“I always stay true to myself.”
In a country full of jump-up, Istoria is the counter-reaction. His soulful and liquid drum & bass got him signed on labels like Goldfat, Celsius, Lunar Records, and Vandal. Now, he’s ready to add Fokuz Recordings to this list. Drawing inspiration from artists like Calibre, Satl, and Silence Groove, his drum & bass is full of melancholy and nostalgia.
Time to get to know him a bit better!
Hi Istoria, how are you doing?
I’m doing well, thank you! I’ve just been touring Europe with my campervan for six months. I’ve been home for a month now, recovering from a broken foot. Luckily, all is well now.
Thankfully! Where does your name come from?
I’m a fan of Greek mythology, and Istoria means ‘history’ or ‘story’ in Old Greek. That’s how I came up with it. I try to tell stories with my drum & bass. That’s what every music producer does, trying to convey a message or tell a story with their music, and to express, to show emotions, and how you stand in life and so on. I once read an interview with Calibre and he said “Happy music is an ideology,” and I relate to that, you can’t always be happy, so always making happy music isn’t logical. When you listen to Calibre, it’s all very moody, melancholic, deep. There are only a handful of producers who can convey emotion as well as he does. I can only hope to reach that level one day.
Please take us back to the beginning of Istoria… How did you get into drum & bass?
I’ve been listening to drum & bass for over 15 years now. A friend in school introduced me to it, and the first rave I went to was Friction in Petrol, a former club in Antwerp. From there, I started discovering more about the genre. I quickly stumbled upon Calibre, what an artist! He’s brilliant. I saw him at Star Warz, an event in Ghent, Belgium, in 2013. That’s where I fell in love with liquid and deep drum & bass.
I started experimenting with DJing, but I quickly realised I liked producing more. I took a course in electronic music, took private composition lessons and had some drum & bass classes from PHILTH. He gave me a lot of advice about how to get your music signed, how to write a good arrangement, how to deliver mixdowns, and how to make your drum & bass track interesting.
What makes a drum & bass track interesting to you?
LSB, Calibre, Satl, Edlan, Artificial Intelligence, Dawnwall… Those are the people I look up to. There has to be something catchy in the track. For me, it’s often melancholy that makes it interesting, it has to be something that evokes emotions. I also really don’t mind repetitiveness in a track, if it sounds clean. Smoothness and familiarity, that’s my sweet spot. When I first got into drum & bass, I was really into collecting vinyl, and I remember buying a lot of Fokuz Recordings. I was also drawn to that style, so I quickly learned that that was the kind of drum & bass I wanted to make myself. That’s when I decided to take lessons and educate myself, and I think that constantly educating yourself is necessary as an artist. You can learn so much, and it’s such an endless world.
You said you were already drawn to Fokuz Recordings when you first got into drum & bass. How is it to release on the label yourself?
It’s amazing! I have been in contact with Marco, the label head, for a very long time, and have also released on Celsius Recordings, their sister label, before, but this is the first time that I’m going to release on Fokuz. This will hopefully be a tipping point in my career. I love the way Fokuz Recordings work. You don’t have to wait years on a release, and they always listen to ideas. They do have a lot of releases, but I’m a big fan of everything they put out. I’ve been a fan of Fokuz for years. I think I’ve got over 50 vinyl records! Everyone who has made it in music has released on there. SpectraSoul, Icicle, Silence Groove, Edlan… They all started out there, so to see myself in this same line-up is a great achievement.
Your latest single on Celsius Recordings, ‘Midnight Gossip’, is a collaboration with Aleyum. How did you meet him?
I just met him through weekly sessions on D&B Academy on Zoom. We got to talk and made a few tracks together. Celsius Recordings picked up on those collaborations pretty quickly, and we just kept making music, and I think we will continue to make music together. We complement each other in terms of style and music. The only thing that’s different, is the fact that Aleyum is from California. He makes use of more jazzy & “ happier “ samples for his drum & bass. Combining this with my own melancholic style, it often creates something unique.
Another thing I wanted to ask you… You’re from Belgium, a country mainly known for their jump-up. As someone who loves the more minimal and liquid sounds, how do you see yourself in the scene?
We do have a lot of jump-up, but I think that the Belgian scene has quite a broad range, though. You’ll find all subgenres represented here. Sometimes you might have to travel a bit further and look a little harder, but there’s something for everyone. There’s Rampage for the full spectrum, Liquicity for dancefloor and liquid, Star Warz for the real heads and fans for deep music… Some smaller promoters… I think Belgium has a very healthy scene at the moment.
At the beginning of our conversation, you were talking about how you just came back from a trip with your campervan. What else gives you energy?
Working out is a distraction for me. That’s when I can reset my thoughts and think about what I want to achieve with my sound. If you look at Edlan, Satl or Silence Groove, they have a distinct sound that works for them. That’s something that I’m also striving for, to create that signature sound of my own. Someone once told me, “Producing in your DAW is like going to the gym.” Every time you go into a DAW, you train that brain muscle to hear where it works and doesn’t. That has stuck with me, and it’s exactly what is starting to happen in my own workflow. The more I practice, the faster and simpler it gets. Now I’m at a point where, when I’m working in a DAW, it feels like I’m playing on a PlayStation.
Any last thoughts?
Drum & bass music is powerful music, it’s here to stay for the long term, it can convey any emotion & the possibilities are endless in my opinion. It’s a genre that’s taking the world by storm. I can only hope it keeps inspiring people to jump on the bandwagon and do their own thing with it, whether by creating, promoting or pushing new artists into the world. Once you have that bug you can’t shake it off.
