Influences 004 – Impish

Roman ‘Impish’ was born in 1984 and grew up in Moscow. Besides being involved with the free party scene and soundsystem culture his main focus lied with funk, rock, rhythm & blues and metal. After graduating friends introduced him to drum and bass and he instantly fell in love. Where he first spent hours of his time playing guitars and drums, collecting vinyl and producing electronic music became his new occupation.

Besides releasing music on his own imprint, Impish is currently active with Fokuz Recordings and RAM records’ sublabel progRAM. His style of producing and DJ’ing is all about blending the rough with the smooth which already resulted in DJ support from DJ Marky, DJ Hype, Spectrasoul, Technimatic, Break, BTK, Zero T, Random Movement

“My musical taste was brought up on live music. During my childhood, apart from playing guitars and keys I played drums. Throughout my life I I’ve been surrounded by live music such as Deftones and Nirvana. I’ll never let it go from my heart.”

Deftones - My Own Summer

“When speaking about the Deftones especially I like the White Pony album. Let’s start with this track called My Own Summer.”

”This is what me and my mates grew up to. After school we roamed the districts of Moscow with guitars, recorded our own songs on tape recorders and staged free concerts.”

”For me this is so much more valuable than anything that you can find today in the shitty charts. This is music for the mind and soul, it’s the kind of music I’d like to remember in my next life.”

Deftones - Digital Bath

”Probably my favourite song ever! I love the sound of their White Pony album.”

Garbage - You Look So Fine

”Let’s pretend, happy end”

Selah Sue - Alive

”Don’t tell anyone, but I’m the biggest fan of Sanne. Maybe someone noticed but I often sample her voice in my tracks. If I ever get the opportunity to write songs with her I can die in piece.”

Guano Apes - Living In A Lie

”Sandra Nasić. Another woman whose songs made my musical youth. I love the harder songs, but especially the ballads sound great. And yes, again I’m loving these drums.”

Garbage - I Think I'm Paranoid

”When classic Grunge was finished for me — Garbage appeared. I also love Foo Fighters, Hole and Silver Chair but if I start to list all the Grunge, Post-Grunge groups I like this top-10 would get way too long.”

The Atelier - The Gypsy Song

”If I ever tell you there are more closed musicians than Vasilisa in my life just shoot me down. Her voice is the number one for me, forever. We did a lot of music together and managed to release only a small part untill this day. I love everything you do and would give much to write a couple of new tracks together. But I am just a Moscow underground loser and you’re now the biggest French Tattoo artist thousands miles away! Love you.”

Kidneythieves — Zerospace

”It’s hard  to select just 10 tracks of the thousands I like. But right now I would listen to these.”