by Avery Quinn
The Violet Paroxyst is 20 year-old experimental music-maker Milo Balcziunas. Their music combines spacious melodies with a deeply evocative intensity to create what they call “hidden galaxies of sound.” Within these galaxies I am soothed and disturbed, made whole as well as fragmented, pulled into a world created by The Violet Paroxyst. I reached out recently to find out more about Milo and their music, which is available on Bandcamp as well as Soundcloud.
Are you currently a student? If so, what are you studying and what are your hopes for this quarter?
Yes, I’m an Evergreen student, a sophomore. I’m here studying electronic music production techniques and the history of electronic music. I hope to make the most of having classes on Zoom, because I won’t be able to work in the studios on campus as I expected to originally. That’s pandemic related.
How do you balance your artistic practice with the energy you invest in school? Do you feel that your academic work compliments your musical development?
I had some difficulty getting into music classes last year so I had low motivation to do classwork and also little energy or time to work on music. I didn’t imagine writing essays when choosing Evergreen, which is how it started. I took an audio production program over the summer and two out of three music classes fall quarter of 2020, but now I’m taking three music classes. I definitely have a better, more fulfilling balance between the two now than before. I guess I choose classes based on whether I think I’ll feel motivated and content working in them. For me it comes down to avoiding letting other activities like video games and social things get in the way, but I need to plan my time efficiently and not get burnt out cranking out assignments when I could approach it more thoughtfully.
Who is The Violet Paroxyst? Can you explain how you got into music-making?
Way back in the 3rd grade I had this old Mac desktop computer from one of my parents’ work and I can’t remember when, but I discovered and started messing around using GarageBand (the Apple music-making software). I started out just hitting random keys on my computer keyboard and I just made lots and lots of weird synthesizer music that way. I was going by the name Tomb of the Fluffies for years, which is just a funny name my sibling made up. I changed my musical style a few times so I changed to just my full name for a few years, but I came up with the name The Violet Paroxyst two years or so ago. I basically searched the internet for archaic terms no one uses, which I do a lot to name tracks. I came across the word paroxysm, which means a violent or forceful release of energy. I was getting into more heavy and loud rock-infused music, so I thought it fit really well. I’m the one who makes the music, so I made up the word ‘paroxyst’ to mean ‘one who makes forceful releases of energy happen’. I like both the sound of the word and the color violet. I’ve added a lot of harmonic guitars into my music so I had to put some sort of color in there to convey the sort of moodiness and rich timbre (texture) I find harmonic minor scales and music have.
What are your influences, stylistically and thematically? What experiences or identities are most influential to your process?
I really like the sound of contemporary avant-garde synth and symphonic music, which isn’t really a defined category, so I’ll list a few names; Philip Glass and Arvo Pärt. Philip Glass is well known for composing mathematically derived piano and synth music. And Arvo Pärt writes contemporary choral music inspired by Gregorian chanting. Both of them have written very interesting and different music. I also in the past year got really inspired by various metal styles, including death metal and melodic death metal. I really enjoy listening to the band Fleshgod Apocalypse, which combines Italian opera with death metal. I’m also a fan of Brian Eno. I listen to different musical styles and if there’s certain elements I like I just absorb into my own style, which right now includes a ton of different categories: synth suite, metal, punk, symphonic chamber music, doom (metal), and a bunch of other ones. I really like having a Wild West sort of sense of mystery and adventure (and danger), as well as the aesthetic of wide open spaces and venturing out into this unexplored frontier of sound. I like communicating an emotional sort of investment in my art.
I use a wheelchair and because of my condition I don’t have the ability to use much musical equipment outside of my computer and my phone, so I focus more on the software side of music-making. I’ve never recorded a live instrument myself in my life.
What would you like people to know?My primary method of making music is experimentation, to an extreme degree, and I like my music to turn out sounding raw yet complete. I’m thinking of working with live vocals sometime in the future so if anyone at Evergreen wants to do something like recording live vocals (no particular talent needed, doesn’t even have to be intelligible) or anything musical virtually they can email me at thevioletparoxystmusic@gmail.com and I’ll consider it. I haven’t done much collaboration but I’m very open to it.
