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Justin Jay has accomplished a lot for someone still in his college years. At only 20 years old, he has already impressed the likes of Claude VonStroke and Droog among others leading to releases on Dirtybird and Culprit and tour dates around the world in LA, Detroit, and Ibiza - all between classes, homework, and college life at USC in Los Angeles. Justin's most recent EP 'The Jaguar' was released on September 9th via Culprit. We had the chance to sit down with Justin at the start of a busy fall semester to discuss balancing school with making and playing music, some of his dream collaborations, playing in Ibiza for the first time, and the process of producing "The Jaguar."
In the old days, records/tapes/CDs were handed to DJs at nightclubs and then followed up on if they liked what they heard. Given your successes thus far in clubland, the fact that you're under the legal age to hang out at most clubs has clearly not been a hindrance. What advice to you have for other young producer/DJs who might be looking to break into the scene but don't know where to start? I was able to break through because I just kept on cranking out tracks and sending them off to my favorite labels through soundcloud. A lot of those songs were pretty questionable, but I started honing my production skills by putting in the hours. Getting music signed on Dirtybird was an absolute dream come true. I think it's so crazy that something like that was able to happen even though I'd never personally met any of the guys. With a little bit of push through the internet, quality music will find its home. To break into the scene, a good place to start is in your bedroom, making music... that's what worked for me.
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What was the name of the program at your high school that got you hooked on making music at the age of 15? It was just one elective class called "Electronic Music." It was nuts, they sat us down with an old version of Logic and Midi keyboards. I grew up playing the piano so I coasted through the class without having to learn much technically, but I just thought it was so cool how you could record all sorts of sounds just from one keyboard. Around that time, I had a really brief desire to be in a rock band, but I didn't think there was a lot of demand for piano. Electronic music production first appealed to me just because I could do all of the instruments myself with a midi keyboard.
What's the key to balancing studies in college with building a career that likely comes with pressure to leave school for touring or more production work? I'm still figuring out this balancing act. It gets tricky... On my way to Europe this summer, I had to crank out a 10 page essay on the flight from LA to London. The biggest key I'm discovering is taking summer school classes and then having relatively light course load during the school year. That's helped a lot. While keeping up with tests and homework is a drag, I like learning and being surrounded by kids my own age. Inspiration can strike in the most unlikely places, even classrooms and frat parties.
What are you studying in school? I'm in this very interdisciplinary "Music Industry" program at USC. It's all over the place. Some technical stuff, some business stuff and some legal stuff as well. It's awesome, keeps things from getting monotonous in the classroom.
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What does your production rig consist of? My music making setup is not very impressive. I'm using Logic Pro 9 on a Mac with KRK Rockit speakers and a midi keyboard. Just a couple of third party VSTs and that's it.
Do you rent a studio space or do you find a way to make records while living in student housing? For my new Culprit EP, I did some work on the title track, "The Jaguar," in Droog's LA studio which was pretty cool. Beyond that, I'm still a total bedroom producer. It gets the job done... the biggest problem is when my roommate is trying to sleep or study.
Name one person from each genre who you'd like to collaborate with dead or alive Classic Rock/Hip-Hop/Pop. From Hip-Hop, A Tribe Called Quest; from Rock, Trent Reznor; from Pop... I really don't listen to very much current pop music, but I wish I could work with Nile Rodgers back in the 70s and 80s when he was defining popular music for those eras.
You recently enjoyed your first few gigs in Europe and played the Dirtybird night at Sankeys in Ibiza. Tell us a little bit about that experience. What do you think of the white island? It was absolutely surreal! I played one of the craziest sets of my life at Sankeys. Fatboy Slim started his set upstairs just after my set in the main room ended, so even though I had the first set of the night, the room was rammed with people. Amazing crowd, amazing energy...it was so much fun. It was a trip being in Ibiza after having grown up hearing so much about it. The clubs are very impressive but the island itself has a really cool energy to it. I'm really grateful for having such an amazing first experience on the infamous white island.
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"The Jaguar" is a great record that's equal parts big beats, nostalgic, and beautiful guitar/melodic influence. Tell us about the process of making this record and how it found its way onto Culprit. Every song I make comes about in a different way, I don't have a formula or anything. I'm always throwing random ideas against the wall, hoping something sticks. For "The Jaguar" it was the bass line that came first. There's 808 subs layered with 909 tom clicks which give it that bouncy techy feel. I had all the guitar ideas brewing in a different project and decided to try combining them. "Coldwater" started out with just a chord progression and some vocal samples. While I started and finished both of these tunes this year, the first draft of "You & Me" is almost two years old. I revisited the old project back in the winter with some improved production skills and it became the first finished track of the EP. I met the Droog guys after going to one of their epic Culprit Session parties at the Standard Hotel Rooftop in downtown Los Angeles. A big fan of their label, I asked if I could send them some tunes. "You & Me" and "Coldwater" were in the batch, and I made "The Jaguar" to round out the release after the first two tracks got picked out.