To celebrate the winners of this year’s Seed Award, we caught up with all the selected artists and composers for a quick chat.

Here, we speak to Guoda Dirzyte. Guoda (aka Gong Girl) – is a Lithuanian-born experimental musical instrument designer, composer and sound artist currently living in Glasgow.  Her creative practice mainly focuses on sound exploration via experimental musical instrument design and its use for making an original sound composition.

Can you tell us about your musical influences?

It is quite a difficult question to answer since every year I feel like my music influences are changing and growing. However, a few artists have been with me for quite some time, so I think lyrically I look up a lot to Ghostpoet and especially his latest record, I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep. Rhythmical and experimental production-wise, I am a big fan of Fiona Apple and what she achieved with Fetch The Bolt Cutters. For atmospheric and drone-like soundtracks, I think there is hardly anyone better than Ben Frost, and his soundtrack for Netflix hit series Dark and Hildur Guðnadóttir’s soundtrack for Chernobyl and Joker. I look up to  Guðnadóttir a lot, not just because of her immense musicianship, but also since she set a fantastic example of how it is possible to achieve great success as a female in a male dominant industry and still let herself have the freedom to experiment and create deep and immersive soundscapes instead of following Hollywood cliches.   

What are you working on at the moment?

In past years I started to realise how much collaborations mean to me and that it is one of the main things that spark my creativity, so I have quite a few exciting collaboration projects lined up.   

Currently, my production partner, Hungarian singer and songwriter Maja Mihalik are at the production stages with our new Mas Hangok’ EP, which we cannot wait to finish and share with the world, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for it.   I am also composing a score for a beautiful Tablespoon Theater production, Surplus to Requirements, that we hope to release later this year. I am happy to be involved with this talented group of creatives, and since this theatre is still in its early stages, I cannot wait to see how they grow and what they will come up with in the future.