Interview W// Cotton Pills
Before his show in Belgrade
— Hey! How has living in Paris shaped your music? — Paris is incredible and extremely diverse. This city is far more complex than the postcard cliché everyone knows. On the one hand, it carries this well-selling image that attracts millions — strong branding built on great architecture, incredible food, hedonism, galleries, fashion. But beneath that surface there is a lot of contradiction: bohemian post-imperial traces coexist with human pain, injustice, spontaneity, the joy of the moment, and a strong belief people have in themselves. I’m really grateful for my short-term colocation experiences, which allowed me to live in different parts of the city and get a deep, local understanding of life here. Most of the time I stayed in the eastern and northern banlieues (suburbs), but not only there. As someone who grew up on the outskirts of Moscow, I felt something strikingly familiar — rough, naked streets, concrete panel blocks rising through beautiful natural landscapes, trash, drug dealing… but here everything is much more cosmopolitan: communities from Maghreb countries, India, Japan, Romani families. There’s a lot of real life on these streets, and it’s exactly my vibe. I always say Paris is like a complicated person — it gives a lot, and it takes no less from you. — How would you characterize the electronic scene around you today? Are there any aspects you feel critical about? — t’s very strong, very multifaceted. There are countless communities dedicated to specific genres. Hidden places, tiny bars with la cave concerts, illegal raves, soundsystem events, squats — the city is full of them. I was genuinely surprised to discover how many musicians here are highly educated in the institutional sense. The conditions are exceptional: different programs, grants, and residencies that really help people focus on their art. Of course, like everywhere in Europe, there are some shitty far-right and conservative tendencies that ruin parts of this beautiful ecosystem. Cultural investment is being cut, many venues are closing. Capitalism is creeping into the underground — more agencies, more mainstream club music. But still, there are so many talents, and so many special things for any kind of music lover — Why did you delete all your albums released before 2021? What are your artistic plans for 2026/2027? — I realized that the music I made back then wasn’t mature, precise, or complete. It didn’t reflect who I really was. So I had no regrets — I deleted everything, then released cotton early tracks with my favorite reworked pieces from that period, and let the rest go. I’ve separated my projects: I release more abstract experimental/ambient/noise music under my real name Max Rakhmatullin (I have a recent release on Language Instinct - label from Texas, USA) and keep the soft, foggy, genre-fluid electronics for Cotton Pills. I’m experimenting a lot with guitar and voice and want to keep improving my skills. I’m really happy to collaborate with the amazing people around me, and I hope this will happen more and more.