Some weeks ago i did write Synthwave Sunday #2 on Unmute and i did cover Borgie and his new EP “Kosmostrator On Venus”.
So, we did get a chance for a interview with Borgie himself!
So when did you start DJing & producing music and what made you start DJing/ producing music?
In the late 90s it was very wide open space when i throwback into that time. Years after the war here on Balkans it was very intense time for promotors, DJs and Producers. Parties where very straight forward and very underground. There was no fake image, just love, crowd bouncing and solid drugs.
That period made me reveal what i wanted to do in the years to come.
As i worked on the local leftfield radio station we did play a lot of solid music,promoting venues and local regional artists who played at that time.
It was natural to buy some CDJs and 2-channel hiphop mixer and to play straight a head full on techno.
All that positive vibe and music that i missed to hear during the wartime (1992/1996) made me first of all a Dj and then in late 2003 after i meet founders of first (very few on Balkans) Bosnian net label Oscilator and a producer.
How was life in Sarajevo when you were first starting?
Ironically, but nothing much is better than these days when we speak about life.
When we speak about music venues i remember in that time, i was very happy to
travel and to explore new people and destinations without pressing about credit card limitations, money in your pocket and mainstream people with fake ideology.
For sure that period from 1996 till 2003 was the peaktime for music and creating music.
I remember that a lot of crews came from Europe to organize parties and to be involved in a lot of domestic organisations, festivals and promotions.
Several festivals came out, hundreds and hundreds of parties with various types and range of music was implemented.
Ben Klock played here as a German hero when no one even knew him outside Germany, or Fuse residents from Bruxelles who played here regulary.
All Detroit heroes except i think Juan Atkins, came here to see through their own eyes of the party people who were hungry like it was once in a lifetime party.
The scene was growing every weekend and on several locations and there was pretty great parties + afterparties. Every cluber in the world wanted to be here with us,if they did see us from that positive progressive thinking, what i remember from that exact period of time.
You have released music since 2005 how would you describe your musical development since 2005 until today?
I was unprepared to that question so i needed to go on Discogs (Borgie) to remember.
Few years before 2005 i meet Andrej & Ensar, the founders of Oscilator, we started to create our parties and playing our music which we did release.
All of them are very talented bunch of people which got positive feedback and it was natural to get along with analog machines and digital as well.
At the start there was a lot of sampling incorporated with raw Techno and first few releases came under that influence.
Later everyone was playing Techno so i move forward to explore my old love, Electro.
Ive been always under the influence of 80s synth pop, dance and rave scene so i imagined how with that exact colors which was was used by Yazzo to create something today, in modern arrangements of course.
Who / what were some of your inspirations as a DJ and as an producer?
Life is generally my inspiration, As a producer, i always wanted to get along with how people manipulate with hardware and software and that is also a great inspiration.
Even today, there is somewhere some kid who brings new idea in creating sounds trough machine analog or digital, it doesn’t matter.
As a Dj, I’m a storyteller, so pitching tracks with no particular order and just playing them doesn’t mean anything to me, never.
It doesnt matter, which is your output if it is the most highest ranking Dj tools, players, turntables or controller, as long as you manage to control and create something new from that particular mixing its a winning process.
That is why very few people can do it like that and others just hype it so everyone thinks they are masters of the game but they are just good marketing masters and PR monsters…
Its very important to distinguish all that pop shitty manners witch are developed in electronic music generally so, you have on one hand real artists who live that particular sound and others who have video promotions, huge bookings, even they buying their own stuff on digital music stores, Its disgusting!
You are A&R of Adriatiko Recordings and Psihometron . Tell us about your work?
Yes, in April of 2008 under the pressure of my regional friends producers and their kilometres of tracks and releases i started Adriatiko. Its a little bit of a roundtrip label because unlike other modern labels who releases artists from every country and continent in the world, with Adriatiko we only promote regional musicians.
It ranges from Techno, Electro, Disco to Italo, Darkwave & Emo stuff and its been very hard to be in the spotlight if you don’t have anything to start with.
Up until now, we have published 75 releases and inside, you have LPs ,EPs, compilations and solo material from me and my crew.
Right now Adriatiko is in hibernation so its means that for some time we will not be releasing material but Psihometron does! Psihometron is a sub label to Adriatiko and it grows every day.
It is a platform for more Experimental, Drone, Ambient but also we push straight forward to future upcoming Techno concept.
Until now, we have seven releases and I’m very proud of my crew who made it. Wide range of production is presented and the worse is still to come heheh.
So, tell us something about the new EP “Kosmostrator On Venus”, how would you describe the sound of it and the story behind it?
The releases from Adriatiko has put us together because same producers did play somewhere in Europe and chiefs of Electronic Emergencies label approached me and we exchanged our promo materials and everything else is history.
I adore and love Aad & Erik who running things and we became very good friends.
After our label night which we played in Holland at club BAR ,i gave them my usb with new 4 tracks. Unlike the first release on EE ,with this new EP i wanted to bring some
forgotten Italo moments with tracks “Laranossa” and specially “Danza Obscura” which have visuals also together with solid Electro on Remap The Routine and little bit darker house momentum on “Absence Is A Bless” .
The crazy thing about the name of this vinyl came from the ultra trash spaceship movies created in late 70s and mid 80s witch we saw one night in Rotterdam.
In one moment in that movie some idiotic actor came with conclusion that they forgot some gun/ phazer called “Kosmostrator” on the planet Venus, and it made us laugh so i tell to them, ok i want to give that name of my EP like those fools just said.
After that we concluded that that name is going to be final, without laughing.
What gear do you use when DJing / Producing music?
In past millennium i used to buy and sell a lot of drum machines, keyboards and synths and then i moved my studio to smaller space so i didn’t have so much space to where to store them.
I did sell all of them and some few years i only used my Mac and M Audio Ozonic 37keyoboard which is very handfull machine because it has a solid audio card inside besides programming
sections and knob arp manipulations.
I have also Akai lpk25 and Korg Nanokontrol 2 but i connect them only for purpose in mix down or when i got trapped by some frequency.
From the start I’m a Propellerhead Reason freak , so till now i use this DAW and its been a big inspiration to me.
With my friends i also see what VSTs are doing but its a ocean and i can’t handle so much cables and machines, Sometimes less equipment is more better actually…
When i DJing i use only Pioneer cdjs, doesn’t matter what model and which mixer with effects if it has it and i still play from CDs not usb, because i think its not the same quality
on the output even if it looks like it, its not!
How is the electronic music scene in Sarajevo and the future of the scene?
Like everywhere else where are so called democracy that came after totalitarian regimes.
Its all about money, so the parties are spinning around the money and the crowd has also changed.
Recently my friends played on some private parties and that is very positive because without a little spaces and selected crowd there is no big shots.
Mostly mainstream Djs are being booked with very few gigs with non mainstream artists.
I got involved to organise a promo party in here for my friend who is doing great job in
Croatia that has a solid Techno festival that grows every year, Moondance festival came here so we have had German Oliver Deutschmann as a guest and it was really something good from the first minute to the last hour of the party.
There is very talented producers around here that works really hard and recently they got attention with their material and i am so happy for them.. They keep reminding me that the
future coming talents are bringing something new even on the global scene.
So,what are your plans for the future? any new releases on its way? Any gigs in Europe?
We just came out with new release on Psihometron and the release is called Konj that was produced by unknown artists who call themselves Prostorija Za Otpad.
They have made very interesting Techno and if there is any justice in world they will be big shots.
I will also release my two tracker called Termodinamika EP with some hammering tracks and till then you can enjoy yourself with Adriatiko Podcasts Series and recent is mine
I have some plans for spring and north/ northwest parts of Europe but unfortunately i don’t have time due my personal issues and actuall working shifts.
Thank you for sharing your time with us at Unmute Blog
Rave on!