Svarog, a prominent figure in the hypno and deep tech scene, will perform in Hungary for the first time on February 6, invited by the two-year-old Geonosis collective to the Kassa Boat. The conversation reveals how his sound is shaped by creative intuition, discipline honed through sports, and reflective self-awareness, as well as the principles guiding the construction of his DJ sets. The interview offers insight into the philosophical and musical mindset of the Ukrainian DJ/producer, while outlining his deeply considered, personal relationship with techno.

The name Svarog in Slavic mythology refers simultaneously to fire, creation, and order. How does this concept reflect in your music?

Over the more than ten years of the project’s existence I have grown up, changed. I don’t know if my vision of music still coincides with this concept, maybe this is the reason why the project has not become widespread, because the stated concept has ceased to correspond to what I create and how I perform. Of the above, there is certainly a share of creation and a little order. As for fire, it can only be used as a metaphor for a source of warmth and wisdom, but not drive and charge.

Since you wanted to become a football player as a child, I’m curious how football — with its discipline, rhythm, and teamwork — has influenced your approach to music, and what aspects of it do you still carry into your productions today?

Perhaps active sports in the past have developed certain habits of not paying attention to difficult environmental conditions. It could rain or snow during training, but this was not a reason to cancel it. I can’t say that I am very diligent and hardworking, but it is actually very difficult to find a reason not to do music, as it was with football, although I understood that my level of play was very weak. In creativity, of course, the parameters of the quality of an artist can be subjective, because people have different tastes, so it is easier not to subject yourself to strict criticism there. An interesting case was when I worked in a store with DJ and sound equipment, then I conducted DJ lessons there. And there I realized that I could apply certain approaches to training skills that are used in sports.

How did your relationship with techno begin, and what musical path did you follow first as a listener and later as a creator before developing your own distinct sound?

I think my first acquaintance with electronic music was not associated with pop artists like Kraftwerk or Prodigy. Most likely it was psytrance, goatrance. And only then, having delved into the search for music, I heard Tiesto and other media artists.

I listened to a lot of psychedelic chillout, cinematic music, maybe it has some influence on my sound. Although I doubt that only music affects my tastes and vision. For example, Igor Yanovich’s paintings can form some kind of abstraction (somewhat similar to Mike Parker’s paintings) or Andriy Hir’s sculpture can touch some patterns of the mind and he will begin to show a certain ethnic and mystical side in his work.

In fact, this is too complicated a question to give a satisfactory answer to it.

If you had to define techno in a single sentence, what would it mean to you, and what makes it truly special in your eyes?

Step by step, the frames and templates through which I look at the world are breaking down. Slowly, but they are crumbling. I think because of this I can’t create any good metaphor for techno. Obviously the genre has become very broad and diverse, so all I can say about techno is that it is a genre of electronic dance music.

Under what circumstances do you feel most in your element behind the DJ decks — whether it’s the venue’s characteristics, the audience’s response, or the arc of your set — and what internal state does this evoke when you feel that everything falls perfectly into place?

I probably feel most comfortable when my playlists have enough music that I want to play. Despite the oversaturation of the music market, I can’t always find what I want.

What is the most ideal place for you to play music? What does the perfect club look like to you?

I can hardly describe the perfect place. It’s easier for me to name things that spoil the impression of a club or event. I really don’t like it when a small DJ booth is squeezed somewhere in the corner. Firstly, the artist is hidden in this way and cannot interact with the listener, and secondly, it is terribly inconvenient from a technical point of view. It is impossible to comfortably spread out the equipment there, for this they put these multi-story racks with decks that completely block the view of the stage from the audience.

What is your process for producing music, and how do you prepare your DJ sets for a performance?

I’ll have to keep it a secret, because my Patreon, where there are records of me working on tracks, will lose its value. As for preparing for DJ sets, yes, I prepare for them meticulously, because I don’t play as often as I would like and because of that I don’t have time to memorize the tracks I play.

Which emerging producers do you think people should keep an eye on in the future?

Alex Skyspirit, Martin Allin, Notzing, Foreign Material, UUN

but I don’t know if they can be called developing artists. It’s possible that they are already established artists

How do you see, or hope to see, the future of techno culture in the next ten years?

looking at how different experts in different fields give forecasts and predictions, I understand that I don’t want to look like them, because the entropy is too high to be able to predict anything. If we talk about how I would like to see it, it is more conscious and intelligent, where I am at the top of the industry.

Your first performance in Hungary is coming up. What message would you like to share with the audience in Budapest?

I don’t want to set any narrative in advance. Let people come, listen and form their own impression. Maybe it will be a wonderful experience, or maybe it will be typical. It’s like a satsang. It’s important to come and listen, but whether you will wake up from the teacher’s words is unknown. Although comparing it to a satsang is already a certain narrative.