Interview with Mumbai-based ambient music producer 4lienetic

Mumbai-based ambient and future garage producer Sugam Khetan, better well know as 4lienetic has been producing music for the last 5 years now. The music that he created is generally very emotive with a heavy emphasis on ambiance and piano and it is very captivating and ethereal, uniquely identifiable despite constant evolution and experimentation.

Over the years he has gained support from key digital promoters such as Ambient & Fluidified, labels like The Games We Play and Insight Music, among others

Following this impressive support, we decided to sit down with 4lienetic and learn a little more about him

Describe your sound for us. What do you want people to feel when they hear your music?

My music according to me sounds ethereal and emotional, two words that would describe it aptly I’d say. I make music to express myself, each track I make brings certain feelings and memories to mind and I want people to feel the same. Music is very subjective in and of itself, especially ambient and chill music since it can be so emotive. It’s very interesting to hear how people relate it to their own lives, to how they feel when they hear something I’ve made compared to how I felt when I made it.

Which 3 artists have influenced you the most growing up?

Phaeleh, Deadmau5 and Manu Shrine. Deadmau5 introduced me to electronic music, Phaeleh and Manu Shrine made me fall in love with ambient, chill and future garage.

How did you discover your particular sound?

Honestly, just a bunch of experimentation, as is with everyone else I presume. As I started making more ambient music I leaned towards a niche of practices, synths, methods that I figured out through trial and error that shaped my sound to be what it is today.

What are the most important pieces of equipment to you?

I hope I’m not cheesing this question but my ears I guess? Nothing without them haha, I can make music anyhow, anywhere with anything but without my ears I’m nothing.

What outside of music inspires you to create?

Games, particularly the ones that help me get into a creative mood. Minecraft is a favorite, I also play a lot of open-world games, big fan of Bethesda. Apart from that, travel. I’ve recently started traveling to quaint, pretty locations secluded within nature once every few months just to get away from the city, super inspiring when I come back to the studio.

If you could work with, or perform alongside any artist living or passed, who would it be?

Phaeleh, or Manu Shrine. I would’ve loved to have had an opportunity to work with Manu Shrine before he, unfortunately, passed away. Inspired a whole plethora of artists from our scene, including me. May he rest in peace.

Most artists say that if they weren’t artists they would be mailmen/women… what would you be?

Honestly, I have no clue haha. I was working as a graphic designer for a while, I feel I could’ve pursued that further if I wasn’t an artist. I also teach music, since I was a kid I always wanted to teach, it just so happened that I discovered my artistic tendencies, learned and started teaching music instead eventually. I was pretty good at math, I could’ve been a math teacher I guess.

What can we expect from you in the near future? Any upcoming projects or gigs in the pipeline that you would like to tell us about?

If all goes according to plan I may be having a vinyl release I’m super excited about early 2020 and I’ve been working on an EP with a close friend of mine, Cash. Stoked for both of these projects!