Artist Profile – I Wannabe – (Ukraine)
At the start of February I was thrilled to cover an exciting new artist VaSa, from Moldova in the former USSR. Days later I had an email from an artist in Ukraine who went by the name of I Wannabe asking for a possible feature. One of my main intentions for this site, whether linked to Twitch or not, is to be fully Global and welcome in artists and DJ’s and others linked to the scene from all corners of the world.
Needless to say, I was thrilled with this too, and started to listen to some of his music and formulate some ideas for questions. This can be a lengthy process sometimes, as I like to get right inside the music before I put proverbial pen to paper.
By the 24th of February Russian troops had crossed the Ukrainian border and the country was under fire. This left me in a bit of a quandary as to where to take the interview. Would it be bad taste to get back in touch with this guy when the country was under such difficult conditions? Would there be a technological infrastructure still in place that would allow him to communicate? Indeed, without trying to sound too dramatic and macabre, would he even still be fit and well enough to respond?
I sent out an exploratory email and thankfully I got a response. He was well and able to talk, so I got back to him and last week, after much thought and deliberation, I sent out some questions, mindful of course that his country was under brutal attack and in a state of war. By the end of the same day he had sent the answers back and I couldn’t wait to get back to the laptop to share his story.
Before you read any further though, I ask you to share this article everywhere you can, not for me, or for the site, or even for I Wannabe directly, but for ALL of the people of Ukraine. Please donate to the Government of Ukraine if you are able (link below). This is a country in turmoil, and every penny you may be able to spare will help you do your bit for the men, women, children and animals of Ukraine.
Welcome to INSIDE DNB, I Wannabe! Please introduce yourself!
Hey! I’m Andrey Sirotkin – sound producer, DJ and music enthusiast from Kyiv, Ukraine. Under my moniker “I Wannabe” I produce various sub genres of drum and bass music from halfstep to liquid and techstep.
As an artist I started to express myself in 2004 from drum and bass music. Since then I also started to produce other genres of music as techno, breakbeat, house, ambient, bass, idm, hip-hop etc under aliases Andrey Sirotkin, Nikroris and Shade Of Drums.
You are a native of Kyiv, Ukraine. Things must be unbelievably tough out there right now?
Since Feb 24th when russia/putin attacked Ukraine I moved from Kyiv to Lviv, the city on the west of the country. It’s more safer here (for now), but I still have parents, relatives and friends in Kyiv so of course a big part of my soul and mind are still there.
Cities on the east of the country including Kyiv are being attacked by Russians with tanks, bombs from airplanes and rockets – civil people including children are being injured and killed. I feel heartbroken about this as no ideas can be justified if they take away people lives.
Civil buildings are being destroyed as well as residential houses, so lot’s of people have left their houses seeking safer places. That’s also my story. I left my studio with all my gear in Kyiv and don’t know if it’s going make it.
Are you still able to live your musical life under these conditions?
After I left Kyiv I have only 4 finished tracks with me in the cloud drive and that’s it. I plan to release them one by one in the next couple of months. Apart from that I have now way of making music at all.
How were things on the underground dance music scene before the war?
Ukraine was a heaven for clubbing during the last year, as there was a fast meltdown after COVID froze all the social life. Because of this we had a nice atmosphere for foreign artists to come to us, as they were unable to play in their own countries and were desperate to play out again.
You’ve been making music for 15 years or so. How did you get into making music?
From 4 years old I’ve been into listening to music. In school I was DJ’ing at discotheques and somehow was introduced to music production software. Since that time I started to discover any other possibilities with the software available that time. With no goal I switched from one to another and began to produce my own tracks. However my first track being released much, much later!
Is music your full time occupation?
Nope. I do to see myself as an artist – one who makes art because music for me isn’t a business project. I make music firstly for myself to enjoy, and at that stage I don’t know if people who listen to my music will love it or even understand it. I guess I produce tracks without having a defined audience.
Unlike the music projects that do have a defined audience with artists making make tracks that sound the same, that’s not my main aim. I just flow with the process of creation and enjoy it.
Sot, music for me is not what I doing for a living. My day job is project management. I also enjoy that very much too!
You produce a lot of different styles, not just DNB?
Yep. I have 3 aliases for music production (for now!)
I Wannabe is for DNB and broken beats of 155bpm+ like jungle hardcore and old skool.
Niktoris is the newest one. It comes for release lo-fi hip-hop and trip-hop music, the ones under 100bpm (and Niktoris is my surname in reverse!)
Andrey Sirotkin – this one is for mid tempos productions, from 100 to 155 bpm and some ambient music.
I’ve been releasing techno music under Shade Of Drums since 2012. I made a couple of vinyl releases and got picked for a Global Underground compilation by Jooris Voorn. At this point I felt like there was no room for any other music genres that I produce, so I decided to take off the masks and switched from Shade Of Drums to the real me – Andrey Sirotkin.
Can you tell us how you were you first introduced to DNB?
It was in the 2000’s. The first drum and bass track that I heard was “Meatball” by EZ Rollers. It seemed like all the music I had listened to before had prepared me for this moment, and since then I’ve been locked to drum and bass music for a long time.
Tell us a bit about your studio set up, and your favourite pieces of equipment or software.
I’m the one who tries not to limit myself with anything. Just enjoy the ride 🙂 Sometimes I produce tracks 100% in the box and sometimes they are 100% made with hardware and recorded in one take as one final track. Other time it’s somewhere between these two.
I use a Prophet, OB-6, different Moogs. I’m a super fan of modular synth systems – I gather different modules including the ones made by local Ukrainian engineers.
Field recordings is another side of my production – single sounds that are processed and treated for use in tracks, or recorded ambiences for other sounds to be placed inside of them.
I’m also the lucky one, as I’m based in a studio where other sound producers take their gear, so I can use or at least try new equipment there! Among these items are a custom modified Korg MS-20 and the Xhun Little One synth, with only one OSC and LFO filter, but which sounds super analog!
There are a few remixes of top Ukrainian artists amongst your previous works?
Yep, as well as my productions I also do remixes – some of them are made through personal choice and some because the artist has asked me, but all of them are made because I like the original tracks. My most recent are for Ukrainian rap superstars Freel and alyona alyona, also drum and bass artists Derrick & Tonika. I aim for my remixes not to sound the same if you listen to them in a row, and I try to be diverse, but this can sometimes be a barrier to them being released.
Other barriers for remix to happen from me can also be gaining permission from the artist or his manager and getting the final okay.
I have more remixes done then are released, but the artists don’t always approve of them.
The list of labels you’ve released on is pretty impressive. Tell us a bit about them.
It’s a tough question cause I produce non-format (not pop) music. As stated previously, I’m more into art than business. In the same way that finished remixes can’t be released because “it needs to be changed”, “less boring”, “more understandable”, these same problems can be found while finding a suitable label, but I’ve had music released on Offworld, Omni Music, Kos.Mos.Music, Rubik, Soul Deep and Formation.
The one I like the most for now is Omni Music, because for my more complex non dancefloor drum and bass music I got understood 110%.
My other task at the moment is preparing to release tracks on my own Bandcamp. This way I can gain some additional money as we now have finally have Paypal enabled here in Ukraine. Yep.. we’ve just entered the European payment conveniences from the prehistoric age!
Silver, your latest release has just gone live. How is that going?
“Silver” is my latest house track I’ve produced with the super talented Ukrainian singer Katiko Purtseladze. The track was produced before the war started and we planned for it to be released at the beginning of March, but I had to cancel all of the promotion, as I didn’t have the time to make it properly and I donated almost all of my time to Ukrainian military needs.
It’s the scheduled promotions I used as a message for people outside of Ukraine to get notified about what we’re going through now and the ways people can help.
So, how are you going to keep going under all of this chaos?
The number 1 priority of mine right now is the safety and health of my family, relatives and friends. While this is okay I’m focused on supporting our Ukrainian people to win this war and to help to people who need it.
The music is obviously paused for now until things get better. Am I going to get back to my studio or is it lost forever? I don’t know, but right now I’m focused on the previous basic directions.
There has been a huge amount of support for Ukraine from the DNB community, what with the ‘Together With Ukraine’ album project and other fundraising events. What else can we do to help?
I really really appreciate the help and support Ukraine gets from abroad and I also the help I get personally from people I know.
There are so many ways to help and they’re literally everywhere so I’ll share three of my thoughts about it:
The best way is to donate directly to the bank/payment accounts of organisations that may help. Yes it’s a great that artists/labels raise awareness but how long they keep the money until the final recipient get’s donated is unknown. Also the part of the donated money may go missing during the transfer, conversion and payment of fees. If you donate directly then it’s an immediate money transfer to the needy, plus as minimum amount of fees as possible.
Of course we all don’t want to get blood on our hands, so the most donations should go to humanitarian aid. But lets make it clear. The Ukrainian Army protects people. If it stop’s functioning then there will be no one to save. So the best option is to donate money to military accounts and to support the Ukrainian army. Maybe this thought will also help – if the Russian army stops fighting it will be the end of war immediately. If the Ukrainian army stops fighting there will be no Ukrainian people and Ukraine as a country at all.
If you still want to support any other way except donating to military needs, then make your help as “physical” as possible – to shelter people in your homes, help people at the border of Ukraine or pack and deliver the humanitarian aid by yourself.
Here’s the link to official National Bank Of Ukraine with payment details and form to donate:
Thanks for your time under these very difficult conditions. We wish you the very best of luck and hope to see more from you once this madness is over.
Thank you! For you interest about me and about Ukrainian people during these hard times. I’m looking forward to getting back to my studio and to release those dozens of tracks that been left on my hard drive… and of course to meet as much as possible people at the dancefloor.
https://www.patreon.com/andreysirotkin
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/AndriiSyrotkin
https://www.instagram.com/iwannabednb/
https://i-wannabe.bandcamp.com/
