The Mr. DYF interview for Radio Premium

- Hi, nice to meet you
- I wonder are you usually called Mr DYF, or Dmitry?

- Sometimes they call me Dima DyF ,but usually just DyF
- Was it hard to think of such a nick-name?

- Dmitry Yuriewich Frolow-not so difficult
- But why not DJ Frolow, or something? Was there another DJ Frolow?

- Oh It’s a very old story. The thing is that I’ve got a friend. He used to call himself DYK, and me-DYK-that’s how it all started.
- Is it something from your childhood?

- I’d rather said I was 18 than
- I see, and how old are you now?

- O.K. Tell us how did it all start. There are lots of D.J’s and some of them are very popular. You’re also among those, who have become amasingly  popular, especially because of your last video clip
- Well, I think wide audience have heard much at discos, but sometimes they don’t know who composed it.

- Dmitry, I know that there are some D.J’s who seat at home, and work with some tracks. They make their own remixes , their own arrangements out of them, add some voice effects, right?
- Well, quite possible

- O.K. But some D.J’s, like you, for example usually work with person, they arrange and make some track together.
- Well, usually it goes like this.

- Or you just call and say that you like his, or her song and ask if you may work with it and make a remix, how does it all work?
- There are two possible variants. The first one is than you make your own remix. The other one is than you make some track together with someone else. You see-track “Hold on” is made together with Shena, It was my music, and her vocal.

- So a new hit is made together with someone, and a remix is made on your own.
- Yes, at first the title is denoted, and then the singer, or the author, and at last D.J, who made a remix.

- Our listeners will throw rotten tomatoes in me, saying that I don’t understand anything , but nevertheless it is interesting to ask D.J. about it. But anyway, I wonder what you do than you are for example in Moscow, and singer is in some other part of the world? You should get to know each other  somehow. The point is that you are the D.J. Who can make a really good track.
- Well I can say that for some singers, for example Shena, who has never heard my songs before I send music first, and then she writes lyrics, and sings it.

- So you,  as a composer send music to her, and then you create lyrics together.
- She makes vocal and writes lyrics, and if I don’t like the vocal, or something else needs to be redone, she does it, but as a rule, one attempt is enough, cause usually you know beforehand the way person sings and what kind of lyrics does he or she write. As a rule, work with those, who write lyrics.

- Is it because you can’t write lyrics yourself?
- In English no. It’s very difficult. It’s much easier to compose music.

- You talk about Shena, but what about other singers?
- Kathrin Alice for instance-we’ve got united track. She wrote Lyrics, and I- music. And Kit Thomson. Track “I need you tonight “ we’ve made together . It was recorder in half an hour, because it was told to Kit, to go to the studio  urgently to record the track. Here’s the music-listen to it. And so he did, he said, that the music was was cool and wrote lyrics in no time. It took us an hour to get to the studio, and we recorded the track. So as a rule, everything is done spontanly and quickly, but  with different singers things are never the same. In my list there is even such a big star as C.C. Catch.

- We’ll talk about her a bit later, cause I guess It’s going to be a really long talk. I wonder how profitable is it for a singer to work with you? Maybe its really interesting for them cause it will take only half an hour to make a successful track
-I wouldn’t say so. As a rule, vocalist then he receives music ,already knows, how to sing it. The thing is that then you write vocal with keys, they don’t use it, they use that they got in their head, so it is joint work anyway.

- O.K. You were talking like you just have to work for half an hour, and track is ready.
- No, he was he was just writing lyrics for an hour, and music can born immediately, and sometimes it may take an hour or even a week. You try your best to make your  track as good, as possible, but as a rule, all singers hear that might born right from the start, they sing it ,and send to you vocal tracks, and then you make exactly what you want out of it. That’s how I usually complete all tracks, but there are some singers, who record their vocal tracks quite long. I’ve got this track-a famous remix of “here comes gray night again”. I’ve removed all that stuff, I mean vocal parts, It was a kind of remix, you know, and I’ve decided to make a complete track out of it. I’ve sent it to band called Electro Vamp-there is such a cute English girls band, but it took them a year to record their vocal track. I’ve received it only this week.

- Maybe they have forgotten about it?
- I think than people record an album, they do it for years, sometimes they just don’t have enough time. No, they have sent several records to me, but something went wrong-with singing it, or something...

- On the other hand such a suffered track may turn out to be a superhit.
- You see, as a rule, superhits ,they born very quickly.

- Oh realy! So song needn’t to be suffered, to become a superhit.
- It’s quite seldom, you know. Even with C.C. Catch it was quite a large work in studio, and by the way we have recorded vocal track with CAROLINE In Moscow, and it took quite long-somewhat 3-4 months.

- It’s really interesting! By the way, l et  us tell to our listeners ,that this album is going to be released in near future.
- The album is ready, it is being completed, there are no remixes there.

- Will it be named Mr DyF feat C.C. Catch?
- It depends on how we agree.

- You mean, you didn’t think it off yet ?
- I think It is going to be named C.C. Catch anyway, but I don’t know if my name is going to be denoted, or it will be among authors.

- Oh what a pity. It’s so unpleasant, you’ve worked so hard…
- No, It’s O.K. sometimes singers apply to some producers or musicians, and they don’t write their names on the cover. It depends on the status of the star

- Nevertheless, such a eminent star, who is known by several generations…whose initiative it was?
- I’ve got friends, with whom I work for a long time. They arrange Caroline’s arrivals to Moscow. It’s a booking agency, they deal with concerts and performances. They said “How about some work? We like your music. You could try to do something together with her. To tell the truth, she has never heard mu tracks before.

- So it was just guidance? Oh man! Just imagine what an authority should one have, to make such a star believe…
- Anyway they are creative people. Everything depends on luck. If it is easy to deal with person, than why not

- So you just met, had a talk, and decided that she might come to Moscow, and spend some time on working with you
- Well, something like that, because at first music material was sent to her. After this final decision to work together was made, and then studio, the way the album sounds figured out right in the end, cause at first she presented her own lyrics, which she had been writing for years, and keeping it cause she didn’t have any albums since 1989,

- that’s why she was interested in it too.
- yes, and she was living in England for quite a long time, and they have an expression, which says that a person, who listens to one kind of music becomes a kind of sponge as a musician and begins to create not exactly what you want to hear, and here comes this process on and on, some new material is done, and I begin to understand if I can do something out of it ore not, anyway, it’s very creative process. If she likes what I’ve done, I’ve got good lyrics, and vice versa, If she got good lyrics, I’ve got good melody-It’s collaboration. What is primary, and what is secondary doesn’t matter. It’s impotand to get a good material.

- Let’s turn on next track. O.K. Let it play on the background. It’s Mr DyF’s track, which track is it?
- Now “barrel” will sound. Lots of music will appear. Only this year I have created 25 tracks

- Oh man!!
- 18 of them are in album of C.C. Catch.

- let us go on talking about C. C. Catch.
- It sounds the remix of the song “Disco band” by Scotch.

- Cool, let us listen to it, and while listening let’s continue our talk about C. C. Catch. We didn’t finish it. I don’t remember where we stopped. We were talking about your work with her, and 12 tracks, which you have made.
- No,18 tracks, at first, something was selected. Now there are 12 tracks in album.

- On which territory is this album released? A worldwide one?
- Yes, at first we wanted to release it in Russia, we had negotiations with 2 record labels-“Universal” and “Sony Music”, and by this time we don’t have any success. It all lasted from june to September. They liked our material, but today this record label doesn’t earn much money, and they wanted Caroline to sing at all their concerts. We couldn’t afford it, cause earlier, than record labels ordered music, it  invested some money and raised the singer. By this time, situation is different. There is plenty of music in the internet,and it is rarely sold on CD’s

- Did you come to an agreement by now?
- Not yet.

- And who invests money,at time creating your album? You cope by yourself?
- Yes, by ourselves, we want to create music…

- so you invest money together with Caroline?
- Yes, something like that.

- As I can see, It is all studio, work of people, who got to eat something anyway. I understand, that you and Caroline might work for free, but what about others?
- Well, certainly it is all work in studio, money, espetialy when you create not one or two tracks, but an album

- Oh, I see! Another interesting point is that as you said before the programe, you sing-right?
- Yes, right…

- Did you ever study choral singing professionally?
- For 8 years…

- So why not singing by yourself?
- Maybe a bit later. The only thing, that stopes me, Is the lack of good lyrics. You see, you can’t create a really good song without good lyrics. I want everything to be perfect.

- So if you’ll have an interesting music material, and if someone will sudgest some good lyrics, you may sing by yourself, right?
- Certainly.

- Than it would be written not Mr. DyF feat someone, but just Mr. DyF
- Yes, I’ve already got such songs. There are 6 of them.

- Really? Cool!
- But I don’t have them with me. You see, they were recorded long ago,maybe they are waiting for being rearranged and released.

- Cool!!
- So when you’ll feel like a real star…

-You see,It all starts than fanf of C. C. Catch start calling you,asking about the release of our album…