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acehotel · 7 years ago

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INTERVIEW: Justin Strauss with Trevor Jackson

Trevor Jackson makes culture via the roads that passion takes. He has dedicated his life to what he loves — design, sound production and art. But above all, Jackson has given his life to music and the culture that not only surrounds it but is borne out of it. It is the lifeblood of the streets, the zeitgeist of eras and cities. Lifelong Ace friend and New York music producer Justin Strauss had the chance to sit down with Jackson for another Just/Talk session and delve deep into what makes up a life of cultural creation.

Justin Strauss: I first became aware of you in 1988 when I heard an Underdog remix of Money Mark’s Maybe I'm Dead. How did you get into making records and Underdog? Were you a DJ?

Trevor Jackson: That Money Mark mix was well into my remix career; I DJ’d, but I was just a local party DJ, and did a few regular club nights but very small things. I didn’t take it super seriously until the Playgroup album came out in 2001. The label wanted me to play live. I didn’t have a live show so I had to up my DJ game.

JS: As a kid, what were you listening to?

TJ: I grew up in northwest London in a place called Edgware, a predominantly Jewish suburb. Was lucky to have a mix of friends from all different backgrounds and started going out to clubs when I was 14. My older friends would drag me into some amazing clubs. I was going to New Wave clubs, very different to the kind of places my older brother and his friends were going to, they were all part of a predominantly Jewish scene at the time called the “Becks.” it was almost preppy, pre casuals. Gangs of kids would hang out at the local train station listening to Jazz Funk & Disco, driving Golf GTI’s and Convertible BMW’s wearing Kicker boots and Fiorucci jeans. It was a very British youth subculture that no one really talks about.

A group of teenagers outside the Carmelli Bagel Bakery in Golders Green in 1990. Photo by John Nathan.

JS: This is in what year?

TJ: This is the late 70s early 80s. All those kids were listening to Luther Vandross and George Benson...mainly soul, funk & disco. One half of me was listening to all this new crazy electronic pop & club music, and then the other half was listening to Earth, Wind & Fire, Level 42. Then I started working at a record shop.

JS: In Edgware?

TJ: Around the corner from where I lived, yeah. It was mainly chart music but working there we could order in any stock we wanted. When electro started to take off, that was really interesting to me because it merged the funk that I was listening to with the more electronic stuff too.

JS: What records would came into the store that really influenced you?

TJ: The UK street sounds electro compilations were very important to me and I was totally obsessed with Arthur Baker. Every single record that had Arthur’s name on it I bought religiously.

JS: You mean Planet Rock?

TJ: Planet Rock, Looking for the Perfect Beat...

JS: Breaker’s Revenge...

TJ: Everything he did. Tim Westwood was on the radio on LWR (London Weekend Radio). He played Hip Hop & Electro and I’d also listen to Colin Faver — he used to play loads of Kiss FM master mix tapes from New York as well as play at one of the first nightclubs I regularly went to, the Camden Palace. It was a super exciting time, although I didn’t have the slightest idea how to make music yet, things like the Art of Noise and Malcolm McLaren, Buffalo Gals, Run DMC and particularly that first Fats Comet with DJ Cheese record really had an impact on me because the beats were quite simple. I slowly realized I could do something like that myself with minimal equipment. I wasn’t really a musician, wasn’t interested in traditional song structures, melody and hooks, it was mainly noise that excited me. I bought this Commodore 64 sampling unit I could put on the side of my computer, it could only sample a couple of seconds but learned from that, how to do a lot with very little, and one of the first things I ever made was kind of an On-U Sound track using my computer and a four track portastudio.

JS: You just started recording?

TJ: Just started recording. Made it up as I went along. Then after a year or so bought myself a Roland W30 sampling keyboard, far more sophisticated than my computer, it could sample 12 seconds at lowest bandwidth I think, and has a built-in sequencer. Then I met this rap crew, the Brotherhood, a local rap trio. They lived locally and I started working with them. That’s how I got into production.

JS: You just learned as you went along.

TJ: Yes, no one taught me anything. I just learned listening to other people's records. I started a label called Bite It! to release the Brotherhood tracks we’d worked on. The label started to get recognized by the right people and I started to work with other UK Hip Hop artists.

The Brotherhood, circa 1996.

JS: How many releases did you do?

TJ: Ten or twelve? The artwork was really important to me. I was sampling really weird European Jazz Rock. My whole thing was never to sample anything American, no obvious tracks that everyone else used, James Brown, Zapp, Parliament Funk etc, I sampled mainly European music, sometimes Japanese, Russian, anything that no one else was using at the time, I wanted the sleeves to look nothing like other Rap records at the time which were mainly full of generic Hip Hop clichés. I was inspired by ECM and CTI record covers and developed a minimal black and white photographic identity with a great photographer friend, Donald Christie. The label began to grow and on the back of my Brotherhood productions. Richard Russell at XL Recordings (who used to work with me at the same record shop in Edgware) asked me to do a House of Pain remix.

JS: That was your first remix?

TJ: Maybe my second.

JS: For “Jump Around?”

TJ: No, “Top of the Morning to You.” After “Jump Around,” they wanted to quickly release another single, but they didn't have another track that could be a hit in the UK. I heard that track and said, "Let me do something." My remix went top ten in Europe. From that, I started getting remix offers, and that's how my music career took off.

JS: Did you go to school for art?

TJ: Yeah, music was always a hobby.

JS: So you thought art was where you were going to end up?

TJ: Design mainly, anything creative. I was hugely into comic books, desperately wanted to be a comic book artist. But when I started seeing designers like Javier Mariscal & Philippe Starck, taking playful graphic comic book aesthetics and applying them to various different areas of design — that really inspired me. I developed a way to take my underground comic book, cartoon and early video game influences into a mainstream context, mainly through record sleeve design.

JS: Was that before you started making records?

TJ: Yeah, I kept those things quite separate at the time. I left college when I was 18 and started working for a small design firm creating film posters. I took on my own freelance projects and then I started working by myself. I had a design studio in Clerkenwell not far from here in the late 80s. I’ve always worked in East London since the late 80s.

JS: How did you get approached to do those record covers?

TJ: I was in my teens around that time. Acid House was just breaking out. I was full of confidence at the time, young and super enthusiastic. The first record sleeve I ever did was for Mark Moore for S'Express. I used to regularly go to this club called the Wag where he was DJing. Somehow heard he had a record coming out and hassled him to see my work. You must have gone to the Wag Club back in the day?

The Wag Club in London, 1984. Photo by Derrick Rodgers

The Wag Club, 1982. Photo by Jane Goodman.

The Wag Club, 1982

JS: Once I think.

TJ: Was a great place! So I took my college portfolio to the club with me one night, showed it to Mark, he really liked what he saw and asked me to do a sleeve for his next single. That was the Theme From S'Express, which ended up being a number one record. Around the same time, so many great records were coming out, lots of people in the same scene as me, either Dj’ing or just listening and dancing — London nightlife was full of creativity. I started contacting other labels and asked to show them my work. Champion, was one of the first I went to see.

JS: They were putting out a lot of US releases.

TJ: Yeah, they were based next to a record importer and just picked up every great new US release before anyone else knew they existed. The guy who ran the label, and still does was Mel Medalia, was a real character, bit of a hustler, real old school, but he really took me under his wing. I remember going in and saying, “Look, I really love this music. The sleeves you’re doing right now are really shit. I’ll do it for free. If you like what i do, then give me some work afterwards.” I loved these records: Todd Terry, Frankie Bones, Raze, Pal Joey, I would have done them for free anyway, getting paid was a bonus.

JS: The art and music always went hand-in-hand. Basically you were doing both at the same time?

TJ: Yeah, but music was a hobby. Music was fun. I was working at the record shop on Sundays. I was still going out clubbing and buying and listening to loads of music, but my main focus and passion was in designing.

Trevor Jackson digging for gold

JS: I was buying records in New York. A lot of London people were interested in New York. I was always interested in what was going on here in London. So I’m buying in New York and getting all the New York stuff, but I’m also getting records from the UK, UK remixes of New York stuff done by you, done by CJ Mackintosh, Dave Dorrell, and listening to their take on things, which inspired me. It’s quite interesting. I know you’ve always had this fascination with the New York scene and what was happening in Hip Hop, what was happening in graffiti, what was happening in the clubs. I always felt this great connection here, when I started hearing your stuff, and I began to get familiar with Dave Dorrell and CJ. They did amazing work.

TJ: They were very important to me. Certainly an influence. I started making music some time after them... I actually designed De La Soul covers for Gee Street Records, remixed by CJ & Dave Dorrell, which started around the corner from me in Clerkenwell, ran by John Baker. I don’t know if you know John?

JS: Of course.

TJ: They became my second biggest client and I created loads of things for them and the Stereo MCs. That was really inspiring because Gee Street were local to my office and Nick and Rob from the Stereo MCs were always making music downstairs. They did lots of brilliant remixes as Ultimatum and I learned so much stuff from hanging out and watching them, learned how to make music with minimal equipment, they could do so much with just a digital delay used as an early sampler and an 808, they were fantastic DJs also. Gee Street was a creative hub, Jungle Brothers would come pass by, upstairs (Jon’s wife at the time) Ziggy Golding ran a photographic and model agency called Z, they looked after my friend Donald Christie as well as Juergen Teller when he first started, the whole music, club art and fashion crossover thing in London was so powerful at the time, very, very important.

JS: There was this thing in New York, the New Music Seminar back in the day. All the UK DJ's would come to New York. We'd get to hang out. Back then, DJ's weren't traveling, you weren't flying all over the world. It was maybe once or twice a year you'd get to meet these people.

TJ: This was before starting my Bite It! label, I didn’t want to confuse people either, now everyone does everything. Back then, being a graphic designer and a producer, music maker, DJ was pretty much unheard of. I’d still DJ infrequently, but never travel outside of London at that time. DJs had their residences, and they just played in their regular local club. That was it. They wouldn’t leave to go to another club, would they? They’d build their own audience, their own scene, their own sound.

JS: Until Mark Kamins went to Japan. He came here to the UK to play at the Hacienda a couple of times. He was one of the first, if not the first to travel.

TJ: You know, Mark's the first DJ I ever heard play in New York! It was the first time I had ever been to the city.

JS: I want to ask you about that. You're making these records, you're remixing, you're doing artwork. When did you decide that you wanted to do your own music?

TJ: I did a competition, Street Sounds. That was the same Street Sounds who made the UK electro compilations, they held a competition to make your own own Hip Hop track.

JS: You were making good money doing that at the time?

TJ: It wasn't bad. But the thing is I was lucky I could design record sleeves for nothing when I started. I was living at home with my parents. I didn't move out until I was 21.

JS: Were you designing on a computer back then?

TJ: No. I couldn’t afford a computer. When the first Apple Mac came out, it was totally unaffordable. A lot of the early sleeves I created with very basic graphics. I was really into the Sinclair Spectrum, Atrai 2600, Commodore 64 — very, very low resolution. A lot of the bigger companies bought these things called Quantel Paintboxes, which were incredibly expensive, compositing machines. I didn’t have the money, so used to do this really basic raw simple stuff totally by hand as a reaction against big design companies ran by old men with lots of money and zero imagination. I remember a few years later I did the sleeve for PM Dawns “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” single, I spent a couple of days working on a hugely expensive digital compositing machine, something I could probably do now in half an hour on Photoshop. That cost a fortune. Was so difficult to do at the time.

PM Dawn, Set Adrift on Memory Bliss

JS: Then that's all happening. You started to DJ, you're getting DJ gigs.

TJ: No, no, I didn't at all. I'm designing record covers. I've got my little label on the side; the remixing started to take off. At that time, I was taking on more design work I didn't like for the money. I think at that time I'd moved out of my parents’ place, had a mortgage, needed to pay the pills.

JS: Where, Edgware?

TJ: No, got out of there as quick as I could! I was living in Kilburn, which is half way into the West End. I needed to earn a living, so started taking on work I didn’t really enjoy. Like I said, I was working for Champion, Gee Street. I was also working for Network & Kool Kat Records in Birmingham, which were revolutionary. They were releasing early Carl Craig, Derrick May, Juan Atkins; it totally inspired a new wave of young British electronic music makers, the early Bleep sound of Warp Records. But then I started working for a company called Pulse 8, I was fairly well paid but the guys who ran the company were awful and didn’t really care about the music, it was all about the money. Mel at Champion certainly knew how to earn a good living, but he also knew a hell of a lot about music, and had a team of great staff around him; Paul Oakenfold worked there for a while, they continually released great records. I got more and more disillusioned working for Pulse 8 but luckily my music career started to pick up. Not DJing though, I wasn’t even thinking about DJing professionally whatsoever. The design work was becoming more and more of a day to day job, the music was far more enjoyable. Then I slowly started putting an end to the design work and just carried on doing the music.

JS: You didn't really start DJing until the Playgroup?

TJ: We're still mid-90s, early to mid-90s.

JS: Doing remixes?

TJ: Doing remixes, as Underdog. That starts taking off, then my manager, Marts — one of my best friends and a very important person in my life, someone who guided me through so much of the industry bullshit — suddenly died. He had a brain hemorrhage and just dropped dead one day. That stopped me from doing anything for a while. This was 94, maybe 95, I didn’t do anything for a year afterward I think. It was a very strange time. You feel totally indestructible in your early 20s. Then something like that happens, it completely changes your perspective on life, threw me completely.

JS: Mo'Wax records, did you work with them?

TJ: Yeah, Mo'Wax was early 90s. James Lavelle was working at Honest Jon’s records, he actually introduced me to my manager Marts in the shop, it was the closest record store to me when I lived in Kilburn. James used to sell me loads of great records, I had a very good relationship with him. I used to sell him my Bite It! releases which he loved. The shop had an incredible selection of used records, so much crazy shit I used to buy for just sampling. James learned a lot from there, and his Mo Wax label started via Honest Jons. We remained close friends and I did various remixes for him, for Unkle as well as DJ Krush & Money Mark.

Honest Jon’s, London.

JS: Did you do any artwork for them?

TJ: No, I didn't. It was always a musical thing.

JS: That label made stuff that just made you want to collect it. You wanted to have it — it was gorgeous.

TJ: James was the first person to really tap into that whole Japanese collector market. He was super smart.

JS: Different formats, different sizes.

TJ: The whole thing. A lot of people give James a lot of stick, but for me, regardless of his issues, I’ll never lose respect for him. What was interesting about the whole Mo Wax thing was I grew up listening to eclectic diverse forms of music. I’d go to clubs and hear Electronic Pop, Goth, Punk, Afrobeat, New Wave, Hip hop, Electro, literally everything together. But when Acid House and then Progressive House became huge, things became very generic and drug driven, I lost interest in most club music, hated it. Things became musically so narrow I thought a lot of it was the most boring music I’d ever heard.

Growing up experiencing illegal warehouse parties and unconventional underground clubs, with mixed audiences and DJ’s without boundaries, when nightlife started becoming an industry, things changed radically. There weren’t that many great clubs anymore. There were a few key ones, but things weren’t as eclectic — you’d go to a club and hear one form of music all night at a similar tempo. James with Mo Wax and the club he ran Dusted in Hoxton Square brought back dance floor diversity, and in the process it united many different scenes together. I’ll always respect him for that, so many important artists came from that scene.

JS: It was the same in New York, when I started at Mudd Club. We didn't know anything. We knew what we liked; we played what we liked. We didn't think about what genre it was. It was just all good music. In 1979, 1980, we had Hip Hop being born. We had left-field disco stuff coming out. We had punk. It was just so many great records, so much great music. We just played it. As you say, as time went on, people just got more narrow-minded.

TJ: James really broke the mold. Dusted was fantastic, I loved playing there. In my early days going to clubs, I was much younger than everyone else. I didn’t actively feel part of what was going on. I was passionate about everything, but never felt included. Then when Mo'Wax started, I felt proud to be part of something very special, music, design, fashion, art were all integrated.

JS: What about when you heard DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing? Did that have an affect on you at all?

TJ: Not really. To be honest, I was doing a very similar thing musically to Josh. We used very similar equipment, sampled similar records. To this day, I still regret spending so much time doing remixes. I was so busy working on other people’s music, I did hundreds of tracks for other people, never really focused on my own career. I was very happy being the Underdog lurking in the shadows. My idea for a long while was for no one to know who I was, I didn’t want to be recognized, was happy having little media attention, something I’d still kind of prefer. In retrospect, I shot myself in the foot because I could have spent all that time and creative energy concentrating on my own project, my own solo album project with vocalists etc. When I heard Endtroducing, I thought it was great, but didn’t hear it as being as revolutionary as so many others did, there were other Mo’Wax artists equally as innovative at the time. The only album of that period that genuinely blew me away and reinforced my regrets concentrating on remixes was Portishead's first album.

JS: How did you decide that it was time to do your own project?

TJ: That was much later. In the late 90s, I was growing bored of doing what I was doing and felt uninspired by other things I was hearing at the time, so I went back to the early records I first started sampling, Jazz Rock, New Wave, Industrial, Avant Garde electronics, underground outsider music, things I began to listen to properly not just looking for breaks. Through sampling, I discovered probably 3/4 of the music I love now.

I decided at that point that I was sick of Hip Hop as well. I loved it in the 80s through early 90s. I think around 94, 95, I started getting a bit tired of it.

JS: What was coming out then?

TJ: When did Nas’ Illmatic come out? That was probably 93, 94? That was THE album for me, still is, but shortly after West Coast Hip Hop Gangster Rap took hold of people, lyrically and morally questionable material that others seemed to love, I didn’t want to listen to it. More of the rappers I was working with were getting aggressive and violent too, the whole scene was getting nasty in many ways. London was a very weird place to make Hip Hop. It just wasn’t successful at all. Drum and Bass hadn’t blown up yet, and everybody was fighting over nothing, trying to earn a bit of money. Beef between different crews. It was stressful. I wanted out of Hip Hop. That’s why I decided to start a label, just putting out weirdo records, mad shit that no one else would potentially like, apart from me.

I wanted out of Hip Hop. That's why I decided that I want to start a label, just putting out weirdo fucking records, mad shit that no one else would like apart from me. I started the label with some outtake stuff, Underdog stuff, that basically didn't have vocals on it with things I messed around with.

JS: This is the beginning of Output?

TJ: Yeah.

JS: What was the first record that really established the label, that people were really paying attention to?

TJ: Probably a release by Kieran Hebden’s band Fridge — Anglepoised. It was a 12 inch release, they were so productive but worked at home in a tiny bedroom after school. A band with guitars, live drums and electronics. I had so much confidence in the band that I soon hired them a studio near Old Street. They spent everyday in it.

JS: You put all your own money into this?

TJ: Yeah, yeah, I got the studio, money for some bits of gear. Lent them my 808 one time and they made a truly beautiful record with it. Anglepoised, still one of my favorite Output releases. It ended up being played by a really diverse group of people, from Dj Harvey through to Gilles Peterson and John Peel. Was very satisfying.

Trevor Jackson DJing in 2013

JS: Okay. You know you're running a label. You're an A&R guy.

TJ: Yeah, kind of.

JS: You decided you want to do Playgroup, or how did that happen?

TJ: Okay, I was producing a live band called the Emperor’s New Clothes signed to Acid Jazz. A real mix of musical styles: Dub, Jazz and Post Rock. We worked for a solid year on the album, I recorded everything live then resampled every track in my mono S950 and put the tracks back together again! Insane amount of work, nearly killed me the amount of effort I put into doing it. But when it was finally all finished the label refused to pay me, I was furious so told them I’d keep the masters until I received payment. They bloody never paid me so sadly the albums still never seen the light of day! They eventually broke up and the drummer and bass player, Luke and Leo, formed a new band called Gramme. I produced them too and helped them put their initial stuff together. It was very inspired by ESG, Liquid Liquid, Public Image Ltd, music I first introduced them to when we were recording the Emperor’s New Clothes album. I ended up putting the Gramme record out on Output, got on so well with Luke, asked him to play bass on demos I was writing at the time and they eventually ended up developing into Playgroup. Underground club music at the time was either dark, complex and overly serious, or cheesy diva led piano or boring as fuck progressive driven house, very male with little sensuality or sense of fun.

JS: I was totally bored.

TJ: So was I!. I realized I wanted to make a fun sexy dance record, with strong female personalities, taking influences of the best parts of the 80s, all genres, the foundations of club music, which, at that time in the late 90s, very few people actually cared anything about. Output shared an office with Nuphonic records for a while, their strong interest in that period was — especially Arthur Russell — the Loft and Larry Levan...it certainly influenced my direction too.

JS: Which was also not very different coming from you, whose music at the time was always on the darker end of the spectrum.

TJ: Yeah, I was making dark music, and a lot of it was fucking depressing. But I’d taken it as far as I could, I needed to make some fun music. If I did an interview and mentioned Soft Cell or The Human League, people laughed at you. People had no idea. The media especially would not take any of those artists, even Human League, seriously at all.

JS: When did you first come to New York?

TJ: The year of Do the Right Thing, which was in 89 was it?

JS: Yes

TJ: The first club I ever went to in New York was Mars. I vividly remember hearing Mark Kamins playing Summer Madness by KC Flight when I walked in. Upstairs on the roof, they were hosting a De La Soul Three Feet High and Rising launch party. Was some night, magical for this young guy from London who’d dreamt of going to NYC his entire life. I vividly remember going to the Pyramid too.

JS: It's the only club that's still actually there.

TJ: Mars was three floors or something, right?

JS: It was in the Meatpacking district. Nothing was there then. Florent and that.

TJ: Florent was a great spot to hang out and eat late. At the Pyramid, I’ll never forget, a crazy naked dancer on stage or a table right next to me with a huge dick squeezing breast milk out of his tits, was an insane place!

JS: It's amazing to me that that time when there was so many clubs. Every club was packed. No promoters, no nothing. It's just an amazing time of people going out and just great music.

TJ: Yeah, so many places, I was there for a week and I think I went to MK, Nell’s, Mars, Palladium. The Tunnel, many more I can’t remember.

JS: How old were you?

TJ: 21 or something.

JS: You were already involved in music.

TJ: Yeah, design wise anyway, but was connected. I remember hanging out with this guy called Boots, a friend of John Baker from Gee Street, he used to manage some bands. I remember going to a roof party he took me to and seeing the singer from Set the Tone, one of my favorite bands from the 80’s play a solo gig of some sort, it was wild.

JS: They were on Island.

TJ: They were on Island, killer band, recorded with Francois K at Compass Point. I was only in New York for a week and did so much shit. I remember going to some fucking loft art party on Broadway. Where the fuck am I? It was like being in Scorsese’s After Hours. It was like that every night.

JS: Was this the period when you were doing the Underdog stuff?

TJ: No, this was pre. This is 89. I didn’t do Underdog stuff until 91, 92. I wasn’t making music. I was just loving music. I was only designing record sleeves. Think the main reason I went to NYC was to go shopping. Records at Vinylmania, Downtown Records was it? Canal Street buying sneakers and fake Rolexes, tracksuits, goose down jackets, name belts. There's a photo of me somewhere sitting on my hotel bed with 50 pairs of new sneakers around me, I’ll have to try and find it.

JS: You just filled suitcases?

TJ: Yeah, I went to New York with an empty suitcase and brought so much shit back. I remember getting out of the taxi coming home to my parents wearing a shiny white Troop tracksuit like the one on the Stetsasonic album cover. I was mental.

JS: New York lived up to your wildest dreams pretty much?

TJ: It’s like you were saying about London. For me it was a dream come true, so much of the culture I loved was born in NYC, it was incredible. I mainly went to NYC to listen and to firsthand experience Hip Hop culture in its birthplace. But when I went to Mars, I was enlightened. Mark Kamins was playing Arabic music with Acid. It was weird to hear anyone outside of London playing Acid House, I thought it was just a London/Chicago thing.

JS: We got the Chicago Acid, then the UK really fell in love with it and brought it back to New York.

TJ: I'm trying to think what they were playing at the Pyramid.

JS: My friend Ivan Ivan would spin there. He ended up doing “Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight” and the band Book of Love. They basically came out of the Pyramid. There was so much happening. It was such a great creative time.

Did you come back often or was it a while before you came back again?

TJ: I think it was probably a while before I came back. It was expensive; I couldn't afford it.

JS: It wasn't cheap airline flights. This is pre-internet.

TJ: Yeah, pre-internet, exactly. For me, all the things I wanted: records, comic books, toys and clothes, New York was like wow. You couldn't get any of that shit in London then.

JS: Musically, we're at Playgroup. You're starting Playgroup; you're starting Output. What was the first Playgroup?

TJ: “Make It Happen.” It was very frustrating at the time because I put so much into Output and its artists, it stopped me doing my own things, I was starting to resent it.

JS: Then you started DJing then?

TJ: No, not yet, I made the Playgroup album first.

JS: I'm surprised to hear you weren't DJing until after that.

TJ: I didn’t really want it. I loved DJing for fun, but I was more into making music and doing other things. And also, DJ culture at the time (in the UK anyway), wasn’t something I wanted to be part of. It was all about the Big Beat sound and Fatboy Slim, very white and stupid. The times I did play, I’d either throw my own party locally with Output artists and other affiliated DJs or play weird post-punk and no wave records for someone else and clear the dance floor! No one really wanted to hear that stuff. No one was really interested in the records I played.

JS: When did that change?

TJ: After the Playgroup when Stephan from K7 asked me to do DJ Kicks.

JS: Wow, that was a very influential CD. It's history now to think how important those mix CDs were at that time. DJ Kicks — there were a million of them.

TJ: When they asked me to do DJ Kicks, I was so proud to do it. It was a life changing event for me, one of the best things I did for my whole career.

JS: That was amazing. I remember going into a Virgin mega store in the city and getting it. There was the vinyl. You did a cover version of “Behind the Wheel” which was one of my favorite Depeche Mode 12 inch’s that Shep Pettibone remixed.

TJ: When you listen to my selection now, it's not unusual in any way; if anything, it’s standard. But at the time, using that range of artists and tracks, trying to join the dots between the old and new, was very fresh. Truth is we actually tried to license Shep’s remix of “Behind the Wheel” for the album, but Depeche Mode or Mute wouldn’t let me use it. I was so pissed off, I was like, “fuck you. I’ll do my own version."

JS: I didn't know that.

TJ: Off the back of the Mix CD, I started getting serious DJ offers. Something I didn’t want to do initially, I would rather have been known as a producer or musician, designer, video maker, etc, than playing records.

JS: Were you asked to travel as a DJ? Come to New York, come to Europe, all over?

TJ: Yeah.

JS: A lot of people respect you as a DJ. I've been talking to people and say, "Oh, I'm going to be interviewing Trevor." Like Joe Goddard, he used to come listen to you. You inspired him. You're good at it.

TJ: That's lovely to hear. When I first started DJing, I was very happy doing it. I’d just play weird records for an hour and a half, two hours before a band, could play what I want, I felt comfortable doing that. But when I got pushed into playing clubs and making people dance, that was a very different agenda. It became easier when Output started to release more club orientated material, as I had so much great stuff on the label I could play — DK7, MU, etc. I didn’t ever want to be part of anyone else’s scene, and I was wrongly affiliated to the Electroclash movement although what I was trying to do was very different.

Independence and individuality is very important to me, I’d like to think Output had its own identity even though its releases were fairly undefinable and diverse. From the ashes of the Electroclash movement very special dance records did start to appear, and I eventually began enjoying DJing to audiences who wanted to hear more exciting left field dance music.

JS: I remember the first time I met you you were DJing at PS1 Warm Up. I wanted to meet you. I had gotten into DJ Kicks. I was like, "Hi, Trevor, I'm Justin." You're like, "I have a load of your records.” I was so happy because I was disillusioned with a lot of shit and was just starting to get re-inspired. To hear that from someone like you, who I was being inspired by, was nice. It was the beginning of something again for me.

DJ Kicks, Playgroup.

TJ: It felt like an honor to meet you, a real NYC legend! I remember that PS1 so well, what a fantastic event it was — 2003? Madlib and Peanut Butter Wolf played as well.

JS: So The Playgroup comes out; it's a big hit?

TJ: No, it's not a hit at all. It wasn't a hit.

JS: No? It's not a hit in clubs, in culture?

TJ: It worked in the areas I knew it’d work in. I knew the press would get it, because most journalists were older and would understand the references. I knew the tastemakers would get it too, other people interested in the same inspirations. But it didn’t sound like anything else at the time. That was a big problem, it was really important to me to make a record that sounded different. It was an underground record but with pop sensibilities, a party record not a club record, I think it confused people and the retro references especially put Radio One and the mainstream media off it, they thought it wasn’t relevant. The fact I didn’t want to but realistically wasn’t capable of playing it live didn’t help. It was a critical success when first released but a financial failure. The record cost a fortune, they put so much money into it, but the minute commercial radio stations rejected it, the label lost total interest. I was taken to the Mercury Music Prize awards by the head of Universal Publishers and told, when the winner was announced, “that will be you up there next year” and the second Radio One didn’t pick up on it they never spoke to me again. I learnt so much from the whole situation.

JS: Who put it out?

TJ: Source via Virgin Records, ran by a guy who originally signed AIR, I was one of the first people he signed, a trophy signing to establish the label. I knew I might never make another album again so decided to spent most the advance on working with the best people, in the best possible studios I could find, try to learn somethings along the way. I ended up working mostly at Olympic studios with Spike Stent who mixed Madonna, Massive Attack and Bjork, learned so much, it was an incredible, very expensive, once in a lifetime experience.

JS: It sounded amazing.

TJ: Thank you. For me, I was never happy with the sound, to be honest. The mastering wasn’t right. But anyway, I worked in that studio for six weeks virtually every day.

JS: Was there a live Playgroup show?

TJ: I did one show when I did an Output party showcasing LCD Soundsystem live in London. Did a live version of Make It Happen for half an hour, that was it. I did actually get a full band together to try and tour, with Edwyn Collins on guitar, Ted Milton from Blur on saxophone, Leo Taylor on drums, Lascelles from 7 Hurtz on percussion, Luke Hannam on bass. We rehearsed, it sounded great, but I found it impossible to recreate the sound of the album, something that was fundamental to me, and it wasn’t possible for the guest vocalists to perform so it never happened again.

JS: When the album came out and didn't do as well as you maybe would have liked, were you disillusioned?

TJ: I wasn’t disillusioned because whenever I do anything, I push things to an insane point of personal perfection. All that matters to me is knowing I couldn’t achieve any better. At that point anyone could say it was shit, and I really wouldn’t care, I trust my own critical judgement enough and always do things to foremost please myself never anyone else. If it’s flawless in my head, any external criticism or failure is irrelevant. I was disappointed with the record company, not myself. 80% of the failure was their fault. I made a great record they didn’t know how to sell or market it properly.

JS: You reissued it again.

TJ: Yeah, exactly, via Output a few years later when I negotiated my master rights back.

James Murphy, LCD Soundsystem.

JS: How did you meet James Murphy?

TJ: I knew Tim anyway from Mo'Wax days. Tim had moved to New York and set up DFA with James. I went to NYC to record tracks for the Playgroup album with Shinehead and Kathleen Hanna. I met us with Tim while I was over there and met James through Tim.

JS: Had they already been putting out stuff?

TJ: No, they’d put out nothing. They had this huge building and studio in Manhattan but hadn’t released anything yet. The Rapture release they weren’t entirely sure what to do with. They played some tracks to me, and it sounded exactly like the kind of thing that should be on Output. They didn’t have any experience of releasing records out and knew having someone based in London who knew all the right people internationally and could get their music out via the right sources would be a huge asset, so they asked if I could help. I thought it was an amazing record and happily agreed to promote and release worldwide, excluding the US and Japan where they already had their own connections. To be honest, initially people took notice of The Rapture in the UK because of Morgan Geist’s remix, they weren’t really interested in the original version at first, the live elements of the original put some DJs off playing it, but after a while things shifted and the track really started to blow up.

JS: Did you commission that mix?

TJn: No, no, they did that themselves. They were friends with Morgan.

JS: We're talking about “House of Jealous Lovers?”

TJ: Yeah, “House of Jealous Lovers.” I think it was the first DFA release. The Juan MacLean was next I think. “Losing My Edge” came next. “Losing My Edge” just went crazy.

JS: When you heard that for the first time, did you feel this is...

TJ: No, not at all, and I actually preferred “Beat Connection” at first. You have to remember I already had other successful artists on the label, critically and creatively, they were another of those artists to me, never THE artist. It was a great record, but I had no idea the impact it would have. LCD and The Rapture became part of the Output Family — many people thought of them as Output artists more than DFA ones.

David Cunningham and Deborah Evans-Strickland from The Flying Lizards

JS: Can you imagine that they probably, as of right now, they probably would be biggest band in America?

TJ: Never in a million years.

JS: Did you release the first albums?

TJ: Only The Rapture Echoes album on vinyl which was given to Output to release as a goodwill gesture after they signed to a major label, and that label had no independent vinyl store distribution network.

JS: Did you do contracts with your artists?

TJ: No, no contracts, wanted to try keep things mutually respectful. We rarely made money on anything. We just about broke even, ran things on a shoestring, put everything back into the label. It was just me and a label manager running things, that was it. But we always spent money on good packaging, marketing and press. The label was never set up as a proper business, I earned my income from design work, never drew a wage from the company and as long as we didn’t lose too much was happy to keep things going on a purely creative basis. I always told the bands, “I can’t promise you’re going to make any money, but I can assure you via Output you’ll get attention, that’s the best I can give you.” If this is just about money to you, please go elsewhere. Perhaps that was stupid and naive, but it made good sense to me not to give people any false expectations and promise anything we couldn’t deliver.

JS: How many 12” records would you sell of LCD or The Rapture at the time?

TJ: A few thousand maybe. I can’t remember exactly and they were exporting records from the US as well. Enough to break even.

We fell out very badly after LCD and the Rapture signed huge deals and Output got very little back. Fundamentally, I’d taken DFA and I hooked them up with every single important person I knew in the industry worldwide, DJs, promoters, festivals,lLabels, press, PR, etc. Then The Rapture signed to Mercury and LCD to EMI. I felt betrayed and was bitter to the point of printing a full page advert in Vice at the time venting my frustration at the turn of events, but over time learned to live with it. I’m well over that now, water under the bridge, learned my lesson, and consider both James and Tim friends.

JS: You were disillusioned by the whole thing?

TJ: Disillusioned totally, the label starts getting bigger and the bigger it gets, it becomes more stressful, the artists start becoming divas, the more money it costs to run things, the more money I’m losing. It just was a lose/lose situation because most of the other successful independent labels at the time weren’t genuinely independent. They were all sub-labels of a major. They usually had one big act everything else lived on, we didn’t have that. I refused, implicitly, to be part of the major label network, tried a partnership with Source for six months and it didn’t work, so I refused to be part of any bigger corporation anymore, and wanted to do it completely independently.

JS: You had offers?

TJ: Yeah, I had offers. Everybody wanted to sign Four Tet. Everybody wanted to sign The Rapture. Everybody wanted to sign my acts. Other labels I thought were my friends were turning into sharks, people were going behind my back.

JS: When Four Tet left the label, you didn't feel you were being betrayed as you did with the DFA situation?

TJ: No, the Four Tet situation was different. I’ve always been friendly with Kieran, never fallen out with him. It was a different thing. There’s always been mutual respect and I’d like to think he appreciates all I did for him in his early career. He was honest with me about his concerns, we discussed it, I was fine. I was realistic about the capabilities of the label too when he spoke to me, it would've been unfair to hold him back in any way.

JS: The label was draining you, basically.

TJ: The label was draining me, not just financially, and at this point I’m like fuck it.

JS: This is pre-digital?

TJ: Yeah. I ran the label from 96 to 2006.

JS: People are still buying records then.

TJ: YouTube didn't start until when? 2004 or something? When that stuff started growing and illegal downloads became the norm, it just became so difficult. It became harder to sell records, we started losing too much money. The most stupid thing I ever did was try and bring in a business advisor, someone who promised to turn things around, but proceeded to fuck everything up whilst being very well paid for it. I was like, “forget this.” Then PRS and MCPS started coming and biting my heels, trying to get money from me we didn’t owe them, stopped us being able to manufacture records even though that was the only way we could make any money back to pay them! I’d become an A&R man for every other label in the world there yet wasn’t getting any financial return, I was naive and made mistakes. The whole thing was a total mess, was ruining my life, so decided enough was enough.

JS: I remember when Bryan Mette and I brought you to New York to play at Club Love. I think that marked the death of the Output label?

TJ: Yeah, I put together a final compilation called I Hate Music. Managed to get out as the hundredth release and just close the label. After that, I wanted nothing to do with the music industry or community ever again. In retrospect, it was a good time to get out, the digital age was emerging, big changes were happening, it was killing independent labels.

JS: You got more back into your art?

TJ: Back into design and art projects, yes.

JS: Did you run it out of this place?

TJ: No, no, it was around the corner on Curtain Road. I’ll never forget the day the label ended, I had to tell my label manager who had worked so hard trying to pull things together we couldn’t go on anymore. The wankers at Pitchfork had just ran a story publishing a private email I’d sent to one of the artists about my personal reasons for closing the label against my will. I left the office, got home, opened the door, and found my 21 year old cat dying. It was all too much, everything became a bit of a blur after that.

JS: That was in 2004?

TJ: 2006. That was 10, 11 years ago. Then, I took time off, pulled myself together and went back to design work. I took it all very personally, the failure of the label was a hard thing to deal with, I’d let a lot of people down that relied on me, was an awful time.

JS: Would you DJ occasionally?

TJ: Not so much, I really couldn’t bear the thought of any contact with anyone music related, I felt so bitter about it all as well as embarrassed I’d fucked it all up. I turned down all gigs, remixes, everything, ended up hating everything related to the label for years — it’s literally only been the past few years I felt proud about anything I did during that period. I mainly concentrated on getting back into design work and, after some time, took on a few DJ gigs.

But then, a few years later just when I’d started getting myself back on my feet, one of my best friends passed away. She’d been recently diagnosed with epilepsy; I didn’t have a permanent home at the time so I lived with her, helping to take care of her, she couldn’t be left alone at any time of the day in case she had a seizure, I had to accompany her all the time. One morning I woke up, her office called me to find out why she wasn’t at work, and I found her. I assumed she was sleeping in bed but discovered she’d passed away, it was the worst thing I’d ever experienced. Not only the shock of the event but also the guilt of supposed to being there for her, not only letting her down but also her family and friends, then being questioned by the police and being treated as a suspect as I was the only person in the house at the time. It was unbearable.

JS: Were you living with friends?

TJ: Yes, crashing with friends for a year afterwards, had no home of my own, the worst situation to be going through after what I’d been through.

JS: Brutal.

TJ: Brutal is the word. I had nothing. I went through a really cathartic process of just trying to cleanse my life and trying to work out the most important things in my life. When you go through shit like that, you just don’t want any negativity around you at all. I got rid of friends and associates that didn’t add anything positive to my life. Life is too short. I don’t put myself in situations I don’t feel comfortable with anymore. Before that I’d have much more patience. If I’m in the company of people I don’t like now, I just leave. Friends that I don’t get along with anymore, I don’t need them. I’m very lucky I’ve got enough good friends around me anyway, people I’ve known for 30 years or more that I love and respect. Also, it sounds like a cliché, but I got into healthy living, meditation and exercise were the only things that managed to pulled me out of a very dark place, it took a long time to get back into a good place.

JS: That opened a door for you to do more music.

TJ: Yeah, I found that it takes adverse situations to make me reassess things and create. I've now learned that however bad life gets, it's cyclical. When you hit rock bottom, there’s only one way to go, back up!

JS: I was DJing at the biggest clubs in New York. I had two kids, and the dance music scene was like you said – very boring. I did a publishing deal with Warner Chapel. They were trying to hook me up with pop stuff. It didn't work out. They would always end up going back to the same two producers they use for everything, whoever it was. I didn't know what I was going to do. Me and my wife split up. I was totally depressed. I wanted to kill myself, but I had two kids. I did what I had to do. Then this all started coming back, like I said, being re-inspired again and meeting people who said, "Oh, you did all this. Why aren't you doing stuff?" I was like, “You're right. What the fuck am I doing? I'm good at this.” Made me want to get back into it, and really, it's all I can do.

TJ: It's easy to forget your worth when you’re in the wrong place, when you get to that point, that low, you either end it all, right? Which is an option when you’re that bad, or pull yourself out of it.

JB: When you have two kids, you don't think about ending it all. I guess there are people that do.

TJ: Sadly, there are people that are so low that they can't get out of it.

JS: Yeah, thankfully, you got out of it.

TJ: We both did. I got out of it. The first project I did after that was an art show called Nowhere at a small gallery in Hoxton Square. I showed a series of abstract photographic works, abstract images of sunset skies, juxtaposed with personal images and manipulated images of the cosmos, some video work too. It was a cathartic experience and really helped to cleanse my past in a way, moving into a new creative arena. I also did a show at the Red Bull 12 Mail Gallery in Paris, large scale microscopic images of record vinyl grooves titled “Yesterday,” “Today,” “Tomorrow,” “Forever,” along with an accompanying limited edition vinyl release made up of samples from the images I was showing. This show cautiously renewed my interest in getting back into music again and I came up with the idea of the Metal Dance compilations. Felt like the right way to make people aware of me again, I’d worked with K7 many times before, trusted them and Strut was part of their network.

JS: A compilation of?

TJ: Late 70s, early 80s experimental electronic dance music. Which were mostly chosen for an old mix tape I found at my parents house one day in the attic.

JS: That got you back in?

TJ: Press-wise, media-wise and public-wise, they were like, “Trevor Jackson is still here!.” And it introduced me to a whole new audience too. I’ve mentioned it before, but I felt hesitant to put some tracks on Metal Dance that might be too obvious. But kids would come up to me, like 17 or 18, and talk about those specific tracks I was concerned about and go, “Fuck, I’ve never heard that before.” It’s great to feel that. A new generation of people making music inspired by stuff that inspired me.

JS: You were getting a lot of attention.

TJ: Enough, was great to feel proud of something again. Did a second volume of Metal Dance and then I started to think I should really start releasing some of my own music, something I hadn’t done since the Playgroup album and that 12 Mail Gallery release. That’s how Format came together. I started going through my archive, listening to tracks I’d never released, mainly demos and unfinished recordings. I’d never stopped making music since the Playgroup release, making music helped me get through the very worst of times, but I’d given up thinking of releasing any of it, overly cautious of putting myself back out into an industry I’d grown to despise and had also changed so dramatically. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past 4–5 years, sorting that archive out, 100s of tracks that sounded rubbish to me at the time, things I’d overworked for so long, that now with time and objectivity have learnt to love again. It’s part of this huge cleansing process I’m going through, trying to move on to a new phase in life. It’s insane to think but I’ve now actually finished all of it, feels great.

Format, Trevor Jackson

JS: Wow! You released Format with The Vinyl Factory?

TJ: Yes. I did it with them because I knew that I wanted to try and release the project in a unique way — something that as a label they’re very interested in doing. I needed to satisfy my creative urges and in the process get the music — and most importantly my ideas — noticed, which in today's current climate is very difficult. Tragically, so many great things get ignored now regardless of its value or quality, things exist for such a short period of time, you need to do something special to be noticed.

JS: The idea was to release it as...

TJ: As 12 different physical formats.

JS: And not to release digital?

TJ: There was a USB stick, but initially no download or streaming. I wanted it all to be very democratic. Usually the press hears a release months before an album is released and with this, anyone could hear it at the same time but only by visiting the a/v show I’d created. There were no promos sent out at all, people had to make the effort to come and experience it. The album was presented on 12 huge screens. Each screen showed the process of playing each track via its own designated format on its own unique playback machine. The ritual of playing physical recorded mediums. So much of the magic is lost when all you need to do is simply press play on a screen to listen to something, right? I wanted to highlight not only the aesthetics, the intricate physical details of these machines, but also the tactile beauty of the actual process.

JS: It was a real coming together of the two things you love — your music and your art.

TJ: Exactly. I also did an amazing project a few years earlier at the London BFI IMAX titled RGBPM. Performed four pieces of music on a custom built video synth, one of the highlights of my career to date. The music was actually released this month as a vinyl only EP along with a series of signed prints on a small label called UTTER.

JS: So you had a whole exhibition for Format.

TJ: It was a large project. The only way you could come and hear the album initially was to come to the exhibition, and you could buy the separate formats at the exhibition and also online. Most of them sold out straight away. They were limited to various edition numbers: 500 12 inches, 400 10 inches, 300 7 inches, 200 cassettes etc. Also had a series of 10 box sets with an additional reel to reel tape format that was only available in that set.

JS: What was the most obscure format?

TJ: 8-track probably. They were a total pain in the arse to manufacture and find parts for, most of it was a logistical nightmare to manufacture. Format was the first large scale project I’d done for a long time, took well over six months to put together, was a hell of a lot of work, but definitely worth it. The main objective was to highlight the importance of physical music, something that had become far less important since I’d released my last album back in 2000. But also making it as inconvenient as possible to people, so it wasn’t easy to obtain or experience. I wanted people to make an effort, the more problematic something is to obtain, the more important it eventually becomes and the longer it will resonate with you.

JS: The music was recorded from what years?

TJ: Between the years 1999 to 2006, 20077. I was really hesitant and quite scared about letting this music out. So I tried to highlight the concept more, the music became secondary. A bit of a mistake in hindsight when I listen to it now, I realize the music was really good. I’m very proud of it... I’d lost a lot of confidence in what I was doing. Had total confidence in the concept, but wasn’t sure about my music-making ability anymore, it had been so long since I’d released anything and, after listening to the tracks so many times, had lost all perspective.

JS: Over the years, people would say when are we getting another Playgroup album? Now, here it is. Everyone was asking “What's Trevor Jackson got to say?”

TJ: Yeah, and that was a lot of pressure after all that time. But I'm really happy. It worked really, really well.

JS: It was beautifully designed, and there are some great tracks.

TJ: Thank you. The thing is, there's more of it.

JS: You also did that Adrian Sherwood compilation.

TJ: Yeah, that was a real labour of love, On-U sound was my favorite label of all time. I would never of dreamt of doing that as teenager, dream come true.

JS: It's come full circle.

TJ: Full circle. I’m still such a fan.

JS: Did you work with him on it?

TJ: I did. I’m still in awe of the guy. It was really embarrassing. I couldn’t sit here and have a proper conversation with him like I am with you. Hold him in far too high esteem.

JS: Had you ever met him?

TJ: Yeah, I met him before, but I’m like a gibbering wreck when I meet him. He’s not intimidating; he’s a lovely guy. I had interviewed him before. Before I did an NTS show, I did this radio show called “Strongroom Alive.” I’d also interviewed Arthur Baker and Jah Wobble, then I did Adrian.

JS: When was the Trevor Horn interview?

TJ: That was recent. That was with NTS when I interviewed Adrian. What was interesting was that all the tracks I picked up, he didn’t like most of them, he was quite dismissive about them. Don’t think he realized how important they were. They were crazy throw-away experiments to him and, in his heart, he’s a pure reggae head. I think the records that were the most important to him at that time were the Roots/Reggae, more traditional things.

JS: Science Fiction Dance Hall Classics

TJ: Those crazier left field tracks have resonated with a younger generation, also with people that either didn’t realize the label released things like that, or totally forgot about them. The compilation was really well received.

JS: That's your role in all of this — you've always just done what you loved and exposed people to a lot of music that they might not have heard otherwise.

TJ: I strongly and somewhat arrogantly feel that if things are important to me, they should be important to other people. It’s passion more than anything, nothing to do with ego, I want as many other people to share that excitement with me, try to experience the way I feel about things. I can only work successfully on things I’m passionate about, I’m not driven by money or success, integrity is hugely important thing to me. Look at Richard Russell, who we spoke about earlier. Look at him now. Look at James Murphy, these people. They’ve gone on to have huge success. They're both highly ambitious people, whether they’re entirely happy with what they’re doing, I don’t know. You make sacrifices when you get to that level, things I probably wouldn’t be prepared to do. I’m happy in the shadows to a certain extent, I’ve been in the game actively for more than 30 years, still relevant in someway, hopefully, that's an achievement I’m very proud of.

JS: The pressure of James Murphy stopping LCD Soundsystem when they were very popular, going away for five years, saying that he’ll never do this again — many times he said it, and then came back.

TJ: I don’t know his reasons behind it, but sure he’s done it for the right reasons.

JS: They are such a great band. I don’t see any reason to stop it or not go back to it. People change their minds. I don’t fault him for that at all. They’re an amazing band.

TJ: As long as they're as good or better than they were before, that's all that matters.

JS: I mean, I'd seen them before they'd done any new music, when they just came back and just started playing.

TJ: Live, they're fucking unbelievable. Live, they're incredible.

JS: They're the best band out there; the best band I've seen live recently.

TJ: Live, they’re outstanding. It’s really odd when you see someone you know at that level of success onstage, this guy who’s just one of us, that level of adoration, something I’d never feel comfortable with, it’s just fucking weird because it’s still James, you know. It’s still the guy I know from 15, however long years, however long that was…

JS: You do a radio show on NTS every other two weeks? That’s been inspiring you these days?

TJ: Yeah, it’s like having a record label without any of the bullshit. The main reason I did the record label was just to get new music i was passionate about into the world. Now I can do the same thing without having to deal with any artists or managers, do exactly what I want. And apart from the cost of the records, it doesn’t cost me a penny, there are no risks or stresses, it’s an absolute pleasure.

JS: Now, you released a whole slew of 12 inches as Playgroup after the Format thing. You had this idea to do one release every couple of weeks?

TJ: After Format, I said to myself, “okay, I’ve got the rest of this music here and I desperately want to make brand new music. I’m doing this NTS show, all the new music out there is inspired, innovative. I need to be making forward thinking brand new music, but I’m having a real problem doing that until I finish all the old music out of my life.” It may have been stupid, but I set myself that task, to finish off that music, and now I’ve finally done it and need to release it all in an exciting way too. Last years Playgroup releases were the first part of that. Was difficult, I had 30 tracks and they’re all club tracks. They’ve got to be on vinyl but I couldn’t do a nine album box set, so came up with the crazy idea of releasing an EP a week for nine weeks. Everyone said to me, “You’re mad. Forget it.” But it worked really really well. Each sleeve fitted together to make a large image which added a physical collectability to the whole project.

JS: And you used the Bill Bernstein photos as cutups in the sleeves, which is genius.

Previously Unreleased, by Playgroup

TJ: Yeah love his work, was a big fan of his Night Dancing book. I wanted to tease people, no one knew what the large image was until you put all the sleeves together...an element of surprise.

JS: Have you ever thought of teaching?

TJ: Yeah, I'd love to teach.

JS: I think you'd be amazing at it.

TJ: Thank you. that’s one thing I would really, really love to do. I don’t have any kids. I’d like to try and contribute something positive to society.

JS: Has that opportunity ever come about?

TJ: No, I haven't been asked, but it's something I would want to do.

JS: Now, what's next for Trevor Jackson?

TJ: Now? I've got five albums worth of material.

JS: New material?

TJ: No, more unreleased stuff that on one’s heard.

JS: The Playgroup stuff? What’s this coming out as?

TJ: I don't know. I've literally just finished it. I'm just sitting there with 85 tracks wondering how on earth to get it out. I'm trying to think of an interesting way to do it. I can't release five albums at the same time. Maybe I can — I don't know. I haven't got an idea how to do it. I'm sitting here thinking. That's where I'm at now.

There’ll definitely be a Playgroup Previously Unreleased volume II and possibly I’ll use some of the other aliases I’ve used over the years for the other ones.

JS: I have confidence you will.

TJ: Glad you do! I want to get it all out this year.

JS: Then you will start the next phase.

TJ: Hopefully, I’m getting rid of all the excess weight in my life. This unreleased music is part of that. I want to start afresh. Been trying to do this since my friend passed away, six, seven years ago. I want to be able to sit in my studio and make music in a completely new way. At the moment, what’s really fantastic is people making music out there without any boundaries anymore, without any expectations or preconceptions. They can just do what the hell they want. I haven’t been able to do that for a while.

JS: Do you want to collaborate or you want to do it all yourself?

TJ: I don’t know. I want to get all this music out, take a bit of time off, wipe the slate clean and reassess things. Part of me never wants to make a record with a 4/4 in it ever again. Another part of me wants to make the most tear-jerkingly beautiful gentle album. I’d like to attempt to make something sonically as good as one of my favorite Trevor Horn productions.

JS: Which is? What would be one?

TJ: Oh, Slave to the Rhythm, Moments in Love or something so beautiful it makes you want to cry.

JS: Those are the best records.

TJ: At the same time I love listening to Death Grips. At this point in my life, I really want to try to do something new, so much of what I’ve been doing over the past decade or so has been somewhat related to the past. That's holding me back.

JS: You think that's still possible? For you, it's brand new, but...

TJ: I think that's fairly impossible now. But I’ll give it a go!

JS: It is. It drives me nuts sometimes. It's like you think you have something and then it's out there. Fiorucci decides to relaunch this year, and all that stuff is like —

TJ: You know what? I was supposed to work on it.

JS: You should have.

TJ: A year and a half ago, they asked me to be involved. Do the design and everything for them. Didn't happen.

JS: You didn't want to?

TJ: I wanted to; it would have been a dream job.

JS: Just never happened?

TJ: Just never happened.

JS: Their archives are insane.

TJ: One of the later meetings I had with them, they got some stuff, just bits and bobs of things from the archive. They had this pair of jeans. I was like, “What the fuck?” They said “What?” I said, "You know what those jeans are?” They’re like, “No.” I said, “That’s Keith Haring.” Hand drawn jeans with him and —

Keith Haring on a skateboard

JS: L.A. II?

TJ: L.A. II!

Keith Haring and L.A. II (Angel Ortiz) on the show card for their opening at the Tony Shafrazi gallery, 1982

TJ: Yeah. They didn't even know about it. I'm like, these should not be in a box. These need to be in a fucking museum. They had no idea who L.A. II was. When Fiorucci opened a store in Milan and Keith Haring and L.A. II went along...what an amazing time.

JS: Painted up the whole store, had videos, insane.

TJ: To paint the store.

JS: There's a video.

TJ: It is what it is. I would have liked to do something — it would have been interesting to do something in fashion. What I love about Fiorucci, and I think what’s missing now is I like to see women happy, smiling. Smiles are sexy and sadly they’re not so cool anymore. A generation of woman thinking it's far better to frown and look unhappy, what the fuck is that all about? No one does fun sex like Fiorucci.

JS: It was an amazing time.

TJ: That must have been crazy. There used to be a store in London on the Kings Road.

JS: Yeah, I went. I got some of the bags. I was mental into Fiorucci and collected everything.

TJ: Have you got the fanzines, the comic book?

JS: I didn't get those; I don't know why. I didn't know about them at the time. I had good friends that worked there and stuff. They would just give me all this stuff.

TJ: Fiorucci jeans, Dinky belts and Kicker shoes were big in the 70s & 80s with the Edgware Becks. Did you have Kickers in New York?

JS: I loved Kickers. I actually have the poster, all the different Kickers.

TJ: Collecting Kicker tags was massive for us as teenagers in the UK, in as many different colors as possible, and wear them all on your shoes.

JS: They still make them, right?

TJ: Do they?

JS: I think so.

TJ: They got picked up again in the late 90s, I think.

JS: I know there was a relaunch or something. I would love to get a pair. I saw someone wearing a pair recently.

TJ: Same here, a good pair of Kickers would be great!

JS: Yeah.

TJ: Wow.

JS: There you go.Thank you for this, Trevor!

TJ: There you go; that's my life. Thanks for listening.

#yes #interview #justtalk #justin strauss #trevor jackson #dj #music #just/talk

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deadcactuswalking · 6 years ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 2nd June 2019

Top 10

So Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber are still at #1 for a third week after debuting at the spot last month, and there’s another Ed Sheeran single from his upcoming collaborations project coming in the top 10 later on. It’s safe to say Sheeran’s made a comeback but he’s definitely not as massive as he was in the Divide era, it’s not like he’s inescapable now, but he probably has a bigger era coming and this is some pointless side project.

Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus is also holding at the runner-up spot.

Also not moving at all since last week is the entire top four. Yup, “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi is still at number-three.

Stormzy’s “Vossi Bop” is still at number-four, as well. The top four have all gone to #1 for several weeks, may I add, so I guess that’s cool.

Moving up a single space to number-five is Billie Eilish’s “bad guy”.

She seems to have moved past “Piece of Your Heart” by MEDUZA and Goodboys still gaining one space to number-six but not enough to overtake her.

Capaldi’s “Hold Me While You Wait” understandably drops off two spaces to number-seven after the album boost fades.

The late Avicii’s “SOS” featuring Aloe Blacc is at standstill at number-eight.

Oh, and we have our highest debut this week and the only one in the top 10, “Cross Me” by Ed Sheeran featuring Chance the Rapper and PNB Rock – yes, I was confused as well – premiering on the charts at number-nine. This is Sheeran’s 23rd (!) Top 10 hit in the UK, Chance’s fourth (All of which have been features) and obviously PNB Rock’s first, but also his first ever charting song in the UK. Ed Sheeran really can make careers I suppose... except this is PNB Rock’s second charting song by technicality, as his vocals in XXXTENTACION’s “changes” were left uncredited.

Finally, “If I Can’t Have You” by Shawn Mendes has re-entered the top 10 after a three space boost to #10.

Climbers

In terms of climbers, there’s not much of note here, in fact, there is one singular song that had any notable gain this week, and that’s “3 Nights” by Dominic Fike up six spaces to #33. Come on, let’s get this into the top 20 at least. It deserves it.

Fallers

We have a lot of these, on the other hand, a pretty large amount for a cooler week. In reverse order, Lil Dicky and Friends’ “Earth” is slowly making its way out of the charts as it goes down nine spaces to #40, “Motorola” by Da Beatfreakz, Dappy, Deno and Swarmz is down six spots to #38 as most of the UK rap songs fade out pretty quickly if they don’t debut high, “Just You and I” by Tom Walker continues its losses down seven spots to #36, “No Diet” by Digga D loses all its buzz down seven positions as well to #32, “Fashion Week” by Steel Banglez, AJ Tracey and MoStack surprisingly sticks in the top 30 as it dips down five spots to #28, while “So Am I” by Ava Max also has continued losses down six to #25, “EARFQUAKE” by Tyler, the Creator featuring Playboi Carti unfortunately collapses down seven positions to #24 off of the debut, and finally, the album boost dies off for “Grace” by Lewis Capaldi down five spots to #14.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

I am not surprised at all when it comes to these drop-outs, as most of them are pretty obviously not going to succeed past their high debuts last week, such as “Nightmare” by Halsey out from #26, “I THINK” by Tyler, the Creator featuring Solange from #30 and “Jealous” by DJ Khaled featuring Chris Brown, Lil Wayne and Big Sean out from #37, or already extended chart runs like “Walk Me Home” by P!nk from #27 after 14 weeks. Songs that never properly bloomed or peaked at the levels of popularity they could have in their prematurely cut chart run, such as “Homicide” by Logic featuring Eminem out from #38 and “Don’t Worry Bout Me” by Zara Larsson out from #40, as well as “Greaze Mode” by Skepta featuring Nafe Smallz from #35, although due to the album this will rebound next week.

“Falling Like the Stars” by James Arthur has returned to #35 for whatever Godforsaken reason, but otherwise, there are no returning entries, so let’s get straight to the new arrivals.

NEW ARRIVALS

#39 – “Wish You Well” – Sigala and Becky Hill

Produced by Sigala and Jarly – Peaked at #9 in Scotland

I hate the plastic house music that gets on the charts pretty much each and every week. Dance music is art, of course, it is, all music is, but this type of plastic, slick house music made by some producer featuring a singer who’s either a complete no-name or established pop princess, both bringing equally bland performances, has no personality and little artistic merit. I don’t hate pop music inherently, of course, I don’t, I love reviewing it but listening to these songs each week is painful because I know for a fact everyone involved didn’t care and just want it to bang in the clubs, but you know what, that’s not a bad thing. Maybe it infuriates me so much because I love house music and this stuff just reeks of soullessness, or maybe it’s just oversaturation, but nevertheless, this is Sigala’s eighth UK Top 40 hit and The Voice UK contestant Becky Hill’s sixth (fifth as a credited artist), and, well, did you expect it to be any good? Of course not, it has pretty dry keys that back up the reverb-drenched vocals from Becky Hill, who really doesn’t match up with the joyful instrumental as she has a lower tone with a lot more bite, fitting the song’s content pretty well considering it’s a sarcastic good luck and good riddance to an old lover. The house instrumental, however, loses that memo entirely, because Sigala doesn’t care, it’s probably a song written by Hill and her songwriters as a ballad or pop rock jam that got completely ruined by Sigala remixing it into a banger for the clubs and radio fodder. There’s something here, for sure, but Sigala misses the point as he does most of the time. Oh, and the mixing is shoddy in the chorus, but I expected that out of the janky chorus because that’s what Siggy does, I guess. God, this is dull.

#31 – “One Touch” – Jess Glynne and Jax Jones

Produced by Jax Jones and Mark Ralph – Peaked at #8 in Scotland

...There’s ANOTHER one? Okay, well, this one happens to be Jess Glynne’s lead single, as she’s getting top billing whilst Jax Jones is second – I can tell also because of how the single cover isn’t a Jax Jones-branded confectionary. Jones, by the way, is actually one of these house dudes I can kind of understand the hype for, the hooks he writes are infectious and I loved “Breathe” featuring Ina Wroldsen in retrospect. This has debuted pretty low for a Jess Glynne lead single, though, but knowing her ability to have insane longevity in this country’s charts, I know she’ll be fine, especially as this is her 13th UK Top 40 single and Jones’ eighth, but this isn’t great either. I feel like I’ve hear d it before, in 2015, from Jess Glynne’s first album, because this is somewhat dated, I feel, it’s very much of the vein of mid-2010s EDM that was massive back then. Glynne sounds pretty great here, but again her performance directly takes from her older work, and the chorus’ melody and its multi-tracked delivery sounds alarmingly similar to her previous hits “Hold My Hand” and maybe even “My Love”, both songs that I absolutely love. The drop is pretty weak, but it works well enough, once again, however, this is generic and derivative, but what did I expect? If this is Glynne’s lead single, yikes. If it’s Jones’, yeah, I figured.

#29 – “Easier” – 5 Seconds of Summer

Produced by watt, Louis Bell and Charlie Puth? – Peaked at #13 in Belgium and #48 in the US

There are two songs in the UK Top 40 now that sample Nine Inch Nails and make absolutely no sense doing so, but “Old Town Road” is different than this new 5 Seconds of Summer track. First of all, “Old Town Road” is actually good. Second of all, it uses an acoustic guitar sample from one of their darker ambient tracks and interprets it into a country-trap fusion which is innovative, it doesn’t attempt to interpolate any of the industrial rock efforts into a lazy boy band jam the Jonas Brothers wouldn’t accept. While I like “Youngblood” still to this day, this is a very disappointing follow-up and it’s clearly trying for the same vibe, except instead of a pumping bassline to make the chorus feel punchier, you’ve got the flattened Nine Inch Nails sample. I’m pretty sure there’s one second of Summer actually singing here, but the insanely Auto-Tuned vocals would make it hard to distinguish anyway. I actually kind of like the chorus somewhat, since the vocal effects sound pretty interesting at least with the electro-industrial tinges from the Nine Inch Nails sample making it feel quite stiff, which works sonically but doesn’t work with a toxic relationship song, well, does it? He’s stuck in this relationship that he’s struggling with, so surely an intimate, cluttered mess would be fitting, but the only reason he’s stuck is because she’s attractive so the dull trudge of the beat definitely detracts from the content, since he can get out at any point if he gets over his own hormonal urges, so maybe it should have more bounce, more energy, maybe a groove, but it’s not there. This is the band’s tenth UK Top 40 single, and it sucks pretty bad.

#18 – “The London” – Young Thug, J. Cole and Travis Scott

Produced by T-Minus – Peaked at #6 in Canada and #12 in the US

Now, I’ve been waiting to talk about this one, because I love Young Thug, or at least I love the concept of Young Thug – an unorthodox constantly switching flow, a voice hitting frequencies only dogs can hear and nonsensical lyrics about nutting on fishes on sofas crooned off-key with an insane amount of Auto-Tune that only makes it more engaging... over average trap beats. This is a genius formula to me, but often the production doesn’t really help Thugger at all, in fact, I’m let down by a lot of the beats he has especially on earlier mixtapes and the YSL compilation project. He kills most features, can easily develop a narrative in a verse, is a crazy performer with funny lyrics, yet most of his songs don’t slap as much as they could because while Thugger’s got everything, he has to commit to the limitations of the beat and often that slows him down and dampens him. I liked his newest EP, and that got me thinking about his new project and where it was going... then I found out it was called GOLFMOUFDOG (Probably) and that J. Cole was executive producing it. Well, lookie here, we have Cole and Travis Scott, which probably propelled it a lot further to become his highest-charting song as the lead artist in both countries. I like all these artists to some capacity, but once again they all have to fit on the same beat, with entirely different flows, deliveries and approaches. This is going to be a bad idea and a complete trainwreck. This is Thugger’s third UK Top 40 hit, Cole’s seventh (sixth as a credited artist) and Travis’ seventh as well, and it’s surprisingly very refined and kind of restrained. The piano-based beat from T-Minus doesn’t catch up, pretty simply, and it works for Cole but not Thugger, while Travis Scott’s hook (He doesn’t have a verse) is actually pretty great. Cole’s verse is also pretty great, ripping a flow from Thugger and drowning himself in Auto-Tune in order to flub some multi-tracked rhymes with some funny lines like Cole posting pictures on a sonogram. Thugger makes this, though, and I see a lot of people saying he doesn’t fit, and of course, he doesn’t, he’s off-beat as hell, and he’s borderline screeching, where he takes about, paraphrasing here, your broad in a garage eating semen, with oddly emotional delivery. It’s hilarious when he takes a break from ogling at her thighs to say that he “sees the pain in shorty’s light brown eyes”. What? Also, there’s kind of a bridge which is not funny at all but it sounds hilarious, where he has a rapid flow, stops and then lets the beat be so empty for a while, before muttering a slight “Yeah”. He does this twice, and the second one gets me every time. Also, he’s reciting the fire escape procedure because of course he is, before ending his verse with a delightful “GRAH GRAH”. Man, this is the Thugger I want, the Thugger that doesn’t work on the beat at all, and doesn’t constrain himself. I want more screeching. Oh, and Cole, Travis, you’re alright, lads, I especially like their vocal riffing on the intro and outro, but come on, Thugger really steals the show.

#17 – “OT Bop” – NSG

Produced by 4PLAY

Remember these guys from “Options” with Tion Wayne? Yeah, this is their second UK Top 40 hit and I’m surprised it debuted so high but I really liked these guys last time with their melodic, synth-heavy take on faux-grime-dancehall that everyone else can’t make interesting if they tried. I figured NSG would come back with something much less unique and quite a bit generic... they’ve thrown me for a loop, because this is actually kind of weird. Instead of a cloudy synth pattern, we’ve got a really eerie, hypnotic vocal sample and an unconventional beat, with pitch-shifted repetitions of the chorus running through the left and right channels abruptly. There’s some fun ad-libs and sometimes the beat just skips, which is somewhat incompetent and really odd on first-listen, but it grew on me and is actually really fun afterwards. The charisma of each rapper is infectious, especially the dudes from about 30 seconds to 1 minute and 20 seconds, he’s really fun (No, I’m not memorising their names), and you can tell they’re laughing while recording. The signature blunt British delivery makes his first bars really memorable as well.

Meant to go to uni... sold drugs / Got a bag... oh f***

The random string accentuations added are really unnecessary and jarring, but they work and they continue to build up throughout the whole song, while the rappers get quieter the beat just continues to develop and become much more bouncy and exciting, with several buzzing synths that distort in a brief spoken word bridge. Not to mention it’s really catchy, and, yeah, I can see this growing on me.

#9 – “Cross Me” �� Ed Sheeran featuring Chance the Rapper and PNB Rock

Produced by Fred Gibson – Peaked at #6 in Australia and #34 in the US

Uh... sure. Let’s get this done quickly because, no, I don’t care about a new Ed Sheeran album and the less I talk about him the less I feel the need to listen to it. This is the second single, and it samples an XXL freestyle from PNB Rock, taking his lyrics about his daughter out of context and re-appropriating it to be a macho posturing 90s R&B jam about how if you want to cross Ed’s girl, you have to cross him. PNB Rock said “She’s my seed”, though, Ed, you sick f—

It’s not like he can’t ride the gliding synths, bouncy beat and plunging 808s but it all seems really not thought out at all, and it really isn’t a PNB Rock sample if you just loop his sample. Chance the Rapper’s verse is... great. He doesn’t work as well as he could on this beat, but his charismatic verse about defending his girl with a blade because she’s the queen, while over-protective, works because everyone involved knows it’s really silly and hyperbolic, and the delivery shows that. The chorus is catchy enough so it’s fine. It sure is fine. I don’t want to hear it ever again.

Conclusion

Uhhhhh nothing here is amazing except “The London” so Young Thug, J. Cole and Travis get Best of the Week for that, while Honourable Mention probably goes to NSG for “OT Bop”. It’s a fun track. Otherwise, well, “Easier” is kind of awful so 5 Seconds of Summer get Dishonourable Mention because Jess Glynne and Jax Jones painfully ripping themselves off in “One Touch” is much more painful to listen to. Follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank for more musical ramblings and I’ll see you next week!

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avaliveradio · 5 years ago

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12.30 New Music Monday Release Radar with Jacqueline Jax

Are you interested in discovering some fresh music just released? We have a nice selection to share with you on the last Monday of 2019. Get on board and start discovering new and creative music from indie artists all over the world on our New Music Release Radar.

Listen to the show: https://anchor.fm/ava-live-radio

Featuring:

Band Name: Purusa

Person Interviewing: Kris Kirkman

Song name: Memory

Music Genre:: Rock

I live in... : Portland, OR

'Memory' is a song I wrote about the fragility and the perception of our own memories. It was inspired by an NPR program about the development of prescription drugs that would erase the memories of people suffering from severe PTSD. In the discussions for and against this drug, the guest on the program laid out a challenging truth: that a large portion of what we consider memories, are actually fabricated in whole or in part and not accurate. Several studies were cited that indicated that not only are many of our memories not accurate, but that people are easily manipulated to change their memories and that later will staunchly defend their inaccurate version of a life event.

Website & social media links: https://www.facebook.com/purusapdx https://www.instagram.com/purusa_band http://www.purusaband.com https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/purusa/id219025731 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTcWLzUBtuSBsZYC7Fumaiw

Artist: Releaser

New Release: Miserable (Radio Edit)

Genre: Rock, Alternative Rock

Sounds like: : Badflower, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Acceptance

Located in: : Chicago, Il

“Miserable” is the latest single from Chicago rock band Releaser. You can find “Miserable” on their debut record Retox which is available on Spotify. This song is relatable to anyone who has lives in a habitual cycle. Working in the Chicago Loop, I walk with a herd of people to and from work. Feels robotic when you do it long enough.

Spotify LINK: https://open.spotify.com/track/5IjNhIU6OHrsHdbUMIr1FY?si=6je0ld5rSROV9338nnVvsg

Right now we are... Gearing up for our first headlining show in Chicago at the Beat Kitchen on January 25th, 2020

Social Media: www.facebook.com/releaserofficial www.twitter.com/wearereleaser www.instagram.com/releaserofficial www.releaserofficial.com

Artist: Robb Hill Band

New Release: Watching Waiting

Genre: Pop Rock

Sounds like: Kings of Leon , Killers, Pearl Jam, Billy Idol, Foo Fighters

Located in: Vancouver BC Canadar

Watching Waiting is an all-time favourite song to sing and perform, with its upbeat, flowing energy. It offers both a soothing and danceable mood throughout. It's a song of anticipation, waiting for everything to fall into place, to find the love you're searching for.

Spotify LINK: https://open.spotify.com/track/1M9lmEj842HJe8hD8g9Eni?si=IOmKfLwRTWGX2c5YumRttg

Right now we are... Working hard in the recording studio, we are excited about upcoming song releases. We'll also be releasing the music video for Mover Shaker in the coming weeks. Our next Vancouver BC full band show is Saturday January 25th at Pat's Pub with more exciting bands. Check out show details on our Spotify page. More dates to come in 2020

Social Media: http://youtube.com/robbhill http://facebook.com/robbhillmusic http://robbhill.bandcamp.com http://instragram.com/robbhillmusic http://twitter.com/robbhillmusic www.robbhillmusic.com

Artist: EKAT BORK

New Release: SHAMANIA

Genre: electronic, indie pop

Sounds like: : Ekat Bork, Fever Ray , Bjork, Prodigy, Florence and Machine , Me, I don’t know.

Located in: : Capolago, Ticino, Switzerland

“SHAMANIA” , the first single from the upcoming album “EKAT’ by EKAT BORK. A poem on our obsession with the virtual world, the product of corporate imaginations in place of our own. It’s a staccato strafing of the on-line universe, a subscription lifestyle of vapid alternatives to real life. SHAMANIA it’s a plea to the world to step away from your smartphone, your tablet, your X-box, to leave your popcorn life in the Grand Illyuzion.

There are 9 tracks on the album. ‘EKAT’ was born, written between the Swiss Alps and a little house in front of the ocean in Portugal. I prefer that others define my music. The music I make is not always the same genre, it evolves with nuances of styles and is difficult for me to classify it.

I don’t want to define it to much I prefer feel free to do what I wish to do at that precise moment. I do what it comes in my mind and I do it spontaneously I don’t follow a line or patterns and at the end what comes out will be what I am or something that characterizes me. If you are sincere and do not compromise it will be easier to do something true and original. It will take maybe longer to be recognized but it’s worth it.

The new album “Ekat” represents very well what I love to do today and they say that it will be a bit more indie electro pop oriented and a little less alternative than my previous two albums and the last ep.

“SHAMANIA” video link: https://youtu.be/kOpA0YacAQQ

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC5fUjGb3g6Gx2Do6JKmXhA

LINKS: Spotify: https://ekatbork.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=94e070b3fae6f91d3d45e26cf&id=86cd69376e&e=a57e9cc46a

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ekatborkmusic/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ekatbork/?hl=it

Artist: Mak7teen

New Release: Problems

Genre: Rap/West Coast/Hip Hop

Sounds like: : Scarface, DMX, 2 Pac, E-40, C-Bo, Brotha Lynch,

Located in: Sacramento, California

In a world where almost every Rapper is a killer/ drug user with 50 million guns on hand... I wanted to create something different, something that isn't feeding into the stereotypical, lyrical content, being created by the masses... Pryme Tracks sent the beat and me and Emmanuel E-Moe Avery recorded it at AmplifiEd Studios, with the intention of creating 'Problems' as the song that'll make the listeners want more..!

Something that wasn't the same as everything else being played... All it takes is one listen and the rest is history...! Everyone that talks tough in reality doesn't want any problems..!

Spotify LINK: https://open.spotify.com/album/5rDVO4ZWXwXPaA27IsSZqV?si=_44F2_f0Q_6rbd1McSEFzA

Right now we are...

Currently, we're working on a few new projects... We just finished up shooting a video ft. iLLa Jay titled -We're On Our Way- and plan on doing a few more videos before the release of any more music... We're in motion moving towards at least 30 new tracks and I have tons of more beats from many different producers to create with, so I'm not stopping anytime soon... It's time to take the show on the road! We're also in the works of bringing our shows to the listeners..! Be on the lookout, I'm always looking for dope artists to collab with. If interested you can get at me on social media...

Social Media: Instagram.com/@Mak7teen Facebook.com/Mak7teenmusic Twitter.com/Mak7teen Spotify.com/Mak7teen Reverbnation.com/Mak7teen N1m.co/Mak7teen1

Artist: Cabela and Schmitt

New Release: What You Say

Genre: Indie Rock

Sounds like: : The Beatles, Imagine Dragons, The Black Eyed Peas, Nirvana, Nickleback

Located in: : Nebraska and Colorado

WHAT YOU SAY is about the way people treat one another, how we talk to each other and how our words can either be loving, encouraging or sometimes hateful. We are beginning to implement our plan for 2020, there’s a great new decade ahead.

Spotify LINK: https://open.spotify.com/track/1XK84pQhL5ohZdSRabQshw?si=7anqjYzaSbWp6zzx--nV0Q

Social Media: http://www.cabelaandschmitt.com https://open.spotify.com/artist/2H54cElVw72XtIIXnlcja1?si=HWf98LkdT3GOctEdbvu2-A https://www.instagram.com/cabelaandschmitt https://twitter.com/CabelaSchmitt https://www.facebook.com/cabelaschmittmusic https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKwn7yE8P2rrU9ZjnN0UACQ

Artist: Suniil Bhatia (Artist)/ Sound Machine (Band)

New Release: Kya Ho Gaya Hai

Genre: Old movie dance hall, Acoustic

Sounds like: : The song is a tribute and ode to the Movies and Cinema of the Black and White Era.

Located in: : Mumbai

This is the acoustic version of a new song called 'Kya ho gaya hai' from the Album ‘Yeh Din’ (which means ‘These days’). The song in a nutshell says "I was caught up in the hullabaloo of life (which is like a Fair) thinking of you. Here everyone including myself are wearing masks, so one wouldn’t know who is who. Look what I wanted in life, see what I got. What a time it was in the past, see what its become now”. The song is part philosophical and part humorous in a way describing ones aspirations and situations in general which keep on changing. It’s a tribute to the movies and cinema of the black and white era.

LINKS: Reverbnation : https://www.reverbnation.com/sunilbhatia/song/31414483-kya-ho-gaya-hai-acoustic Soundcloud : http://soundcloud.com/sunil-bhatia Spotify : Yet to appear once the Album is complete Twitter : https://twitter.com/sunilbhatia Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/YoursMusically Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/sonu.sunil.bhatia

#Purusa #Releaser #Robb Hill Band #EKAT BORK #Mak7teen #Cabela and Schmitt #Suniil Bhatia #Sound Machine

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tastegoal5-blog · 6 years ago

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M.I.A.’s first show and the birth of the mash-up: Remembering Hollertronix, where mixtapes and mosh pits ruled

A show at North Philly’s Warehouse on Watts this weekend turns the clock back to the early 2000s in homage to one of the most legendary parties in Philadelphia history.

“Red Bull Presents: Hollerboard Redux” is a celebratory throwback to Hollertronix, the wild, sweaty, sonically innovative recurring party started in 2002 by DJ Lowbudget (aka Michael McGuire) and Diplo (Wesley Pentz). Friday night’s show features appearances by some of the key players in the scene — including Lowbudget, Cosmo Baker, Nick Catchdubs, Dirty South Joe, and Spank Rock (in his final performance under that stage name).

What’s to commemorate? After starting out as a strictly local affair, Hollertronix became a hot topic on the infamous online “Hollerboard” message boards and gained a cult following. It hosted one of M.I.A’s first shows. In 2003, the New York Times named the Hollertronix mixtape Never Scared one of the best albums of the year, calling it “a near-perfect party mix.”

Hollertronix was a laboratory that allowed Wes and Mike to popularize lesser-known musical genres (think Baltimore club) and experiment with mashing up musical styles in a way that’s now commonplace, but was then pioneering. It was a way to channel crate-digger geekiness and creativity with pure, technically-brilliant party rock. It was shaped by Philadelphia’s rich pre-Serato DJing history and an influx of New York folks fleeing Giuliani-era enforcement of cabaret laws. The dance floor featured a mélange of kids, black and white, gay and straight, hailing everywhere from Baltimore to Connecticut.

The result was something the Philly nightlife scene had never seen before — and has really never seen since.

Courtesy Christopher Ross

Michael McGuire aka DJ Lowbudget (DJ and musician): Me and Wes kept bumping into each other, and eventually we decided to do a party at this place called the Ukrainian Club, the Ukie. We wanted to play down south music, ‘80s stuff, and electro. The first Hollertronix party was actually my birthday.

Wesley Pentz aka. Diplo (DJ and producer): I wanted to throw a party where I could play all kinds of hip-hop. The first Hollertronix, the “Get Crunk Now” party, was a lot of 80s stuff. Now, if you heard about this…you’d just be like, who gives a fuck, that’s so redundant. But back then those scenes were so different.

McGuire: The first party was September 2002. We really didn’t do much promotion at all. It was mostly word of mouth. We had about a 150 people come, but it was good, and the word of mouth afterward was even better.

Pentz: In Philly, social clubs had a special license to stay open an extra hour. The Ukrainian Club was dingy and old, but it was right by my house. Also, the parties we were doing were kind of illegal, but we were so far up the northside of Philadelphia that the police weren’t bothering us. I became good friends with the owners. They thought I was actually Ukrainian. I’d go to their meetings sometimes.

Rose Luardo (performance artist, comedian, musician): It looked like an old man’s basement: cheap, yellow, wood paneling, long cafeteria tables. It looked like there was a big Polish wedding the day before and the day after.

Nick Barat aka Nick Catchdubs (Fool’s Gold Records co-founder and DJ): It was all musty and dank. There was a tiny bar in the back, like in a cafeteria, where the lunch lady stands and takes your money. But instead, it was a weird Ukrainian lady who would take your money and then give you a giant bottle of Obolon beer.

Jayson Musson (artist): All the artwork on the walls was Ukrainian history, or Ukrainian people or Ukrainian national messages. By default, everyone was an outsider. It’s not your space, no matter who you are. So that put everyone on a level ground.

McGuire: Part of what gave us confidence was the alcohol was cheap and it stayed open later than 2 a.m. If you started playing something people didn’t like, they weren’t going to leave and go to the next bar, because it was in this weird location. So there was more freedom to be creative. I consider the actual setting of the party just as much a part of the success as our own creative input.

Luardo: People would say, “I went to a really great dance party and had the most incredible time.” And it grew and grew. You just knew you were going to have a balls-to-the-wall time.

McGuire: Social networking was blowing up at the same time. Friendster was just developing. There were these weird local Philly message boards. Everyone would get on there and it was all this Philly drama. People would have all-out beefs. It was a great promotional device. I remember [The Philadelphia] City Paper emailing me, saying, hey, we heard you’re doing this party, we want to list it. I never returned their call. If you had to read City Paper to find out about it, we didn’t want you there.

Courtesy Christopher Ross

Cosmo Baker (DJ and producer): Philadelphia was really the home of the DJ. Cash Money and Jazzy Jeff were two DJs who, in the ‘80s, were the pinnacle of what it meant to be a DJ. We’ve always been a working class city. It’s a very tough city. Nobody can tell us what to do. Everyone’s growing up in a city that’s not really giving you that much. So when it comes time to blow off some steam, they really know how to do it, how to let loose.

Barat: The party could only have existed in Philadelphia. It couldn’t have existed in New York. New York was shitty because of Giuliani, and more importantly, 9/11 had happened and everybody was moving out. It was just sort of dead. You had really expensive rap-video-style, bottle-service club parties, and then you had beard-stroking, my-record’s-more-obscure disco parties that weren’t really for dancing. There were two total extremes.

Joey Massarueh aka Dirty South Joe (DJ and producer): In the summer of 1999, the cabaret laws were put into effect. It was a systematic thing: one by one, at all your favorite little [Lower East Side] spots that held 150 people, there were tables on the dance floor. Giuliani had this major push to clean the streets. New York really felt like a police state. Cops on every corner and halfway down each block. It was like, ok, here we are this vast metropolis, the greatest city on Earth, and you can’t fucking dance.

Baker: I decided, alright, I’m going to move back to Philadelphia. I’m not saying that Giuliani is responsible for the success of Wes and Mike, but a butterfly flaps its wings, and a wave crashes on the other side of the world, right?

Massarueh: There was definitely something special happening in Philly. I remember it being so much more “no bullshit” than any other place I’d ever been. There’s no hustle you’re going to get over here. There’s just too many ways that people are going to shoot it down or see through it. It’s a tough place to learn how to DJ, but you go to other places and you realize you’ve been trained. There’s generation after generation of families that are DJs in Philly. Kids whose dads taught it to them. It’s serious. It has a very blue collar basis here, and part of that is a foundation in classic party-rocking.

Courtesy Christopher Ross

McGuire: At Hollertronix, people would start coming in early and head immediately for the dance floor. No “Let me get a drink first, let me wait till they start playing music I like.” Just right to the dance floor. As a DJ, this is great, I can play whatever I want. They’re not being picky, they’re ready to party.

Naeem Juwan aka Spank Rock (rapper): I would be traditionally the first person on the dance floor. Me and my friends would walk in and start dancing. We’d be like the first five people on the floor — dancing relentlessly, all night. I loved dancing with people that didn’t know how to dance well.

Luardo: The combination of Wes and Mike was phenomenal. They had such different sensibilities. You want to talk about a mash-up—two guys with different music tastes, bringing music and people together.

McGuire: Wes was more out there, really wanting to push the envelope. I was more geared towards rocking the crowd. If it was just me, the party might not have been interesting enough. If it was just him, it might have been too weird, might have alienated people. Together, it was a great balance.

Barat: It’s easier for Wes to be the weirdo and Mike to be the voice of rap reason, but the reality of it was, they both had really extensive taste and both had as much vested interest in pop records and other stuff. Mike definitely brought a little more of the working DJ sense, because he had a lot more experience with it. And he scratched better.

Massarueh: The one thing Mike and Wes would both tell you is, there was a very direct relation going on between the record store Armand’s and the music that was played at Hollertronix.

Baker: Armand’s was the definitive record store in Philadelphia for years. It had everything. It became a ritual — you’d go down to Armand’s once or twice a week. It kind of gave DJs a sense of community — it’s how I met Dirty South Joe. You’d spend hours on end there, listening to records, digesting records, being around other DJs and seeing how they reacted to records. But there was also a sense of competition. You’d make sure that you got there at the right time, so that if there’s only three copies of a hot new record, you were going to be one of the three guys that got it.

Barat: This was DJing before Serato came out — Serato is a software that basically lets you DJ off your laptop. Which, for a working DJ, is a godsend, because you don’t have to lug records everywhere. But it did change the craft and approach. Anybody who can download music and copy it to their hard drive can just get out there and start doing it. But when Hollertronix stuff was going on, if Wes and Mike wanted to play a weird record, they’d really have to seek it out.

McGuire: This was not only before Serato, but also laptops and even CDs. Just two turntables, man. We were doing this with just turntables and a mixer and we had a little sampler for sound effects. People can’t believe we did that with just two turntables.

Massarueh: DJing pre-Serato didn’t just require a lot more skill, it required a lot more dedication from every aspect of your life. There were certain days you had to set aside each week to go get new weapons. You had to go clean and load your gun with new shit. If the labels were too slow, you’d get the kill cuts and bootlegs. You’d take a cab or drive anywhere from four to eight crates to a gig and pack them up at the end of the night. Everywhere you went, you kept them behind you in the booth. You were only as good as the records you had.

Barat: Wes and Mike would take these dollar-bin records from Armand’s and sort of build a context around them. They would play a Trick Daddy record and realize it’s the same tempo as this new Metro Area disco song.

Pentz: Lowbudget was the first to actually go down to Baltimore to pick up the records. We’d buy mixtapes — they worked so well for us.

Baker: It goes back to the vision they had, of throwing all these things together and creating a perfect blend. They weren’t the first guys to mix things half-time and they weren’t the first guys to play Baltimore club or Southern rap or Joy Division records, but they were playing all of them together. On paper, it didn’t make sense. But within the confines of the party, it made perfect sense.

Musson: Baltimore is played around the world because of Hollertronix. It’s in the music of Nick and Naeem, and more DJs in general drop Baltimore shit now. And that’s because of Hollertronix. They didn’t make the wheel, but they were definitely like, yo, there’s this wheel over here.

Juwan: Before, you had these very specific music scenes that had all these fucking rules. Rock sounded like rock, punk sounded like punk, and hip-hop sounded like hip-hop. But when you had everyone mixing together, all these different people with different musical backgrounds together and dancing at that party, it inspired everybody.

Roxy Summers aka Roxy Cottontail (party promoter and DJ): Fixed-gear guys next to tall-T guys next to regular South Philly dudes.

Musson: You’d have your indie kids. It was this kind of post-electro period. Racially, I guess it was really solidly diverse. You had white people, black people — it was just “the kids.”

Luardo: I really felt like, it doesn’t matter who you are in this city: if you are straight edge, if you are punk rock from punk rock, if you are a 90-year-old hippie, if you’re a high-school kid — if you show up to this party, you are down for whatever.

Courtesy Christopher Ross

Massarueh: By the end of the night, that’s when it would get really crunk — head busting, people jumping off the stage. Me and Jayson and Mike had an unofficial group called the Philadelphia Crunk Lords. Everybody knew there was eventually going to be a mosh pit and we were all going to playfully beat each others’ asses and try not to slip on all the beer on the floor.

Musson: They’d play shit to incite mosh pit. The mosh pit was like a boardroom meeting of faces. It was a duty. I felt like if I wasn’t there, I was letting someone down.

Luardo: It was a lot of Sodom and Gomorrah. Crazy shit happened all the time.

McGuire: You’re not going to leave this party looking good. You can get as dolled up as you want, but when you leave you’re going to be nasty and you’re not going to be dolled up anymore. You’re going to break a sweat here.

Luardo: I know that I would crowd surf, I know that I would jump on top of people, I did things like that and everybody else did too. It was that kind of abandon.

McGuire: Our Halloween parties kind of became a thing. I remember the first one, just seeing so many crazy costumes. Jesus and Bin Laden dancing together. Dudes dancing in their underwear. Just people acting nuts.

Barat: M.I.A.’s “Galang” had come out on this little record company called Showbiz in the UK. Wes had found that 12-inch, sought her out, and they started working on stuff together. She signed, got her record deal, came to Philly, and made a mixtape. One of her earliest performances was at Hollertronix on Halloween.

Pentz: That was the first time M.I.A. had ever done a show. She’d done like a little Fader show in a parking lot but this was the first show after that. She was super nervous.

Juwan: By the time that big Halloween party happened, Hollertronix had really made a name for itself. It was big enough that they could get Bun B to come out. I was going on for Plastic Little, so I was fucking stoked.

Massarueh: Halloween was Naeem’s debut and M.I.A.’s debut. She was just getting her whole performing thing together. And friggin Bunn B was there.

Courtesy Christopher Ross

Barat: They started getting all this attention when The New York Times said that the mix CD was one of the best records of the year — not just [best] mixtapes, but actual records. It became this phenomenon, and got really, really big, up to the point that it wasn’t sustainable anymore.

Summers: I remember Never Scared was in The New York Times as one of the best albums. It wasn’t even an album. I was like, huh? How could a mixtape get best album? But that just goes to show the power of the music they were playing.

Massarueh: They really changed idea of touring DJs. At the time, you had three or four dudes in the world that DJed rap on tour — Jazzy Jeff, Stretch Armstrong, Cash Money, early 2000s guys like that. Wes and Mike opened it up to more of a get-in-a-van, punk rock kind of thing. They took that party to different cities, starting with New York.

Barat: They wanted to do bigger things, move on to bigger challenges. M.I.A. happened, Wes’s thing as a DJ and producer happened. You couldn’t go back again.

Summers: Those times will never be replicated. And you know, when you’re in them, you don’t realize that. You just think they’re going to go on forever.

Barat: When the party stopped, it was almost like you didn’t realize it. It wasn’t like they played a last show and were like, alright guys, it’s done. They just didn’t do another one. I liked that it was left open-ended like that.

Luardo: Whenever I have a really fun time, I’m like, it feels like Hollertronix. It created a standard. The people I met there, we’re not really finding any more places that are what that party was. I don’t think there should be and I don’t think there can be. And I don’t think Wes and Mike knew it was going to be that amazing. When we look at all the lines, and trace it all back, it’s almost coincidental, random. Like when someone knocked a little bit of salt into the chocolate chip cookies and were like, oh my god, they’re so good. I’m nostalgic just talking about it. It was so good!

Source: https://billypenn.com/2018/09/28/m-i-a-s-first-show-and-the-birth-of-the-mash-up-remembering-hollertronix-where-mixtapes-and-mosh-pits-ruled/

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