Port of Roses
Looking at a map, it’s easy for westerners to miss Slovenia.
Nestled between Italy and Croatia, only a sliver of the country touches the
Mediterranean. At its furthest edge is Portoroz, with a resident population of
a few thousand, a boardwalk, a marina and a strong tourism industry. It’s the
birthplace of Gramatik, aka Dennis J, and represents the beginning of a journey
that has led him to New York.
“I’m not a DJ,” he says, making an important point about his
music. The 26-year-old Slovenian with a scruffy beard plays a sample-laden
blend of electronica that exudes hip-hop and soul as much as it does breakbeat
or dubstep. And despite putting out two projects a year, which is in some ways
a very DJ thing to do, the music is an original creation.
Last month Gramatik released Beatz and Pieces Vol. 1, one of his two annual projects. “It has that
warm-air vibe,” says Gramatik of “Portorose in July,” a track off the album
meant to mimic the feeling of summer in his hometown, when temperatures are in
the low 80s and the wind blows in off the Mediterranean. The song is
reminiscent of something you might hear on an Ibiza chill-out compilation, but
with a backbone that’s decidedly more street. Gramatik describes the album as
“instrumental hip-hop on steroids.” His other yearly project, Street Bangerz,
which is more dance-friendly, was last released in 2010. “It’s a little
more like the kind of music [Pretty Lights] plays,” he says. Later this year, Gramatik plans to release Never Been a Silent Type in place of the Bangerz series.
Dennis first came to the United States in 2009 when he was
touring in support of Pretty Lights, another musician who brings hip-hop and
soul style to heavy, dance-friendly beats. That’s when the two first struck up
a conversation about the music industry and what each was trying to do. “We
immediately shared a similar vision about music,” says Dennis. Gramatik
eventually signed up with Pretty Light’s own somewhat DIY music label, Pretty
Lights Music. In September, Gramatik is playing New York’s preeminent
electronica festival, Electric Zoo.
“It’s easy to adapt to playing in different environments,
whether it’s a chiller spot or outdoors,” says Gramatik, “because I’m playing
my own music, so I know its DNA.” Gramatik carts an APC 40 on stage, a kind of
live performance controller akin to a conductor’s baton—if the baton were
hooked up to every instrument in the orchestra. The music is complemented by
live instrumentation supplied by Alex, a friend who made the trip with him from
Slovenia.
“Slovenia’s a really small country—we don’t have a
substantial music scene,” Gramatik says. “Big countries surround us, so I was
exposed to all kinds of music, but listening to music is different from having
a scene.”
Trying to make it back home was no easy task. Gramatik
started in his teens making beats and rapping over them, putting out an album
in 2006 in Slovenian. “But when you’re rapping in Slovenian,” he says, starting
to laugh, “it’s confined within the borders of the country. There are only 2
million people who speak Slovenian, so there’s not much you can really do if
you’re rapping in Slovenian!”
Now Gramatik is focused on spreading his music far and wide,
and doing so while employing a strategy of giving things away for free. At
Pretty Lights Music, you can download much of Gramatik’s work for free.
Contributing money is an option, not a demand. “Music is free, it’s the best
thing ever,” says Dennis. “If it has to be bought, there’s a reaction, a reactionary
dislike…But if it’s free and you spread it and build a fan base and they come
to the show, that’s how you do it, that’s how you make your money.
Since Gramatik moved to Brooklyn several months ago from
Europe, he’s excited to keep pushing forward in a place that can be competitive
musically. “Since I was a kid I dreamed of moving to New York. It sounds
clichéd, but that’s how it is,” he laughs. “I’m happy.
“But that’s the thing with music,”
he continues. “You’re just never satisfied and it never ends.”
Gramatik
Sept. 4, Electric Zoo, Randall’s Island, www.electriczoofestival.com; 7,
single-day passes $109–$139.