Mariupol electronic music producer and DJ Peshka presented a new project Personal Misanthropy and released an EP Feel The Future. It consists of six tracks, some of which the musician recorded in Mariupol before the outbreak of full-scale war. Especially for DTF Magazine Peshka told more about each track of the release.
According to the producer, an alter ego called Personal Misanthropy ‘had been in his head for a long time and he decided it was time to delineate his inner world’
‘In this title you can feel the contradiction between the meaning of the word ‘personal’ and the concept of ‘misanthropy’, which, unfortunately, was formed in me for a very long time, — the musician tells us. — This is a clear flashback to the period of 2014–2015, when my dad came back from the front and shared his worries about our common future, the future of Ukraine. It was terrible, but it became prophetic. It all shaped my personal attitude to people as a species of beings. At the same time, I was well aware that I was also a representative of this species’.
Peshka adds: ‘Almost all the tracks were recorded in different periods of my life in Mariupol. They will remind me of the most warm and terrible memories. Some projects managed to be recreated during the war’.
Downward Spiral
‘It describes an inner state that I have had several times in my life. The last time was in the first six months of the war. The incessant search for missing parents, friends, this pain that had to be drowned out by something. Obviously, music didn’t help. I felt that I was falling down, that the meaning of life was being flushed down the toilet, that my thoughts were reaching their limits. I got out, but I’ll never be the same, because the war took away the best part of me’.
District 23 feat. Moskalien
‘District 23 is the name of the neighborhood where my father and grandmother lived, where I spent a large amount of time as a kid and then all the time related to music. My friend Anton Moskalenko, with whom we recorded this track and many others that will hardly ever be released, lived there. First of all, the process was important for us. It’s hard to believe without hearing his works, but I’ve always said that I’m not even close to his talent. He thought the same thing, but about me. Also in this area lived the family of Zhenya Dekorodi, a resident of our formation [ŲNFORM], whose younger brother was taken prisoner after the defense of Azovstal’.
Feel The Future
‘I set the foundation of this composition in 2019, believing it to be a point of no return in the modern history of Ukraine. Here I return to my dad’s old stories about the fate that, in his opinion, awaited us in the future. Unfortunately, everyone looked at him as if he was crazy, especially me. At the beginning of 2024, I asked myself that question again. What kind of future awaits us if we can’t feel it’.
Livevil
‘Live — evil. It’s an anagram I saw when I was a kid. It’s amusing, but not really funny. Evil lives or we live with evil. In my opinion, it’s a vicious circle’.
Ruins
‘A track that originally had a different name, but during a full-scale war it was taken as an audio component of a flier for several international exhibitions. When I realized that it was a small opportunity to remind people about Mariupol, I immediately renamed it to Ruins. Before that I had already dedicated several tracks to my city, one of which was released on vinyl before this hell came to my land’.
Scorched Earth
‘The final story in this EP was an intro ambient track with voice inserts by a fan of mine from St. Petersburg. After the occupation of Mariupol he sent me a voice message in which he tells me his story about where he was for a few years, after which his story turns into an attempt to convince me that the russians did everything right’.
In October 2023, Peshka recorded the 17th episode of DTF Magazine Mix for us. He described his mix as ‘an allusion to the time period we are living in now’ and the cover features his destroyed house in Mariupol.
‘In an age of global hyperconsumption, I have the audacity to consider myself a creator and a contemplator. I believe that music should evoke thought, because thought is energy. Energy to live, to create. My goal is to immerse my listeners in my own world and, holding their hand, to lead them through my mind palaces… The beginning of war, despair, then acceptance of reality, which tells you don’t have to give up, you have to move on. But what happens next? That depends only on us’.
