Hey Jackson, thank so much for taking the time to speak to us. For those who don’t know – can you tell us a bit about yourself?
What’s up, I’m a 31 year old recording artist living in Washington, DC, the past 7 years. I work full time as a fine dining restaurant server and record a variety of electronic music in my free time (house, techno, ambient, DnB, jungle, and more). Otherwise, I enjoy bike riding, hiking, comic books, trying new restaurants, and djing with friends. Life is good here.
From what I can tell, you’ve been producing for a long time and have done a great job at not keeping yourself hemmed into one particular style or productions, from “Don’t Rush Me” which has a real nice bumpy housey feel to it, to your most recent release on STEP which seems to go more down the euphoric/driving techno route. Can you guide us through your changing processes and (perhaps) inspirations around your releases?
Usually what I’m recording any given day is directly influenced from or a reflection of what I’m listening to musically. When “Don’t Rush Me” came out, I listened to swinging house music a bit more and that influenced the rhythm and vocal overlay of that track. Recently, I’ve been more into jungle, DnB and video game OSTs, which influences the Superabundance music. Otherwise, it could be a matter of what I’m listening to that day that influences my personal music, like listening to jazz and trying a 5/4 rhythmic bassline in my “Most Necessary” track or listening to a super bright, shimmering Stephen Brown track which influenced the “Spine Realign” track.
I was listening to your superabundance project which I believe is yourself and Max D, how did you 2 come to create this project and what is the ethos behind it?
So between 2017-2019, Max D owned and operated his own record store front for his Future Times Records label. I would help out occassionally with cataloging inventory and we would listen to a ton of music together. One day he asked if I would be interested in working on a 160+ kind of track with him, his instincts said we could make something pretty awesome together. We kept making plans to hit the studio after that and we would usually record 1-2 tracks each session, leading to a full album by the start of 2020. There was never a genre-specific focus behind the project but our idea was “video game techno” — so music that we thought would sound as appropriate for a video game soundtrack as it would for an experimental studio album.
Talk to us about Rush Plus? (It’s actually great to research all the projects you’re a part of!)
Rush Plus is a collaborative techno production/dj duo and record label founded by my best bud, Justin Nouhra, and myself in 2015. Justin and I were roommates for 5 years here in DC, sharing a pretty epic studio space and recording collection. When we started the project, we were captivated by peak time “hard” techno and wanted to make records that we felt weren’t getting made in DC yet. So we formed Rush Plus Records, put out 3 self-release 12″ records and an experimental ambient cassette album all within the first 2 years. I’m still impressed looking back on it; we ended up playing a bunch of warehouse parties and became regular club DJs in DC, throwing our own party, and playing with our friends, LPZ, in Paraguay. Justin and I have since put the project on hold since March 2020, but we have no shortage of music already recorded waiting for a release eventually. We’ll find the right time to do that.
Can you tell us a bit about what the dance scene is like in Washington? And how has Covid changed things musically there too?
Most of my DJ and producer friends who relied on touring had to scramble for the past year, major music venues like U Street Music Hall and Eighteenth Street Lounge (though there is a planned relocation) folded. Venues were allowed to reopen just a few weeks ago in June and the enthusiasm is absolutely there; people want to be around each other and party again. With less options than before, I’ve seen a few artists move into party planning and find unconventional spaces, like more intimate cocktail bars to start throwing there own parties. The mentality of DC is to not sit around and wait for opportunities but to make them happen yourself, DIY. It’s been inspiring seeing artists step up and make events happen themselves recently and I’d expect that to become more and more normal here.
For those who were visiting Washington, what would you say are the best record stores and clubs to visit, and why? I’ve seen you mention U Street Music Hall and Flash before.
Best record shops:
– Joint Custody on U Street for new releases, rock, reggae and electronic.
– HR Records in Brightwood for the extensively lush jazz collection.
– Joe’s Record Paradise in Silver Spring for a massive, MASSIVE collection of music.
I don’t really believe there are best “clubs” or spots you can rely on in DC, at least right now. Venues have struggled to hold on throughout the pandemic; we’re a relatively small city on the east coast of the US and electronic music is a niche interest here. Your best bet is asking a friend within the scene what’s happening any given weekend here, because it all depends on the artists, dancers and fans that will be filling that space to make it a memorable night.
For those of us not familiar with the dance scene in Washington, who are the artists you would recommend us checking out?
There are so many people making incredible music with equally amazing DJ skills. What’s awesome is we all know each other to some extent, have hung out at parties around the city, collaborated on projects, and have mutual respect. I’ll do my best to name them all:
Djoser, Jus Nowhere, Arthur Kimskii, Juana, Max D, Protect-U, James Bangura, DJ Nativesun, Amal, Baronhawk, Dreamcast, Furtive, Tsurugi, Sleepy G, Sami Y & Joyce, DJ Freez, Ovid, Soso Tharpa, Trevor Keen, Analog Tara (and many many more!)
Can you tell us about some of your favourite memories playing out?
– Playing the opening set before Heidi Sabertooth at Sprudel in 2019. I woke up in a panic to a missed call from Arthur Kimskii (event planner) 10 minutes before I was supposed to start playing (I overslept!). Hopped in the car, showed up 5 minutes late, apologized profusely, composed myself and played a killer 2-hour set.
– Rush Plus closing set at our “Metro Xpression” party in 2019. We held nothing back and really pushed the envelope of what we were doing with Rush Plus and it felt exciting in real time.
– Rush Plus b2b Sami playing the closing set of the ROAM 5 year-anniversary party right after Ben UFO. Vibe was unmatched in there. Pure party mode techno.
What plans do you have musically in the near future? Say end of this year and rolling into 2022?
I’m self-releasing an album at the end of the summer and have an exciting 12″ EP planned for next spring/summer. No plans to report otherwise, but I’m recording music at least every few days regardless.
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Interview by: Tom Allman