S.U.B. Podcast #42 OGIE (Mk)

 

Ognen Spiroski or known by his DJ alias OGIE. Producer/ DJ one of the members of “01 Crew” that lay the foundation to the drum and bass scene and movements later on in Skopje.  In the period from 1999 to 2003, he has releases on PMG recordings, Third Ear, Margina magazine, DeepLeaf productions and more recently in 2012 on the Filter music label. 

The producer and DJ career was paused for several years, while he was finishing his studies in Bioinformatics.  These past few years he re-established his DJ career and is currently back working on music production – stay tuned. 

 

SUB:  I have noticed in the past couple of years, after several years of pausing, you managed to restart your DJ as well producing career. 

How do you feel about it, have you fulfilled a part of you that has been missing, are you happy about it?

Thanks for keeping the interest – I believe it was you who called me to play a DJ set in Kapan An for the first time. I feel positively flabbergasted as it has been both an internal and an external calling which is marvelous. The local (drum &) bass scene pulled me firmly back to DJing and it was humbling to see people show continuing support & love – we grow together in many ways.

 

The recent production has me shifting many musical gears and exploring various different terrains, which results in a slow release schedule, but immense musical exploration which is what I've been missing, so I am really enjoying it. Luckily, a lot of things have piled up over the last couple of years, so I expect a number of releases by early 2014. Most of them collaborations and on various labels.

SUB: You are a part of the foundation to the drum and bass scene in Macedonia. Especially after the first residential dnb night in the club called “Rachki & Tapani”. Also you were one of the first young Macedonian producers that have signed for the legendary Kanal103/PMG rec. album called Class of mACIDonia 1999. 

Can you share any moments that had fulfilled you at that time?

I believe the most fulfilling moments I've had with people sharing their experience to listening to my music and the meanings & associations it evoked. It was also immensely gratifying meeting a lot of the musical luminaries of the local underground at the time, as well as being in touch with the newly developing electronic music scene, some of those friendships last to this day. 

On the other hand, I loved taking my time with messing with samples & sound at a very granular level and developed numerous beat tweaking & programming techniques, particularly due to the limitation of my first software platforms – something which has proven very useful in shaping a bottom-up understanding of sound design which I love.

  

SUB: As we said you have released for PMG recordings, Third Ear, Margina magazine and since you have restarted your career you have signed for FILTER label. 

Have you started working fully on creating music, or it just happens from time to time. Do you plan any new releases in the near future?

Not exactly fully, but with more devotion and with more people / projects. I expect a number of releases in the next couple of months, particularly collaboration work. As a member of the duo “VO Element”, we will release the first single on Juan's Kitchen Delights Recordings and we're expecting remixes and video material for that release. Other collaboration & remix work will soon follow on local labels, including PMG Recordings & BTKRSH Music, a new label we're launching with the BTKRSH crew.

SUB:  What is your view point on “6 second drumloop” theory about the amen break.

Do you think there is something more than just beats and bleeps in this music?

Yes, there is massive sub-bass and soul ;)

I like the idea that music and sound is up for grabs. Whole culture is up for grabs in the modern age of the mash-up. Even before this term was coined I was in love with the concept of bricolage, which I think is quite a hip-hop friendly concept. I believe modern dance music earned it primarily hip-hop culture, which electronic artists took it to new heights. So, I believe anyone can make new uses of old things and be really respectful doing it, too.

Sub: Why do you love DNB music?

I guess because it just pierced through to my youthful sense of aesthetics at the time. It was obviously synthetic & futuristic with the sped-up & reprogrammed drum samples and the bass wobbles, while on the other hand it retained a kind of organic quality – primarily thanks to being sample based, I believe. It also had the strongest ties with the early rave culture & music, associations with ware-house parties, raves in fields with massive sound-systems. Maybe more importantly at the time, the drum patterns were so broken beat which I preferred to the straight four-to-the-floor dance loop, as breaking patterns was my thing.

 

SUB:  This past few years drum and bass has gone through a lot of changes. Last one is the cross style between various bass sub genres and the new minimalistic jungle / drum and bass sound.  What do you love about this new music styles?

I love cross-pollination of musical genres and multi-disciplinary approaches all around. I really like how people have started to use syncopation smartly by programming non-obvious rhythm elements together. The 808 has has a resurgence, particularly in footwork and it is a sound I love, especially densely programmed. Slowfast has been really doing me in, it reminds me of a lot of the stuff I was doing 10 years ago. I love loads of bits about'em ;)

SUB:  Except the dnb residential nights in Kapan An, where can people hear your set in Skopje?

This season I've been holding a semi-regular, mostly chilled-out musical marathon titled “Flavour Savour” in Kamarite, which is a bar in Debar Maalo, Skopje. Most of the sets have been recorded and can be listened to online:

http://www.mixcloud.com/ogie/playlists/flavour-savour-kamarite-skopje-macedonia/

  

On behalf of SKOPJE URBAN BEATS thank you for the interview :)

Објавениве материјалите се наменети за промотивни цели и лична употреба. © 2013 Авторот ги задржува сите права и секое неовластено објавување и препечатување на материјалите ќе се смета како повреда на авторските права на авторот и повлекува консеквенци за прекршителот.

MIGHTY MELODY INTERVIEW FOR SKOPJE URBAN BEATS

Miss Mighty Melody female dj, producer and a promoter coming from Dresden, currently stationed in Berlin (Germany). Passed 11 years she was working on her own production, and promoting parties through various groups all over Germany.  Last few years has been touring North America alongside Dj K. Had a few official releases for Dub Chamber Records. This Saturday (16.11.2013) you can see her perform at Kapan An, together with our own jungle squad combined by:  Ogie, Mogli and Blaris. This Jungle Party is brought by MJM in line with Beats Bazar Sessions.

SUB : As reading your bio, I got the feeling you have explored reggae sound and somehow ended up doing jungle music. Please tell us your story.  What got you into playing music?  Your own thoughts about experiencing Jungle sound, and what has pushed you into integrating yourself into the scene/movements?

I actually started with music around 1997 as I learned to play guitar a bit… not sure why, but I was sort of searching for something I can express myself with. A year later I got into Hip Hop more and more, started writing lyrics, got more involved in this whole HipHop movement what brought me together with different DJs, MCs, Breakdancers, Graffity Artists and so on. It was amazing time! After a couple of years, this scene turned more serious, business- and gangsterlike… I couldn't see myself any longer being a part of that, so I stopped and  went more to reggae already anyway. Loved the vibes, this positivity and power it had. One day I just felt, I would love to hear only my favorite tunes, so I got into buying 7inch reggae vinyl. On reggae parties I all at the sudden heard one or two certain tunes over and over, DJs would drop them at the peak time and I fell in love with them immediately. How I found out later, these were actually the oldskool jungle hits ‘Original Nuttah’ by UK Apache and ‘Incredible’ by General Levy. One day I got to know D.I.S. and I found out that there is actually a Ragga Jungle scene in the world and it blew me away. From this moment on I started digging for Jungle vinyl a lot. Since I also felt like playing Jungle now, I recognized that it doesn't always fit on Reggae parties where I was playing and that there is no real audience for it in my hometown, at least non I could see. Some friends and me decided then, we need show Dresden what they are actually missing by not really noticing Ragga Jungle lol. In 2005 we put all our love into it and started booking all our favorite Jungle Producers and DJs. As two years later this party series called ‘La fête de jungle’ got bigger than our club capacity was able to handle, we had to move to a bigger venue. We changed the party name into ‘Blackboard Massive’ because grew and were doing two floors now, raggajungle and reggae. After two three years our club closed, it took us till 2011 to find a new venue. It’s a smaller one and not massive (big) anymore, that’s why we adjusted the name of the party series to ‘Blackboard Jungle’. And I guess since our crew name Séance de Danse wasn't so easy to remember but Blackboard Massive or Jungle much better, people started calling us the Blackboard Jungle crew. We also grew over the years a bit and now have 6 members:  Dennis Franchise, DJ Phonic, Joe Slow, Eddy Grenade and Lad Lia & me.

I don’t actually know why it was working so well in Dresden, I guess it was just the right timing and people appreciate it when you kind of personalize/ individualize a party by drawing graphics for flyers, building nice decoration elements, using visualization sometimes, having some little give-always regularly like glow sticks, sparkling lights, whistles, CD's etc. The most I liked about the Jungle scene was that it seemed so tolerant, open minded and positive. And Ragga Jungle is just perfect for dancing, maybe even a bit more than Reggae/ Dancehall because it’s more versatile and includes those Reggae breaks anyway. I actually could write pages to answer this question proper…

SUB: As I can see you have a large selection of dubplates. What are your own favorite dubplates?

I guess my most favorite dubplates right now are my remix of Lady N’s ‘No War’ and my Warrior King Special of ‘Melody’.

SUB: You have few releases for Dub Chamber Recordings in these past few years. How is that collaboration going, do you plan any new releases? 

There are definitely lots of ideas and options, also for other collaborations. Since I had to take a break for a year and just got started now again but not finished yet... Don’t wanna ruin the surprise, so no details for now…

SUB: You are a member in different promoter groups as: Séance de Dance, Blackboard Jungle, Ulan Bator, Dub der guten Hoffnung.

There is a point when a person who does djing or producing chooses to be a promoter. However not just anyone intends to get involved in this responsibilities since they are a lot of headaches. As I can see from your bio, you have chosen to push and promote your point of view of this music, from the very start of your career, firstly into your home town, and later on in rest of Germany.

Only the true junglists are involving themselves into spreading the love, vibes and the message of this music, by becoming a part of it. When did you realize (if you realized) that you are one with the scene, and is it really worth the effort?

That’s a difficult question. There are different memories coming up. I realized it the first time I guess as we reached capacity with our parties in our first club after 2 years.

Second: At the same time we recognized people all at the sudden were using the name ‘Jungle’ much more then ever before (just my own perception) and new young Jungle DJs popped up. At the beginning often people came to me and said: That’s nice DnB you are playing and I really felt forced telling them it’s not DnB but Jungle.

Third: Some people I knew from the reggae scene didn’t like Jungle at the beginning at all and said I should stick with playing Reggae, but after 2-3 years they came to our parties and danced like crazy. Awesome to see this change.

But it feels worth it the most when your guests just have a big smile on their face, giving you awesome feedback and telling you things like: ‘Being at your party is always like holiday for me.’ Or: ‘I never missed on of your parties all those years and collected all those beautiful flyers.’ All those comments are more then worth it because you know you enriched somebody’s life and made it a bit brighter. 

SUB: Why do you love DNB (in your case) JUNGLE?

Words can’t express feelings good enough… can you explain love? It just hits you, blows you away and makes you feel like being on a higher level. I could say now, I love the amen break and the vocals and stuff but that wouldn't be the whole truth…  it’s just like being on the same wave-length or having found a soul mate.

SUB: Many of the people involved into the JDNB scene, either live a double life (working from 9 to 17, then travel and party), or just happened to have the time of their life by doing what they want.

Where do you belong? Are you satisfied with the current state of your life?

I’m definitely feeling pretty good right now with my 9 to 5 job. I’m working on a freelance basis as a project management assistant for the classical music sector of the world music label piranha which is based in Berlin. And on weekends I regularly travel and play shows and keep working on music. Both is really fulfilling me right now and seems to be in a good balance, even when I wish to have more time for music sometimes.

SUB: Most favorite DNB tracks?

There are way too many to list but right now I love the following onces a lot:

Collosus – Compare Beyond

Rudimental feat Ella Eyre – Waiting All Night

Dope Ammo feat Yemi Bolatiwa – Feel the Desire

Tuggawar – Bun It Up (ft Freedo)

Dijeyow & Ricky Tuff – Touch Di Target

BONES  feat Freddie McGregor – Born A Winner

SUB: Have you ever heard of Macedonia?

It’s funny that you ask that. Because Zana wrote me approximately 4 years ago and asked me for my booking details… I have to admit that back then I had to look up where Macedonia is on the map lol. 

SUB: Anything to add?

Peace. Love. Unity. Respect!

Thank you on behalf of SKOPJE URBAN BEATS and hope you smash the place on Saturday. (Bring lots of AMEN, LOTS!)

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S.U.B. Podcast #36 BOJ LUCKI (SWE)

Please introduce yourself to SUB audience.

- Im Bojan Lukic aka Boj Lucki, part of Mir Crew. Born and raised in Sarajevo, Bosnia (former Yugoslavia) and Mexico. I moved to Stockholm / Sweden when i was a little boy in 92 as a refugee during the civil war. Drum n Bass / Jungle DJ, promoter, producer and label owner.

How did you start playing drum and bass?

- When I first started to DJ I was into Speed Garage, older House, Hip Hop and Reggae / Dancehall. I was at the same time listening to some Jungle. After just a year I switched to play mostly Dnb/Jungle as I felt it was the most fun genre to mix and loved more and more tracks that came out. I was influenced to start DJ-ing by my older brother Toni Bassi (Mir Crew) as he was involved in a DJ crew and he bought gear home so I could try to mix at home.

Tell us about the current state of drum and bass scene in Sweden.

- It is quite solid. There are at least 8-9 clubs / crews organizing events every month or every second mostly in the biggest cities Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. The crews in Stockholm are helping each other out and it’s a good vibe between the cities too. 

There are both small events and big events where international DJs get booked. It is still an underground music as it doesn't get too much attention on national radio, TV and magazines but the following is strong, especially if you do good promotion. More and more clubs and key figures in club scene are getting open minded about Dnb which is good. But in Stockholm the music scene is very much dependent of trends and it’s almost dangerous to become too hyped up as most hyped up trends die after just 12-18 months.

Our own night Rekyl is getting back on regular basis in different venues after a few years with just summer events. We are part of the award winning Daytime Sessions at Trädgården Stockholm, and happy to had the opportunity too book some of our favorite DJS to the events such as Goldie, High Contrast, Breakage, Redlight, LTJ Bukem to name a few.



What was the point when you realized that you have already made yourself a name in the drum and bass world?

- Think it was when a few of my Dub Fi Dub mixes got over 10 000 downloads each on our old Rekyl site and I started to get bookings in different countries around Europe.


Last release by MIR CREW was 2011, are there any new releases coming up this year?

- Yes we had a little break but are back now with new strength new ideas and new distribution. Earlier this year we released our track Step Back. Now in October and November we are releasing Unity EP which is consists of other styles, Moombathon, slow Techno / House including Remixes by Disgraceland and finally the Intercom release with vocalist Million Stylez, David Boomah and Diegojah featured is out early in November. That is followed by a Zouk Bass release by Geekboy & Kreecha.


Mir Crew is known by collaboration with different artist… any new collaboration?

- Yes we are doing remixes for Benny Page, Mr Williamz and General Levy, also we are starting up some brand new collaborations but it’s a bit early to reveal.

Under Mir Records a tune made by the artist 0=0 – you are my angel, was suppose to be released this year. Till this date this track is still not released. After a while i came to epiphany that this track does not deserve to be released. It should remain a dubplate, with it; the track won’t lose its significances, since it’s a dubplate for more than 10 years. Your thoughts about this track?

- I love this track so much and got a special relationship to it since it’s made by my good friend Jason, 0=0 and I have been trying to make him finish it for a very long time. Now we got the masters and just waiting for the flip to be done and then we got the release going. Artwork is done and all so just waiting at the moment. Hopefully it will be soon. I don’t really agree it should remain as a dubplate as we want more and more people to be able to hear this masterpiece. But understand that some feel that way.



What is the ideology of MIR?

- Don’t think we have any deeper ideology it’s a platform to release our own music, just do what feels good at the moment without seeing barriers or problems. We try to pick up different types of music and hopefully we will once all is rolling again to release more new artists and producers we love. We are trying to reach a wider crowd as we are a real small label atm. That’s step one atm.


You and your crew are following different types of music styles. What is the newest sound that inspires you all?

- Get inspiration from all over, it can be all from hearing a kool track on radio to being in a club and seeing the reaction a track gets. We listen to a lot of other music, Toni Bassi gets the opportunity to get hold of and hear loads of world music since he is involved in his Ajvar radio program and brings lot of good samples to our studio, I listen to a lot of Reggae, Dancehall, Garage and off course Dnb / Jungle. I often come with ideas on what vocalists to work with and collabs, rarely do any of the engineering when we work together as the others are much better at it. Ljudas is really good at pick up ideas from feelings at gigs and when we speak about what we would like to do he is good in putting it into a whole. He is the master of mastering!



We had a chance to see the whole MIR CREW in Macedonian Clubs. How did you like the crowd and the vibes of the Macedonian dnb scene?

- The vibe has been amazing, we have had the pleasure to play in our opinion, one of the friendliest but at the same time wildest crowds in Europe even if it’s not the biggest events. Love when people know the tracks played and just relax and feel the vibe and have a good time together. I’m glad I am coming back next week.



Your most favorite jungle/drum and bass track?

- That’s a tough one. Here are three that I never get tired of and often play in my sets as teasers or double drops: Calibre & High Contrast – Mr Majestic, Origin Unknown – Valley of the shadows, Logistics – Together


Why do you love Dnb?

- I have been thinking about that a lot recently, think it’s the energy in Drum n Bass that seductive. Not many other genres get that going. Also the diversity once u feel the flow of the bests almost all music styles can be used and blended nicely, from jazz, classical to house, disco, techno to reggae and hiphop. That makes it unique.

Words of wisdom?

- An huge cliché but try to see life in a positive way don’t waste your energy on stupid things and let nonsense annoy you. Music wise if you are a new DJ/producer must be to dare to try what you want to do, ask people for help, ask for bookings, ask for combos, better to ask and get a no than to not have tried. Concentrate on your stuff and spread it more that to tell others what is right / wrong and see solutions instead of problems. Sky is the limit!!

Објавениве материјалите се наменети за промотивни цели и лична употреба. © 2013 Авторот ги задржува сите права и секое неовластено објавување и препечатување на материјалите ќе се смета како повреда на авторските права на авторот и повлекува консеквенци за прекршителот.