My friend Dmitri of RealityFade Records has really helped establish his young record label with some wildly brutal bands in their short existence.  Without a doubt they’ve been one of my favorite record labels the last few years and are and up & coming record label.  Being a smaller label, he actually wears a ton of caps and you can’t help but have a lot of respect for a multi faceted worker like Dmitri.  I talked about doing an interview with him and the stars aligned to bring you a little extra information about the man and his record label!  We hope you enjoy the read!

TMR: Tell our followers about yourself and how you got into metal.

Hello everyone! I got into metal starting with Nu and Alternative bands like Korn, Deftones, Limp Bizkit, and SOAD (stuff like that). Then in the mid-2000s, I heard my first BDM band called Prostitute Disfigurement and here I am!

TMR: Give us a brief history of Realityfade as a whole.

I founded Realityfade in 2016 based on my huge love for Death Metal. With time though, I found it very limiting to work with Death Metal only and started to work with more genres and now I’m happy to deliver more variety of extreme metal to our fans. To date, I have worked with dozens of bands around the world and produced more than 40 releases that tens of thousands of people know and love.

TMR: I’ve seen you’ve been pushing your label’s merchandise more also as a clothing brand. Can you elaborate more on that part of the process?

Yes, for our bigger releases we push more merch as many fans just love to buy merch and listen to music digitally. We print all of our merch locally. I manage all the warehousing here at the RF HQ. At the time the choice of products is quite limited but hopefully, we can add some variety to the line in the future.

We also have the Realityfade Merch branch for more “out there” stuff like all-over-printed hoodies, shirts, flags, umbrellas, blankets, and dozens of other unique products like that. Sadly, we had to back up a little once the Covid hit, but times are looking better and we are working to come back full blast with the addition of tons of new bands and merch.

TMR: Did you jump into this as a chance or was it always a personal goal for you to run a label?

I honestly can’t remember the exact moment I decided to try it but I clearly remember bugging my first victim lol. It was a NY-based band called Abhorrent Aggression and I managed to release their debut album on a CD. I can’t play any instrument but I’m quite resourceful technically, I guess I just applied my skills where it made the most sense.

TMR: Please explain the challenges you face as a smaller label to our followers who may not be totally informed in this area of the music business.

Smaller labels mostly do everything either as a one-man or a 2-3 men operation. Luckily I have a soul-mate Natasha helping me with lots of various things but mainly I do everything myself, from website tech support, merch/CDs design, to video making, promotion, production, order fulfillment, communication, and so on, it’s overwhelming! The budget could be always better, but with time as the label grows, it becomes less of a problem. Thankfully, fans are always very appreciative of the work we do and understanding of the struggles smaller labels face.

TMR: What influenced your journey into running a record label? Who or what/still is your primary motivation?

When I got more into Death Metal and started buying CDs, to find a good source of solid releases you had to pay attention to label names who put out those awesome tunes. I started following those labels and found it more and more appealing and kept an eye on their activity. That is what sparked a desire to try it.

TMR: How was the name Realityfade conceived and does it have any personal meaning?

Yes, it is indeed personal! It means to escape reality: it can be interpreted negatively and positively depending on the person looking to escape. Everyone has its own way of doing that. For me, it’s music, reading, video-games. For some people, it can be narcotics or insanity.

TMR: Who are your current favorite bands/artists people may not know? It doesn’t have to be metal, and it also doesn’t need to be a Realityfade artist 😉

I like many metal bands but to think of some music people might not now I would say all Castlevania soundtracks haha. The Algorithm, I spin this band constantly for about 5 years nonstop. Bands like Villains, Gost, Linea Aspera.

TMR: What makes you the most proud as a record label owner?

Having created the label itself and having been able to produce and help create so much amazing music and spread it worldwide for tens of thousands of people to enjoy.

TMR: What was your most exciting or biggest event as Realityfade? It definitely isn’t an easy thing to run a record label especially these days. 

Sadly, due to the current location of the label, there’s not much going on, but that is soon to change hopefully. Our bands and I are planning a Realityfade tour for the next year so that would become that most exciting event.

TMR: Explain the pros and cons of your side of the music industry.

The music is hard to access, you need to strain your brain to understand and appreciate it. It’s like beer for teenagers: at first you don’t get what’s it about but as you grow older it grows on you and you don’t want to go back to your sweet Pepsi anymore. That fact drastically reduces the number of possible fans. Pros are an open and friendly community, no rock star attitude, easy-going bands and fans, trust and smoothness, I can talk for hours!

TMR: What hobbies do you have outside of music in general?

The main one would be video-games, retro primarily. I love PC games, NES, SNES, Gameboy, and all that beautiful stuff. I also read daily and watch movies and anime when I have some free extra time.

TMR: I know there’s a good selection of bands on your label but who’s your favorite child of them all? I have a ton but if you could only pick one RF artist who would it be and why?

I would have picked them ALL as I love them and appreciate them all beyond any words! But as you ask to choose just one let’s say Visions Of Disfigurement. The band regularly tours, released an album that I personally think topped a lot of competition in the genre this year, jumped a few heads above their previous material, and I think they will destroy it when the live shows will resume. VOD have a bright future.

TMR: Please inform our followers about your record label for those interested as we close this interview. Thank you for the great artists and chance to promote your hard work with RealityFade!

Realityfade was founded by Dimitri Sagaidak in 2016 in the Eastern European country called Ukraine. This thing is growing faster than you can manage it and you should watch this space because one day you might start wondering “why was I sleeping on this?”. We produce and release dozens of fantastic music releases and merch each year, we distribute tons of extreme music titles, and we slam.

Slam with us:

www.realityfade.com

www.facebook.com/realityfade

www.instagram.com/realityfaderecords

Thank you Dave for this amazing opportunity to talk about our bands and Realityfade. Thank you all for reading. Cheers!