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Dogma 3000:
close encounters
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| author: | Lisa McGee | ||
| source: | Future Music, March 2001, FM106 | ||
| Croatian musicians Dogma 3000 prove the language of electronica is alive and well… | |||
| With its tongue entirely out of its online cheek, Dogma 3000's Web site claims Goran Stetic and Damir Ludvig are aliens! Whether or not they feel their take on dance music scene might have benefited from the incorporation of "recovered" extra-terrestrial technologies remains open to question. Following the release of their eponymous album, on Return to the Source, FM gets the lowdown from Croatia's leading electronica export. | |||
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FM:
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"How did you get started?" | ||
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Damir Ludvig:
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"In 1998 I was working as rapper and programmer in a band called Diffo. In 1993 I worked on another hip hop project - Fresh Style - which got on national TV. War was still going on and hip hop was going more into a gangster direction. When bombs and rockets are hitting your city and your childhood friends are dying on a bettlefield, it's disgusting listening to people from LA talking about guns. It made me think differently and from then on I got into techno and trance." | ||
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Goran Stetic:
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"I've always been interested in music, and when I was five years old i got a guitar for Christmas and enrolled at music school at six. In 1993 Damir heared my demo on the radio. He got in touch with me and by 1996 we were in a band called Utopia, signed to Dutch label, Boom Records." | ||
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DL:
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"In 1997, David Chen - who owns Taiwanese label Blue Moon - invited us to Taipei to work in his studio. He paid for our flights, got us a flat and treated us like we were the Beatles!" | ||
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FM:
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"What sort of work went into the new album, Dogma 3000?" | ||
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DL:
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"After releasing Land Of Utopia, we started looking for a sound of our own. As we started getting the money through for the album, we invested in a home studio in Goran's flat. We started by getting sketches and ideas for initial tunes then turned those into tracks. I was due to do a DJ gig in Tokyo though, so the date of my departure was the deadline for the album. It took us six months to do, from ideas to the final album." | ||
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GS:
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"We wanted to make this album more universal. It's based on psychedelic trance, but with bits from techno, drum'n'bass, house, ragga and trip hop. It has a lot of people's input on it too: Gus Till (who's worked with Jamiroquai), Har Ell Prusky (Israeli trance producer) and Japanese producer Rie Kurihara. We also booked time with Geoff Pesche at Townhouse Studios to master the album. Mastering is very important stage; mastering can bring out the best of your sound or ruin it." | ||
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FM:
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"What's your favourite bit of gear and why?" | ||
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GS:
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"Mine is Roland JV-1080. We can always define new and exciting sounds with it, whether we want acoustic or hi-tech sounds. It's great, easy to navigate, expandable, and has a real quality sound to it. That new XV-5080 synth reviewed in FM recently is definitely top of our shopping lists for the future though." | ||
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FM:
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"Talking of the future, what's next for Dogma 3000?" | ||
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GS:
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"Hey Mr. Juice, the first single from the Dogma 3000 album, was released in December on Return to the Source and we have lots of new tracks coming up, as we're trying to constantly develop our music. And we have a really hot project coming up featuring Afrika Bambaataa. His vocals are already recorded, and several mixes of the track should be finished within the next six months." | ||
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DL:
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"At this moment we're concentrating on releasing as many singles as possible, in different styles suit to DJs. We'll be doing remixes of a lot of our tracks and other people's stuff, and we're looking at more collaborations, although they're not all confirmed yet. We'll have a very busy year." | ||