Hazy Day

Jay Haze makes his Irish debut next week, Saturday November 17th, playing at Test/Pogo in Dublin. I caught up with him on the phone before he went on a Japanese tour to talk about his new album, the real Jay Haze and the future of techno.

How are you and what are you doing?
“I’m very well, just relaxing before I go on tour to Japan. It’s my third time there, it’s a very interesting place. The food is amazing and the culture is great, even though they are an island. I especially love Japan for the food. When you have been doing hardcore travelling for the past four years, which is what I’ve been doing, most of the cities just bleed into each other, but when I go to Japan, it’s like ‘holy fuck’! Apart from a few Russian prostitutes, you will only see Japanese people on the streets and in the subway. I have spent a good bit of time in Japan and even started to learn the language - it’s not like other Asian languages, it’s based on vowels, like German, instead of tones and it’s phonetic, so it’s not that difficult to learn.”

So how do you feel about the future of techno?
“The industry is chaging right now and it’s hard to see if it’s for the good or the bad - it’s a very subjective thing. Everyone is selling about half the amount of vinyl that they did 16 months ago, I know that we are, so everything that I do will have to be re-evaluated. 16 months ago, I was able to pay all my artists and pay for my office in Berlin without it eating into the fees I earn from Djing, but now that has started to happen. I feel that digital sales aren’t territorial enough: most people in Europe can afford to pay 3 euro for a track on Beatport, but for someone in Thailand, that’s still a load of money and they need to be aware of that. There is also not enough of a trickle down effect: if a DJ like Villalobos or one of the other big DJs, is earning say seven thousand euro for a gig, it doesn’t make much sense for whoever it is who makes the records he plays not to get paid. It doesn’t encourage people to make music or new talent to start producing.”

You mentioned a fall in the amount of vinyl you sell: has this shortfall been offset by digital sales?
“No, it hasn’t. A very commercial label like Get Physical has amazing sales with Beatport, but as soon as the term underground gets attached to what you do, which is what happened to me, even if what I do isn’t that underground, you automatically sell far less. Anyway, it doesn’t bother me: I don’t think about money so much because it’s the opposite of artistic endeavour and I try to lose myself in my work, be that music or sculpting. I try not to think about other things - it’s one of the biggest problems in the music industry.”

What do you mean?
“If I was to think about what other people think about me all day, I’d end up examining myself and what I do with my life and I’d never get anything done! I feel that artists are genuinely scared about what people will think about their work - that’s why there is so much music that sounds virtually the same. There are boundaries and some people are playful in and around these boundaries, but that’s it, there’s very little originality and people aren’t willling to experiment. Producers are compromising their sound because they are worried about what ‘the market’ or people in the industry will think. About three years ago, it was almost scary the amount of demos that the label got where all of a sudden, the quality was OK across the board, but was never amazing. We used to get demos either where the tracks were really horrible or the standard was excellent! So three years ago, I started to scratch my head and wonder ‘what is this phenomenon?’ It must have something to do with everyone using the same technology or no one wanting to push things. I wish producers would be more experimental, it’s the only way to move music forward – even if they are more poppy or less serious that would be start.”

What happened with Fuckpony – why did Samim leave?
“Fuckpony was always my project. For the record, I never meant to diss Samim and to this day, we remain very good friends, even though there were comments made in the past, purely out of anmger. I am the one with the contract for Fuckpony with Get Physical and I am the one who will keep creating the music for this project. The original line up broke up because there was a difference of opinion about ambition. Where Samim wanted to go is where he’s at now and I am not the kind of person who wants to have a pop hit. Actually, Bearback was the one project where we were both equally involved. 75% of the tracks for the Fuckpony album were written and produced when Samim wasn’t even in the room. He was living with me at the time in my spare room, so he had some kind of intangible influence on what was going on.”

You’ve just released ‘Lady Judy’, new EP for Bpitch - so it’s safe to say that Fuckpony is still going strong?
“Absolutely - the track is about Judy from Fabric. It’s nice to personalise music and not take it so seriously. Life has taught me to take life with a pinch of salt and I’m really happy if people have fun with my music. Fuckpony is all about having fun and that’s probably why it only took two weeks to make the album. The album I’m doing under my own name has taken three years so far and isn’t finished yet.”

So at the moment, there’s no sign of the 'the dark side of Jay Haze'?
“Everyone has their opinions and normally, I’m not like that. That Resident Advisor interview totally caught me off guard. My studio went on fire and I was told I couldn’t use it for a week and straight after that, I hopped on a plane to London and met the journalist directly at the hotel. He told me that his girlfriend had died of cancer a few weeks previously and he had just come from the hospital where she died and he had cried together with a nurse at the bed where his girlfriend had been, so you can probably imagine that I wasn’t in the right state of mind to do an interview at that stage! I answered those questions honestly, even though I was being asked crazy questions like ‘whose career is better - Troy or Richie’s?’ – as if I sit around and think all the time about Minus and what they’re doing. I don’t have a well thought-out plan about other people. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a total joker and not a negative guy at all, apart from when I hear music that’s a copy of a copy. Since that interview came out I don’t look at the internet at all, I don’t Google myself or reviews of my releases because nearly all of the time, the sentiment is negative.”

When duo you plan to release the Jay Haze album?
It’s called ‘Love & Beyond’: it’s out in February and it will be available in three parts. I wanted to do it differently and I think that it’s a new concept. There are so many albums that aren’t albums - they have no continuity, no flow, no common idea and I don’t just mean in dance music – these days most pop artists just release albums with 10 singles on them. It’ll be available separately with one CD containing Marvin Gaye-style soul song with me singing, while the second CD will be collection of instrumental tracks, then the double pack vinyl version will have other original tracks. There’s a track with Ricardo (Villalobos) on it and the album is really across the board, covering rock, flamenco and dub reggae. The main focus of the album is love, it’s sexy music, and I hope that it will help people to get away from the impression that they have about me.”

Comments

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another great insightful interview. cheers

[Sotek]

"I wish producers would be more experimental, it’s the only way to move music forward – even if they are more poppy or less serious that would be start."

- I agree with him 100%

[Peter]

yeah, the below video was a good example of the amazing results you get from that approach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL015V9U-ww

[Martin Dust]

Bores me to death.

[glitches]

nice interview. far less cocky than the other ones came off!i think the video is funny! i am sure he was not doing it seriously.
nice one ra!

[Dave]

As someone who's studied Japanese for about six years, I think the last person I need telling me it's "not that difficult to learn" is Jay f*ing Haze!!! That said, crazy to hear his added context for the RA interview, which makes him seem like an absolute a-hole.

[tom/pipecock]

i liked his RA interview, shit cracked me up. this one has some good moments in it too, too bad his music isnt as good as his personality!

[leeism]

I like this bit, when he's talking about Japan: 'The food is amazing and the culture is great, even though they are an island.'

That's right Jay, most islands are full of savages who eat badly and have no culture. You can take the boy out of of Hicksville...

[Brophy]

Leeism - that quote was actually my fault - what Jay actually said was that "despite Japan being an island, it has retained its own culture..." I misquoted him.

[Sneaky]

Nice interview... Jay cracks me up and I like his style, some people get it ... some don't...

[yungturk]

jay makes good music. but needs to seriously stop singing and rapping. and as far as him trying to be positive and denouncing his negativity, that is called "back peddling". this fool has a chip on his shoulder cause ritchie was gonna release him on minus, and then he dissed him. that's why he talks shit about minus. but he always talks shit about someone and in the same sentence tries to also say something good about them. dude, get off the fence and either talk shit or be positive. don't try to play both sides. and now you're explaining yourself, cause your plan to be controversial failed.
dum dum