Welcome to Madonna Remixers United! We are excited to share the full, un-edited interview with Kerry, giving you an exclusive look into our conversation. While some segments were edited for the podcast episode, you can now enjoy the entire discussion, by reading the transcript. Dive in and experience the insights and stories that didn't make it to the final cut! Or listen to the podcast episode.

 

Welcome Roman, a.k.a. VJ Ni Mi, to Like a Muse. I understand, that this February 2025 was your seventh anniversary working with Madonna Remixers United.

Hello.

Hi, Roman. We get to talk a little bit differently about what it's like to be not just a Madonna fan from your perspective, but an artist of people who remix Madonna music. So during all my interviews, I always like to start out with the typical question. I'd like you to think back to your earliest memories of something Madonna. What was it? Was it music, or video, or an image, or was it a controversy? Your first Madonna audio owned as well. Tell us the story. 

​

Okay, I'll start with the first physical media I owned was a bootleg version of Immaculate collection, but not the full collection, just the A-side. Only after a while I managed to get official cassette.
My earliest memory was seeing Madonna's Like A Prayer video on MTV. A little bit of context, I was growing up in a religious family, or to be precise my mother & I were in a religious cult (Jehovah's Witnesses). Now I'm not gonna say anything bad about their organization. But in the 90'a we were living in an uncertain times. Estonia re-declared its independence. We just moved to a new apartment, because our house burned down. Our family was struggling, so Jehovah Witnesses was a coping mechanism for my mum & a support group. 
I was still a child, didn't know English. But seeing the video for Like a Prayer, the whole imagery & cinematography of that video, the story it was telling, it impacted me tremendously. It was like snap, the light switch flipped. I got more interested in the language, started listening to music, was watching all of the shows & documentaries on MTV. I made a decision to leave the cult. Pursue my passions. In a way it was my spiritual awakening, all thanks to Madonna. 

​

Wow. So it sounds like your family was going through some trying times and you were impacted by what was a pretty seminal moment in Madonna's career, the Like a Prayer video and song that came out in 1989. Yeah, the like a prayer video, the controversy around that and what she was really the message she was sending and the visual aspect of it was pretty profound. I'll never forget that part of her career. Something you've also done for me, if you listed me your top 10 Madonna videos that you have produced and edited for various projects. Could you choose one or two of them? Pick a couple of them that are meaningful to you, that have maybe some meaningful stories behind them, maybe the production or the relationship you might have with the remixer or the producer of the remix. Could you highlight a video you liked working on and tie it with a short story behind the remix? ​

Well, I think everything started with the MUSIC video remix.

The music remix video, which was about six minutes long, you said. ​

Yeah. Klimis Ioannidis Love Revolution Club Mix, it took me months to make that video. To bring all of the scenes, to make sure that everything is in sync. I wanted this video to be perfect. And wouldn't you know it, Lukesavant saw that video & wrote to me, asking if I could do a couple of videos for his remixes. I was literally jumping up and down, when I heard that, I was shaking or just going crazy that the Lukesavant wrote to me. I was completely starstruck. Honestly I remembered that I used to listen to his mixes way back. I just couldn't believe that this was real. 
So Rebel Heart & Inside Out were those videos. Rebel Heart (Lukesavant Spanish Heart Rework) the first video I officially did for Madonna Remixers United. That's the video that started it all. This remix along with Inside Out was my soundtrack during the whole trip while I was travelling in Nice and in Barcelona.

​

So I am curious, how did you learn your skills as an artist, a graphic artist, a graphic designer, and a video editor? Where did that come from? ​

Oh boy. Well, when you've been working with video editing for 11 years, you bound to pick up some skills. But in fairness, I learned everything on the go. I really needed a video for La Isla Bonita (Doli Doli) from Sticky & Sweet Tour 2008/2009, but a studio version. So I sat down & started doing something. The same way I approach design. It also does help to have an art degree. Studying art is tough, but it builds up the character. When you study art, you're constantly being judged, criticized. I'm talking about constructive criticism. When your flaws are pointed out to you. So you have this need to not repeat your mistakes, and improve your craft. 

​

We just spoke about how Lukesavant found you online via published video productions and asked you to join the organization in that capacity. And you have the moniker, DJ name, called VJ Ni Mi, right? Did I say that right? VJ Nimi? And I see VJ as being video jockey, I assume, but can you explain what Nimi means and how it came about? Are you willing to do that? ​

Well, I was working in a nightclub. I was a DJ and a VJ, so at first I was just a DJ, but since I had a quite extensive library of music videos, we decided to do, well, an experiment, a Madonna party.

Okay. Fun. Shocker! 
Yeah, and I didn't want to use my real name. Nimi in Estonian means name. So when the club owned asked what's my name, I told her VJ Ni Mi. I thought I was being witty and funny. But it stuck with me. I worked for 4 years with that nickname. Since I'm no longed doing DJ gigs. I will eventually drop that name. We'll see how it goes. 

​

Okay. All right, VJ Name. Let's continue on this conversation a little bit about Madonna Remixers United. It's truly been an international organization with remixers and contributors across the globe with different backgrounds and languages and cultures and lived experiences. You live in Estonia and here comes a change. Eastern Europe. And so if you don't mind, I'd like to digress and ask about what it's like living in an age of Russian aggression. Yes, I'm going to get political here. From a personal perspective, is that something you can share with us? ​

Well, as a neighboring country, we've been keeping a close eye for years on what's going on there. We've been living with this aggression for years, decades even. Estonia was facing a lot of negativity even since it regained its independence. Misinformation against Estonia and Estonian citizens was so blatant and so widespread, a government had to block all Kremlin propaganda channels in Estonia right after the annexation of Crimea. That was back in 2014. That's the year when the war started, our government officials were sounding the alarm. Right after that, we warned that Russia won't stop there, that it will launch a full-scale invasion, but the rest of the world didn't pay much attention. They wanted to reason with the dictator, but there's no reasoning with the madman. So that's how RAISON D'ÊTRE remix project came about. There were of course other political aspects, like the election of Donald Trump, who was clearly in awe with Putin, the rise of radical right parties across Europe, basically everything that is threatening the democracy and the democratic way of life in general. So obviously after the full scale invasion of Ukraine a lot of Russian remixers distanced themselves from Madonna Remixers United. You can just look at Live to Tell [DJ Zhuk Remix] or Borrowed Time [DJ AG Remix] remix video, it will make it more clear. We understand their position, due to oppressive regime in Russia, they are forced to stay silent and not say anything that goes against this dictatorship.

​

On this topic, this podcast episode will be heard by Russian citizens. As far as I know, it's not blocked. These episodes are not blocked because I see the stats from Russia. And it's one of the top 20 countries for listeners. So if you had to say something. To any of those listeners right now, coming from your perspective, is there anything you would say different than what you've already said? ​

To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish… Stand up and unite, fight for liberty! Fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people. You have the power to overthrow the corrupt dictatorship. No one else will do that for you.

​

Why don't we change the topic a little bit? I'd like to ask you a question more about your artworks over the years. I say they would have a style to them. Can you explain them? How would you explain, particularly the visual artworks that aren't video? I'm talking about images, imagery that you create for remixed releases. They have a style to them, I think. Can you explain what that is? ​

Style? If contemporary is a style, then sure. I just tend to follow current trends in advertisement & in design. That's what I've been doing for years. Before I started working for Madonna Remixers United, I was doing posters & flyer's for gay clubs in Tallinn & Riga. As a designer it's your job to make something that will be appealing & pleasing for the eyes. I tend to stick to the same formula. There are some instances where I might distance myself from the norm & experiment with different styles, but that still falls under contemporary art style.

​

I once spoke to a remixer, this was some time ago, years ago, whose name I'm going to keep anonymous, jokingly commented that they wouldn't really want to use their own visual image of their face in your artworks because, and I quote, they didn't want a facelift. How do you feel about that? 
Well, obviously, I don't retouch guys that that much or that heavily. The thing is, when you use an image with low resolution, you have to upscale it and enhance it. And when you do that, that brings out a lot of flaws. My job is to reduce the amount of flaws so that the image would look more natural. But even if you look at the official photos of Madonna, they are heavily retouched. Every image for publications is heavily retouched.

​

So the official stuff sometimes are like wait a minute you know what I think guys should be okay with having you know retouched photos I think there are many, that are but you never hear people being critical much of it as they do with the women. Anyways, that's my take on this. Guys should be okay with it. Is there something you wish everyone could know? Related to this? Is there something you wish everybody would know? Take your top two! ​

I wish everyone could know how much work it goes into each project we release. From the initial step of creating album artworks, to going though and sorting loads of remixes, putting them in the right order and then coming up with promotional materials. The whole process takes at least a year, sometimes more. For “Lonely Hunter” project I worked on album artworks for at least half a year, same was with "Confessions On A Dancefloor" & “Bedtime Stories”. For LUKESAVANT’s  "Confessions On A Dancefloor" I made roughly 100 artworks, without the use of AI and I didn’t have the time to publish half of them. So, it’s a bit frustrating to see comments like this was all “AI generated” or this looks so “FAKE”. I'm not against criticism, when it's constructive and not something vague. I wouldn't be publishing something that I’m not happy with or something that doesn’t look authentic.
I can say that working as long as I have with all those brilliant and talented guys and girls, I have to say that we're all quite down-to-earth people. We discuss various topics and have strong opinions. We argue a lot. 

​

Sure, no doubt. 

But in the end, we all come together and bring our A-game to the table. 

​

I have seen that. 

We're just people. 

​

That's what I really love about interviewing people behind the scenes that do this work with Madonna Remixers United and with just Remixers in general, because making it personal like this takes all these people that I've been listening to and makes it just so much more interesting to me. So Roman, thank you for being here on Like a Muse. Okay, we'll talk again soon.

​