Ivan Dorn

Sweet Maverick: Russian-Ukrainian Indie Darling Ivan Dorn Does Post-Soviet Pop His Way

Dancing through the dust as the trolley rumbles away, as the party gets started in the rubble of an empire, he’s high-strung and handsome, geeky yet sleek.

But this rakish heartbreaker isn’t your standard-issue Slavic pop star. He’s Ivan Dorn, the defiantly independent singer and songwriter who’s taken Russia and Ukraine by storm—and now has his sights set on America.

Called “the main Russian-language artist of today,” (Interview Magazine) and “one of the most promising Russian-language musicians” (Time Out Moscow), the young Dorn has busted out of post-Soviet pop’s tired clichés and saccharine beats, opting to do his own thing, writing catchy, ear-candy songs that focus on strong hooks and artful sounds. With a sixth sense for how to mix shimmering global pop with ironic post-Soviet nostalgia and his own wry take on life, Dorn’s sharp singles move from glittering dance-floor anthems (“Stytsamen”) to sultry neo-soul odes to impossible loves (“Severnaya siyaniye/ Northern Lights”).

Acting as his own producer and tapping the hottest DJs from Kiev’s overlooked but thriving EDM scene, Dorn knows exactly what he’s doing. “I’m making stylish pop,” Dorn smiles, “but my music feels live, stays closer to a live sound.”

Dorn packs enough pop power and wit to snatch up Russia’s choicest music awards and catch ears across Europe and the Middle East. But he finds inspiration in unexpected places: Sitting on a bench with old childhood friends in his hometown, the small northern Ukrainian city of Slavutych, for example.

Watching the world and the girls go by, Dorn often finds songs coming to him in intriguing bits and pieces. He then weaves the ideas together in his home studio. While hanging out with friends and people watching, “Sometimes a phrase comes to me, just a phrase,” Dorn reflects. “I won’t even really know what it’s really about. Then other phrases come and connect up with it, and a song is born.”

Dorn’s life-long attraction to the stage—from the tender age of four he was a regular winner of talent contests—and his stormy, love-struck youth—Dorn was a lover and a fighter—led to a serious venture into pop stardom. Dorn was the male lead and respected songwriter for the wildly popular Russian-language neo-soul band, Para Normalnykh. The male-female duo captured the positive, forward-looking spirit of post-Orange Revolution Ukraine, winning fans by the thousands with upbeat, catchy songs.

But like Justin Timberlake and other free-thinking, former boy-toy singers, Dorn chafed at the songwriting limitations of a standard pop group. He struck out on his own.

Instead of finding himself a worldly-wise producer, Dorn bought himself recording gear and found his own sound—and recruited some good DJ and producer friends from Kiev (DJ Pahamat, DJ Limonadny Joe, and DJ Roman Bestseller) who had long gotten dance floors bumping on the vibrant, underground club scene. “I’m my own producer,” Dorn explains. “I’m hoping that my difficult experience will set an example for all the shy folks out of there, and get them out of their rooms and out there producing themselves.”

The results stand out in a sea of uninspired, derivative post-Soviet pop. Dorn layers scintillating waves of sweet electronics, disco-inflected guitars, and funky beats behind a husky tenor voice that can leap from breathy confession to bold statement.

And his DIY sound aims high. Dorn seems determined to knock the dust off the scene, to breathe fresh life into a languishing Russian pop landscape dominated by an entrenched old guard and armies of near-identical synthetic singers. Traditional radio has been skeptical, but the real heart of Russia’s music scene—sites like YouTube—skips a beat for Dorn’s smart pop singles. Videos like the vintage Soviet-gone-club-gritty “Stytsamen” have gotten more than a million hits, and Dorn’s concerts sell out in a flash from Kiev to Moscow.

Though light-hearted and high-energy on screen and on stage—Dorn is a television host and actor as well as an exciting live performer—the young maverick savors a bit of humor at his own expense (see his nerdy alter ego in the video for “Northern Lights”) and a good laugh. But when it comes to music, he’s utterly serious.

“There are plenty of things I don’t take seriously: relationships, life, basically everything,” Dorn laughs. “Except music. That’s the one thing I’m totally serious about.”