Artur & Batish have been smashing the Beatport melodic techno (and other genres) chart for over a year now with their unique and warm analogue productions, and are certainly a name on everyone’s lips right now. It came as no surprise to see these guys pick up “Best Breakthrough Act’ at the 2019 DJ Awards in Ibiza last week. Nick Coles caught up with them both for a few quick words down at Ocean Drive, prior to the win.
Hey guys, here we are at the 2019 DJ Awards in Ibiza, how are you and what’s been happening lately?
Hi, thanks for inviting us for an interview, it’s very nice to be here. We are both good.
You guys have had an amazing year, and deservedly are nominated for Best Breakthrough Act, you must be pretty excited?
Yes, we are very excited about this, we didn’t expect any nominations. We just like to share our music and spend time in Ibiza, but of course we are very glad and happy to be nominated this time around.
Your music seems to be appealing to DJs right across the board, from Techno to Progressive, and Trance DJs all playing your music. Was it your intention when starting ARTBAT, to create music that appeals to a wide range of ears?
Before we started ARTBAT, we DJ’d for a long time in many different clubs, Batish liked to play Techno, Deep House stuff and I also like to play Techno, but also House music. Over 20 years we have been exposed to lots of different music, of course Trance as well. When we started we just wanted to do something new, something that was ours, and I think our overall experiences have definitely helped us to cross boundaries now.
Having released music already on labels such as Diynamic Music, Afterlife and Watergate, are there any other major outlets we may find your music on moving forwards?
We don’t think about other labels much, since 2006 we like to grow our music on Diynamic, and of course Afterlife. They both enable us to release the music we want and we both like the music from these labels a lot. They offer us maximum reflection for our sound. It’s like family.
You are both from Kiev right? What is the scene like in the Ukraine currently?
It’s a growing scene, we do not have many club, but the people there like quality music. It’s not in the thousands but in Kiev we have 3-4 strong clubs that play Techno, House, Deep and underground sounds. It’s more about quality not quantity where we come from.
How have your gigs been this summer here in Ibiza?
We have played a couple times in Blue Marlin which was amazing, and another time at a really cool private party, which was very special too. A small crowd of people who like what we do, it was good to spend time like that. We have some plans for next year but it’s a little too early to say just yet, we both of course want to return to Ibiza for sure.
Have you found time to see much of the island and chill?
We have been playing in Ibiza now for 4 years, and it’s definitely one of our favourite places to chill. On the beach, around the pool, walking around the old town – we like Ibiza very much. We also have a lot of friends out here and like to spend time with them at their villas.
Any exciting collaborations or projects in the pipeline for the year ahead?
We are actually working on something pretty exciting currently, but we want to make it first before we talk about it, that’s just the way we like to do things – watch this space though.
Finally, as this is an interview for DMC Magazine, what are your own personal memories from the history of the magazine and DMC World DJ Championships?
We have obviously heard of DMC and the comp but being from the Ukraine, it wasn’t so readily available to us when we were growing up in the scene. We will definitely check it out now though for sure…
ARTBAT – Breakthrough Award Winner 2019
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pg/artbatmusic/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/artbatmusic
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/artbatmusic/
For all of this year’s DJ Awards winners, please head over to https://djawards.com/
