Imaginary Friends is a fresh duo from Tallinn, Estonia, who produce DnB. The project consists of Martin Modestov (aka Modest Intentions) and Boris Pavlov (Estonian local DJ and producer). Imaginary Friends are on the scene since the start of the year 2019 and so far have released two free bootlegs and a two track EP “Gunshot” on Citrus recordings. A three track EP is coming of Fokuz Recordings, a track on Zombie Recordings. So far they have played on the same stage with Chase & Status, Delta Heavy, Macky Gee, Netsky and many others. Both Martin and Boris come from a rich drum and bass filled background, so their music is extremely diverse and varies from heavy hitting prime time bangers to more softer, melodic types of tracks to deeper and more underground vibes. Guys also host biweekly one of Estonia’s most popular drum and bass show, called Grindtape.

Hi Imaginary Friends! Take us back to the beginning, how did you get into electronic
dance music?
Martin: For me the favorite thing to play with in my childhood was a cassette radio that my
father gave to me on my birthday. I was anywhere between 4 to 6 years old. I listened to a lot of
Backstreet boys back in the day haha. But actually I quickly figured out how to re-record the
tapes and used that skill to record random childish stories with my friends and even on my own. You know. Just fantasies and fun stories. I think it was my subconscious desire to generate art in sounds. Not necessarily music, but perhaps comedy as well. To this day I am really into both. I guess it was matter of circumstances that I’ve become a producer and not a comedian,
because I found music production software way earlier than I stumbled upon an Eddie Murphy
special.

Boris: My journey with electronic music started when I was about 14 years old. I was listening
to the hardest Drum and bass you can possibly make – artists like Limewax, Counterstrike, old
Current Value etc. I was also a big fan of dnb step – a dance specific to the genre and I even
participated in a dnb step dance battle (lol). After that I was lucky to be a fan of many electronic music genres – from big room to riddim, but drum and bass was always there for me. Later, when I became a DJ, my first gigs were in small underground clubs where I was also lucky to play dnb.

Imaginary Friends is a pretty fresh Drum’n’bass duo. How you met each other?
Martin: We used to work together for the same company and make each other laugh in hysteria pretty much every single day. The jokes we came up with were absurd to a level that it had us dying, especially in the contrast environment of middle class office clerks. Back then we had no idea of each other’s background, but sooner than never Boris told me he was a DJ who had been making his own gigs in small local venues, and I told him I was a drum and bass producer. I still remember that look on our faces. That was the first time I thought I found a perfect partner in crime.

Boris: Yeah, it all felt so natural, like it was meant for us to eventually get together and produce music!

Debut EP “GUNSHOT” has been out for few months. What kind of feedback have you gotten from it?
Boris: We were able to cover different audiences with the release. Gunshot is a heavier, dancy banger, that usually causes people to put their BASSFACE on (:D) and The Warp is more of a weird tune with an underground vibe. They both were met with amazing feedback, Gunshot appealed more to the mainstream audience and The Warp to the underground ravers.

https://soundcloud.com/imaginaryfriendsdnb/the-warp

EP has two very different tracks out of which “Gunshot” is more neurofunk type of Drum’n’bass. How did you end up choosing these two for release? Could you tell us
more about your next release?
Martin: It was pretty much labels’ decision. But your first question leads to the second one. We
basically just sent a pack of tracks to Marko at Triplevision and signed 2 releases right away. It
was his decision to put these tracks on Citrus. The other three will be released on Fokuz next
month.

Boris: It was indeed label’s decision, however, we also thought that these two tracks would work perfectly together in a weird way. They are the more angrier tracks of what we have at the moment. Our next release is on Fokuz in October, and we CANNOT FREAKING WAIT for it, since it was signed more than six months ago. Three tracks, which we are very proud of!

https://soundcloud.com/imaginaryfriendsdnb/gunshot

“UKF-home of bass music” wrote an article about “13 Estonian DnB artist you need to know” and you were mentioned there. How does it feel?
Boris: It was exciting! Always a great feeling when you are mentioned on such a huge platform. Now we are working hard to make sure that our tracks will get there 😉

Martin: It is great, of course. But I have to say that for me it’s easy to get too excited when
some great establishment compliments your work. I guess it would be fair to say that we both try to focus on production at this point. It’s too early to look back on things, so hopefully this is only the beginning.

Would you like to share something with the followers of Let The Bass Get You?
Boris: We would love to share a bit of information about future plans of Imaginary Friends. In 9 months we have basically completed 14 tracks, which is waaaaaaay beyond our initial expectations (we both have full-time jobs). As said before, we have an upcoming release on Fokuz recordings in October. Also, one track is signed to UK’s Zombie Recordings and three tracks will come out on another amazing upcoming label, that we cannot yet talk about 🙂 Also, in October we are starting to work on an EP for one of our most favourite labels ever! I already see these sleepless nights, but man, we are so excited! Also, we would absolutely love to play in Finland some time, since I myself know that Finnish bassheads are absolutely amazing
(shout out to Nooa and Bassboat <3).

Martin: Almost forgot to mention that we are now co-hosting one of biggest DnB Radio shows in Estonia called “Grindtape”. If you are an up and coming artist and want exposure, feel free to contact us via facebook or soundcloud, if we like the track we will happily support you. Attach some short bio as well so we could give you some proper promotion for Estonian bassheads. We have a really developed scene and who knows.. You could make new fans.

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