Receptor and Garud
Maniphest Records - RU
Words: Kathy Russell

Based in Volgodonsk, Russian Federation, Dmitriy Veshunov also known as RECEPTOR has quickly become one of the Russian drum and bass scene's brightest stars. His first breakthrough was when he was signed on well-known label Breed12Inches with massive neurotech tune Rhyno. Nowadays Receptor has releases on BETA Recordings, Breed12Inches, Obsessions, TAM Records, Maniphest Records, Algorythm Recordings, Subsonik Sound Recordings, Respect Records & Mainframe.

Based in Rostov Oblast, Russia, Gregory Cherekaev (aka Garud), is a DJ, label manager and promoter. He owns and runs the labels Maniphest Records with Receptor, and has his own label, Orisha Records.

EverydayJunglist: How long have you been writing music? When did you start?
Receptor: I started around 2004.

EverydayJunglist: Tell us a little about yourself. What did you do for your last birthday? What did you have for breakfast today?
Receptor: Ah, my last birthday I'm particularly not happy, I usually don't celebrate birthdays much. As for the other, well, not much to say... I just like coffee.

EverydayJunglist: Do you have a "day job"?
Receptor: Nope. My job is DJ'ing and making music. Only that.

EverydayJunglist: Lucky.
Receptor: And I'm only 22!

EverydayJunglist: Garud, you are the same age, correct?
Garud: That's right. I'm 22 as well. Why do you ask?

EverydayJunglist: It seems half the Russian dnb scene isn't even old enough to drink alchohol in the US.
Garud: Haha! We can drink. Wherever we want. Whatever we want. Sex, drugs, and dnb! As for age, it doesn't really matter. I think Failnox is still a school boy, but he makes music and develops himself. I myself already have a small business here. It's an interesting thing to discuss, really.
Receptor: Dnb came to Russia later than to Europe or the US. It's popular now more than it's ever been before. And there are a lot of hard-working talanted young men who want to bring something new to dnb.

EverydayJunglist: Have you ever been to the U.S. before?
Receptor: I have never been to the U.S.

EverydayJunglist: How long does it take you to write a track?
Receptor: It's different every time. It may take me anywhere between 8 hours to a few months.

EverydayJunglist: What DAW do you prefer to use? What Plug-ins do you find yourself using often?
Receptor: I'm using FruityLoops Studio 10. For plug-ins…emmm... NI Massive especially, and Z3TA+, Sylenth, FM8.

EverydayJunglist: When your producers collaborate, do they normally go in the studio together or is it easier to send sound files back and forth online?
Receptor: To be honest, I prefer to work alone. Usually I'll send the project to Garud, he sends it to the producer, than I finish. But often the guys I am working with will finish the project. Sometimes someone will send me ideas & I'll finish them. 

EverydayJunglist: Tell us a little about the dnb scene in Russia. Is it as big as it seems?
Garud: Well, the really big dnb parties are pretty much only in Moscow and St Petersburg. We are trying to develop the dnb scene in the cities we live in. We have shows, but they are usually smaller. Here in Rostov for example, rnb and house rules. We had a show here with Receptor, Paperclip, nPhonix, and Engage, and I think the turnout was about 400 or so. It really depends.
Receptor: People in Russia love dnb, but not all subgenres. The most popular are mainstream & neurofunk. In cities like Ekaterenburg, Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk, Omsk - sometimes there are big festivals like in Moscow & ST. Petersburg. But anyway Moscow is the leader. I have never seen more people than at World of Drum and Bass in Moscow. Ukraine is like Russia for me. I don't separate these 2 countries. Liquid & deep stuff are not very popular.  

EverydayJunglist: Would you describe the people behind the scenes there as being pretty close? Do you talk to people like Bes, Engage, Paperclip, etc.. often?
Receptor: All of us are very close to each other. Entusiasm & love to dnb united us. We love to give music to people. Engage, Bes - they are two of my closest friends in Russia. Bes gave neurofunk to all of us. 

EverydayJunglist: When we here at everydayjunglist did our research we came across the PROMODJ website. It seems like a pretty powerful promotional tool for the Russian market. Would you agree?
Receptor/Garud: Oh absolutely! Both of us have podcasts on there, among other things. You can find them at http://enclave61.pdj.com , and http://receptor.pdj.com . Both of us have our next podcast currently in the works, so bookmark it! If people would like to know more about Russian dnb probably the biggest podcast is the Neuropunk one: http://bessah.pdj.com . DJ Bes has debuted many young talented producers on that podcast, even Receptor.

EverydayJunglist: Is there a difference between Neurofunk and Neuropunk?
Receptor/Garud: Nah, it's just a brand. You know, like a play on words.

EverydayJunglist: Speaking of brands, let's talk about the label the two of you run, Maniphest Records. How did it start? How do the two of you know each other?
Garud: Actually, when I first got the idea to run a label, it was about 3 years ago. This was with another friend of mine. We started to collect tunes from everyone like maniacs! But one day, I realized that everything we had signed was shit. I didn't know anything about distribution, sales, the vinyl market, anything.

EverydayJunglist: You mean you signed shitty tracks?
Garud: Haha, Yeah. I have the biggest collection of shit from that time period. I only had the idea, without the quality. Sometime later I heard Receptor's tune "Crematorium" at a party we were both playing. At the time I didn't know him personally, but I really fell in love with that tune. So, after the show I caught up with him, and, well, I basically stole him from the promoters!

EverydayJunglist: You kidnapped him?
Garud: Heh, something like that, yeah. Pretty much right from the taxi.
Receptor: After my dj set he come to me like red tomato shouting "Whatta fuck was that tune?!" I said it was beta of "Crematorium ". He yells "Pizdec! Incredible tune"! Than he told the taxi driver to drive away and he took me to his car. We started to talk and found that we have a lot of common interests, hobbies etc.
Garud: I offered him to sign Crematorium to my label. I guess that was about 2 years ago, maybe? And then we started to work on a label together. He knew all the producers in Russia, and I had a good knowledge of English so I started to communicate with producers outside the country. We decided to make vinyl, to rebrand the label, and, most importantly, to do good quality, to sign the best tunes, etc. Our first signed tunes were "Attic" and "Freez" by Cooh. Then we signed "Moscow" and "Vtakt", which was very symbolic for me, because "Moscow" was the first tune I heard by Cooh in St Petersburg years ago. One of the first positive changes for me as well has been changing distributors. I don't want to badmouth anybody, but I definitely experienced some empty promises in that category. After some let's say "learning experiences" I made the switch to Triple Vision. Once we started working with Triple everything became OK! They are a hard working crew, and they helped me a lot with running the label.
Receptor: Running Maniphest was his idea. And actually he is the boss, I am more like art & music support. For now he is my manager. And I am sure u won't find anyone better than he. You will hear about him, I am sure!

EverydayJunglist: So, saying that, do you plan on doing vinyl and digital releases on Maniphest?
Garud: Yes, sure. We are gonna have some releases on vinyl and digital, and some releases only in one or the other. Digital Only releases will be mostly for Maniphest's newcomers. We just signed "Minion" and "Warhead" by a new Russian producer AVIS. He's really talented.

EverydayJunglist: With things like Serato, CDJ's, and Ableton, more and more people are considering vinyl to be a dead medium. What are your thoughts on that?
Garud: You know, at the moment it's still the law of the market. Producers don't want to release really big tunes on digital. They want vinyl releases. Hey, if all my favorite producers would agree to only release digital I would never start making vinyl. I am also a DJ and I'm not the biggest fan of it. I prefer digital DJing with Ableton Live, some controllers, effects, etc. It gives me more possibilities to experiment with. You know, someone once said "While old school guys have fucking big bags with vinyls, new wave DJ's travel easily with a laptop" haha.. I'm actually starting a second label soon for like, deep, dubby and experimental stuff. I plan on that being digital only.

EverydayJunglist: Is there a specific sound or style you want for your label?
Receptor: We have couple of techno-dnb, darkside tunes soon on Maniphest. But in the future we're thinking of changing the concept of maniphest & start to release neuro & mainstream stuff. Maybe we'll also have some 120-140 bpm releases.

EverydayJunglist: How much of the current market have you found to be vinyl to digital sales? 20%?
Garud: Man… I couldn't really say. If you're Ed Rush you have good sales no matter what. If you're Dick from Dicktown you have no sales at all. You know, now that I think about it I still didn't receive sales results for MNPHST001, so I can say, at the moment, I AM Dick from Dicktown! Hahaha!

EverydayJunglist: Is there a Dicktown in Russia?
Garud: No, we have another name for it. ;)

EverydayJunglist: What are your thoughts on dubstep?
Garud: Hmm.. well, I can't say dubstep is shit, but I'm personally not a fan of it. There's a few tunes I like, like Feed Me's stuff, and sure, Skrillex. Nero..I also like Balkansky. I'm a commercial bitch when it comes to dubstep. I'm like girls who like Lady Gaga. The best dubstep tune ever for me is probably Counterstrike – Careful with that Axe. It's fucking big, awesome.
Receptor: Dubstep is interesting music. I love it's groove, but I am not a real fan. I love Skrillex, Datsik, Caspa, Borgore, 16 bit & Broken Note.  I also make some dubstep now & soon will have couple of releases. 

EverydayJunglist: Can we get a current top five from you?
Garud: The Upbeats and Dose – Raiders
Maztek and Grotesque – Straight 2 Bad
NRanges and Uberman – So Sharp (Feat MC Nuclear)
Receptor – Kislorod
Gein and Counterstrike – Killer
Receptor:   Prodigy - Thunder,
Royksopp - Vision One
The Pointer Sisters - Dare Me (!),
Ram Trilogy - Screamer VIP
Afrojack & Eva Simons - Take Over Control

EverydayJunglist: What can we expect from the two of you in 2012?
Receptor: We will wear super hero costumes & fly to save galaxy! But seriously, we are gonna have European tour together. 

EverydayJunglist: Well thanks a lot for your time guys, is there anything you want to say to the US dnb headz?
Receptor: Come to visit me in Russia!

EverydayJunglist: One last question and this is just for fun - if you could have one "superpower" what would it be?
Receptor: I'd like to have the power to create and destroy different objects (not people!)
Garud: It would be useful to destroy all weapons in the world, etc. I hate war & everything about it. 

http://www.facebook.com/maniphestrecs
http://soundcloud.com/maniphest
http://www.triplevision.nl/label/Maniphest+Records/
http://www.facebook.com/Receptormusic