Get Familiar: Reggie Satanas
When the time came to find someone to pose in this season's camouflage styles, the first person that came to mind was Joris Dirven, aka Reggie Satanas, longtime friend of the brand and major collector of camouflage. Joris has a big fascination with the obscure, something that immediately becomes evident listening to one of his nearly 400 radio show episodes on Red Light Radio. Read on and Get Familiar with the enigmatic Reggie Satanas.
Hi Joris, could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Joris Dirven aka Reggie Satanas, i’m 45 years old born in Uden and living in Amstelveen for the last 3 years. After working in the music industry for the last 20 years I’m currently active as a caretaker for elderly with psychiatric needs.
My name Reggie Satanas derives from my radio show at Red Light Radio called REGE SATANAS which means KING SATAN.
From your artist name to listening to your radio shows to scrolling through your instagram, it is obvious that you have a fascination for the obscure. What is it about the lesser-known and the darkness that attracts you?
As a child I already was fascinated with horror and weird stuff, so during the last 30 some years I got deeper and deeper into these things which inevitably led to obscure knowledge. I find those matters so compelling that most of my interest is absorbed through it.
It’s hard to explain why I feel so attracted to the dark side, I think that it has to do with acknowledgement of the bestial side and primordial fears of human nature.
I take it you weren’t born as the most in-the-know on European horror movie soundtrack music, ambient and drone. Can you share your musical journey with us from teenage years till now?
My taste in music got formed when I was a young kid, aged 10 or so I was listening to my parents record collection of several 100 LP’s, consisting of diverse genres such as Prog-Rock, Blues, 70’s Pop, New Wave and Classical music. There also were some Soundtracks which really got my attention. My teenage years got formed mostly through skateboarding and graffiti which led to other music such as Rap, Metal and Reggae. Remember this was all in the mid 80’s so information was hard to find and everything you discovered was by word to mouth or through reading liner notes on record sleeves. It was in those days that I could buy myself silly on flea markets, so bought anything that looked interesting to me. Especially soundtracks caught my attention. So one thing led to another resulting into a collection of some 9000 items.
Which musical genres do you wish more people knew about? Can you share some of that music with us? (Feel free to plug your own radio shows)
My radio shows and online mixes are to be listened like a sonic adventure, for me it’s all about atmosphere rather than just songs. Therefor I always choose a theme or mood to work out my rituals or shenanigans. This format suits me best because of my broad interest in music and diverse genres. I hope people have an open mind when listening to my mixes and get inspired to learn more about lesser known music. https://www.mixcloud.com/RedLightRadio/playlists/rege-satanas/
What is your objective with your radio work?
What I did at Red Light Radio was opening a portal to wonderful music and maybe through that share some knowledge. Although I realize that I can’t compete with the almighty internet, haha! But I like to fight that up-hill battle and tend to believe that my output matters somehow.
When you’re down, what gets you in a good mood?
Since I’m always gloomy and have a dystopian look on mankind there is nothing to cheer me up hahaha. Nah, that’s just a joke. There are many things that make me feel good: my loved ones, friends and family, I like to read, watch movies and of course collect weird stuff.
You are a fervent collector of camouflage and war memorabilia. Can you share your first encounter with camouflage and what is your connection to it?
One of my biggest collections is all about military equipment and camouflage uniforms in general. As a child I was fascinated with my grandfathers collection of helmets and books about WW2. My other grandfather fought for the RAF in Great Britain and was a career soldier all his life. So playing soldier was a great deal of my kids years. Later through graphic design I got more interested in the diversity of camouflage patterns and started collecting them from age 20 or so. Bear in mind that I only collect by finding it myself or gifts from friends, I never buy anything through the internet, which makes every item I own special to me.
Do you have any favourite camouflage patterns?
Some favourite patterns I own are the Tigerstripe (Vietnamese), Sumpfmuster (German), Frogkin (US), but I can go on and on about this.
Do you have any holy grails?
I own some beautiful parkas in all sorts of patterns, but there is one parka printed in a pattern designed by K-Way which was trialled but never issued. I have a German Bundeswehr jacket with this pattern, so beautiful.
What is your most prized possession?
Owning stuff is awesome and I’m very compulsive when it comes to collecting, but my most prized possession would be my daughter and my missus. Without them nothing matters.
What is your history with Patta?
My connection with Patta is from day one; co-founder Guillaume and me are long time friends from Den Bosch, and when he moved to Amsterdam I followed him there. Meeting Edson and many other inspiring people gave me sense of community, when they started Patta I felt really proud of them, the world wouldn’t be the same without it........peace and REGE SATANAS
The Camo Pack is now available on the Patta App and will land in our online store and Amsterdam, London & Milan locations on Friday, June 26th at 13:00 CEST. Download the App here.