Umek: Presidential Plug
The President of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, has publically voted for local DJs including Gramatik, Valentino Kanzyani and Umek in DJ Magazine’s annual Top 100 DJs polls and urged Slovenians to do the same.
“Dear friends, we live in difficult times, where there is disagreement we need harmony,” the President explained in a video interview showing him voting.
“Instead of destruction, we want creativity. When we find confusion, we call for rhythm. Music is a universal language. It can bring us together, in peace, love, unity and respect,” he continued.
“Umek stands for all that. And that is why I’m voting for him in this year’s DJ mag top 100. And so should you,” he urged.
Umek started DJing in 1991 when he was 14, just as Yugoslavia collapsed into war, in a conflict which Slovenia mercifully largely escaped. Chatting to Skrufff in 2003, he recalled being first exposed to dance music on mix cassettes smuggled into the country in 1988, with Todd Terry his favourite DJ of the time.
“I first thought of DJing when I was going to school dances and I saw a guy doing it with CDs and cassettes but I saw his role as being the main guy manipulating the music and vibe by playing whatever he wanted. It looked really great and I decided I wanted to be a DJ,” he recalled.
“Then in 1988 I got totally into acid house music and that was the first dance music I heard. I would say Todd Terry had a big influence on me, I really enjoyed his music.”
“If you were listening to dance music back then, people would literally say to you ‘You are a really strange person’,” he added.
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