SoundGym Hero: Raman Rabtsau

Belarusian indie rocker and software engineer based in Vilnius, he writes, performs, records, and mixes his Belarusian one-man-band bedroom tracks, sharpened by daily SoundGym workouts and fearless self-learning. Raman is this month’s SoundGym Hero!

How did you first find your way into making music?

I started listening to rock and later metal in high school, mid-late 00s. Me and my classmates would share music between each other on CDs/DVDs, later flash drives. I’d watch my rock heroes perform and want to become them. Then me and my classmates started a band. I was a singer there without knowing a thing about music. Back then my heroes were James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine (besties lol), and I wanted to master guitar.

It was pre-YouTube era, at least in Belarus where I’m from, so it was pretty challenging to self-educate. I also tried to apply to a music school, but normally students start their path there in early school, so I was told I’m too old for this shit. A 14-year-old kid, lol. On top of that my parents didn’t want me to start this music thing because I didn’t study well.

Once I found an old Soviet acoustic guitar at my grandparents’ place, it was gathering dust for more than 20 years. Some friends of mine played guitar, they showed me a few things, Guitar Pro 5 on Windows 7 helped a lot, and they suggested songs that would help develop specific skills. For instance, “Seek and Destroy” by Metallica to train strings skipping when picking. So I learned how to both sing and play guitar somehow.

Through the years my musical taste evolved and changed completely. Now I’m making one-man-band indie rock in my native language (belarusian) with many influences such as post-punk, shoegaze, Midwest emo, slacker rock, etc. I write, perform, record, and mix everything on my own in my bedroom.

Aside from music, what hobbies or activities do you enjoy?

I don’t really have any hobbies aside from music, honestly. I started writing and recording my stuff relatively not that long ago, in 2023. I’ve always wanted to make music, but I procrastinated for many years. I’m in my early 30s, so I have this feeling of wasted time, and as a result recording turned into a sort of obsession.

I managed to write around 30 songs already, but I recorded less than half of them cos I didn’t write anything before 2023: I had to learn how to do everything: write lyrics, music, make arrangements, record, mix, master (a bit). So I hope an LP is ahead :D.

Apart from making music I enjoy travelling, playing basketball, running, and cycling. I work full-time as a software engineer, and 24 hours is not enough for me to fit everything I want to do. Music is the most important thing out of all these, and I believe it deserves almost full focus. One hobby related to music that deserves a mention is collecting audio tapes.

What’s something you're surprisingly good at that has nothing to do with music?

I was surprised to realise that I’m good at organizing space. My place is very tight (don’t be scared after looking at my home studio, it’s the second floor of my apartment, that door is auxiliary), so I managed to get the maximum out of it to have all the gear I need at the moment and a place to rest.

Also, as a software engineer, I’m good at diving deep to the root cause of issues that constantly appear here and there.

If you could play or create with any artist, who would it be and why?

I've been an Oasis fan since around 2014, they’re the biggest band in my life, and Liam and Noel are quite funny guys. It would be an absolute dream for me to perform with them and get a few Guinness pints after.
I’d also say Mac DeMarco - I guess I started my bedroom DIY thing inspired by him.

He creates nice, vibey music, and he’s funny as well. I’d also mention Mr. Kevin Parker. One-man-army people are my personal heroes, I’d love to see their creative process and learn something from them.

What piece of music gear do you love the most, and what makes it irreplaceable in your creative process?

I’d say it’s my acoustic guitar: Seagull Entourage Folk Burnt Umber QIT. I feel that the most authentic shape of my songs is me singing with an acoustic guitar. This is how it started and that’s the most true to me.

The instrument itself is amazing: nice and mellow sound. My guitar is damaged - it has a few cracks on the body, which is why the sound is not as full as it’s supposed to be. But even with that, it sounds amazing, and I feel it fits the bedroom vibe a bit more with those cracks :D. 

What daily or weekly habits do you have in place to keep you creating?

SoundGym daily workouts were my routine for the last 9-10 months. I recently released a few tunes and decided to take a small break, but I’ll come back to that for sure. Also, it might sound a bit mental, but I take a cold/mixed shower (almost) every morning. I believe that if you do that ugly thing at the beginning of your day, you can do anything.

What keeps you motivated to continue making music?

I have clear goals, I try to break them into sub-goals to close portions of the big picture and stay motivated. It’s nice to rely on deadlines and to be explicit with yourself - that way your plans are not ideas of dreams, but closer to an actual thing. And of course, my music and music overall is an integral part of me, so I’m at the stage where I can’t not make music, which is cool.

What song would you choose as the soundtrack of your life?

Faith No More - “Easy.” As I mentioned earlier, I procrastinated music for a long time, but in 2023 I moved to Lithuania from Belarus, started my life from the scratch, and currently I live in Vilnius. I tried to sing after a long break and it was bad.

I found a vocal teacher, he helped me get back into business, and that song helped me break my mental blockers. I’m more into melancholic, dreamy stuff, but this one was very different from a singing perspective. It helped me a lot, and now I feel I relate to the lyrics. I feel the things I create now would have been different, in a bad way, without me learning to sing this song and taking vocal classes.

What's your favorite feature on SoundGym, and how has it helped you in your musical journey?

I’d say my favourite features are the exercises I suck at :D. For sure I hate them, but it's a love-hate relationship. I’m pretty good at EQ Mirror and Compressionist, surprisingly to me, but my mental health was not ready for me being absolutely pathetic at Distorted Reality and panning. Jokes aside, I appreciate being pushed outside the comfort zone - I got better thanks to these little devils.

What’s something exciting you're working on or looking forward to?

I’m gonna start a long journey towards my first LP. I have around one hour of music to record, we’ll see how it goes. I also feel my music deserves something special, so I’ll most likely put myself into the analogue world. I’ve been thinking about a few 500-series preamps and I’m excited to get this experience.
In the modern world many things feel ephemeral because everything is digital. I feel I have to make at least my relationship with music “real.” That’s why I prefer live instruments.

I record my voice, guitars, pedals, amp, etc. with mics in my room to capture at least a portion of the ambience where I make my stuff (this doesn’t relate to drums, but the plan is to get there as well). That’s why I wanna try hardware stuff as well.

Last but not least: I feel I’m ready to collaborate with other musicians. The Belarusian indie scene is blooming, but it’s still niche, and I’d say 99% of artists are more or less local underground acts. Collaborations should help bring in a few new listeners, I’m already involved in a few projects.

I also wanna grow as a mixing engineer with each new release. With my last single, I felt I needed professional help, so I paid for mixing sessions with an engineer in Vilnius to learn something new and gain a different perspective on mixing. I’m looking forward to learning from other people while working on my music.

You can follow Raman on their Instagram, and TikTok; and listen to their music on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and SoundCloud.

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