Jade Jagger knows how to throw a party. When British crown jeweller Garrard put her in charge of an event, the ensuing bash was described as ”Sarah Ferguson hanging out with So Solid Crew.” Now, her and partner Dan Williams’ recurring Jezebel loft parties are causing havoc near Kensal Green in west London.
The next Jezebel night is on Friday, April 16th. Check out an exclusive Dan ”DRW” Williams live mix from a recent Jezebel party below – and an interview with miss Jagger after the jump!
So Jade, what about the Jezebel loft party on Friday in London? Tell us about the venue, the vibe and any surprises you might have planned.
– The loft space on Scrubbs Lane is a one of a kind venue. We have the exclusive rights to throw partys there. Jezebel teaming up with Eazy Bailey has given us the perfect opportunity to pack out a huge space and keep it banging and bouncing till the dawn. The main floor is dance music and the back room plays ‘all sorts’ all night from my very own iPod! Nothing else like this happens in west London so it brings all kinds of people. The surprises will be the special guest DJ:s and special guests we will have showing up all year !
Dan Williams aka DRW will be DJ:ing. Judging from his live mix it will be a genre breaking set of party beats, house classics and electro. If you’d sum up Dan as DJ, what makes him great in your opinion?
– He knows how to make people dance. He reads a crowd so well and is always dropping surprises in that make the crowd go mad.
You’ve done quite a few parties before. Which is craziest night you’ve promoted?
– Our craziest night last year was in Stockholm. Starting of with a party set in a private club. Then off to Berns hotel for a dance set and finishing off with a wild after party in a castle somewhere in the middle of the city. The sun went down at midnight and came up at 3am!
The crowd at your parties has been described as “Sarah Ferguson hanging out with So Solid Crew, everybody’s in.” What movers and groovers are you expecting on the Jezebel night?
– It will be full of everybody from behind the scenes in the music business, from Skint Records to Polydor. All the usual suspects from the party scene and a great mix of old and new…
We’ve heard that you’re planning on taking the Jezebel parties on the road. What cities are you striking down on in the future?
– We’ve got plans to take our Loft party series to other cities, NYC looks to be first on the cards and we’re busy looking for the perfect venue to carry the vibe across to Ibiza. We’ll be hitting the festivals with Jezebel this year too which is exciting – Glastonbury, Secret Garden, Snowboming are the first of the bunch. Also gigs in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Las Vegas with a mediterranean tour thrown in the midddle. Exciting times ahead for Jezebel.
DJ T’s Fabric 51 promo mix has been on repeat at the office for the last few days – seems last week, which was Maya Vanya week, has seemlessly blended into DJ T week. What better way to mark that occassion than with a chat to the man in question?
When you were asked to do a Fabric mix, what was your first reaction? – My first thought was, that this was the perfect timing. I never felt better prepared for such a mix than in this moment, because the months before I had already collected hundreds of tracks and songs that I didn’t neccassarily needed for playing, but rather for listening oriented mixes and podcasts. The request came in on a Friday and on Monday the staff had a clearing-list of 60 tracks in their email. Guess that never happened to them before, ha ha! And I felt very honoured of course.
Did you approach this differently than you would when preparing tracks for a big gig? – Fundamentally different. Less from a functional point of view but more from an emotional one.
What were the general vibe and idea you were aiming for in the mix? – The main thing I wanted to transport was the emotional state I’d brought home from my last worldtour. I had played and stayed in sunny places like Brasil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Miami, Hawaii and Australia and the vibe of these weeks was still ruling my world. Further it was about a certain, very deep, musical vibe, somebody from the fabric staff called it “cinematic”, I actually liked that characterization. Stylewise its all about productions, that are very simple and reduced, so they let the main theme elements and vocals al lot of room to act.
You said somewhere that you’ve never put as many vocal tracks in a mix before. Was this intentional? – It was just a natural consequence of the concept I just described. What is generally happening is, that currently my soul, funk and disco roots are breaking through very strong again and these references are not only appearing as moods or citings. I am really into full vocal songs in the moment.
Your Fabric mix has already been compared to Michael Mayer’s now classic Fabric 13. How does that feel? Was that particular mix an inspiration for you when doing this? – Proud to hear that. It’s a long time ago that I heard Michael’s mix, but I can remember, that I liked it very much. If its compared, I guess its because it transports a similar feeling. But I actually didn’t take any other mixes as an inspiration.
The promo mix features an all-different track list than the album. But would you say it’s along the same lines sound and vibe wise? – No, for the promo mix I wanted to make something different. Maybe the first tracks have a similar feeling, but all in all its something that could rather be played in a club than the fabric mix.
Adeline Supreme is a multi-talented DJ, producer and singer/songwriter. Wait, add radio host too, as she’s currentlu running the Swedish national radio’s dance music show P3 Dans with her DJ partner La Fleur – whom she also forms DJ and production duo Housewives with. To top things off, Adeline’s slick, techy house mix won the ears of the NGDJ jury, which rewarded her NGDJ’s third place.
The jury’s verdict: “Channelling the freshest tech house sounds available, this Swedish/Argentinian DJ and singer/songwriter won the jury’s hearts with a slick, stripped-down mix showcasing both exquisite taste and, in her self-penned tracks, impeccable musical talent”.
We caught up with Adeline Supreme for a quick chat.
Hey Adeline, congratulations on the third spot in NGDJ! – I’m indeed very happy for that! It was really overwhelming seeing myself take a place on the podium and I was very touched by the jury’s reasons for choosing me. To me, that was winning!
What did you make your priorities when reading what the jury was looking for? – I just figured that I needed to present myself in as good way as possible in those 30 minutes. For me there was no option of moving away from my own sound just to fit into the competition, because for me the biggest sounds are always individual anyway. That’s why I decided to keep my line and try to stand out as much as possible to meet the competition that way.
Has NGDJ in some way affected or tested the way you see yourself as a DJ? – Actually it has, presenting myself in such a short mix is not as easy as you would think, because whether playing a gig, broadcasting a radio show or whathever I do there is usually a bit more time and space than that available. So, presenting myself in as short and neat way as possible got me to really evaluate what professional qualities I have as a DJ, artist and brand. And self evaluation is always important. That’s what brings you a step further and keeps you growing!
Can we expect more production work from you up ahead? – eah, I have some material coming up in the near future. As I’m in discussion with a few labels at the moment the aim is to have the next tracks, or the tropical summer hits, as I refer to them, out by the summer, suitably enough! And, it’s definitely not sounding like anything else out there.
What do you see ahead for your own DJ:ing at this point? – Well, the plan is basically to finish the new material, get it out there and to keep the dance floors on fire! But more than that I’m hosting a new club night in Stockholm this spring and summer, and as I’m relocating to London in the very near future, I’ll be doing some interesting stuff there as well. Sign up for my newsletter to stay updated, lots of stuff to come.
– Also, thanks for having me on here, looking forward to updating you on what happens from here!
There is quality throughout the NGDJ finalist field. French born but Tel aviv based DJ Jeremy G showed pure class in his finalist mix and claimed a well deserved second place. According to the jury, Jeremy G “displays all the skills necessary for a world class DJ in 2010. While moving from one end of the house/techno spectrum to the other, he still keeps the sound and vibe tight by introducing acapellas, samples and his own re-edits and remixes.”
To hear Jeremy G:s NGDJ finals mix, have a listen here or scroll down the post. Check out an interview with Jeremy G below!
Second spot, G! So what’s running through your head right now? –Wow, after two months of hard work on fulfilling all the tasks of this competition and many sleepless nights thinking about where I will be placed, I finally saw the results late on Wednesday night, coming back from a gig after a very long week of non-stop crazy gigs – it was Purim, a week long “Halloween like” holiday period here in Israel. Right now, to be honest, I am 10% disappointed for not winning first place but 90% excited and very happy of achieving the second spot. I had a feeling Maya & Vanya would take first, they seem really cool. I want to thank each and every one of the jury for listening and doing their thing.
What do you expect will come of this? – I hope this is a start of a new period in my DJ career, one in which I will be able to play in different places in the world and showcase what I do best to bigger audiences. Also I expect to start working more on my own productions and maybe even license some of the many edits and mash-ups I have made over the years and so far kept as exclusives. Either way I now have a great powerful medium here on Let’s mix to promote myself and my mixes.
What do you think you did to channel yourself and your DJ:ing skills so the jury got stuck listening to your mix? – In the last few years I have recorded about 30 DJ sets. Some were commercially released in Israel via Krembo records which I am part of, some were fun mixtapes I made for myself or other DJs.
– In every mix I do it’s always important for me to give my added value to the recording by re-designing the original tracks to create something different that will be uniquely mine: Fresh and cutting edge, yet very fun and with good building energy. It took me about a week to select tracks, audition ideas and put this NGDJ mix together, and I guess the jury noticed and liked the short musical trip I have prepered.
Your video document tells a good story, and sparks curiosity at all the stuff which goes on outside of your competition mix. – Thanks, I actually had only one day to shoot the video. and I want to thank my friend Arik for the amazing editing job he did. I wanted to show a short snapshot of my day to day life at home, in the studio, in the clubs but to also show a bit of the other things I do – like design, graffiti and painting.
Ultimately you pulled through to grab the second spot in NGDJ. What part of the criterion do you think you really did deliver on? – I think it might do with the music selection and the way I like to mix many different genres of music together so the sound and energy of the mix keeps changing and new surprises keeps dropping in. There are many mad and exiting moments that I am really proud of in my finals mix, like my acidic dubstep remix of Deadmau5. I guess that me getting into the top 3 was a combination of that unique style and the branding potential I have showcased with the logos and images I used, all designed by me.
From your experience in NGDJ, what do you think are some things to keep in mind for DJs starting out, or what could others keep in mind musically and promotionalwise? – Well I can humbly say I think the following things are important for a DJ. First, love what you do, know who you are, work hard and keep it unique and interesting both musically and promotion wise. Secondly, keep an open mind and explore as many different styles of music from the present and the past, eventually the future of music will be the sum of its elements in the past. Alternatively you can always produce a mega club hit, that will surely help.
– Oh, and one more thing. In case you do, please don’t steal your entire music catalogue from the net. Try and buy as much of your music as possible, it’s good for your karma.
After a week of deliberating, spinning the NGDJ finalist mixes back and forth, the jury has finally reached a verdict: The winners of the NGDJ finals are Croatian born, New Zealand based sister duo Maya Vanya!
According to the jury, Maya Vanya ”are intriguing in a ‘what’s next?’ way. A Croatian sister duo residing in New Zeeland, they are purveyors of global club music and serve up the most unique party starting sounds around in Next Generation DJ. The sisters have proven themselves by mixing their own masterfully laid out edits, spanning three decades of tropical music fun, with a big room friendly tech house sound ready for next generation dancefloors everywhere.”
We caught up with the two sisters on the phone in New Zealand, read the interview below! Interviews and presentations of the runner-ups Jeremy G and Adeline Supreme will follow.
To hear Maya Vanya’s winning mix, scroll down the interview or peep it here.
First, of course: Congratulations on winning NGDJ! – Man we’re pretty stoked to be honest…we DID NOT EXPECT THIS AT ALL can we say. When we got a message from Stefan from Let’s mix asking if we’ll be available to take a call in 12 hours from now, we just assumed he was ringing all the top 100 finalists.
What do you think it is about your contest submission that made it stand out? – We still aren’t really sure what we did to get the judge’s attention. We were hoping mainly to stand out with our originality and creativity and overall fun mixes to listen to…guess that worked?!
– O ur main thing is to stick to our sound and show what we are into, so what we tried to do with the mix was get as creative as possible and make it a mix made up of a whole heap of samples and loops mixed together with some tracks that we like and felt were appropriate. We were trying to be as creative as possible and picking tracks that we thought would work in a place like Miami.
You will do you first set as NGDJ winners at the DJ Mag party at Miami WMC. Pretty huge. What can people who catch you there expect? – Well we’ve just literally been informed about being the winners five minutes ago, ha ha..So we’re still digesting all this now! Plus given it’s three am here in New Zealand, we’re thinking we were asleep and when we wake up this didn’t even happen. But okay, let’s pretend we are ready to take this on and can see ourselves in Miami in a few weeks at the WMC… You can expect a fun vibe, and to hear music we love to play .
Your style is obviously rooted in classic club music, but you also have a very global sound that caught the jury’s ear. How would you describe your DJ:ing style yourselves? – Our style is influenced by our cross-cultural nature but also the way we resourse our music, which is the internet! The fact that music from across the globe is now much more accessible via the internet helps us be able to play around and mix more of all these sounds into our sets and makes our style sound more worldly and global. And yeah, our love for house and club music influences the way we have put this sound together.
Being two sisters dj:ing as a duo is not very common – in fact we can’t think of any other sister acts like you. – That’s one of the interesting elements about us, huh? We are very close and always doing things together but we definitely have our ups and downs…as with anyone that you imagine to be your close family/best friend/work buddy all in one.
How did you get into dj:ing? And who went first, Maya or Vanya? – We’ve always been surrounded and involved in music to some degree. As young kids in Croatia our parents always encouraged us to get involved with singing, dancing and learning musical instruments. Vanya used her school choir skills mainly to imitate the likes of Nancy Sinatra and The Beatles, while Maya spent her teenage years in her room with music blasting day and night from pop and hip hop to the club music that was on the radio at the time: Daft Punk, Fat Boy Slim and Groove Armada to name a few.
– Both of us were also regular party goers, while Maya was out making up her mind each weekend between going out to watch hip hop DJ:ss scratching or trance DJ:s making her wave her hands in the air in slow motion, Vanya would make sure to never miss the funky jazzy club house music events around town. The same way DJ:ing came about, as a hobby and then the fascination with the art of it. Maya got involved with spinning initially, and then soon after we naturally became a duo that we are .
For those just starting out DJing, any words of advice on how to get this kind of thing rolling? – Ha ha…considering we’re up and comers ourselves it’s hard to know what’s the best advice yet, as we still have alot to learn ourselves! But one really important element to have in this whole thing is passion about the music and the art of DJ:ing itself. That obviously means being and getting creative and trying to find new ways to mix up music of any genre or style together with different technology to come up with something new and fresh. Becoming a DJ and wanting to get places by being one has become very competitive recently, every second person you meet is a DJ or in the process of being one. So it’s extremely competitive and not only about being a good DJ in terms of skill and music anymore – it’s also about who you know. So your networking and marketing skills play a big part too.
You seem to have an interesting story behind you: Born in Croatia, now in New Zealand, and so on. How did you end up there? – We were born in Croatia, went to school there for several years, dealt with the war there for a little bit too. Then our parents, who were always pretty keen globe trotting travelers, decided to head over to New Zealand and see what the land of 50 million sheep was all about. Initially it was more of a long visit, but that turned into a very long visit of well over 10 years now!
So, finally: What’s the best part about winning NGDJ? – Sounds cheesy, but the endless excitement that we’re dealing with right now!!! We’re especially looking forward to travelling to play at the crazy destinations as Miami WMC and what’s coming after that, and being involved with and influenced by some of the biggest global players in this music’s industry! Maybe ask us this question again in a few days, after we’ve had some time for it all to sink in, ha ha!
On the Let's mix blog you'll find updates on our service, interviews with people who use it and, occasionally, rants from our beloved staff. It's an open forum, so feel free to comment and share your thoughts with us.
