The rapper, musician, producer, arranger who now uses the name Arstarulsmirus was previously Gustavo, but the passport still written – Gustav Butelis – has created the third part of the album in the series “Songs of Wishes”, dedicated to four elements. The first, “Sights” (2020), reflected water, the title of the second album speaks for itself – “At Earth” (2021). In turn, the musician’s latest album “Dedz” is dedicated to the element of fire. The program will also be performed in several concerts in the summer, for example, at the Bauska festival “Taste”.
Singers Lauris Valters, Laima Dimanta, Madara Orola, Rihards Bērziņš, musicians Mārcis Auziņš, Stanislavs Judins, Edvīns Ozols, Artūrs Sebris, Uldis Ziediņš, Elmunds
The first piece to present the project was “Other”, and these albums Arstarulsmirus call the story of the inner world of man, the reduction of internal conflicts, the effort to move towards a dignified relationship with himself and others:
“There’s a lot to talk about and write about. And those four elements – fire, water, earth, air – helped me anchor me, writing these stories. I came to use the elements when the first album was ready. Looking through the lyrics, I noticed that Viewpoints “I have mentioned several water elements.
As for the element of fire, I had already compiled a great deal of material on the symbolic manifestations of fire in the inner world. I tried to put these elements together – movement, impulsivity, confidence. “
The second single from the album “Dedz” was a version of Arstarulsmirus on the theme of Raimonds Pauls’ song “Farewell to Summer”, while the first single was the song “Baterija” about inner energy.
“Raimonds Pauls’ composition addressed me 20 years ago, and only now have I come to the conclusion that it has somehow come to an end and it became clear how to create an interpretation of this song, but I have been thinking about it for a long time,” says the musician.
The saxophone class of Pāvuls Jurjānis Music School has graduated from Arstarulsmiru, but as the musician himself says – with great difficulty. After that, the artist studied at the glass department of Riga Secondary School of Applied Arts. In the rap group “Fact”, which started in 1998, he was accepted as a saxophonist, but soon after that Gustav Butelis started singing, rhyming, repo, because he wrote his own articles a long time ago:
“I am more of a musician than a rapper, because I am involved in both text and music writing, arrangement, I am involved in sound directing and recording processes.
I check from time to time if the amount of professions I have undertaken in my project is diminishing. And I’m looking to reduce my range of professions in the records. “
Arstarulsmirus believes that rhythm in rap is not the main thing. It is not counting poetry in a speed dial, and according to the musician, it also takes a moment of surprise, say one, then it turns out you wanted to say something else: “The difference from poetry is not in form, it lies in the complexity of In terms of rap, there has been a big leap over the last 20 years.
Repetition, recitation or execution of texts is definitely the most difficult aspect of my work, because to write music and arrange it – there is more flow and interpretation, there is not as strict a frame as writing a text. Let everything be at the same pace, so that the words do not repeat themselves. “
At first, Gustavo and the band “Fact”, which also included rapper Ozols or Ģirts Rozentāls, were young people who wanted to replay in English, and the music they performed was aggressive not only in sound but also in lyrics because of an internal need for provocation. Arstarulsmirus also swirled on TV screens at the same time, advertising “Ādaži chips”, but at the beginning of this century the musical life was shaken by the conflict between Gustavo and Ozola, which manifested itself in rap duel, as it is accepted in the hip-hop genre.
“We solved our relationship in this duel – we wrote several compositions addressed to each other. At that time we seemed to reach a very small audience, only to learn over time that there are more listeners,” says the rapper, acknowledging that the conflict with Ozola has long been resolved.
The musician Arstarulsmirus gained a lot of admiration when, as Gustavo produced the album “Brainstorm” “There must be something” (2008), he participated in the concerts of this and future tours. He did not previously have this level of co-production as a producer, although initially he thought of only one song. Then another composition was made, and then the talks about creating an entire album began.
“The collaboration with Brainstorm made the biggest impression when it came to internal communication and collaboration, where so many different people meet in the team. I had never experienced how much reverence, attention and dedication the group is able to work with each other.
Because in my “Fact” experience it was very different, there was a lot of intolerance. That was the main thing I learned at the time in our collaboration with Brainstorm, “Arstarulsmirus says of his experience.
The musician also points out that his creative work with “Brainstorm” has musically shown new facets: “There was a song” Open “, which was originally planned for” Brainstorm “, but it was included in my album, which was already the third – in 2010 The cornerstone of this song, around which the song grew, was the piano motif of Raimonds Pauls – a tango from a movie theater, on top of which instruments were played – drums, bass guitar, etc.
As a rapper, Gustavo started his solo career as a rapper in 2004, and continues to work individually, inviting guest musicians to projects. The transition from one stage name to the next took place gradually, starting from 2005, when the musician realized that in order to move on, it was necessary to reconsider many of his habits and attitudes. Arstarulsmirus gave up destructive emotions in his work, in the music of chanting them: “I started to reconsider what I want to say in the songs and then repeat many more times – a hundred, two hundred times and many more years later. to this filter, then the song does not come. I ask myself – is it really interesting to me? “
Interestingly, in the song “Thank you that you are”, the musician engages in a dialogue between ex-Gustavo and Arstarulsmirus – there are still those who respect his Gustavo creative period very much, and in content, of course, there are many differences in image and position.
“It’s a dialogue – on the one hand there is an image that is relatively balanced and more philosophical, and on the other side there is an image that ironically interests those who are more interested in expressing a sharper emotion in a piece,” says the rapper.
The musician Arstarulsmirus will no longer create songs like before, and he will definitely continue working on his project “Wish Songs”, the cycle of which is due to end next year. It also takes a lot of time to work on Raimonds Pauls’ big music concert, which is expected at the Daugava Stadium on September 10 – Arstarulsmirus is its creative director, creates the concert drama, and selects the repertoire. And there will also be his version of Paul’s song “Farewell to Summer ’22”:
“It’s a great honor to be chosen for this position. There will be more than 30 songs in the concert, and in the selection of musicians we will focus on those who have not been Paul’s performers so far. Sometimes there will be 100 people on stage at the time, which will be grand!”
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