F E N K S T A
"470, POVEZANOST KAO KULA"
Design by Alex Cherry
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Beatmaking started some time in high school with a program called Music Maker. Romel showed it to me and I made a few beats on it. In senior year of high school, a classmate gave me FL Studio, 'cause he was using it to for his beats. That was back in 2007.
The next year, Romel and I formed KUGA (Kraljevi UnderGroundA) and I've been doing the majority of beats for us. I've participated in a contest on a forum called "Beatality" in 2010 that was judged by big names in the Croatian Hip Hop scene. I took the W on that one, with maximum points available, but didn't participate in anything similar after that for a while - up until 2015 !
I moved to the USA in 2012 to study Music Recording Technology, expand my knowledge on what I've been doing so far, correct things I've been doing wrong, get some tips, and generally just network with a shit-ton of musicians and audio people.
That's when the Facebook group "Art of Sampling" caught my eye, which was holding weekly beatmaking contests with samples chosen by the winners of the previous round. If the beat from there is dope, it will be added here for sale. Since 2019 I have been participating in annual Beat Battles at the Reunited Hip Hop Festival in Zagreb and I have won the latest edition.
Other than that, the love for music and audio manipulation is strong and ever-present. If you are feeling what I create, then let's get creative together.
NEWS
What's happening in the world of Fenksta
"OGLEDALO"
21.02.2024.
My first submission to Eurovision has finally been released. It's been a 15-year long journey that finished by creating this masterpiece. I am mega thankful to everybody involved: REA for being the amazing artist and vocal that she is, MACOLA and ĐURO for putting it all together, OGA for creating a cinematic piece of art, NIVES for making sure that the song gets out there, and lastly MYSELF for actually doing the work, being inspired and panicked enough by the deadline to make the song happen. Although the song wasn't picked for Dora, it will remain an amazing and meaningful project that will stay on the internet and in my heart forever. We'll get them next year with something more upbeat. Peace out !
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"ULICAMA GRADSKIM III" & more...
26.01.2024.
It's been locked in the vault, it's been finished since January 2021, so COVID is still a thing in the song, and now it's finally out. Almost 15 years after we have created the original "Ulicama Gradskim", we did the same for the third time, but the twist is that we both moved to Zagreb and are describing our POV from here, while keeping the original Kula-Grad values with a Bad Meets Evil flow. This also marks the first release where I have done the lyric video myself. Check it out below after this update.
Some other things that are in the works . . . it has been decided that "False Alarm (Remix Freestyle)" will appear on the Tri Some Zvuka Mixtape once I finish writing it, "Ogledalo" has been submitted to Zagerbački Festival as well, while the music video for it is going to be shot tomorrow, Tri Some Zvuka will have an event at the end of August where I will perform and host the entire two-day event, and most importantly - I have a manager now. We randomly met at karaoke and she wanted to work with me, so let's see what comes out of all of this. Peace out ✌️
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DORA 2024
25.12.2023.
Let's get straight to the point. Most important thing that happened is that I have finally made a song to submit to Eurovision, more specifically to the Croatian National Final - DORA. I knew the song had to be personal, have the ability to relate to people, have a strong female vocal for the chorus, and maybe use a violin ensemble on stage. The perfect person for the job was my good friend Rea, who not only participated in the 2nd season of the Croatian version of The Voice and got to the live shows, but she is the only person I've met that blows me away literally EVERY time she sings.
The topic of the song is an internal battle with yourself where depression, anxiety, procrastination, laziness - whatever it is for you - hinders you from achieving your goals. Basically your dreams are on pause because working on it is difficult and our brains chose the easy route, which can be as simple as binging YouTube videos. I chose to call the song "Ogledalo" (eng. Mirror) because not only are you your own enemy, but you can also see the version of yourself you want to be.
Sadly, the song wasn't picked to be in the national final or in the reserves, so I'm going to release the song once we do the music video for it, which shouldn't be later than February 2024. Now instead of choosing the last 10 days to make a song, I will try to make at least 5 songs that I can send to both the German and Croatian national final for 2025. Being part of Eurovision history WILL happen. Mark my words.
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FUTURE PROJECTS
21.02.2024.
This year has proven to be one of the most active ones yet. Here's what's cooking in the kitchen:
- ESC EP
- Eurovision 2020 Medley (cover)
- Eurovision 2024 Medley (cover)
- Eurovision 2025 submission(s)
- "False Alarm (Remix)" on "Tri Some Zvuka Mixtape"
- "PentaCypher" (prod. by Fenksta)
- unnamed relationship song