Today we are having our guest from Eastern Europe: Odeum, from Ukraine!
He was born in a family of musicians, so music was surrounding him from his very first steps. It was a long journey from a little town, Kirovohrad (nowadays Kropyvnytskyi, where he studied music at school and foreign languages at university) in the middle of Ukraine to a capital of the country (where he met lots of young talents which gave him musical taste and background knowledge).
Currently he represents Ukrainian House / Tech House community of young DJs and Sound Designers. At his 29, he is already a resident of the best afterparty night club in Kiev – Heaven Club. His fanbase is constantly growing and his music is moving the Beatport Top charts as well!
Just take a short look on the Odeum’s Step By Step release history:
1 – His first ever track, ‘Techweg’, that was released on “In Dushe” – reached TOP 10 tracks of the Label during first 14 days from release date.
2 – His next EP ‘Verifier’ (including Verifier & Babychasing) on ’Sousa Label’ broke the walls of Beatport:
#6 – top 100 House Releases
#76 – top 100 Overall Releases
#40 top 100 House Hype
3 – Later ‘Verifier EP’ was included in ‘Best Sousa Label’ releases and reached again top 100 Beatport House releases
4 – ‘Memory Invoke’ was included in ‘Five House’ album on ‘Deep House Minister’ label.
5 – Latest release ‘Fuck The Coronavirus’ was picked up by ‘Handpicked’ YouTube music channel from UK.
Link to the latest music
https://lnkfi.re/Odeumplaylist
Where are you based?
I am currently based in Kiev (Ukraine)
How long have you been making music?
Electronic for around 3 years, but generally speaking I am into music since I was a child.
What genre would you consider your music to be?
Tech-House / House. Since I have a specific voice, inside of me, telling me something, like: “Don’t dare you playing music which even you won’t dance to” my choice was done without myself.
What inspired you to pursue a career in music?To make long story short, here is how I decided to become a professional DJ, we visited another local party, and it was really super boring music there.. and I told my friends.. “Look, if I can just give him my shazammed music and he will start playing that, it will already be much better!”. And in the same moment I thought – wait, I can do it, really! Next day I found CDJs 100 + DJM 500 pack and started some education / practice at home and in some weeks I came to visit a friend (he was Heaven Club art manager at that time) and asked him, if he knows any possible venue in Kiev to play for some public but not only for my girlfriend and close friends. And he told me to wait some short time and I will have my chance at Heaven Club Terrace.
So, this is how I joined Heaven Club team.
What are your biggest musical influences?
First of all music is really a hard job. It’s not so easy to create quality instead of quantity. But at the same time here is the key! As my father used to say: “You will create hundreds of incredible tracks, at least you will think they are at a time you finish one, but the truth is, to create that special track, you will need to write tons of rubbish music. And some producers simple won’t survive until this is going to happen.” When you’re reading some stories of ‘big names’, almost every from them had to pass through the hell gates before even a sign of success. So, I think that nothing can put more influence on you or on your production than you. And to add to it, mainstream is popular, is always on hype, but in the long run it will not help. So don’t be mainstream and don’t copy in order just to have something behind yourself. It will come.
Are you signed to a label or are you an independent artist?
Despite the fact I was already released on couple of labels, I didn’t sign any contracts. As I believe it’s not a time yet. I am currently searching for an opportunity but at the same time it should be a step forward, for sure.
What have been the biggest challenges in your music career?
Tech-House scene is a quite tough one to be a part of, here in Ukraine. As there are literary couple of venues who accept tech-house as a primary music format. Melodic, progressive, etc. are the most common styles and there are not so many artists in general in Ukraine that deliver a high quality content, so they already know each other and definitely they don’t have main target to discover more talents.
And 2 biggest problems you face 1 on 1 are:
1 Where to play? Whom should I get in touch with to discuss any possibilities for bookings?
2 How to grow a fanbase when 90% of the events simply are out-of-your-format? Other words, it’s not easy to find a place for sharing your music
How many songs or albums have you released to date?
‘Techweg’ ’Schweisstropfen’ & ‘Memory Invoke‘ on In Dushe Label
Verifier’ & ‘Babychasing’ on Sousa Label
‘Espiritu’ Odeum Remix on Dushe Label
‘Fuck The Coronavirus’ on DeepHouseMinister
2 remixes as giveaways
K7 – Come Baby Come & Bizarre Inc. – I’m Gonna Get You
So, it’s total 9 released + 1 EP (including 3 tracks) is ready & looking for a suitable place to be released on
Can you tell us a few things about your latest release?
The name is ‘Fuck The Coronavirus’. It says a lot already, I believe 😉 I just heard vocals on some radio station, found Acapellas then and created some beat. I liked it and finished in around 3 days everything. It was immediately picked up by ‘Handpicked Music’ YouTube channel as well, because what is it about? About this stupid lockdown, we can’t go anywhere outside, can’t hangover, all festivals are cancelled and there is no more happiness for us.
Any plans for new music or upcoming projects we should know about?
Currently I finished EP including 3 tracks and already have 3 more soon to come. I am searching for a suitable label for now, to release it. I’d like to share my music with UK, Spain and couple of Latin America countries, as I think they will love those 3. I want to try searching my audience there.
Anyways, it’s already a technical question, so I appreciate your time and lots of thank you for having me today with you online!
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