RUFF, in the garage business – Ruffinaments interview and Electric Castle Festival infos
Electric Castle festival, which grew to be the biggest festival in Romania, will be held for the third time this year between 25 and 28 June. For this occasion we had a chat with the members of the new Romanian label, Ruffinaments, since all members are all regular performers on the festival. Angel Rusu, aka Blanilla, Victor Bilegan, aka Manki and Lenart Norbert aka NDJ told us why they funded the label, what this festival brought to the Romanian scene, who they are looking forward to see and among others things, who will qualify for the Euro 2016. We have 4-day festival paases to give away, as usual, which could come handy as the line up is so strong, all 4-day passes are sold out!
What was the purpose to set up the Ruffinaments label?
– Manki: After some discussions with my friend Blanilla, about the emerging bass based styles, mostly from Uk, styles like: garage, 2step, power house, jackin’ and 808, I got the idea of creating Ruffinaments. This was a fresh addition to our breakbeat based music we played until that moment. One of our discussions took place in a club in Cluj, where NDJ was performing. Listening to his music we realised we just discovered a cool guy with great scratchin’ & mixing skills playin’ the music we were talking about. So this is how we got our latest member in the Ruffinaments crew and we started promoting quality bass music on our facebook page and instantly received great feedback.
In what way will this label be different from other labels?
– Manki: The main difference is that we are not forced by commercial reasons, we are only working with inspiration and with passion for creation purpose, planning to let things evolve naturally. One the other hand, we, as DJs and producers, we know how the crowd is reacting to the music we handle.
What are your current influences?
– Blanilla: Well, the whole bass & garage music movement coming from the UK (mostly, but not only) is really inspiring for us; there are loads of young and very talented producers that are putting brilliant music out there. We listen to new music every day and it’s great to see that this kind of music has had a good revival in the past years.
– Manki: There is a great variety of producers and talents, one category is for “veterans” like: Hostage, Stanton Warriors, Low Steppa, etc. but there is also a new generation of skilled producers we admire: Taiki Nulight, Dosage, Left/Right, Skapes, etc. Also we discovered a “raw and heavy house and bass” faction from Holland and around that we really enjoy: U Know The Drill, Wouter S & Locklead, Ovis , Thijs Haal, etc..
– NDJ: The music I promote is house, garage, bassline and two-step based on the 90’s house and garage sound with a touch of future garage.
What are your future plans for the label? New releases, gigs, albums or new members to sign?
– Blanilla: Sure, we will soon have another exclusive free download, this time from our good friend, D-Fact. We are also preparing some summer parties for the upcoming hot season. We are keen to discover new artists that suite our music area, so, yes, expect new names on Ruffinaments.
– Manki: We are also planning to record a short live act with Blanilla and NDJ these days so who knows, maybe I’ll become a director this time. The project BLANKI got some interest from the UK label Prescribed, so a release or a compilation with our second track will emerge in the following months.
We absolutely loved ‘High on Love’ by Blanki. What’s the story for this song, how did you organize to collaboration? Will there more collabs like this?
– Blanilla: Victor and I have always had a passion for tough beats and heavy basslines. Plus that we are friends and colleagues, so, it all came natural in doing a project together. Technically it was very easy, as we both work in the same DAW, so we were making “ping-pong” with the song, sending it one to the other and see what we should add or erase. For sure, as we speak, we are preparing another Ruffinaments crew collaboration.
You all are going to play on Electric Castle. What do think about the festival and its dominance in Romania?
– Blanilla: Electric Castle is just great! It’s been built by people that have a really strong music culture & passion, that’s why their success came so quickly. After the 2nd edition it became the biggest festival in Romania. They really know their thing and I’m sure they will go a long way in this industry. We can’t wait to play there!
– Manki: The headliner, The Prodigy is so heavy and hard to overtake. Also there are a lot of great producers this year, who will have some magic to cast. The location of the festival is very attractive too and the crowd’s appetite for good music and artists definitely will count, so see you there!
– NDJ: I have played every year at EC from the beginning and all I can say is: this is the best music festival in Romania. Lovely place, very good infrastructure, top artists and superstar DJ’s. When I get there every time, I feel like 10 years ago at Sziget or Balaton Sound.
What does the electronic music scene like in Romania and what influence does the festival have on the local music scene?
– Blanilla: It’s growing constantly in the past years, I’d say we can easily compare with other European countries. Of course, Electric Castle has brought things to a higher level, organizing promo parties during the year (besides the actual festival) with cool international artists, so it’s been clearly influencing the local scene in a positive way .
– NDJ: We have only a few cities in Romania where you can actually hear electronic dance music and sub genres: the capital and in Transylvania, Cluj of course. Bucharest was always more house-techno based, while here the audience is more diversified and opened to different genres, for example drum and bass, breaks or garage. Cluj was always a place where you can hear and see fresh stuff, but now since EC was born it’s much easier for us to express ourselves behind the turntables.
Which artist are you looking forward to see the most on the festival?
– Blanilla: I’m keen to see Roni Size, Evil Nine and of course, The Prodigy. They were all main inspirations for me as a youngster and their music formed me also as a Dj and producer so, I owe them a lot. Of course, I’m interested in seeing other acts that have a sound that we promote on Ruffinaments: B.Traits, Dark Sky, French Fries, Eliphino, XXXY.
– Manki: The Prodigy of course, for their greatest contribution to the electronic music. They are the pioneers of the genre, while I am also looking forward to see some producers I simply like and admire: Evil Nine, Ishome, Guts, Synkro, Ndj, Blanilla, Barac, Priku, etc..
– NDJ: Evil Nine, B. Traits, Dark Sky, French Fries and some drum n bass classics like Roni Size.
Hungary and Romania are in the same qualifier group for the European Football championship? Who is going to qualify, what are your predictions?
– Blanilla: I’m really not into football, as it doesn’t have anything to do with sports for a long time now. Football is extremely overrated and I hate that a lot of other sports are being left aside, due to the huge business that football has become. So, it’s ok if either Romania or Hungary to qualify. I’m only playing football on Playstation.
– Manki: I just don’t like football, I prefer UFC, motorsports and extreme sports, but I’m not spending too much time with that because my passion for music occupies almost the whole time that I got.
– NDJ: Hungary has no chance…Sorry!
There have been a lot of anti-immigration talks in England and in Hungary(especially from the government) as well. What’s your opinion about that, given that a lot of Romanians choose to relocate to different country?
– Blanilla: First of all, we were all born on Earth and should be able to go and live in any part of the world we chose to. That would be normal for me. Secondly, Romanians are hard working people and they are willing to do some jobs that the English people avoid. Plus they have bigger problems with the millions of people that are emigrating from Asia, so, they should cut us some slack.
– Manki: Some politicians are trying to keep people mind diverted from the real problems they really have, like fundamentalists, the terrorist threats and of course, corruption, so you will always see them exploiting all sort of myths and talks about anti-immigration, and they will try to make big talks from small unwanted events trying to squeeze some emotional reactions from you and of course they will always prepare you for the “worst”. On the other hand, there are a lot of great things happening with our people, why anyone never talks about it?
WIN WITH US:
Which day broke the attendance record last year and who was the headliner that day?
Send your answers to jatek@koncertblog.hu until 23 June 12 am. We have 4 4-day passes to give away, so hurry up. The winners will be displayed on our Facebook site and will be notified in e-mail as well, with information how they they enter the festival. If you liked the article, like our Facebook page as well.