3AMNOVA takes on the Croakheads Storytelling Challenge with the theme “Dystopian.” Drawing inspiration from science fiction, neurofunk and techstep, the mix explores a world on the brink of apocalypse.
Q: What was your creative vision or inspiration behind the mix?
A dystopian world is supposed to be scary, so for this mix, I wanted to make something that sounds like the soundtrack to the apocalypse, hence the heavy selection of neurofunk and techstep that you will hear.
Q: Tell us about some of the tracks or samples that you selected.
I take a lot of inspiration from sci-fi, so for this mix, for example, I sampled some dialogue from Cyberpunk 2077 and The Matrix, to name a couple. Both are very well known in sci-fi for their dystopian settings.
The Cyberpunk dialogue in particular was sampled from a scene where one of the characters, Johnny Silverhand, is talking about how corporations took over the country and destroyed the land, among other things. I think this really fits with the general vibe of the mix and dystopian themes in general.
The Matrix dialogue I sampled is from the very famous red or blue pill scene, which I think also fits the general vibe of the mix. The scene itself portrays the choice between taking one of two pills: blue means remaining in ignorance, while red means seeing the truth of the world (in this case, the truth of the dystopian world they're living in).
These are just some of the dialogue samples, among a couple of others, that I used for the mix. You will hear them throughout different sections, and they all relate to some sort of negative dystopian story.
Q: What does this mix reveal about you as an artist?
It reveals something about me that I already knew: I really like creating stuff that's heavy and chaotic. I think the last eight minutes or so of the mix really sound like an apocalypse, and I hope it comes across as scary.
