Flame

Tell us how you first discovered drum and bass music?

I first heard drum and bass on the long-defunct St. Petersburg FM station Port FM, sometime around 1996. More precisely, it was actually jungle or artcore—as early intelligent was called back then. The music immediately caught my interest. At that time I was generally into all kinds of heavy guitar music, but I was gradually starting to explore new genres. Jungle came at just the right time, since I was already listening extensively to The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy. Then there was Radio Record with its “Syndicate” program, and then... one thing led to another. In fact, the first jungle recording I ever bought was a K.Fear cassette—DJ Kefir’s project, as far as I understand—called Bio-Cola.

And besides drum and bass, what are you listening to these days?

I try not to limit myself to a single genre; I listen to anything that is well made or simply has artistic value for me—from classic funk and reggae to death metal and hip-hop. One of my favourite artists of all time is Jamiroquai. I heard that Jay Kay has shut down the project; that’s a shame. In principle, drum and bass still occupies most of my life while I’m actively involved in it. One way or another, I have to listen through tons of tracks sent by other producers and choose what to keep for playing at a party. I usually choose the most straightforward, dancefloor-oriented and memorable tracks.

You said you listened to heavy guitar music—did you ever want to play in a band?

To be honest, I really did play in a band. I played drums and recorded the bass-guitar part. The band was called Welzewul and tried to play black metal. That was before the crisis, in 1998.

Do you remember the first party where you played?

Of course I do! It was at the beginning of 2002, at the Pyatnitsa club. The party was called Shake your Body and was organised by the Respect family. We were performing as the Skyform project at the time. Shortly before that, through my fellow student Pasha from 3`0`3 project, we passed our demo disc to Kostya Gvozd. He liked it and invited us to perform. Naturally, we were first in the lineup and played to an almost empty room. But we were still as nervous as a schoolgirl taking her final exam.

Speaking of Skyform, what’s happening with the project now, by the way? As I remember, it was very popular at the time.

The Skyform project is frozen indefinitely because everyone is busy with their own personal ambitions and projects. As many people know, I started writing solo tracks in parallel with the project about five years ago. I’m still doing it, and I hope it hasn’t been in vain. Sergey SaRGe has become an increasingly sought-after DJ lately; he tours frequently and works as a promoter in St. Petersburg and Moscow. I’m very happy for him. He plays very positive music—liquid funk, soulful and related styles. As for Kest, despite writing the lion’s share of the project’s tracks, as far as I know he has now stepped back from music somewhat and is working in cinema.

All right, let’s move away from music for a moment. Tell us a little about yourself: where you grew up, what your interests were then and what they are now.

Well, I was born and raised in Leningrad–St. Petersburg. I went to kindergarten for only three days because I hit someone with a toy KamAZ truck. Other children annoyed me back then. Later I became a very cultured boy, studied at a Spanish gymnasium, then at another gymnasium, and after that entered an institute to study sound engineering, but never graduated. I started working, mainly in journalism. It’s the easiest field of activity for me. I don’t suffer from graphomania, but writing—especially about business—comes very easily to me. An article of mine even appeared in Kommersant once. Apart from that, I’m not really good at doing anything, except writing music on a computer and DJing rather mediocrely.

Could you tell us more about the KamAZ truck? :)

Well, you know, when they announce something like, “Children, play!”, everyone rushes for the toys. There were these little wooden dump trucks, and everyone was rolling them around hysterically. Meanwhile, I was trying to read a book by Nikolai Nosov.

A funny story. So why didn’t you finish the institute?

There’s no story more tragic in all the world, so let’s not talk about it?)

Okay, okay. Are you working now?

Yes, in the tourism business.

And how are things on the personal front?

On the personal front, the prolonged period of calm after my divorce has ended. I’ve finally found a good woman. I don’t want to jinx it, but everything is wonderful between us. Because of that, I somehow have even less time for music.

I’m happy for you! All right, let’s get back to music. Do you write anything besides drum and bass?

At the moment I’m not writing because of a lack of time. But in principle I’ve tried my hand at various electronic genres, from electro to trip-hop.

What do you use to make music?

Now I write everything in FL Studio 7. It’s an excellent sequencer, whatever the detractors may say. Even Spor writes with this program. The important thing is not what you use, but HOW. In the past, though, I actively used ACID Pro for mixing tracks. Now, with the latest version, “the fruit” has become fully functionally self-sufficient. I actually started with some ancient version of Cakewalk—the prototype of Sonar—writing on MIDI banks and using hardware effects processors, because software emulations still fell far short in terms of the depth of signal processing and overall quality.

There’s a question I’m very interested in. Which Russian drum and bass producers would you single out, and why? Who would you like to collaborate with?

Over the past couple of years, Russian producers have grown considerably in quality and in the standard of their releases. Take, for example, Andrey ESS—the “luminary of Russian drum and bass.” I say it ironically, but it’s true. Soon, the same can confidently be said of Proket. The Apocrypha EP, due out on Offkey, will overturn people’s understanding of the drum and bass underground. NPhonix also deserves mention: he broke through last year with an excellent release on Full Force. After that, he had a track released on Fokuz. As far as I know, he currently has releases in preparation on DSCI4 and M-Atome. The St. Petersburg producer Implex also periodically delights us with good releases. Among the new generation, I would again single out the St. Petersburg producer Enei; he already has a track signed to Fokuz. Walder and Megadrummer are also quite good, as is the Tenebra project—and myself, personally)). I could easily have forgotten someone, so don’t take offence. More than anyone, I’d like to work with NPhonix. I really like his approach to music. I think anything is possible; we just haven’t had a chance to discuss it yet.

Tell us more about the Tenebra project. I know the project was put on hold for a while, but it started up again not so long ago. How did the idea of joining forces with Lex come about?

At some point in 2002, we tried writing a track together. We posted it on the DSCI4 forum. It received fairly good feedback, and we continued working together from time to time. There was no unified name then; we posted tracks online under the names Flame & Kebu. Later, Alyosha decided to rename himself Cyrax. A number of tracks came out on CD under that name, including a remix of the classic neurofunk opus Diss.ident – Monumental. Later still, it turned out that a drum and bass producer in the Netherlands was using the same alias, so Alexey had to change his name again. That was when I suggested that we join forces for a qualitatively new project, called him Lex, and named the project Tenebra. The break in activity was caused by my civil marriage and the resulting lack of time. For all intents and purposes, the Tenebra project has existed since January 2005. The earlier tracks are even indexed in databases such as discogs.com as Flame & Cyrax.

What does the word Tenebra mean? And who called you Flame, and why?

It was Lex who called me Flame, so we exchanged “services.” When I wrote a couple of my first neurofunk tracks, I started thinking up an alias for myself. Alyosha said to me, “Call yourself Flame!” I replied, “I don’t know, there’s already Blame, for one thing, and it seems stupid to me in general...” Then I thought it was easy to remember and sounded pretty good, so I agreed. Since then, even some of my friends have called me Flame. I got used to it—what can you do? Tenebra is a more complicated story. I don’t know the exact translation, but it’s something connected with gloom and darkness. There is a Norwegian black metal act called Carpe Tenebrum, which I used to like very much. Carpe Tenebrum means “gloomy diaries.” Basically, I just altered one of the words. It sounds juicy and threatening, and generally suits a techno drum and bass project.

How would you describe Tenebra’s sound, and your own sound separately?

It’s difficult to characterise it specifically. Tenebra is more techno drum and bass than my solo work. In any case, I try to write tracks that I’ll find convenient and enjoyable to play at a party of any scale, right up to a huge rave. I always base things on my understanding of what works on the dancefloor. No matter how intellectually and conceptually elaborate a track is, it must have a massive “push” and make people move. It’s drum and bass, after all, not IDM. A hard but intelligent sound, I’d put it that way.

Who do you single out on the global drum and bass scene, and who have you already collaborated with or would like to collaborate with?

On the global scene, I’d single out Proket again—everyone is talking about him right now. Projects such as Identity, The Sect, Pyro, Lethal & Khanage, and the entire Offkey camp, including Raiden himself, of course. Besides pure techno drum and bass, I really like what Misanthrop, Axiom and SPL are doing now, as well as practically the entire Eastern European contingent, including Chris.SU, Mindscape, the Tactile project, Jade, Morebeat and many, many others; it’s impossible to remember everyone at once. I’ve already managed to work with scene heavyweights such as D-Struct from Robot Death Squad, Identity and Kano, the owner of Sinuous Records. All these collaborations are currently just waiting for their releases. Unfortunately, the vinyl industry is very slow and you have to wait a long time.

Well, since we’ve touched on releases, tell us which releases you’ve already had out and which will be released in the future.

There’s no point listing every release. There have been a number of releases on CD and MP3 labels, the most significant being the EP Intersection on the Swedish sublabel LEET records. This digital imprint has released artists such as Pyro, Phono, Morebeat, Rido and others. You can see the release list on RollDaBeats (rolldabeats.com). Over three years, two vinyl releases fell through. In the first case, a label that had signed Paul B, Diss.ident and other artists, including me, disappeared without releasing anything. In the second case, a label connected by a P&D agreement to the distributor ST Holdings signed two tracks, but later said that the distributor had rejected them. It was the as-yet-nonexistent Full Force sublabel called MicroB, which also fell through for Catacomb, Subtone and NPhect & Diz:Play. By and large, the label isn’t to blame—this is simply the reality of the vinyl industry. Thank God there is the cult LEET Recordings, where one of our tracks will be released in the very near future. Other well-known companies are also interested in some of the other compositions, but I won’t name anything so as not to jinx it again.

I’d like to raise one topic. A lot of music is now distributed via the internet, mostly illegally. What is your view on that?

I have mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I’m a music listener, and I’d like to be able to hear new releases. It’s not my fault that tracks spread around the world through peer-to-peer networks a week before release. The vinyl industry and its sluggishness are to blame for that. If someone offers me a track, I’m more likely to take it from them than wait for it to come out on vinyl a year later—especially since I don’t have turntables at home. On the other hand, I’m an author who wants compensation for his work. And I don’t like it when my track turns up in good quality on Soulseek or somewhere else where it shouldn’t be, especially when the track is due for official release. It’s all banal and simply a fact of life. There is an unspoken ethic on the global drum and bass scene. DJs—who are often producers themselves—do not play in live sets tracks they did not receive from the author directly or buy officially on vinyl or another medium. I believe progress doesn’t stand still, technologies develop, and there’s nothing you can do about it. The sanctimonious outbursts of some people in the vinyl industry annoy me. I’m convinced that pre-release distribution of MP3s online will only increase sales, an artist’s popularity, and profits for labels and distributors. BUT! Only if releases come out regularly and frequently, as the Triple Vision group does, for example. Everyone should take them as an example of how to operate. After all, a DJ will only refuse to buy a record if a track they’ve already heard a thousand times thanks to the internet has become unbearably tiresome. That won’t happen if the machine operates five times more efficiently.

As far as I know, you’re also involved in promotion together with Step. How is it going? Which parties have you put on, and what are your plans for the future?

I can’t say that I’m actively promoting events all the time these days. The thing is, it isn’t profitable. People in Saint Petersburg are jaded, and you can’t drag them into a club even with super-expensive, top-class guests from abroad. Nobody knows anything, nobody understands anything, nobody gives a damn about anything, and there’s no culture. There’s Radio Record and their mega-hardcore raves. They’ve pulled everything toward themselves. And all the profits accordingly. So doing business with drum and bass parties in Saint Petersburg is impossible right now. “Congratulations” to Samara on this monster arriving in your cosy city as well. My sympathies to Danja Promo.

Nevertheless, we’ve held several fairly successful parties. For example, we brought Chris Renegade over at the end of last year. BTK from Identity recently. In addition, there have been many small-format parties in different clubs and bars. We tried to “cultivate” a more mature audience with quality evening events featuring calmer music and held in decent venues. We ran into two problems: first, there aren’t actually that many grown-up people who still appreciate broken rhythms. Second, respectable, high-level venues flatly refuse to work with us as soon as they hear the words drum and bass. In the city, this genre is quite rightly associated by everyone with gopniks, drug users, vocational-school kids, tinted “shestyorkas,” and Radio Record. It all makes sense.

Do you tour a lot? Which cities have you visited?

Over the last year I’ve started touring much more often, although I haven’t managed to visit that many places yet: Minsk, Moscow, Samara, Novokuybyshevsk, Voronezh, and Cherepovets.

Which city made the strongest impression on you, and why?

I remember all the cities in their own way; something special happened in each one. In Samara, for instance, I had a great time both relaxing and working. I liked everyone involved in organising Rave Arena. The audience overall, too.

A couple of questions before we say goodbye. Do you have a dream?

Yes: to make a ton of money, build my own house by the sea, and live there with a beautiful wife.

So what are your plans for the future?

Make a ton of money, build my own house by the sea, and live there with a beautiful wife.

A few words for the visitors to our website.

Respect the music you listen to and the people who create it, keep developing, and don’t stand still, both in terms of your taste and in life in general.

Interview: iD for 63zone.com.