Never be Normal’s Jordee steps up for our Ukraine mix series…

Following mixes from Kirik and Cheise, the latest DJ to step up for our Ukrainian mix series is Jordee. A very modern DJ, Jordee is best-known as the man behind Never be Normal, a multimedia house-music loving agency that encompasses a label, a YouTube channel, an Instagram account, a Soundcloud account and much more besides. In short, Jordee is someone whose love for electronic music and the scene runs deep, and definitely someone who’s been doing his utmost to fly the flag for quality electronic music coming out of Ukraine. Listen to Jordee’s mix for us here, and be sure to check the playlist out here. And before you do, step into Jordee’s world by reading our quick Q&A with him below…

Hi Jordee, thanks so much for taking the time to deliver a mix. Before the invasion, can you tell us a bit about your involvement in the Ukrainian scene?

It’s not really important because everyone here changed up very quickly to do the best that we can to get ready when the devils came. I was just djing and organising some small house music events, teaching people djing and production lessons but I played more abroad than in Ukraine in my past.

Now I’m running the Never Be Normal music content journal in Instagram, Soundcloud, YouTube, Tik Tok and Telegram, as well as running a music label without any off days.

‍Have you seen the best of the community shine through? Are you hopeful for a time when this returns? Or is it more a case of taking things day-by-day?

Of course, we really help each other in the music community but more on this subject you can check out my youtube interview, it has lots of insider info from one of the most popular promoters and booking agents – Alexey Smushkov, well known in UK and Europe house artist Sony Synth, and well known in minimal house community Gianluca Felline from Zürich, that’s a big interview and it has links with different communities, festivals, organisers and funds.

Has music been therapeutic for you?

For me, one of the most important parts of my music world is the community of course, talking to a lot of producers and djs every day is, in fact, therapeutic for me, it’s charging me first of all, and I will never be exhausted from communicating with people.

How involved have you been? Have you joined the army, for example?

I haven’t joined the army yet, but I finished military service at the university.

I was a volunteer and a loader at a humanitarian and military warehouse, I also helped at animal shelters. But now I’m trying to donate at least something every week, because I’ve not been employed for 3 years already. I’m 28 and I’m still studying and mastering new professions to earn more money such as video editing and video making as well as photography and social media channels .

I returned to the clubs to play at some places I have never played at before but it works only because those are charity events and still it would only be charity events, more info about this you can find on my youtube channel Never Be Normal, where I made an interview with Sony Synth from Dnipro and Gianluca Felline from Zürich, that came to Kyiv to support us at Kureni, and the local dj Ponomar.

Tell us a bit about the mix you’ve delivered for us, and the vibe you were going for with it.

The mix i delivered consists only from Never Be Normal label tracks, 20% of them are my productions the other are from interesting artists from all over the world. 70% of them are brand new just released, 10% coming soon.

You can buy all the tracks from this podcast on my Never Be Normal Bandcamp or Volumo website.

I’m a really big fan of holiday house vibes and minimal music but I wanted to start something that suits the Ukrainian vibe nowadays. The first track in my set even has the air-raid sirens, track by track it’s coming from dark and smooth to more holiday vibes and some groovy tech house at the end. Hope you will enjoy it and support it as well!

I have releases every month since last December. Now I’m doing lots of stuff I wasn’t ready to do for years on a regular daily basis.

Aside from donating, how else can the international community help?

Donating is the main key, sending the stuff we don’t have in Ukraine that we need is also very important ! Generators, power banks, small electricity stations, wi-fi routers, drones, everything that could be useful, we need it asap!

Ukrainian Electronic Music Scene in 2023 the Interview from Never Be Normal Vlog