Jesse Rose is - for want of a better pun - ‘Made To Play’. Having DJ'd for twenty years and been producing dance floor excursions for a decade, the elusive figure literally never stops. Hailing from London – the city he attributes all music to ‘breaking first’, he is now based in LA when he isn’t touring. A man with many fingers in many pies, his latest tour is '12X12', an ambitious project of releasing 12 EPs, one a month, over the course of 2013. Responsible for releasing seminal tracks like ‘Well Now’, ‘Touch My Horn’ and ‘A Sided’ he has turned out countless faultless productions. With residencies in the holy grail of clubs such as Panorama Bar he is a man whose music transcends countries and genre restrictions, constantly seeking ne w ways of exploring the house m. Pulse’s Ellie Hewitt was lucky enough to catch the man himself for a quick drink in Shoreditch House for some valuable words – mantra free.
Tell us about your 12X12 tour that you’re on a the moment, you've just played at Egg and Revolution and then you've got a few forthcoming dates coming up? I've been constantly on tour recently, I was in Australia and then LA, I did festival tour with Ronson and all that lot. Circus was really good last weekend. Yousef was amazing, invited him to play in Berlin which he's going to do so that's sick.
So the 12X12 tour is based on the concept that you’ll be releasing 12 tracks over 12 months? Did you do them before? Yeah, they were all done before. They’re actually not just tracks it’s 12 different releases. I was going to release an album and then I was like actually hold on, let me do this instead. No one buys albums anymore. This way each release will get more coverage. With albums some tracks get lost in translation, which is a crying shame. This way each release gets the individual appropriate hype that it deserves. I still buy albums but I’m not sure anyone else does.
How do you feel about the disintegration of hard copy? Honestly, I don't care about hard copy dying. Its just about how music touches you. T'he industry has changed but not necessarily for the worst. If it's a a good tune then you'll always go back to it. As producers, if you don't want things to be disposable you've just got to accept the challenge. You've got to make better records if you want them to have longevity. Even if when you were just buying vinyl before, you'd have records you would play a bit and then records you would go back to again and again, tunes that would last longer. That hasn't changed, whatever the format.
You lived in Bristol a bit when you were you younger, there’s a lot of fresh talent coming out of there now, how do you feel about the city? Bristol producers for me there's got to be the main trio – Julio, Eats Everything, Waifs and Strays are the main guys for me. My mum made me move there when I was 13 because she was attempting to stop the craziness she imagined would happen in London. But actually I probably ended up in more fights than I would have done otherwise. (Laughs)
You’re based in LA now, do you miss London? I miss my London mates. And all music breaks in London first so I come back to see whats happening here first, fashion wise, music wise. I don't miss the rain and cold of England. LA is inspirational, people who think it's superficial or the people are I'll put it into perspective for you... Hollywood is much like Leicester square, the rest of LA, the hundreds of square miles is saturated with so much talent. T'he talent in that city is insane. People like Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, all of the Crosstown lot - it's hugely diverse and it's amazing.
You’ve had quite a few labels, what’s the idea behind that? Basically my mentality with labels is that I need to start a new label every time I feel my current one is becoming a bit commercial or has too much recognition. You need to keep a fresh perspective and life cycle on a platform that your releasing music on. It's reflective of t'he music I want to put out so it needs to be constantly evolving and relevant. It's happened three times to me now! It needs to stay away from being generalized.
What would you cite as the turning points in your career? It's hard to pin down three turning points, I can't remember a lot. My Panorama bar residency was obviously huge for me, an honour and a turning point. A sided was the track that got me recognized internationally, that came out and then I was just b2b booked from Hong Kong to Berlin and everywhere in between.
Who inspires you musically? My best mate Switch - I've always been inspired by his production, not necessarily the music he produces but the way he goes about the process. It's amazing.
What’s your earliest musical memory? My dad played me a lot of his folk-type music when I was younger. That and Motown were big influences.
Do you have a Mantra for life? No mantra as such. I'm going to go to the loo and think of one[Laughs].
You’re a very busy man, how do you have the energy for it? Crack. (Laughs) No drugs actually, it's impossible to do what I do and be a caner. Used to but not if you want to do it on a higher level. I have the energy to do what I do because I love it, I get up and I have the privilege of creating my passion.
So Jesse, what's next up after this tour? I've got four more tours after 12X12 - Made for the night, black rose me and Henrik Schwarz doing our live thing. We've got an album coming out in autumn as well. Then I've got a secret one in the winter. I can’t talk about till the summer.