this dissociative version of myself and people around me that never quite feel right because the society and culture around them is stripped of meaning and only reflected back to us as a purchasable commodity. How it feels like we are all in a dream but we are not the dreamer.
It’s a lot of concepts that I tried to fit into this thing but it’s a pretty good reflection of where my head is at every day.
Musically? It sounds pretty good. I tried some new techniques out and dove into some stuff I’ve never done before, things like live punk drums, or recording outside. Lots of little things.
BTS: Any songs or artists that you’ve been digging lately?
Zanski: Dijon, Zola Jesus, Touche Amore, Frontierer, HIRA, Black Country New Road, Big Red Machine, Slowthai.
BTS: With the LP out soon, any other big plans for the remainder of 2021?
Zanski: Honestly? I need a break! But I’m sure I’ll be putting something out at some point after the album. I never stop.
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- Get to Know: Zanski - October 1, 2021
- Get To Know: Arrested Youth - June 25, 2021
- Get To Know: ford. - June 8, 2021
