Wiwek

Saying you always choose your own path is easy, living it not so much. Wiwek Mahabali is proof of this path. He has

always been a bit stubborn in his ways and considers success to be relative. Not only has he become a world-class

DJ/producer with a resume full of collaborators and festival gigs to die for, he’s gotten there through a music style that he

invented himself. Wiwek was born in IJsselstein, a little town located in a picturesque part of the Netherlands, to parents

of East Indian descent who emigrated from the South American former Dutch colony of Surinam. His dad sang and played

Indian folk music and between the traditional styles he heard at home and the Western pop he heard everywhere else,

Wiwek already had a variety of sounds and rhythms in his system when making electronic music.

Inspired by hearing Tiësto’s music on Dutch radio, he made his first beats on Music 2000 for the PlayStation One, before

his older brother turned him onto Fruity Loops. Soon enough he was making beats for local rappers as the Dutch house

boom was happening around him. Retreating into his bedroom studio to refine his skills, he learned to channel all of

those disparate influences bouncing around his head into a distinctive style called: Jungle Terror. It's characterized by

complex Indian-inspired rhythms colliding with adrenaline-rush dynamics of trap and tribal house (and not to be

forgotten: a library full of sampled animal sounds).

Early Wiwek singles like “Angry Birdz” and his Gregor Salto collaboration “On Your Mark” didn’t sound like any other

record being made at the time and soon enough they began to pop up in sets by A-list DJs. In no time he was playing the

same stages, making his first festival appearance in 2015 at Ultra, and fulfilling a promise he’s made to himself not to

attend any major electronic music festival before he was invited to play one. A Twitter DM to Skrillex, who was regularly

playing his tracks, turned into a relationship that helped take his music to a new level. In 2016 OWSLA released his EP

The Free and Rebellious , which not only included a collaboration between the two (“Killa”) but also served as the

soundtrack to a short film called Still in the Cage that the pair co-produced, and premiered to a massive crowd at the Ace

Hotel in Downtown LA. Wiwek’s EP for OWSLA early 2017, Drum Nation , represents yet another stage of his evolution.

Blending ecstatic polyrhythms, exotic bird sounds and nods to everything from contemporary Dutch house to classic

ragga jungle, Drum Nation offers a fascinating and focused expression of Wiwek’s vision for jungle terror.

His musical journey continues in 2018 by releasing his first compilation The Jungle Terror SAGA on Yellow Claw’s label

BARONG Family. The SAGA collects some of Wiwek's favorite tracks from the Jungle terror EP’s and added some new

tunes. Wiwek’s main motivation behind the release is to create something special for the legion of diehard fans that

flocked to his music. Besides it’s release on all the major digital streaming platforms, the “jungle terror bible” (as he calls

it) was also released on limited pink vinyl.

When Wiwek started his own label Rimbu back in 2012 it was his way of releasing new music because nobody wanted

to sign his crazy sound. After a while, things changed as he got to work with some great labels and do things he could not

achieve on his own at that time. Wiwek developed as an artist and took all the knowledge and experience gained to

breathe new life into his own label in 2018, renamedl: Maha Vana – sanskrit for large forest/jungle.

The jungle and forest represent freedom to Wiwek. He wants to experience this freedom and also extends it to others on

his label. Maha Vana is the result of Wiwek's evolution from Rimbu into a larger context bringing music, festival

experiences and lifestyle together in a world driven by his vision. A safe-haven, a paradise where musicians can

collaborate without restriction. Among the first releases on Maha Vana was his own debut album called Cycles. Just like

the world is cyclical, so is music, taste and life. Constructs like ethnicity, cultural belonging and gender are just as easily

built as they are destroyed. Cycles represents the dance of constructing and deconstructing. Everything comes, everything

goes. Man wins over nature, nature wins over man. Man makes, man destroys.

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