RMNSKI On the Making Of “Trepidation”
What was the initial spark or idea that led to the creation of “Trepidation?"
The original intro riff came about when I was just noodling around on the guitar with my friend Omar Mansur. We were just playing around with some random ideas and trying to see what sticks. After a few weeks, I went back to what we had recorded and just started playing around again and came up with the initial intro riff. From there, the song sort of took on a life of its own. I came up with a general structure and the main verse and chorus. I sent a really rough demo to my friend Hamad Ebrahim (known by his artist name 7MND), and asked if he wanted to work on the song together. After a few weeks, he sent me some vocal melodies he’d done and a really cool chorus lead. It really made the song take a really cool new direction, so I was pretty pumped to get it finished.
Unfortunately, Hamad couldn’t continue working on the song so I started asking around to see who wanted to get involved. Scott showed up to do the vocals, Ryann jumped in for drums and then it all came together. The song actually took a while to finish, as the process was riddled with challenges. I actually thought the track was cursed at one point. Scott ended up having some health issues which delayed his vocal recording, Ryan ended up fracturing his wrist, so the drums had to wait. But in the end we got it done.
Can you describe the emotions or feelings you hope "Trepidation" evokes in listeners?
During the writing process me and Hamad spoke a bit about the state of the world, the wars happening all over, a sense of authoritarianism rising up, and how people all across the world are angry and that anger bubbles up until it overflows. That’s kind of the vibe of the song, it has some beautiful vocal harmonies and melodies, but also alot of anger and rage.
I wanted to reflect people’s anger and frustration but at the same time have a sense of energy that things can be changed.
What did enjoy most about making “Trepidation?"
The global collaboration with a great bunch of artists and musicians. I started releasing music properly in 2025 and in the past few months have met so many cool people on discord, online, in person. Releasing Trepidation was really a collaborative effort with some of those people. I wrote the music and lyrics with a friend I made on Instagram, Hamad Ebrahim, a really talented producer and metal musician. The vocals were sung by Scott Miller in South Africa. Drums were recorded by Ryan Thieke in New York. The mix was done by Sasha Bowers, one of the first people I met when I started to release songs. He’s been a really strong influence and is immensely talented. Mastering was done by Arran Dutt, in the UK, also an amazing guy to work with.
These days, it’s become so easy to collaborate with musicians around the world, especially when you're independent and on a tight budget. So really having so many great people from all around the world come together and be part of making this song has really been a highlight.
Can you tell us more about you as a band?
So RMSNKI is a solo project, but I frequently collaborate with various musicians. Usually each track will have a guest vocalist, other instruments might be done by me or others, depending on the track. For “Red Falcon,” one of my previous releases, Aaron Wadia, whose based in the UAE, did the vocals. I have an upcoming release with Abzyi, an amazing musician from Kuwait, and a couple more.
I’ll usually write the demos and then reach out to people I know or have met to see if they’d like to be part of the song, could be to do the bass, drums, vocals. Then things come together that way.
What role do you feel emotions play in your music, and how do you channel them into your performances?
I like to do a lot of layering in my songs to create an emotional atmosphere. I’ve always loved this about bands like Deftones, there is so much depth to their songs. If you listen to alot of their riffs they’re relatively simple and straightforward but when they layer everything together it sounds huge and epic. So I try to do that in my songs to build an emotional vibe, whether that’s anger, sadness, hope.
From a personal side, I’ve thought writing music is very cathartic for me. I can be a little closed off about my emotions and feelings, even though I’m quite sensitive, so playing and writing music lets me feel like my emotional burden gets relieved somehow. My dad actually passed away about a year ago, and it was definitely a really tough experience to go through. He played piano as a hobby and although he was very talented he never really got to do much with it due to just work and life getting in the way I guess. He was always super supportive of me playing guitar, from a young age, as was my mother. So after he passed I felt releasing music was sort of a way to honor him never really getting to explore his musical passions and made me feel like it’s something I can leave behind.
