Arty Flexes His Versatility on Debut LP ‘Glorious’

Dropping your debut artist album must be one of the most unnerving things imaginable. I could never deal with the stress of having to put myself out there like that, letting the world rate the viscosity of my creative juices. But this apprehension didn’t seem to faze Arty, who spent the last two years fine-tuning a well-rounded LP, Glorious.

Recently finding a home on Insomniac Records, the album is unquestionably a moment of maturity for the Russian sensation. It wasn’t a matter of ditching the dancefloor to advance as an artist, but rather to expand on the strengths he already exhibited in the studio to affix the “songwriter” title to his name. It’s a clean transition, too—one that not once comes off as forced or faked. Arty proves this point to death on each of the 14 songs.

Rather than continuing to draw our own conclusions, we went straight to the source to get some first-hand insight on Glorious.

What was your most recent “glorious” moment onstage?
It’s difficult to choose and to describe only one recent moment! There were so many amazing moments during the last shows when people would wait for new tracks from the album and sing along, so I would feel totally blessed! With every next show I play, the crowd keeps recognizing more and more of their favorite tracks from my record. It feels amazing!

We know the album took some time to complete. What were the biggest challenges you faced when making the LP?
While I was working on my record, the biggest challenge I faced was trying to get out of my comfort zone and do something different. I didn’t want to follow this formula where everybody says, “It’s his signature sound, and we’re satisfied with it.” With every track, apart from singles, there was the challenge to bring a different type of emotion with a completely different approach, in terms of style and sound design.

One of the hardest obstacles many producers face is working with vocalists. What was your approach on Glorious, and what did you learn from the process?
For me, working with songwriters was such an enjoyable process. I discovered a completely new way of expressing myself not only with instruments, but also by putting a lot of sense into lyrics to send a certain message with every song. It’s only when you and your songwriter both feel comfortable and confident about what you are doing, you do the best things together!

What do you think your fans will say about the album?
I’m excited and nervous at the same time! The album sounds so different from my usual sound, so I hope people would appreciate my attempts to bring something new to my style!

It seems as if producers in electronic music are reverting back to the full-length format. To what do you attribute this trend?
For me, it’s freedom! I was able to put some of the tracks that would have never been released on an EP—I mean, instrumental tracks or tracks with unusual structure. These are full of some of the ideas I have been gathering for such a long time, and now I’m ready to share it with my listeners. It feels unbelievable!

Was Glorious an attempt to display your artistic range?
In all possible ways! As I’ve said before, I wasn’t trying to stick to one musical formula, because I wouldn’t be able to express myself as an artist and as a person who went through certain life moments while working on this record. I tried to seal all of those emotions in each track so people would take the album as a journey and not as a collection of songs.

How do you plan to follow up your debut album?
I would love to rediscover myself as an artist and see where I can go next. The music scene became so open-minded in 2015—it’s a time when people don’t really care anymore about what kind of genre or style you make. As long as you do creative and interesting music, you know you’re going the right way!

Glorious from Arty is available now via Insomniac Records/Interscope Records.

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