First, this song. Now as an ex-percussionist I have a big pension for drums, and all the drums in this track, from the snares to the 808’s, are so on point that it’s making my head spin. The other thing that really stands out to me in this flip is the expert vocal sampling. With a song like ‘Still In This Bitch’ it’s really important that your remix pay homage to the original, or else the hip hop heads will come out fighting, and Jayceeoh & B-Sides did that perfectly.
If you’ve been following Jayceeoh’s career, which you should be, you’ve noticed that he never really sticks to one sound for too long, and this remix is a great example of that versatility. Each breakdown sounds totally different, but still maintains a sense of composure throughout the whole track. That’s the mark of a true artist.
I sat down with Jayceeoh (that’s a lie, we were standing) at Lights All Night to talk about DJ culture and what he’s got coming up in 2015!
Do you go into your sets differently if you’re playing a festival vs. a club?
My sets change every time, I go on the fly. I’ll prepare something beforehand in the sense that I know what kind of music I want to play at the beginning, but 2 or 3 songs in and I’m just winging it. In a situation like this with Lights All Night I’m thinking “Ok, I need to really project and show off the Jayceeoh brand” so I play as much of my remixes and originals as possible, mixed in with other songs that are going to take the set where I want it to go. I create a festival type set differently than I would a club set. Luckily, I’m a versatile DJ so I can go into any situation and please whoever I’m playing for. A lot of guys will just roll in with a USB stick and only have one set or mode. That’s not me.
Vinyls vs. CDJs: Do you feel like some of the art form is lost in the technology?
I wouldn’t say that CDJs necessarily take away from the art form, you can essentially do almost everything on a CDJ that you can on a turntable. But for me it’s a comfort thing. When I’m playing a show on turntables, I don’t have to think about it, I just go in and beast the set. Whereas when I’m on CDJs, I actually have to think about it more. There’s a big learning curve with CDJs, but I’m not going to say one is better than the other. I came up on turntables and that’s my instrument, so that’s just what I’m more comfortable with.
Do you feel pressure from popular culture to stick to a certain genre or sound?
I really don’t. Everything I’ve done so far as a producer or a DJ has been about diversity, especially in my club sets. So when I’m producing music, I approach it the same way. If I can mix and play sets with every genre, why not make music like that? In terms of fan reactions to my music, I haven’t noticed any backlash on any of the tracks I’ve released like “oh he released this new kind of song so I don’t fuck with him anymore”, I’ve never gotten that. My fans are very receptive to what I can do, my biggest challenge is just building that fan base.
Your remix of Bassnectar’s ‘Loco Ono’ was insane! How did that come about? Any plans to work with Lorin in the future?
The Bassnectar thing is pretty interesting. He reached out to me randomly on Twitter, I got a direct message that said something like “Hey buddy, love your music!” and I was like “…Is this real?”. I told him I’d love to work with him and he suggested that we collaborate, it was nuts! I was so blown away. This was right before his album came out so I asked if I could do a remix of one of the songs and he loved the idea. He came back a few days later and said “Loco Ono, that’s the one for you”. So I went in on it, sent it to him, and he loved it. Since then we’ve been talking a ton and we’re getting closer, and we’re actually working on a couple originals right now. There’s no pressure on deadlines or anything like that, but we’re shooting a lot of ideas back and forth so hopefully y’all will get to hear one of our collabs soon!
What’s coming in 2015 that Jayceeoh fans can get excited about?
There’s a lot. I’ve got a gang of records done, probably like 15-20.
Damn, that’s a lot! So are you thinking about an album or an EP?
I would love to put out an album but it’s like I’m still at a building phase in my career so I don’t want to put out an album until people are anticipating an album from me. So I actually have a bunch of different EPs and singles that are going to go to different labels. I’m releasing an EP in January on my new record label, Super 7, called ‘No Clearance’. It’s basically a bunch of tracks with samples, so I just decided to put it out for free. I’ve also been working a lot with 12th Planet’s SMOG Records, which may translate into an EP as well. I’ve got such a wide catalog of music coming out in 2015, I really hope it’ll bump things up for me. I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.
Tell me about your new record label, Super 7 Records
Super 7 began as a mixtape series that I started six or seven years ago where I would feature six other DJs, and myself, and each of us would do a 10 minute mix. I did five volumes of that and that’s what sort of jumpstarted my career on an international level because I was featuring these really dope DJs like Gaslamp Killer and Grandtheft before this whole EDM boom, so it got me a lot of respect in the DJ community. I wanted to create a label and that brand, Super 7, was something I had already established and I thought “Super 7 Records” sounded really dope. As of right now Super 7 Records is an outlet for me to just give out records for free. If I make something and I know it’s dope, I’m going to shop it or I’ll put it out for free on my own outlet. The record label will grow as I grow. As I grow, I want to sign other artists and build it up into something like OWSLA or Mad Decent, but I still have a ways to go in terms of establishing my brand first. For now, it just exists, and whatever I want to do with it will just happen organically.
