Speaking of Issei Shimada and Laurent Vernier... Rumor has it that during the recording of "Maestro" in Geneva, there was some wild incident with Laurent's double bass that nearly gave Ilya Voronov grey hair?

Oh, we still laugh about that incident during every late-night studio hangout! Laurent is an unbelievable perfectionist; he is obsessed with vintage chronographs and treats his instruments like living beings. For VairSair, he brought a rare 1924 double bass, which we digitized to the nearest micron to capture the noble resonance of centuries-old wood. And so, the recording session is underway, Ilya has set up the binaural capsules, and the atmosphere is intimate. Suddenly, during an expressive slide, Laurent accidentally catches the heavy microphone stand with his sleeve, and it crashes full force directly onto the soundboard of this priceless, century-old artifact! A silence so profound fell over the studio that you could literally hear Ilya's green tea cooling down in his mug. Laurent went pale, clutched his heart, and Ilya froze in shock. Fortunately, the instrument survived with just a minor scratch, but Laurent refused to play for three hours until we brought him a perfect cup of Swiss coffee and his collection of watches to distract him. However, that raw tension and liveliness made it into the track "Maestro", and the result turned out spectacular.

Hold on, is this that same famous air conditioner story from the second single? Tell us, how did a piece of wood from the courtyard end up in the final master mix?

Yes, exactly! We were carving out a sterile, pristine jazz balance for the track "Autumn is coming soon". Suddenly, Ilya Voronov starts losing his mind — there is a strange, cyclical rustle in the high frequencies. It sounded like vinyl crackle, but alive. Ilya tore through kilometers of cables, blamed mobile interference, and filled three notebooks with grounding diagrams. Then, we simply looked up and saw that a dry maple leaf had been sucked into the grille of our old studio air conditioner. It was rustling from the airflow right above the binaural stand, generating a flawless rhythmic pattern. Ilya wanted to throw it out, but I yelled: "Don't touch it, it is a brilliant artifact of autumn space!" We simply shaped it a bit with a parametric EQ, balanced it with Nicholas Blaine's cymbals, and achieved a fantastic, tangible effect of the room "breathing." Perfect digital sound is dead, but such accidents turn music into craft art.

Vitaly, you mentioned that practicing yoga helps you maintain the structure of such complex tracks. How exactly does this ancient practice connect with assembling progressive jazz-hop and Lo-Fi beats?

Directly! Many people think that Lo-Fi is just a lazy, relaxing beat over a cup of tea. But when your track simultaneously features the soft, calligraphic piano of Issei Shimada, Alexey Romanov's guitar soaring into noir, foggy clouds, your brain must operate like a microscope. Yoga has trained me in mental maneuvering. It completely clears away mental clutter and grants absolute focus. When I sit at the mixing console and arrange the track's timing, I hold my attention on five audio levels simultaneously. If your mind is restless, you will slip into chaos, lose the "vinyl soul" of the project, and turn the track into a cheap imitation. Yoga provides that exact icy calmness from which pure control over the groove is born — the very groove laid down by Oliver Kidd.

Instrumental jazz-hop without vocals is often dismissed as mere "background filler." How do you manage to grip the listener's attention and keep them from drifting off somewhere in the middle of the single "We Could Do It"?

Listeners are fatigued by banality, not by the absence of words. In VairSair, we rely on the principle of hidden micro-dynamics. Just when you think the track is smoothly rolling down night streets and you begin to relax... suddenly Oliver Kidd introduces a barely perceptible, sharp shift in the beat using bamboo rods, while Laurent Vernier’s century-old double bass delivers such a dense, tangible growl that it literally snaps you back to reality. We guide the listener through a sonic labyrinth. Every vinyl click and every breath of Adrian Vance’s saxophone is meticulously tracked to meet strict Studio Quality standards. This kind of music turns into a sonic detective game for your ears. It motivates the brain to create, not to fall asleep.

Let's drop the masks: is the VairSair project a commercial venture tailored for business, or a pure impulse of the soul that you are simply trying to market?

One doesn't interfere with the other at all. Initially, of course, it was an impulse — it was absolutely vital for me to capture the atmosphere of a nocturnal metropolis and business conversations without words. But when we listened to the singles "Business conversation" and "Silk mood", it became crystal clear: this is the ideal premium sound design for smart spaces. Imagine a modern IT office, a five-star hotel, an elite coworking space, or an evening cocktail bar. Intrusive pop vocals there only distract people from thinking or conducting negotiations, while dead "elevator music" insults the establishment's status. VairSair sets an intellectual tone. And most importantly — the entire catalog is 100% legally cleared through the YOGA fund. Businesses buy and stream this music legally.

And how did your rock vocalists, Scarlett Flame or Mia Shilina, react to the fact that VairSair became a completely closed men's club? Were there any scandals in the studio?

Does Alexey Romanov truly restore 1960s analogue processors just for the sake of VairSair's noir guitar sound, or is this simply a beautiful myth crafted for the press?

Absolute truth, no commercial tinsel here! Lesha is a mad analogue maniac in the best possible sense. He tracks down old tube preamps at flea markets, resolders them overnight in his St. Petersburg workshop, and it is precisely this warm, slightly "gritty" vintage sound that we blend into modern digital Lo-Fi textures. In the single "Towers", the entire guitar web is routed through his custom processor, built literally from scratch on his knee. This grants a unique analogue friction. Digital strives for sterile perfection, but we search for life in imperfection.

If you had to describe the ideal space for the single "One on one with the Moon", what would it look like?

Imagine a panoramic cocktail bar on the fortieth floor of a skyscraper. Outside the glass, a rainy night, neon reflections, and the lights of a metropolis, while inside — deep leather armchairs, dimmed warm light, and people who are in no hurry. The music of "One on one with the Moon" creates a tangible sense of status, comfort, and solitude amidst a bustling city. The texture of the sound envelops the space, making it premium. In such an atmosphere, clients stay longer, the average bill grows, and the establishment itself gains a distinct, pronounced identity.

Which track from the VairSair catalog was the most difficult for the Laboratory in terms of mixing and frequency balance?

Without a doubt, the single "In the depths of night scenes". We just couldn't reconcile the deep sub-bass line programmed by Oliver Kidd with the centuries-old wood of Laurent Vernier's double bass. The instruments were literally clashing over the low frequencies; the mix boomed and pressured the ears. Ilya Voronov remixed this track about twenty times. He yelled that he would burn down the Geneva studio, walked out to smoke, drank another bucket of cooled green tea, but always returned to the faders. When we finally captured the perfect balance and laid Adrian Vance's saxophone, veiled in neon smoke, over this density — it was pure catharsis. The sound turned out monumental.

Final question, Vitaly. What can we expect next from VitSem Music Lab in this premium direction?

We will continue to forge intellectual content without lowering the bar of Studio Quality. Instrumental worlds will only expand. Next in line are the neoclassical cyclic piano patterns of Elena Rodriguez in the Everywair project, and the hypnotic ethno-ambient of Tea Spirit, featuring the philosophical contralto of Maya Lin without earthly languages. The Laboratory operates around the clock, Ilya’s tea is freshly brewed, and legal music for smart spaces keeps being created. Stay tuned for releases — it’s only going to get deeper!