Previously unknown to us until we received some banger DJ kicks from him, Lithuania’s 26 year-old Mantas Stonkus aka Marriage Proposal is responsible for our 29th Astrocast. With a strong background in house and techno, it isn’t surprising that this mix is filled primarily with heavy-hitting club tracks that demand a big, bassy system in order to be properly enjoyed. In light of our cancelled November 2nd show scheduled at FREECANDY, please take this as a consolation mix of things you may have heard that night. In order to make it a bit more realistic, may we suggest that you find some cold beers, surround yourself with beautiful people, and turn the volume to 11. Find out more about Marriage Proposal and what goes on in his brain below.

Interview

1. Who is Marriage Proposal? And who is the proposal for? Are you getting married?

“I ask you to pass through life at my side, to be my second self, and best earthly companion.”

- Charlotte Bronte

With music it’s the same thing. I wanted to propose to people’s minds and hearts, I want people to be my music companions - I want to take a walk side by side with them. I know that music has a lot of ego, but without “others”, there’s no point of doing it ;]. But to get away from a philosophy side - it’s just me, Mantas Stonkus - born and raised in a small town called Gargzdai.

2. What is the music scene like in Lithuania? Our last astrocast was from Mik Mo in Russia - are there any musical connections or otherwise that you’re aware of between Lithuania and Russia?

To be honest, a couple of years ago I was away from any club thing, didn’t go to any events. I was tired of the Lithuanian music scene, tired from any native producer’s works, bored of it. Now it’s getting better everyday. It’s strange, but nights are more shiny now than days (if we’re talking about everything that includes Lithuanian events). Someone even called Vilnius Eastern Berlin ;]. I can’t say anything about the Russian scene or compare it with ours - to me, they’re just neighbours, and I’m sure they got a lot of great places to dance shit out of them. And I hope there will be no DJs/producers who get in jail because of their free expression, like Pussy Riot did.

3. You’ve had some involvement with one of our favorite independent labels Mondayjazz, who have been doing their thing for a long time now. Can you expand a bit upon how you came in contact with them, as well as what you’ve released/planned to release with them?

Yeah, and since then my career has accelerated into one wild journey. They’re good, funny guys, helped me a lot. I did some tracks and posted onto my soundcloud, one of them contacted me and asked me if I want to release something on their new label, which they started couple of month ago (and it’s not independent anymore). Their first release was a compilation called “Workers #1“, which included my track called “Kiss Me” and a bunch of other best Lithuanian’s workers and a couple foreigners too. I’m planning to release my first EP with them, its almost done. There will be more news in December/January ;].

4. A lot of your tracks are very rhythmic and DJ-friendly - is there a philosophy behind this? Are you a DJ first or a producer first?

First, i was doing more home listening stuff, but when I started to DJ or play semi-live sets more, my sound evolved into more rhythmic and more bassy constructions, it’s natural I guess, when you’re playin in clubs, bigger soundsystems, you want to knock yourself out, you want to get your guts splashed into peaces, and when you’re making music, you start to think more how it will sound in a club. Marriage Proposal is getting less romantic ;]].

5. Who is this Zoé Zoe character and what is his connection Marriage Proposal?

In the beginning of my involvement in electronic music, I was in a project called M&D Substance. We were making more 4×4 stuff, i guess it’s still in my veins, so i decided to make another alter ego for my stuff which can’t fit into the Marriage Proposal window. And out of my expectations, i got a 12″ release of the first Zoé Zoe EP called “Church” on Sneaker Social Club, title track even got included into Maya Jane Coles DJ Kicks mix cd! It was a dream come true to me. now i’m in a process of makeing another 12″ EP, so far as i can tell ;].

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