One of the more enigmatic figures in dance music, Jon Doe has never been one to play by the rules. Nor has he ever been one to sit back and just do the usual “dj/producer” thang. No, Jon Doe is a pioneer, a maverick, boundary-pusher and genre-shunner, and as a result is one of the most interesting and vital people working in the harder end of electronic music.
He’s mostly been focusing on his hardcore/freeform project CLSM for the past couple of years, but has also been firing out some highly stimulating tracks in a more hard dance type vein recently — hopefully signalling a return to his former status as one of the leading lights of the scene. But what’s all this Underground TV about?
The latest in a long line of exciting creative projects for Jon, Underground TV is going to air regularly on RaptureTV — the station which can often be found filming in some of the country’s best clubs. I’ll let Jon explain . . .
(Oh and n.b. Jon objects to the use of photos of himself in his interviews and says that he doesn’t feel the need to publicise his face! Or something along those lines . . . )
What the hell is Underground TV eh? What is it??
Underground is a half hour TV show based around hard dance, hardcore, drum and bass and some other peripheral types of music that would be interesting to that same group of people. It’s one of those things where you get so immersed in an idea and push so far with it, that when you put your head up for air you realise that you may have gone too far! It’s almost like lying on your cv and then being challenged to carry it out.
What’s the whole idea behind the RaptureTV show anyway?
The idea was to address the non-existence of hard dance on telly — I was always fascinated by any glimpse of a rave on telly and that mainly ended in 1995 when bpm stopped. Even that hardly ever had the hardcore stuff on there— loads of Dave Dorrell and house producers. Myself and Andy went and filmed a few gigs back in February and created a demo (it actually took us 8 weeks to make a 13 minute show) and showed it to Rapture. They were confused and said “yes — make us 13 shows.”
On a weekly basis it’s an extreme job filming at the weekends and then putting the shows together. I am full time, while Andy films at the weekends and edits on Wednesdays and Thursdays. His girlfriend Leela films and is also a production assistant and we have various other helpers making projects.
The Technicians of the Museum of Techno will be the stars of the show — every week they make an extra part of their techno tune and should finish it on week 13. Meanwhile the Nu Energy Collective are being interviewed by iDJ Mag’s Sarah Wiles and those pieces are just starting to come in. The first is with dj/MC/producer Sharkey.
You have been continuing with your successful CLSM project over the past year, churning out more forward-thinking hardcore. What’s next for you and your production plans?
Well, in between the demo stage and starting the series production in mid-May I mixed the Bonkers album back to back with Sharkey. It was mental. I hadn’t really clocked that I was doing it until a contract came through the door. Sharkey has mixed all 16 Bonkers and so our mix was in on time and we are both really happy with it.
The CLSM projects have always been open in terms of what they are; this includes non-musical things or semi-musical things. We once constructed 5 goat characters and a device to transmit to Mars — it was the middle of winter and snowing — that included a noise but not much music.
Another project was making the ‘Transmission to Mars’ video. It was an hour long and went with the music for the album and we showed it to a group of 20 people in a studio — nobody has a copy. So underground is a CLSM production. I am very fired up musically as I can’t take time out of the video stuff to make music— it will have to wait until November.
Are you ever going to get back in the studio with that rogue Billy “Daniel” Bunter?
I would think so. We have made music under various guises since 1998.
Whats the most exciting music youve been hearing recently?
You really have to hunt for the good stuff, especially the tracks that other djs have not found, but there is some excellent European stuff around at the moment and also a surprising amount of old skool jungle stuff as well. Hardcore breaks is on the up at the moment — check out Blackboard Jungle by Running Man on Firewall Records.
You are back with the Tasty crew for their next Love Muzik event at Hidden on August 5th. How was the recent Tasty at Renaissance Rooms for you? What did you make of the new venue?
The Love Music event is the club launch for our TV show, so it would be cool to pop down there and check it out. They have just installed some new sound in there too, which was my only problem with that venue.
The big Tasty at the Renaissance Rooms was amazing. We filmed most of the night for our show and it was the first time in a long time that hard dance has been really exciting — each dj had lots of energy and individual style. This is the way back for a new breed of hard dance in London. Previously people were saying hard dance was getting stale, but there are djs out there making and playing new and fresh music.
Having to film every week in clubs for the last 10 weeks (and staying the whole night) has let me take a lot in over the whole clubbing spectrum, The last Tasty was the regeneration of the hard dance scene in London and we can see how to continue it.
Love Muzik is all about embracing different musical genres and scenes within one event. Which scenes do you think are really kicking at the moment?
I am in a position covering loads of scenes at the moment so I don’t want to be biased towards one of them. Each individually have their own moments of being fantastic or utterly rubbish, there is not one of them that can’t kick it right now.
Hardcore definitely seems to be experiencing a bit of resurgence in London at the moment. Do you feel the scene has benefited from embracing so many different influences?
It’s interesting you say that, as the main flow of hardcore has narrowed itself down now to a very slick off beat bass, bouncy, mainly vocal sound. The new hardcore scene grew with lots of different influences, so yes the scene has benefited from them. Those influences are still there, but most hardcore raves have to book all the main 8 or so djs so as they don’t look smaller than the other events doing the same. This increases the importance of those djs, then that’s what the crowd expects and it makes a cycle that the promoters dare not exit. Those djs are playing loads of events and smashing it up right now, the scene is at its biggest in almost ten years and it lies in the main djs to keep it there.
Have you been playing abroad at all recently, or do you have anything lined up?
I don’t usually go abroad as it takes up too much time and I usually have lots of things on the go. I should have been at the WEMF festival this year in Canada but as the booking was confirmed the TV thing kicked off and Fusion/ HTID have the biggest rave this year to film and dj at. It would have killed too much filming and editing time to leave the country this weekend.
Are you pleased that you now have a way of selling all your own output without worrying about record labels and copyright and all that shiznit? It must be quite liberating . . .
Yes, I think we were one of the earliest download stores in hard dance as I used to sell passwords to folders for my site from around mid 2002.
Copyright is a funny one at the moment as MCPS are not distributing the money from stores back to the tunes that brought in the money — at the moment they should just be taken to court for such wrongdoing.
On the plus side it’s very liberating and many scenes now benefit from the diversity created by not having to sell a certain amount.
On your CLSM project you have worked with a whole host of vocalists, including a guy called Stefan B who used to be in Hollyoaks. If money and life/death status were no object, who would you ideally like to work with?
Really interesting question. I think Pink can really sing. Most artists that I like are best left to do their own thing as I would just drag them in a different direction and they would lose whatever they had already!
Why are you so musically motivated after 11 years of releasing records?
Going out and doing the TV show has meant being in clubs all night for various styles of music. Everything becomes so clear when you get so deeply into each scene. If you have not seen Friction play drum and bass go and watch him play. If you have not seen the energy of Alex Kidd, Andy Whitby and Mark EG wake up!
There are people out there putting everything into what they do where other more established djs are just plain boring and safe. Dance music has to move on now and can do without the Emperor’s new clothes syndrome — don’t judge these djs by name, judge them by their music. Right now I am stuck doing video editing all week and filming at the weekend — when I can stop doing that I will be back at it like never before!
I hear you will have an Underground night?
That’s right, we are doing a party with Love Muzik on the 5th August, but I will continue this at a club near me with hard dance nights which will showcase hard house and hard trance right through to hardcore and freeform. The underground night will be about hard dance including hardcore — keeping the music quality high but yet giving an alternative to the sing along style raves. We want to push forward the boundaries and showcase the new and exciting material from the most exciting djs and producers out there.
Jon had to shoot off and do some more work on the TV show at this point. He did reliably inform us though that as of this autumn he will be back in full flow with his hard dance/hardcore productions and dj’ing! Woohoo!
Underground is on at these times:
Sunday at 23:00
Tuesday at 22:00
Thursday at 05:00 and 22:00
Friday at 21:00
Tune in on Sky Channel 193 or watch it live online.
This event is to be filmed for future broadcast on Underground TV!
Before the summer we left Love Muzik on a high with a number of sell out high octane parties, proving that the underground dance scene was thriving, and that we had our fingers on the pulse of the ever exciting and rapidly changing dance scene. For our Mid Summers Night Dream we are teaming up with Underground TV to celebrate the launch of their brand new show on Rapture sky digital channel 193, and are bringing you a number of the countries leading dj’s & pa’s alongside the cream of the nu breed crop. Not only will this event be jumping inside whilst being filmed for the TV, Hidden now boasts a huge outside garden, perfect for A Mid Summers Night Dream ….. Love Life, Love To Party, Love Muzik
3 Unique Main Rooms
2 Mezzanine Floors with Leather Sofas
State of the Art Sound
Full Production and Laser Light Show
Outside Garden
Free Love Muzik Membership
CD Giveaways
Check out Billy Daniel Bunters Love Muzik show on www.ministryofsound.com & Sky Digital 0198 every Tuesday Night between 6pm & 8pm.
Check out Jon Doe’s Underground Show on Rapture TV every Sunday night at 10 on Sky Digital 193.
Flyer:
Region:
London
Music:
Trance. Hard Trance. Psy Trance. Nu NRG. Hi NRG. Hardcore. HardStyle. House. Bouncy House. Deep House. Funky House. Hard House. Prog House. Vocal House. Deep Techno. Funky Techno. Techno.
Audio Dice
Egoiste Vanessa Holiday (South African Special)
Funk Formers
Simon Williams
Slacker Boy (Simon Vegas)
Lisa London B2B Morgantey
Billy Daniel Bunter
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