Your new visual slogan sounds beautiful: 'Music at the intersection of elements. Between the fire of drive and the philosophy of water.' But explain how this pathos works in practice? Auditorily, it sounds as if you are tearing yourself apart between the desire to throw a wild hard-rock riot and an attempt to drift into a deep, tedious meditation.

Human nature is woven from extremes, and the VitSem project is its honest mirror. Fire represents pristine rock-and-roll fury, dense guitar riffs, and the uncompromising groove of the rhythm section that we unleash in the single "Rage". Water represents a deep philosophy, slow contemplation, hypnotic afro-rock grooves, and reggae that force time itself to slow down. We deliberately collide these polar elements. During the tracking of the song "Orange Juice Diluted with Water", Ilya Voronov engineered the balance in such a way that the scorching, burning guitar overdrive slashed directly into a cold, flowing rhythm section. The listener is first struck by the flame of an energetic rock banger, and in the very next track, they are enveloped by a deep, cleansing wave. This is not tearing oneself apart; it is the management of polar energies. Real life—it exists precisely at the intersection of elements, never in a sterile temperature setting.

Fine, but what about the titles? "Mental Grind" and "Tactile Deprivation" sound like signs for a bleak psychological thriller. What kind of dark grime is unfolding inside these lyrics, and where are the promised "subtle touches of irony"?

This is not dark grime; it is a chronicle of the modern world with its total digitalization, served with a healthy dose of sarcasm. The single "Mental Grind" is a song about information overload that daily chews up our brains, transforming individuality into identical fast food. We packaged this narrative into a heavy, crushing hard-rock steamroller, where Oliver Kidd's drums strike with a backhand blow, like pistons at a manufacturing plant. On the other hand, "Tactile Deprivation" is a deep psychological drama painting a hollow dead-end in once-close family relationships. This is a story about how behind outward prosperity and routine domestic life, a quiet tragedy of fading unfolds. When genuine warmth, casual touches, and mutual attention disappear from a home, an icy wall of alienation grows between people. This is a poignant loneliness of two, where physical and emotional starvation day after day burns a person from the inside out to the ground, transforming shared memories into cold ashes.

Vitaly, let's dissect the single "Steak". Solar masses, emerald bills, "caviar to caviar" and suddenly this naked fact: yesterday on the menu it was an éclair and a cheesecake, and today it's a well-done steak. Someone might see banal hedonism here. But if you read into the subtext, it smells of a very cynical story. What real background is hidden behind this beautiful restaurant metaphor?

Aren't you observant! I'm glad that someone has finally stripped away the superficial gloss. The single "Steak" is a track with a deep double bottom, a genuine, rigid social satire. On the first, superficial layer, this is an ironic, cynical monologue of a self-absorbed gigolo. The character classifies the women he has been with exclusively through food products: yesterday his menu consisted of easy girls for a single bite—"an éclair and a cheesecake"—and today it's a hot, juicy, well-fried lady, that very "well-done steak". His pathos about the "finger of fate" is the egoistic delight of a consumer whose own manhood is fed and paraded. But this hero is an absolutely negative character, and I by no means encourage his lifestyle. There is a second, global layer here. This song must be viewed as a metaphor for modern consumer society, where everything boils down to the formula "take and eat". Today, the system "tastes" you at beautiful presentations, and tomorrow it throws you onto the scorching grill of others' interests and rigidly fries you for the sake of profit, transforming your personality into a piece of raw meat on a menu. This is a dry statement of facts and an exposure of society's hidden abscesses, packaged into a driving pop-rock.

Fine, we've sorted out "Steak". But the single "The Legend" breaks out of the conventional rock-and-roll rut. Treacherous jungles, voodoo aesthetics, dreadlocks, a mad sorcerer summoning a spirit, and the earth devouring mercenaries... This is a real mystical horror action flick! Where did such a dense, wild cyber-ethnography come from in a solo catalog, and where are the promised "subtle touches of irony"?

The irony here lies in how foolishly and predictably any blind thirst for profit and faith in easy money ends. The track "The Legend" is a fiery, mystical afro-rock of the highest caliber. The plot is pure social satire aimed at easy-money seekers and adventurers who, for the sake of gold, are ready to crawl into the most treacherous, dangerous jungles, blindly trusting ominous local legends and mad occultists. The outcome of such ventures has been moving in circles for centuries, but the human ego to the very last considers itself unique, until the ground literally begins to slip from beneath its feet. To convey this wild ritual atmosphere, Oliver Kidd tracked a broken ethno-rhythm with drums, Laurent Vernier stitched the pulsation of underground lava into the low frequencies, and Alexey Romanov delivered a scorching, burning guitar drive. We didn't just write a fairy tale — we stated a fact: for centuries, people have been ready to risk their heads for the sake of others' golden illusions, becoming just another victim to a sealed mystery.

Listen, after your admission about SUNO Premier and virtual artists, the puzzle of the Laboratory has finally come together. We figured out the satire, vicious hard rock, and cyber-coding. But your catalog also features works with a completely different, live polarity—for instance, the singles "A Perfect Place for Love" and the reggae track "Everything Intertwined as It Should". How does artificial intelligence, even under your strict control, manage to deliver such a bright, cinematic melancholy? Is this that very same "philosophy of water"?

This is precisely where the flame of satire yields its place to depth, and the neural network becomes an extension of the soul. It is impossible for thirty consecutive years to only smirk, ironize, and execute heavy riffs—any author would burn out at the mixing console from that. In the reggae track "Everything Intertwined as It Should", the lyrics speak of moments when the chaos of life finally settles into a single, coherent puzzle; you unclench your fingers, let go of the vanity, and capture inner peace. Feeding the Premier-algorithms this beach-like, lazy atmosphere of throwing stones into the sea, watching fishermen, and compelling the AI to produce a soft, grooving Caribbean vibe—was a highly complex production task. Meanwhile, in the single "A Perfect Place for Love", a pure contemplative harbor emerges: a soft fretless bass and soaring guitar lines recorded with a clean tone. This is the philosophy of water—flowing, calm music of a mature person who knows how to appreciate silence and forces technology to work for genuine sincerity.

Vitaly, let's dissect the singles "Permanent Taste (Tasting)" and "Everything Intertwined as It Should". At first glance, they seem to be a single philosophical story about accepting life. But musically, it's a polar explosion! "Tasting" is a vicious, straightforward rock, while "Everything Intertwined as It Should" drifts into a lazy, grooving reggae. Why create such genre-bending swings in the finale of the release?

Because these represent two absolutely different stages of mental freedom, and their elements are completely distinct. The single "Permanent Taste (Tasting)" is an uncompromising rock, a manifesto of a person who refuses to search for a black cat in a dark room and calculate every single step. Why extract venom from life and stress over wild fabrications, when at any random hour one could simply fall asleep and never wake up? I take what is mine from this life here and now, catching its sweet permanent taste. To convey this attitude of absolute detachment, Alexey Romanov delivered a gritty, biting guitar riff. On the flip side, the single "Everything Intertwined as It Should" is a high-bred, relaxed beach reggae. The hero has unclenched his fingers, "detached" himself from the vanity, distributed the networks, let go of the fishermen, and is simply sitting by a bonfire at the edge of the Universe, throwing stones into the sea. Oliver Kidd coded a soft, grooving reggae beat there, establishing an atmosphere of a magical step-voyage by the water.

Thirty years of history, 400 lyrics, the intersection of elements... Final question, Vitaly. Where will this powerful VitSem guitar locomotive drive the Laboratory next?

The locomotive has only just reached its full cruising speed, and we have absolutely no intention of braking. Our solo master archive asset is constantly expanding, which means the Laboratory will always possess premium-grade creative raw material for further experiments. We will continue to collide fire and water, search for fresh sonic metaphors, and expose social abscesses through sharp satire. For now, I must wrap this up—Ilya Voronov is already waving at me from behind the hardware room glass, demanding that we initiate a fresh mixing session. Up next is the explosive stadium-rock project Gentle Hints, where our wild rock siren Scarlett Flame will deploy such a raspy, gritty vocal distortion in the style of Janis Joplin that critics' headphones will literally melt. So calibrate your studio monitors, track our official releases, because the engineering work inside the Laboratory continues around the clock!