An Interview with Jet Project
12 15 2010
Jet Project - consisting of T-bone (Timmy Stewart) and Yankee Zulu (Johnny McIver) - will be gracing the decks this Saturday in Room 2, hosted by us. Famous for their techy house productions, their surging, sub-aquatic bombs'll lay waste to any dancefloor. But they've also been consistently wowing critics: 2009 album Heads In The Clouds was hailed across the board; recent releases on Get Physical and Beef Records have been praised no end by DJ Mag, iDJ and Mixmag; and the Irish duo have a reputation for turning in the best remixes.
I sent a couple of questions to Jet Project and here's what they had to say:
How would you describe Jet Project’s sound to those who haven’t heard your music before?
Bass heavy house music.
What is it that drew you to house music in the first place?
For a place that's relatively small there's always been a healthy house and techno scene in Belfast and we both fell in love with four four as teenagers. The buzz we get off the hypnotic groove or punch on a decent house track still makes us tingle, get excited and generally keeps us devoted to what we do. It's been like that since day one I guess.
You guys had been Djing separately for quit a long time before you met. How and when did you decide to join forces?
A few chance meetings over the years in record shops, club nights, gigs and after parties meant we soon discovered we had almost identical tastes in electronic music. We both had residencies at the same club for a while and after a few sets together the chemistry was soon apparent, so about three years ago the Jet Project was formed.
It’s notoriously difficult to craft a decent house album, and yet yours ('Heads In The Cloud') was a hit with both dance floors and critics. How did you set about achieving that difficult balance between a collection of dancefloor tunes and a flowing, listenable album?
We did think about this a lot before we started work on it and we decided to approach it in a fairly similar vein to a DJ mix. Starting with a proper intro to the first track first, then working on the next helped with a natural progression to the next track and so on. This helped to give the album a flow with some peaks and drops at crucial moments and a couple of proper closing tracks helped to give it a completed feel.
Do you think house music is in a good place right now?
Yes and no, the wealth of amazing stuff out there can be almost overwhelming at times but the amount of illegal downloads is making it had for underground artists to make a return on their music.
Is the ease of production - a result of readily available softwares like ableton - a good thing? Or is it encouraging sloppy, rushed productions?
It ain't the gear it's the ear as they say and there will always be examples of good and bad tracks out there. It's just made it easier for people to get into production so that can only be a good thing esp if people hone their skills as they go along.
How’s things going with your label Extended Play?
It's been going really well, we have been good friends with Chris Duckenfield for years so it seemed like the right team to be behind a label. We've got the tenth release ready to drop in Jan with another three waiting in the wings and we've been picking up loads of support from our peers along the way. So far so good really.
You each have separate projects, T-bone and Yankee Zulu? Can you tell us how they differ from Jet Project?
The Jet Project is definitely a meeting of styles, John's love for a more jackin sound and mine for more synthy, electronic stuff. When we make music separately it always sounds different and together it combines to form the JP sound. The Yankee Zulu stuff is generally a lot more wonky than what we make together and my T-Bone stuff is usually more raw and stripped back I guess.
John I love the Yankee Zulu stuff, my one of my favourites has to be your collaboration with Worthy, ‘Concumbia’. Absolutely massive tune. Will you be going back into the studio with him again at any point?
John: I was just in the studio with Worthy last week actually, he was doing a European tour and bopped over to Belfast for a couple of days to hang out and do another collab. I'm happy to say we got it nailed and should be coming out sometime next year.
Jet Project have a huge following in Belfast. And you run some very popular nights, including one at Yello. How are they going? Do you feel an integral part of the house scene there?
We have a monthly residency at Yello but we don't actually run those parties, that's really down to Aaron and Lawrence who do a great job on that side of things. We've been an integral part of the scene here for years though and we like to think that we represent our city globally when it comes to making good quality underground house music.
As a team do you ever have any musical difference?
No not at all, we totally respect each others opinions and as long as it gets the two thumbs up it goes in. We can have our own tastes at certain times but we also go for 90% of the same tracks when we select music to play out, which is why we work so well together as DJs and producers.
Timmy you mentioned last time that the vocals on ‘Understand This’ were from sung by you? Very impressive…
It was just a case of stepping up to the mic as we wanted more than a vocal sample on that track and I had something stuck in my head. It was very well received though and people never even thought it was one of us on vocals, so I may step up again on our next album.
Two of my favourite Jet Project tracks are ‘Message From Chi-Town’ and ‘Understand This’? Do you guys have any personal favourites?Definitely the two you mentioned here and it's nice to hear that as a lot of work went into those tracks compared to others. We are happy with the new Snatch! release too as we think we captured a feeling across those two tracks that we aim to pursue.
I’m very excited about ‘U Know’ on Riva Starr’s label! How’d that come about?
We played with Riva at Yello and he asked us for some goodies, shortly after the gig we sent him ‘U Know’ and he loved it.
What’s your studio set-up like?
Pretty basic tbh, we’ve got a decent PC, a novation midi keyboard, a stack of plug ins and samples and we just purchased some lovely new Mackie monitors.
What’s good/bad about coming from Belfast?
The people here are very down to earth and know how to party but the licensing laws are a joke and hold the nightlife back no end.
Any artists you’re particularly enjoying right now?
Santos, Maya Jane Coles, Kink, Davide Squillace, Solomun, H.O.S.H, Daniel Steinberg, Riva Starr, Ross Evana & Tom Flynn are currently impressing but there is so much good decent stuff about if you are prepared to look properly and not be lazy.
And what lies ahead for Jet Project in 2011?
Working on our album for Snatch!, singles on Get Physical, Gruuv & Deadfish, a stack of remix work, more releases on Extended Play, launching a new label entitled JET and work on a live show.
Thanks JP, very much looking forward to your set this Saturday.
Tracklist
Jet Project – Black Satisfaction intro
Maceo Plex - Your Style – Crosstown Rebels
Fritz Zander - For Your Love - Suol
Tom Demac – Slip Slop Slap - Murmur
Pepperpot & Gwen Maze – Symbol – Silver Network
Vlad Caia - Dubby Side – Darkroom Dubs
Alejandro Mosso – Ulanbator – Air London
Matanza - Lluvia - Jet Project Rmx - Anabatic
Ross Evana – Prism – Saved
Emmanuel Jal - Kuar (Olof Dreijer Remix) - Innervisions
Daniel Steinberg – Gimme – Front Room
Buckley & Jon Woodall - One Leg On The Dresser (Jet Project Remix) - Cdr
Jet Project - U Know – Snatch!
Riva Starr Presents Starr Traxx – Loveboat – Snatch!
Be sure to check out Jet Project's latest, 'U Know', released next week on Snatch! records.
Jet Project – Black Satisfaction intro
Maceo Plex - Your Style – Crosstown Rebels
Fritz Zander - For Your Love - Suol
Tom Demac – Slip Slop Slap - Murmur
Pepperpot & Gwen Maze – Symbol – Silver Network
Vlad Caia - Dubby Side – Darkroom Dubs
Alejandro Mosso – Ulanbator – Air London
Matanza - Lluvia - Jet Project Rmx - Anabatic
Ross Evana – Prism – Saved
Emmanuel Jal - Kuar (Olof Dreijer Remix) - Innervisions
Daniel Steinberg – Gimme – Front Room
Buckley & Jon Woodall - One Leg On The Dresser (Jet Project Remix) - Cdr
Jet Project - U Know – Snatch!
Riva Starr Presents Starr Traxx – Loveboat – Snatch!
Be sure to check out Jet Project's latest, 'U Know', released next week on Snatch! records.
Catch Jet Project headlining our room this Saturday at Counter Culture, spinning in the other room will be Jesse Rose, Zombie Disco Squad and Oliver $.
Grab your tickets here.
Counter Culture
7-9 Crucifix Lane
London, United Kingdom
Tube Station: London Bridge
Sat 18th December
11pm - 6am
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