Page 79 - DemoZone Magazine Issue 003

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT [UKRAINE]
NatLife - is a pioneer in the Ukrainian trance scene who got his 15 Minutes of fame in Tiesto's Club Life, and received support from Armin Van Buuren in his A State of Trance radio show, where his remix for Lost Witness & Tiff Lacey's "Home" got on his Future Favourite listing. His contract with Mental Madness enabled him to make remixes for German dance superstar – Brooklyn Bounce. Also his tune "Water Whispers" together with Elsa Hill finished at No.4 in the Kiss FM TOP 10 National chart.
He has since received support from the heavy weights Above and beyond, Paul Oakenfold and requests from around the globe for remixes & his singles have been releasesed on Sony BMG.
In 2007 he started to play live around Eastern Europe and made his own live- show "Nature Life" in the biggest open-air club in Ukraine "Arizona Beach". In that time he raised his profile up with his label "NatLife Recordings" where has signed such artists as: Cylum & Velden, Eximinds, Jullians (Dart Rayne & Yura Moonlight), Denis Sender, Urry Fefelove & Abramasi and others, over the space of 3 years.
Today NatLife is back better than ever with another unique & massive sound, together with his new imprint "True
Trance". It's a new independent label, based in the Ukraine, where he has already signed Vitaly Otto, The Cloudy Day, Elite Electronic, Beatsole, singer - Ange, Arunima Bhattacharya & Inesse and some of best upcoming talent.
Tell us about Natlife?
Hi Zone, I was born in the Ukrainian city Kharkov, it's in Eastern Ukraine. When I finished high school, I started playing in the school parties as a DJ, and started to make my own music. I made my first track when I was 15 and I think as a first attempt it wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t good enough to be signed. The first track I got signed and released was
in 2005 to a small Canadian label, and when I was 19, it was mashed up & played by Markus Schulz and I gained support from the heavy weights Above & Beyond, Armin Van Burren, Oakenfold and later was asked to guest mix on Tiesto's Club Life.
Who inspired you first in the Trance Scene?
For me my biggest inspiration was Space Frog, Kai Tracid, Kay Cee, Aquagen, Brooklyn Bounce, Dj Sash, Benno De Goeij, Piet Bervoets, Ralph Fridge's music and to name a few.
When was the first time you heard Trance Music?
I think it was when trance was born in 1996 / 1998. So I can say that I’m with the Trance scene from when it started.
How long does it take for you to complete a track ?
It’s always different. Sometimes it can be less than a week to fully finish a tune, I mean not only fully finished the track but also mastering which really means a lot of quality work has to be done. So if someone is saying that they can do a track in 2 hours, they must be a comedian. Sometime it takes a bit longer - more than a Month. It's down to a lot of factors, from
my own feeling to the amount of available time I have.
Do you have any plans to release an Album or are you just focusing on Singles?
I released my 1st album in 2011 year on my own label NatLife recordings (now it's on True Trance Records), it's called "Love Is The Feeling", later released a "Remixed" version of this album, where there were remixes from Aimoon, Dart Rayne & Yura Moonlight (Jullians), The Noble Six, TrancEye, Running Man, The Icone and so on...all the names must be famous for trance fans.
At the moment I don't have any plans to do an album, so it will be new singles / remixes and I’m also working now with my Bigroom alias, which I’m trying to knock into one sound - Trance & Bigroom House.
What's the Trance Scene like now in the Ukraine?
It's really very hard to talk about the trance scene over here in the Ukraine now, a lot of events cancelled, and a lot of producers DJ's migrated or like me - waiting for the better times. I had planned to do a new trance event concept in Kharkov, but it was all cancelled because it not a very stable situation here politically. I know some promoters doing events, but it mostly in Western Ukraine & Kiev. Anyway I have a plan to gig outside Ukraine in the very near future, like most other Ukraine DJ's are doing now.
CONNECT: www.facebook.com/natlife1 www.twitter.com/natlife1
Words By Muhkb Khan