Breaking Musical Rules: Mr. Infinitum Bye on Catharcism and Creating the Unheard

Mr. Infinitum Bye is an Italian composer and songwriter based in London, working within a groundbreaking genre he pioneered himself — Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-Garde music, earning him the title The Prince of Cosmic-Surrealism.

For the artist, it's crucial to create music that breaks the rules — because, as he believes, rules are tools of manipulation, narrowing the potential of what’s truly possible.

He recently released a new album titled Catharcism, which merges existential themes with abstract, open-ended lyrics, offering both deeply personal and universally resonant experiences.

Mr. Infinitum Bye opens up with Drive Music Meda about the beginning of his musical journey, the vision behind Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-Garde, and the creative process behind Catharcism.

Interviewer: According to your own words, the music you create is capable of stimulating blind spots in human perception. Why is this important to you, and why did you choose to pursue this particular direction — cosmic, surrealist avant-garde music?

Mr. Infinitum bye: It is important to create something from a perspective of uniqueness because uniqueness is our evolutionary driving force. People are typically bombarded with stereotypes and that overconsumption makes them dumb to what could be, that’s why i feel to go into an uncharted territory and create from there, by stimulating new ways of cognising reality by creating sounds that make you think differently, allowing the listener to finally grasp that we are part of something bigger and much more mysterious that we have ever been told. Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde music is a genre that i have pioneered myself, that blends experimental and avant-garde musical techniques with elements of cosmic and surrealist themes, often exploring themes of the unknown, the subconscious, and the ephemeral beauty of existence. It is characterized by its non-traditional soundscapes, abstract compositions, and often evokes a sense of wonder and mystery. Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde music differs from ambient music primarily in its expressive intent and complexity. While both can explore soundscapes and atmosphere, Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde music typically seeks to create a highly imaginative, dreamlike experience that is often unsettling or abstract, while ambient music usually prioritizes creating a calming, immersive environment.

Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde music, with its hybrid effects, distinguishes itself from ambient music by its deliberate and often chaotic exploration of soundscapes, incorporating elements like faster hybrid textures, the welcoming of far out hybrid effects, and unconventional techniques of shaping sound textures into spirals, vortexes, scrapes, ringshifts and wobbles to evoke a sense of surreal and unusual atmosphere. While ambient music prioritizes a calming, atmospheric experience, Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde music aims to create a more intense, thought-provoking experience through experimentation and disruption.

Interviewer: Through your music, you challenge and break the molds that existed before you. What role does this process play in your artistic journey, and what challenges have you encountered in sharing your unique worldview with listeners?

Mr. Infinitum bye: Well, every day is a wonderful challenge.

As a pioneer the challenge that i encountered sharing my unique vision with the world is people confusing Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde music with Ambient music but as soon as i verbally explain to them what makes it different from ambient music they understand because the differences are there, they just have to pay attention to them. I also don’t tend to blame society because most people come from a lazy ambitious system, based on small attention span. Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde music takes you out of that into a sense of expanded awareness. Once you get used to it, you begin to hear the unique elements of it and deeply appreciate them for what they are. Another challenge was moving by myself to London at 19 years old but that was truly a gift in disguise, London was, is and forever will be my spaceship to more experiential potential.

I love breaking musical rules. Rules are construct that keep people stupid so they can be used, unknowingly, to narrow down the potential of the possible of what could be.

Interviewer: Tell us about the name of your solo project. Why Mr. Infinitum Bye? What is the story or meaning behind it?

Mr. Infinitum bye: Infinitum Bye is a name that came to me in 2019, in an altered state of consciousness, after going through a shift of awareness and writing the first composition for the project. I personally think that it represents the sonic experience that the project offers so well. In the sense that it can have many meanings, it depends on how you see it and that’s what makes it ambigous and mysterious at the same time. In that specific time, i began to cognise ideas, realities and thoughts that no one around me was seeing. Friends were calling me weird back then.... I was witnessing the collapse of my previous sense of self, that sense of self programmed by the mad house. First of all, the name can mean whatever you want it to mean.

Infinitum is a latin word that means Infinity and Bye is an english word that indicates a gesture of parting.

I'll leave the interpretation up to the listener...

Interviewer: What were your first steps in music? What was your journey like before you realized which path you wanted to follow creatively?

Mr. Infinitum bye: Well, since the beginning it has been about a lot of practice, discipline and repetition. I studied privately, which isn’t necesserally needed but most parents opt for that because they do not know any better, until i could musically vibe by myself. That’s when the real life begins.

I have an innate eye for things that are keeping me still and delaying my evolution. And that’s why i moved to London in my teen-age years, to pursue a career in music that was not binded by the limitations found in Italy, where i was born. I always enjoyed more American and British music, in fact i found most Italian music to be uninteresting and childish.

I suppose that also comes from the fact that the italian language has more words with consonants in the formation of words, english, on the other hand, has more words with vowals, and vowals are more pleasurable to sing. I also vibe with the fact that i can be understood globally, instead of having to rely on national fame, i can rely on global fame, which is not true of most italian musicians.

As soon as i got the imperative of what happens to my spirit when i connect to sound frequencies, whenever i make music... i started writing, playing concerts everywhere you could imagine and eventually releasing my songs to wider audiences. As a child i was always very musical and i got rid of the programs sold by society as acceptable very early on and i thank myself for that. I’ve always been an artsy kid and not academic. I always knew that there is no connection between professors and occupation and that those who appear to be forms of salvation in society are absolutely unaware that history is not what could be and that those points of reference accepted by society are often living in a misunderstanding of evolution which goes against the universal principle that everyone has a different mind and therefore disconnected from uniqueness.

I did not believed in professors, i did not believed in those figures of control and suppression i just believed in sound and my connection to sound.

Interviewer: Which of your songs holds the most special meaning for you — and why?

Mr. Infinitum bye: Honestly, they are so far apart from one another but i just love the way that they sound even in retrospective, those were stepping stones towards the Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde sound.

And i still remember the exact moment when i created and recorded them.Tracks like Lithe, Born To Build The New World, The Truth Vibrations were door openers towards the Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde sound of the ocean of faster tempo textures that wobbles the barriers of reality to grasp that which is beyond ambient or avant-garde music... Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde wisdom.In terms of the Catharcism's tracks that i included, those are probably the best of the record in terms of actual meaning of the songs.

Interviewer: You recently released an album. Could you tell us more about it?

Mr. Infinitum bye: Catharcism is an album made of songs created from a conglomeration of different styles and genres that i explored experimented and created from with an experimental Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde twist to the structures of the song. It’s the first ever music + lyrics album and it simbolizes the breaking away from the prevailed methodologies of recording and creating music. The album has been recorded in different parts of the globe, in different rooms.

In Catharcism I merged existential themes with abstract, open-ended lyrics that allow for a deeply personal and universal experience for listeners. The album seems to take the listener on a journey through introspection, existential reflection, and a search for meaning in a seemingly chaotic world. The lyrical content, seems designed to evoke a range of emotions and interpretations, making it resonate with individuals in vastly different ways.

Interviewer: What are you currently working on, or planning to work on next?

Mr. Infinitum bye: I’m currently working on a remix record of Catharcism with a Japanese music producer... But i won’t disclose his name yet.

And in the last years i have been writing for my next record, Equilibrium. I’m very proud of the songwriting improvements and how it sounds. Songs are truly incredibly beautiful and brightly experimental. I feel like the record is going to perform even better than Catharcism. The meanings of the songs are very personal and wise.

Interviewer: What potential do you see in the genre or artistic current you are moving within?

Mr. Infinitum bye: The potential i see it’s infinite really, as a pioneer i already see a lot of people in the underground community trying to sound like me. The reality is what i do is so experimental that it is very hard to replicate unless you know all the different plug-ins, synths, pedals that i use and i never disclosed that fully so...

I see further permutations of Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde music being implemented.

I think that with the passing of the years Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde music will grow in its popularity and more and more people will embrace it, even more than ambient music and experimental avant-garde music. Because let’s face that the sounds i generated and will generate are so much more modern and experimental than the genres above, it’s almost unavoidable.

Interviewer: As a musician and songwriter, what is the mission you carry — and why this particular one?

Mr. Infinitum bye: My mission as a composer is to unveil that there is more to Cosmic-Surrealist Avant-garde music that definitly meets the eye, whilst expanding the paradigm of music into the unknown and the uncharted..

As a songwriter my mission is to craft beautiful songs that feel like odisseys of experimental sounds, meeting an open interpretation lyrical abstracted content of universality that feels positive, conscious and uplifting.

This is my mission because this is what i see that the world is missing. And there is a space and i can fill that empty space with some reflective wisdom that uplifts the listener into a different timeline of thought and perception, where things are done differently. 

You know there is more to songwriting than writing love songs. Writing songs about self discovery for me is much more interesting because i mean the time spent on this rock, called planet Earth, twirling around space must be about self discovery.

Interviewer: What single word would you say best represents your songs — and why does that particular word resonate with you?

Mr. Infinitum bye: That one word would probably be «Wisdom.»

Wisdom is everything, it keeps you alive and it keeps you open for more understandings.

 Pictures were provided by Mr. Infinitum bye