Spotlight - NARADA

GetMusic's artist spotlight features NARADA, sharing the story behind the music, the latest work, and what comes next.

Introduction & Background

Please introduce yourself and share a bit about your background.

My name is Aleksandr, a DIY multi-genre artist from Ufa, Russia. I handle every single stage of the creative process myself — from initial concepts and songwriting to full mixing and mastering. I wrote my debut album while incarcerated, having been released just a few months ago.

What's your musical origin story?

I picked up a guitar at 14, and for the next five years, it completely consumed my life. I was obsessed with everything heavy and guitar-driven—from 70s pioneers like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath to bands like Slipknot and Korn. By the time I turned 20, though, something shifted. I felt like I was playing "note structures" rather than making actual music, even though listening to music still gave me intense emotions. Around the same time, I grew disillusioned watching the people I played in bands with treat music as just a casual hobby. For me, it was an unquenchable hunger that I still carry today. That drove me to step away from traditional bands and dive into DAWs, mixing, and experimental electronic music. My growth slowed down significantly when drugs entered my life and took over for a long period, but that core need to create never went away.

What were the driving forces or pivotal moments that inspired you to pursue music?

Looking back, I've had a deep need since childhood to express my unique perspective — this strange ability to turn almost everything I observed into video-game-like worlds. One of my most profound early creative memories was watching my brother play Heroes of Might and Magic II. I was completely captivated by its pixel art stylization and the unmatched, fairytale atmosphere it built inside the game. Over the years, intuitive listeners have told me that my music feels vivid and "pixelated." It’s not about 8-bit retro sounds or specific song moods, but rather that exact "digital-fairytale" sensation I experienced as a child. Then came the defining turning point: I was sent to prison on drug charges. That’s a long story that deserves its own space, but in the context of this question, it was a period of deep internal transmutation. Music became my only way to manifest the desire to live, grow, and survive spiritually and mentally. I didn't just survive — I grew, and I managed to complete a full-length album in Russian. It reflects all the dreams I couldn't reach at that moment — a manifestation of light in total darkness. Right now, I’m at a stage where I’m preparing to release a massive vault of accumulated material. Today, music is my vehicle for self-realization in society — a way to carry a code of liberation. It’s about breaking free from old boundaries and transforming internal blockages into pure, liberating energy.

Musical Identity

How would you describe your style of music?

I strive to give every individual song the exact sonic character it needs to evoke its intended emotion. Overall, if I had to describe the sound of my first album, it feels massive and punchy, yet deeply spatial and psychedelic. I love using reverb extensively because it’s through space and depth that I can capture the sensation of moving through different inner dimensions. Through the sound design, I aim to amplify the atmosphere of each track without losing its richness, making sure these songs stand the test of time. A sense of light breaking through darkness and the exploration of emotional spaces run through everything I create. I love when the synergy of notes, harmony, and sound design shifts the listener’s perception from linear logic into something transcendent, immersive, and all-encompassing — almost as if the music opens a portal into a spiritual realm. Beneath it all, my lyrics carry underlying themes of spiritual awakening, personal growth, and transformation.

How is your personality reflected in your work?

Ever since my early twenties, it became crucial for me to convey the full range of feelings and pure joy I experience through music. That’s why I love engaging with every single stage of the creation process myself — the DIY approach feels entirely organic to me.

Of course, the task of fully expressing every emotion, meaning, and experience is inherently impossible for a simple reason: no system can describe itself, as it cannot objectively evaluate itself from the outside. Ultimately, all our feelings and experiences can only ever be translated through various tools. For me, music is that exact language — the tool that allows me to express my transcendent experiences, the deep pain of transformation, and a persistent drive toward the light, no matter what. And, of course, a profound sense of love and freedom in any circumstance.

At a certain point, the name of the project — NARADA — revealed an unexpectedly deep meaning: creating a bridge between the earthly and the celestial, guiding the listener through their own transformation. In ancient texts, the sage and wanderer Narada embodies this higher archetype: an eternal traveler between worlds, a musician who uses sound and strings to connect the human experience with the divine.

Describe your creative process when you write new music.

To answer this question with complete honesty, I have to make a caveat: any attempt on my part to describe this process is bound to fall short. What I can put into words is merely a fraction of what actually takes place — the essence of the process lies beyond words and rational comprehension.

As far as I can tell, it usually starts when I’m overflowing with personal experience and emotion, to the point where I have no choice but to grab whatever is at hand and create. In other instances, the spark is ignited by the raw texture of a sound itself. It could be anything: a melody struck on a guitar, a synthesizer patch, a sample, or a sound morphed through reverb and modular processing. My intuition catches that sound, I experience it deeply, and I slip into a state of flow.

Once that primary creative impulse is released, I shift into the roles of arranger and sound engineer to shape the composition. Initially, I viewed these extra roles as merely 'necessary' duties. Over time, however, I learned to 'play' within them as well, bringing that same child-like creative drive to every technical step.

Current Work

What is the name of your latest release?

"Грёзы" ('Daydreams') Album

What was the inspiration for that release?

As life would have it, I ended up incarcerated and spent 4.5 years in the prison system. The album itself was created between late 2022 and mid-2026, counting the full cycle from the very first written lyric to exporting the final WAV master files. During all this time, I was writing, learning how to mix, edit, master, and taking my very first steps in vocal recording.

The recording took place under the strangest and most surreal conditions. In the penal colony, we had a small room that a few of us who cared deeply about music built and improved together month after month. We made the journey from an almost empty room with two poorly tuned guitars to a full-fledged bedroom studio setup with a pair of studio monitors, two computers loaded with plugins and sample packs, two audio interfaces, headphones (Audio-Technica ATH-M50x and Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO), and an AKG P120 microphone. Step by step, through relentless perseverance, we built up the studio, holding onto the belief that one day we’d pull it off. It sounds unbelievable, the emotion behind it is indescribable, and I’m deeply grateful that everything came together, allowing us to grow and pursue what we love under such extreme conditions.

For me, this album is a true artifact of time and extraordinary circumstances — a manifestation of a breakthrough of spirit and hope for a better life. It holds my dreams, my pain, and my reveries about everything that felt unattainable in those conditions. It’s about how, even in the deepest darkness, if you keep believing and moving forward, the light breaks through no matter what. Ultimately, I want this music to inspire people to keep creating against all odds. If I managed to do it in an environment where it seemed completely impossible, then anyone can. You just have to want it fiercely and believe, no matter how hard or painful it gets. These could have been just words, but now there is real work behind them — this album. Dare and create if you feel that fire. All boundaries exist only in the mind.

What challenges or unexpected moments did you encounter during the writing/recording process?

This is probably the hardest question to answer, simply because the entire set of circumstances was one massive challenge. To be completely honest, it’s a miracle that everything worked out at all.

Challenges were everywhere. In prison, because our studio room was located in the educational department building, most inmates assumed we were working closely with the administration — that we were 'snitching' or selling people out. That couldn't have been further from the truth. Throughout my entire sentence, I never snitched on anyone or complained about a single person. That was a non-negotiable principle for me. Very few understood that we created this opportunity and 'privilege' to make music entirely on our own, and on top of that, we had to prove over and over again that we were worthy of it. It’s a long, complex topic rooted in prison psychology and system hierarchies, but the main point is this: one of the biggest challenges was the unrelenting social pressure from all sides — a background expectation for us to fail, and constant manipulation by others regarding the fact that we were making music behind bars.

My personal challenge was that I had never sung before, though the desire had always been there. Taking those first steps inside a penal colony was brutal. Especially when tracking vocals with Auto-Tune — hearing the pitch-corrected voice in your headphones while knowing that in reality, you’re singing aggressively off-key. It threw me off completely, whereas some of the other guys weren't bothered by it at all, which amazed me. But that comes down to individual personality and psychological wiring. I had to learn to sing on two tracks simultaneously: with Auto-Tune and without it. My voice was tense and constricted, and because I got sick often in prison, I frequently had to record dozens of takes while ill. But I pushed through. Somehow, I managed. I learned to hit notes, felt support from the diaphragm, and even discovered vocal resonance in my body. Even though I still lack formal technique — something I definitely plan to study in the future. So, learning to sing in prison, and sing through Auto-Tune parallely, was a harsh but invaluable school.

Another major obstacle was the absolute lack of privacy. At any moment, you could be interrupted or called away for mandatory tasks, and you had almost no choice. In a split second, any creative flow could be shattered, forcing you to drop everything and pivot to something else. Nobody cared what you were working on or how important it was to you. At first, this tore my nervous system apart and served as a grueling test for the ego. But eventually, it taught me hyper-focus — focusing on the ultimate goal macro-wise, and seizing the exact moment micro-wise without wasting a second. That turned out to be an incredible skill.

And as for inspiration? There was practically none. It rarely visited. Most of the time, it was tedious, grueling work done through sheer 'I can’t' and 'I don’t want to.' I was almost never in the 'mood' to make music. Yet at the same time, it was my sole mechanism for mental and spiritual survival. You can't truly understand it unless you've lived it. But my ultimate takeaway is this: any opportunity to write music in peace without the constant threat of interruption is a profound blessing. The freedom to creatively express yourself is a massive gift.

Then there was the overwhelming sense of loneliness in what I was doing, alongside the impossibility of getting genuine feedback. The rare few who could listen often simply couldn't comprehend what I was creating. That's where my belief in the process was tested. Creating in complete isolation from the outside world forced endless questions: Why am I doing this? For whom? What's the point? These questions were inherently meaningless, but indirectly, they became fertile ground for immense internal growth. They brought me to the realization that I was doing this simply because it was my vision. In a way, you do it for something far greater than yourself or anyone else — for the Universe, for God, or for Reality itself, whichever name you prefer.

In the end, it was finished. And that is a victory — first and foremost, an internal one. I hope this story inspires people to create and express themselves so they can grow alongside their music, rather than placing all their expectations on external success, as I once did. Music is an extension of who you are and what flows through you. The better you tune yourself, the clearer the channel becomes.

Ultimately, I realized that Faith is not just a cheap substitute for knowledge or a crutch. It is a tool for changing reality. But before you can truly believe, you have to dismantle your old ways of thinking—in other words, to undergo a true metanoia. Not repenting to someone else, but coming clean with yourself, letting go of past mental imagery, and stepping onto a whole new level of perception and thought.

Promotion & Engagement

What strategies do you find most effective for promoting your music?

To be honest, I’m still in the process of mapping out my very first steps. As I’m writing this, it’s only been three and a half months since my release from prison. Right now, I simply put the album up on Bandcamp because my friends asked for a place to listen to it, and I handed out a few dozen album codes — including through GetMusic.

My actual strategy for this year is to release the album single by single, dropping a new track every month. Starting two weeks before the first single, I’m launching a campaign of short-form videos across all social platforms. The core of this content isn't artificial marketing — it's direct, genuine storytelling: sharing my journey, demonstrating the raw music, and backing it up with visual atmospheres.

I have ideas for full-scale music videos, but I’ve deliberately set them aside for now. Finishing my hardware setup takes priority, and more importantly, traditional high-budget music videos are no longer the primary way people discover or connect with music today. In the current landscape, short-form, direct, and transparent content is what builds a real bridge between the artist and the listener.

How do you engage with your fans online and offline?

As I’ve mentioned, I got out of prison three and a half months ago. Right now, I'm in the middle of building out my studio and technical setup, while simultaneously undergoing a deep mental and psychological transformation. I’ve already shared this music with friends and close acquaintances, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

As I launch my socials and streaming platforms this year, I want to connect with listeners on a much more personal level—sharing my raw experience and how I view the world. At the same time, I’ll be balancing that with short-form atmospheric visuals that convey the mood and energy of the music. I want to bridge direct human connection—talking openly about lived experiences and emotions—with standalone artistic pieces: atmospheric visual content tied to the sound that exists separately from my personal story.

When it comes to live performances, I want to build a deep, immersive environment — something akin to the atmosphere at psytrance festivals. Hypnotic motifs and transcendental experiences. Pulling off a production like that takes substantial resources, but we’ll work with whatever tools we have right now.

What upcoming promotional activities or releases are you most excited about?

Words can’t fully capture what I feel knowing that the music I created in prison — the music through which I learned, coped, survived, and held onto hope — is finally about to be released for everyone to hear. For me, this step is a major milestone in my growth as an emerging artist in a social sense. This year, I’ll be dropping it single by single on streaming platforms, month by month. For Bandcamp listeners, it’s actually available right now. And through GetMusic, you can claim a redemption code for my album and add it directly to your Bandcamp collection.

After releasing the full album track by track, I’ll move on to my next EP. I wrote the foundation for it while in prison as well, but I’ll be mixing, mastering, and tracking the backing vocals right here, in freedom. For one song, I actually have to re-record the lead vocal because I accidentally deleted it while exporting stems. Even though that initial take was incredibly raw and emotional, I didn't get upset for a second when it happened. You know why? Because that’s just part of the creative process. It simply means that song needs the energy that’s waiting for me here on the outside.

Beyond that, I have a vast vault of material and concepts for NARADA, though some are still in their raw stages. Moving forward, I plan to gradually lean into a metal and shoegaze sound, blending it with thick, modern synth textures. As a close friend of mine — an artist — used to say: 'Everything will come, but not all at once.'

How can folks contact you?

Right now, you can head over to my Bandcamp: https://naradamusic.bandcamp.com/album/daydreams
click 'Contact NARADA,' and reach out directly to my personal email. My full album, "Грёзы" ('Daydreams'), is available right there on the page, and that’s also where you can redeem your GetMusic code to add the album to your personal collection.

I’ll be rolling out my other main platforms — YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Telegram — later this year, and you’ll find those links on my Bandcamp page in the near future. While my channels will primarily be in Russian, feel free to send me a direct message on any platform in whatever language you speak — I’ll definitely write back.

Also, for anyone who resonates with my sound, I want to share a quick heads-up: in the future, I’ll be launching a separate instrumental project focused on psychedelic electronic music. All updates regarding that will go out to my Bandcamp followers first, as well as across my socials once they're live.

Any additional insights?

This music is for anyone currently walking through total darkness, feeling like there’s no way out. I made it through by creating this album behind bars, and embedded within it is the exact energy that kept me alive. My hope is that this music can help you, too. Live, create, and love — no matter what.