Interview by Annalee Stone

They come from Minsk, Belarus, just over 400 miles from Moscow. Egor Kunovsky and Denis "C4" Korabkov, met when Denis used to play guitar with a local psychedelic reggae band and in 2000, they teamed up as Dreamlin. Their music was an instant phenomena, taking off in several underground films and videos worldwide. They also hit the #1 artist spot at Ampcast in the summer of 2001.

In 2002 Dreamlin started playing live and soon became the most requested electronic act in the country. Their constant love of mixing electronic and live instruments brought on stage people who played guitars, drums and electronic drums, flute, all kinds of percussion and a vocalist. By 2004, Egor was playing most of the gigs together with multi-instrumentalist Andrey Karpovich, while Denis focused on working in the studio.

Their collaborations do not just include local live musicians. The geography of people who have worked with Dreamlin spreads from Finland to Hawaii. Egor's activity is not limited to recording and playing his own music. He also DJs, organizes and promotes parties, festivals and bookings of live acts and DJs in Minsk, runs a record label and promotions website Electrokids.org (in English at http://english.electrokids.org), writes lyrics, and does his best to promote electronic music from his country.

We still have not touched on one of the main questions that a listener would ask: what is the style of the music that Dreamlin produces? We have a reason for that as the style is not limited to a genre or two, no matter that on most flyers Dreamlin is listed as downtempo, you can hear almost any kind of electronic music except trance in their sets. All kinds of broken beats are preferred, but mellow, chill-out house tunes are also quite likely to be heard.  

Interview with Egor of Dreamlin

Born: January 31, 1980

Years spinning: Not sure really, been DJing back in high school at school parties, then paused for a couple of years, then I guess, nonstop since 1998.

Music types: Lounge and Downtempo, Nu-Breaks, Funky Breaks, Breakbeat, Bastard Pop,Mash-Ups, Latin and Vocal Drum'n'Bass, Electro

Influences: When it comes to producing our own music, it's: Fugees, FatBoy Slim, 9 lazy 9, Manu Chao, U. N. K.L.E., MeatBeat Manifesto, dj Shadow, and Beastie Boys. And Norman Cook when it comes to DJing. The latest discoveries in the world of DJing for me where Ramilson Maia (Brasil) and The Phat Conductor (Canada).

How did you get started?

Well, there has always been some music that came out of my head. It just took me some time before I had a PC that could be used as the studio at home and before I made friends with all the people who could help me when I did not know anything or could not do something myself. I guess it's not how did I get started, but why on Earth I did not do that earlier.

What was the 1st record you ever bought?

Snow - 12 Inches of Snow.

What/Where was your 1st gig?

I started DJing at the holiday parties in high school, but I would not call that "my gigs", as there where several people we did this parties with, everyone spinned blocks of several tracks each, and had we were mostly having fun than actually DJing. Then the first real gig, with our own music was some evening chill-out party at a restaurant "Amadeus" here in Minsk. I had a terrible fever then, so I was not strong enough to stay at the party after the set ended. My family, they said I should not even go there, but well, it was a real breakthrough for me, I could not just stay at home. The party and the gig was quite aright, people said.

Do you currently have any residencies?

Used to be a resident in the New Club in Minsk till this June, when the club got closed due to the problems with the local authorities. Anyway it's summer pause now, time for open-airs and closed small parties. I'm also involved with a promo-group called Electrokids, means I play or most parties we organize. It's in different places around the city at least every 2 weeks.

Do you currently have any albums out?

Yes, a small run of our album was released this winter in Belarus and it's going to be re-released in Moscow in a few weeks, as soon as we finally decide on the design of the CD cover that will be a bit different for the Moscow edition.

Are you in the studio now, do we have anything to look forward to in the near future, maybe some collaboration with someone else?

In fact I have not produced anything in the last half a year, was too busy with other things, including promotion and managing the small label I run. Plus my computer desperately needed an upgrade. As my studio is computer based, it matters. The last things done music-wise are not supposed to be recorded in the nearest future, as they involve another guy playing guitar live during the sets and I guess we still need to test it on the audience a lot before it can be released. The other thing on the to-do list, we have made a collaboration project with the other artist, who normally produces experimental music under the name H.H.T.P. This new project of ours, for which we do not have a name yet, is experimental IDM-like hip-hop produced by him and me rapping over it. We even had a live show with it on a festival here once, what remains is to get the voice recorded, been trying to find time for that for a couple of months already.

Do you have radio stations that play electronic music where you live? If you do, how do you think it effects the scene?

We do not seem to have techno on the radio here in Belarus, it's mostly pure pop music, but I believe if we had it here it would be good for the scene.

What type of music do you listen to when you are not spinning?

Well, I was not that aware of it myself before, but recently I have installed a special piece of software that gives statistics on what music gets played on my computer, and it says that I'm mostly listening to dub and reggae.

Have you ever worked on a Movie Soundtrack?

He had our music used in independent movies and movies made for festivals, but have never created anything especially for the movies. We just gave permission to use the existing music. And I still have not seen all of these movies. Either I was too lazy or the guys who made them finally forgot to send us the copy.

Do any favorite moments in your career come to mind?

I always tend to think that the most exciting moments are to come. No particular past event can be as thrilling as what will come tomorrow. And no particular gig or event lasts in memory for long, unless it was something that happened for the first time. I guess I would never forget things like the first radioplay of our music, or the first person half the planet away coming to my ICQ saying that he has bought a compilation CD with our track on it and liked it.

In the many places you have performed, which venue is your most favorite?

I guess I would like to return to Griboedov, it's a small club in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. No use recalling the best places here in Minsk, as they close way too often here.

How has your creativity changed over the last few years? Do you tend to stay with your own styles/ideas or do you allow the mainstream to influence you and your work?

It's not really a mainstream influence, it's the way the impact from the audience influences you. As we have started with almost chill-out music and only a few things you can dance to, almost at once as we started playing our music live, not just producing it in the studio, we could see more reaction during the danceable tracks, and, whether we really wanted it or not, we started to make more dancefloor-friendly music. This might as well be described as mainstream influence if you do not know that has really caused it.

Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?

Can I limit it to 5 years for now, because as I see the way things changed in the last 2 years, in 10 years I can be absolutely anywhere.

What would you be doing right now if you never bought that 1st record and became a DJ?

I'm not limiting my activities to djing or producing my own music, I also run a small label and a small mail-order, I'm freelancing as a journalist and do some web-development from time to time. I know several languages, means I can translate, and I have a diploma of teacher of Spanish and English, and I always can do some design or writing for money, so I guess I would be doing all of these things at once, as I do now.

Last question... What, in your opinion, is the greatest aspect of being a DJ?

You always are in search for something new, new music, new people, new places. And you always have some new music to surprise people with.