House is a frequency!

UHC INTERVIEW WITH JAY WEST

KJ: Whats your name and where are originally from?

JW: Well, I was born under the name Pablo in Rosario, Argentina but I turned into Jay West later on. I always dreamed on making either music or football my job, I guess I wasnt good enough with the ball...

KJ: How did you come up with the name Jay West and why?

JW: I wish I had a funny story to tell u about that, but I actually just made it up from nothing, I guess West comes from my west coast house influence, but there's not really a cool funny story behind it.

KJ: Your were involved in rock music when you were groing up, how did u get involved in the Chicago House music scene?

JW: Well, I dont think I am too much involved with the chicago scene, I played there a couple of times, but thats it. I dont think my house style could be brought down to just chicago house. I know thats the birthplace of house but right now music is a global thing too hard to enclose in one citie's musical likes.
I try to do something different everytime I dj and produce, I think house is craving for more variety so I guess I dont feel very much identified with just one musical current.

KJ: How did u get your break into being a DJ and production releases when you first started out?

JW: Well, once I dicovered house, thing thats really hard when u live in a place with no house scene, I started buying records and my friends helped me start playing massive poolside afterhours that got really popular in my city. There weren't many people playing house at that time down here so I got some recognition and many gigs pretty fast. As far as procuction goes I've been writing music since I joined my first band at the age of 13 so I just needed to buy myself a decent computer and once I did, it all made sense pretty quick.

KJ: Your run Flavor Recordings which has been a great success. How and why did you start up the label?

JW: Well, since I first met matt shrewd we had a really good connection and vibe, we felt alike about many things so we decided we wanted to work on projects together. We were growing side to side and we thought getting together will make us even stronger.
We came up with flavor and its been really good so far, made a lot of friends and been able to put out some of the music we love!

KJ: Coming back to the present, based on released from previous years, you have been releasing alot of music recently especially 2007 and its nly March. Whats been the inspiration/motivation behind it?

JW: Well, I have been working in a lot of new projects and trying to go different directions, that allows me to work with different names and release stuff in a wider range of labels. With the way the industry is working right now u never know when labels are gonna end up putting out your stuff so maybe there's 3 months with no releases and then everything comes out at the same time. Its not really the ideal situation but there's not much we as artists can do about it.
Anyway, its always a thrill to see my music in recordstores shelves around the world, is like living my childhood dream over and over again.

KJ: What was the Winter Miami Conference like for you this year and compared to the previous years playing out there?

JW: It was great to be part of many parties and its always fun to meet everybody in person and share stories and drinks. This year the weather was really bad but it was still tons of fun. The music was there and u could feel it!

KJ: What are your plans for the rest of 2007?

JW: I have some really cool touring planned, including Europe, Southafrica and Australia, it will be my first time in these places so I'm looking forward to it, I will also have many of my new stuff released both as Jay West and as The Candy Dealers, where I team up with Christian Malloni, a huge talent from my hometown.
I will also look into spending some time in the studio with vocalists and musicians to start shaping up new projects.

KJ: Whats been the Highest moment yet for you as a DJ/Producer?

JW: Everytime Im playing for a packed dancefloor Im thinking Im the luckiest man alive, nothing beats the feeling of seing people dance to the music u love. Same feeling when I hear someone else play one of my tracks, I feel blessed.

KJ: Your favourite place to play in the world?

JW: I played tons of great cities and venues, but I guess I really love my city, so playing there for my friends and at a poolside afterhours would be my pick. But Im happy everytime I play music so everywhere in the world were people dance to house music is my favourite place.

KJ: Whats the House music Scene like at the moment in Chicago and USA at the moment for you and how would you compare them to anywhere else where you have played internationally?

JW: I'm not from chicago, but in the rest of the world house music is going throught a transition time, I think its because the quality of the music went down, there's less funk and vocals in house music and too many chop chop jackin jazzy sampling.. so girls are scared out of the dancefloors. We need to get back to funky and uplifting grooves.

KJ: Who are some your favourites in the house music business at the moment as well as previous Insprirations?

JW: I listen to almost every kind of music, mostly not house. Thats where most of my inspiration comes from. House allows you to express any kind of vibe present in any style of music in a dancefloor form. So the more music you listen to, the more perceptive and inspired you become. I really like a lot of funk and disco music from the 70's and 80's and it would be really hard to bring it down to just a couple names.
Within house music I would say anyone pushing boundaries and not sticking to any formulas has my vote, specially if its FUNKY!

KJ: Any plan to come down to UK or looking to come down this year?

JW: I will be playing the UK this next june, so I hope to see u all there bouncing! Leicester, Bristol, Brighton...hopefully london too...looking forward to it!

KJ: Any Advise to anybody out there wanting to get involved in the DJing or producing world?

JW: Just buy records because u like them, and spend more time listening to music than promoting yourself, its hard to make it into the dj world, so just do it because you love to. The industry sometimes dissapoints you, but music never will, u will always find a smile in that record u love and makes u bounce in your chair...
As in production, if you dont have any good musical ideas, dont just lay a couple beats, chop up some vocals and send it to labels. Spend a lot of time listening to music, play an instrument and something will come to mind! And if it doesn't you will always have your guitar to rock on!

JAY WEST WEBSITE

JAY WEST MYSPACE

UNDERGROUND HOUSE CULTURE! Keep it real!