Artem Basov released one of the best mini albums of this year called Higher. Inspired by Pink Floyd, Massive Attack and UNKLE he has no single song you’d like to skip.
The album impressed us so much that we invited Artem to perform at our festival Spalakh on Independence Day 2021. It was the first Moove’s performance. Also we offer you to get to know Artem better.
— Tell us about yourself. Where are you from? Where did you study and work? What do you do for a living?
I was born and graduated in Kyiv. By the way, I studied at the great gymnasium. In the summer after the 10th form, my friend and I went to work at the plant. The work there inspired me to become a physicist. Soon after I entered Kyiv Polytechnic University. But being a freshman I learned about MLM. It’s like a pyramid still not as fishy when you get to bring your friend, he gets to bring his friend, and thus, you earn money. There we attended seminars where we were being brainwashed that the University is just a waste of our time.
So I dropped out. Moreover, I realized that physics was not my cup of tea. But if you are a young man and you quit a University, you are all at risk. You’ve got a lot of military service issues. Then I started to make some hustle to avoid that.
At first, i fantasized about a business plan and borrowed money from quite a famous person. To pay the debt i tried to earn money in half legal ways but i failed and got into the trouble.
After that, I seemed to be able to make money betting. On the Internet, I found a course that promised to teach how to earn money on arbitrage events. However, as soon as I topped up the Yandex wallet (all that was done by Russian offices), I couldn’t withdraw money. My debt was getting bigger and bigger. Still, at 19 I didn’t take it too seriously, everything was like in a movie then.
Afterward, I found the money and desperately got into some shady schemes. But the bad guys with criminal pasts shook me down. Eventually, I got into real trouble when they constantly called and threatened me. I was scared that my family could know about that. I didn’t want that because they are very nice and bright people.
In a day I took out four loans through a special organization. The banking system had no time to update and the managers didn’t see that I had already got loans. In this manner, I paid off the debts, and for some time I was left alone. Then I told my family that I had won the grant to study in the agricultural sector field abroad, got a basic education, and went to Denmark to work on farms there.
In two and a half years I paid off the banks and in half a year after that I came back. Here I entered Interschool but dropped it out. I worked as an assistant editor at U24 and then got in a half-legal organization but I ran away from there very fast. Now I sell software and try to get involved in music because I love this a lot.
— How did you start making music?
When I was 11, I was presented a guitar and sent to musical school. I studied there for just 2 or 3 months. But I liked playing the guitar and I tried to do that when possible. In my freshman year, the thoughts about music distracted my attention from studying so much that I couldn’t study hard and think about my future. That’s why one day I sold my guitar to concentrate on more essential issues for me.
In Denmark the farmer I worked for introduced me to an old man who fixed Hammond organs (Yes, exactly these ones!). There were tons of junk and musical instruments in his house and he sold me a guitar and Marshall combo of the 1990ies for little money. So when last summer I paid off my debts, I bought MacBook, MIDI, bass, and sound card and started off.
— Who or what influenced your musical taste?
At 13 I fell in love with the girl who was into Guns’n’Roses, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane and the like. She taught me a lot because, to be honest, at that time my taste was not so good – I was listening to the kind of LMFAO and One Direction. With time we went our separate ways but the music stayed with me. I was listening to everything that could be found before 1990.
When I worked in Denmark, I heard a lot of new music. It was a great discovery for me to know that someone is making such a cool product after 1990. I was permanently finding out more and more singers and realized that they also gave very powerful emotions like the bands of the 1970ies and 1980ies.
— What projects did/do you take part in?
I have never taken part in any of the projects. I have always played music just for myself. In high school, my classmate and I had a project where we played songs about Chemistry, German, and Physics for good marks. The video must be saved somewhere.
— Why did you choose the nickname Moove? What does it mean?
Honestly, it seems to me, as if getting deep into the names is equal to explaining the meaning of tattoos. I have big respect for the people who make conceptual tattoos and demonstrate what they mean, but it sounds weird sometimes.
I just like the way word moove sounds. It does like groove starting with m instead.
— What is the source of your inspiration? I mean not just music. Cinema, literature, the world? What other hobbies have you got apart from music?
Once I was inspired by Scorcese and Tarantino’s movies. I even started living the way the movie characters did but I got a kick in my head very fast. Without considering movies and art I was inspired much by Denmark and Danes. I worked for a very gifted farmer who was the member of international organizations and constantly went to conferences and took my Danish workmate and me.
I was shocked when saw that people woke up at 3.30 AM, worked very hard for 15 hours a day, and got dirty, tired. But after that they took shower, changed clothes and looked like young businessmen, dressed fashionably, drove great cars, traveled and took interest in everything.
People work physically there – mechanics, plumbers, fitters and they are proud of it. They look like the guys in advertisements. It breaks the patterns but it inspires.
— Who are your heroes/heroines? Who inspires you and why?
The people whose spirit is strong, who have backbone and aims. My granddad inspires me, he was born in a little town and experienced a hungry childhood in war. However, he could become the People’s Artist of Ukraine on his own. Besides, he’s the most educated personality I have ever known. He’s moved to Kyiv, started a family and he’s been playing in the theatre for 50 years. At his 82 he still works, he does morning exercises every day, travels, always has plans, he is full of strength and inspiration.
My family consists of very nice and bright people. They are like the characters of a cool movie. That is why i couldn’t confess that i got into a big trouble and had to drive tractors and milk cows instead of studying in KPI.
One more person who inspires me is my best friend – he is an engineer. At his 23 he is already responsible for very serious projects. He’s a Master of Sports. He can stay awake for several days, he is very persistent in achieving aims, has good taste, and he is just a great person.
I am inspired by the people I worked on the farm with. The farmer who is over 50 but he’s like a 25-year-old guy, he knows many languages, is busy all the time, very smart and he is a man of taste. My workmate who served in the Royal Danish Army when he was 21, who is working on the farm now and is very proud of this, travels, and always learns new things. He is always unfussy and in a good mood even at 3.30 AM.
— Is your music a hobby or something more than that?
These days I realize it is something more. Music is the only one that I have never dropped out whatever happened in my life and the only one that I am really into regardless my mood, the season or any circumstances.
— Expectations and reality. In what way do you see your future as an artist? What will it be like to your mind?
Generally, when I uploaded my music to platforms, I didn’t expect that there would be any reaction. I was just having a cool time, I invested my time and efforts in it and it appeared so nifty. I am happy that everything’s going on this way. I’ve met very cool people. Now we are thinking over how to visually design the uploaded music tracks and to do that not just like the people who need to shoot something, but to put our souls into it and do it as quality as possible.
I hope that everything that happens next will be of high quality. When i was working on the farm, i saw that everything we did was made 100% even though that was just a 150 cows farm. Since this is a lifestyle.
My longtime friend and I are working on some interesting material that she’s made in acoustics and now we are trying to make that together in an electronic format. After that, I really want to make an album.
Translator: Inna Khrystych (+380993094694)
