Petrenka - Flash Lights podcast October 2008pt2

DJ Petrenka (born Ivan Petrenka) was born in 1983 in southern Russian city called Taganrog in a family of soviet engineers. Ever since he remembers he has had a pair of headphones on his head. As a child, in small Russian one-bedroom apartment, his headphones allowed him to listen to his favorite childhood songs and fairytales on an old soviet vinyl player without disturbing his ever-studying sister and work-tired parents. As a teenager, his headphones let him to stay up late into the night putting together a comprehensive collection of world music recorded on everything from vinyl, reel, and audio tapes to later, ooh so cool, CDs! With this collection, in the mid 90’s, Ivan toured nearby provincial school discos and caf?s hoping not for money but for a chance to show off his collection. His main goal was to showcase and educate a new generation of communism-free Russians about the depth of musical heritage including American Jazz, Motown classics, the Rock’n’Roll of 60’s and 70’s, and later Seattle Punk. While often misunderstood, he soon created a rather extensive following. By that time his true passion had become a new, up-coming genre, the one that combined it all, a new electronic music.

After graduating in 2003, from Taganrog State University of Radio Engineering majoring in Computer Science, Ivan got a chance to explore the world of electronic music while studying in London and traveling to Belgium, Germany, Cyprus, Syria, and Costa Rica. Today, he is one of the most famous up-and-coming DJs in the world of electronic music, a frequent guest on radio shows, in hip nightclubs and upscale lounges. While continuing to produce his projects Flash Lights and Stylish Night, he is working on a series of new large-scale project in Russia and abroad.