Billain

Living through the unimaginable reality of war in his home city of Sarajevo instilled a sense of the sometimes warped and surreal nature of humanity within Billain. His experience through this time melded with the diverse and unusual influences of his youth; comprising figures such as Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, Katsuhiro Otomo and the amorphous brooding music from numerous Anime movies. He found his first expression of the exploration of his own ideas through visual arts – sketching and painting them into existence. However, it soon became apparent to him that the visual medium was not enough by itself; and in 1997 Billain started to explore the realms of music production, with the intention of further enabling the transcription of his complex vision into reality. Schooling himself in the techniques and theories of music production led him initially to Techno; with influences coming from a variety of sources, including Iannis Xenakis, Stockhausen, Aphex Twin, The Prodigy and early Metalheadz releases. But again, after producing several hundred Techno tracks, he found himself tracked within the confines of the genre and started to itch for something different. Everything changed upon hearing Ed Rush & Optical’s legendary ‘Wormhole’ LP – merging successfully the worlds of Techno and DnB. Finally, Billain’s direction had changed forever.

In the year 2000, Billain became a part of the legendary Sarajevo DnB collective known as ‘Kontra’. This entity brought some of the finest artists in DnB history to his country for the first time – including Matrix & Optical, Optiv, Teebee, Stakka and Skynet, Corrupt Souls and many more. His own DnB production started to emerge around this time, initially just for his own enjoyment and development. But after a tragic hardware failure, and the loss of his work to that point, he set to reinvigorating his creative process – exploring new and exciting sounds and re-emerging on the other side stronger than ever. His creative vision and complex sound design started to get noticed by major companies such as New York’s Q Department; which led to him taking on new film, documentary and advertising projects.

As a result of his ever-increasing internet exposure, the world started to awaken to the fresh and unusual sound of Billain. Initial signings and 12” releases came on DnB labels Breed and

C2D, and after further development of his sound; he grabbed the attention of established Dutch labels Syndrome Audio, Citrus, and the London labels Rise Audio and Bad Taste. The International DnB community also started taking note, with regular plays from the likes of Tech Itch, Audio, Ed Rush, Cause4Concern, Concord Dawn, Teebee, Phace, Misanthrop and Allied amongst others.

Despite a vast number of requests for bookings and his considerable abilities as a DJ, Billain prefers to keep his sonic pursuits as his main priority; dedicating the significant majority of his time to production and hand picking the shows he plays. But this hasn’t stopped him sharing stages worldwide with artists such as Calyx, Bad Company, Phace, Black Sun Empire, Nocturnal, Loxy, Kryptic Minds, Kulak and TN1 – as well as playing high profile events such as MTV Music Depot, Red Bull showcases, Kontra, Exit Festival, Outlook and LED Festival.

In 2014, demand for Billain is reaching astronomical heights, with his ‘Colossus’ EP on Bad Taste recordings securing him airtime on BBC Radio 1, as well as his debut feature on the
world-renowned UKF platform – leading to colossal numbers of plays on Soundcloud and social media. With this release, and his previous Bad Taste ‘Machine Room (Level Two)’ release alongside Teddy Killerz and Neonlight; this year the bar is being raised to a new level.