Discover
Exclusive Interview: Discover Andy Verdi
What first drew you into Djing?
My passion for music began more than 15 years ago. I gained access to private ripper-crews FTPs with tons of uploads and genres. I came home, laid myself down and listened, and listened – I could never get enough. I went almost through all the genres of music since then. The styles that relate to the strings of the soul, not the face-melting ones like acid-jazz, tech, deep, disco and all kinds of house.
Nowadays we have this cool thing everywhere on the Internet and everything you play, record or create could be seen or heard in a few seconds by the whole world. Such a universal buzz. This is an ability and responsibility at the same time.
Any music you were lucky to hear, if you are a receptive person, obviously, remains with you for a certain period of time. But if you’re persistent enough for playing it to others as a DJ, you gotta let it in like a whale filtering the world’s ocean, swimming with an open mouth, waiting for the sweets to come and release it like a fountain. By the way, do you know what the whale fountain looks like? It’s not even a water. (giggling) Whales exhale a warm steam from it’s back just like us exhaling the hot air in a cold winter day.
Coming from Odessa, Ukraine do you have any favorite spots to DJ?
Odessa is a very glamorous and enchanting place to live in. We have lots of really cool bars to choose from. I’ve started my career in a small dingy bar where the so-called generation-Pepsi’s gathered in. It was one of a kind, strangely named “IT”. I was playing lounge from Mole Records, Beatservice, Irma Records and sorts of indie electronic music. But life flows and the rose grows. Nowadays you should easily find a few fancy places around the corner and dozen of DJs migrating from one room to another. Many bars invite touring DJs and barmen from other Ukrainian and European well-known places.
I recently started to be a pre-party resident DJ for absinth-bar “Zelda” named after a wife of The Great Gatsby writer, an authentic place with real 30th swing and burlesque atmosphere, a must-visit definitely while in Odessa. “Disyngoff”, “Wei-wei” and “Fitz” are the coolest ones.
Your latest mix 00:00 is one of the best mixes we have heard in recent memory! Could you tell us more about your creative processes and how you put your mixes together?
Appreciate your opinion. My 00:00 — is some sort of dualism, the real world we live in and it’s opposite side — a fantasy world — or whatever it is, where we really belong to. It is about joy, about life, about the joy of life and about of how we losing it all sometimes. I wrote about it on my facebook page. It’s in Russian but it can be auto translated if needed. 00:00 is the beginning and the end and so on. The numerology behind it expanding 00:00 to 100.00 bpm while the new year, 2018, starts at the time of 00:00 and end till 1:20.18. This mix isn’t a plain tracks transitions one to other. There’s many soundscapes, voices, and FXs in it. Hypnotic water circles mixed with spirals of mind reflecting in the water ripples on the pond of the universe.
You may say I’m much into poetry now. Music for me is like the poetry of sound and I do love to combine songs and layers as the rhymes. I’m trying to make impactful things that leave you wondering at the end of it and resonating somewhere above and below. Things that able to cause a question mark, as for me this is really the most powerful thing to do.
Going over your Soundcloud wean tell you are into traditional house music. Could you tell us more about your love for house music and some of your favorite producers?
DJing becomes more capable of expressing through the all of this gear and hard-soft tech stuff. And house has always been the most uncomplicated way of expressing yourself in the musical scene. You know what I’m talking about, 909 — this is what people always want to hear. And I can’t say I’m not bothering about what people want. I really bother with what certain people want but I’m not controlled by what people think, so my house is so different and diverse. It could make you happy sometimes or sad in a very specific way. Indie ethnic, acoustic, organic, electronic vibes and enthusiasts who are making something from all mentioned is my true love and inspiration now. Abstract backgrounds, multi-layered sounds, something surreal, unique and even confusing from time to time. Stavroz, Bedouin, Nicola Cruz, Lukas Endhardt are the names. Also, I’d like to mark Onuka — Ukrainian ethno-electronic project really worthwhile experience to listen.
2017 has just passed, how would you summarize 2017? Did it turn out the way you expected it to?
Oh, don’t ask, it was truly great! So many opportunities to choose from. So many boundless impressions, gigs and travel. Just beyond all expectations. All recorded and stored on my Soundcloud page.
What are your goals for the new year? Any upcoming projects we can get excited about?
Frankly speaking, I gave myself more or fewer limitations and I think it can make me more creative. I’ve ended a few relationships and lived independently for the first time in my whole life. Some say life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Why not confirm it or disprove it, right? I’ve started to get vocal lessons. It’s so uncomfortable and strange to do something you’ve never done before, to dust off your old brit-pop guitar, to get Ableton Push 2 and mess with your new student, to find someone you can teach and to be taught. Who knows where it could drive you to.
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