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Defining dance music with Jon Rundell: Part one
Reported by HarderFaster
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Submitted 25-03-09 22:03
Jon Rundell has been on HarderFaster almost as long as the site has been in existence, with the original HarderFather’s review of one of Jon’s H20 boat parties being one of the first on here back in June 2002. Almost seven years later, after running his idol Carl Cox’s record label Intec and becoming a headliner DJ in his own right, Jon’s touring the States, winding up the Miami Music Conference ahead of touring with Coxy on his first English tour of the decade. With the London leg at Koko on Thursday 10 April already a sell out, we thought it was definitely time for an interview...
You’ve said before on here that the first record you bought was Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’ at the tender age of 14, which you then broke your Dad’s turntable attempting to scratch. Things could only improve when you finally bought your decks six months later! Could you please tell us a bit about how you first started playing and producing music? Can you remember the first time you broke out of the bedroom and played at a party?
Most definitely, it was at a house party for a friend’s birthday and I was awful, I couldn’t get anything in beat with each other. A few years later you could say was really my first proper experience, it was in an MOT Test Centre at a party called Wonkas. It was mental, a really great free party-type spirit. I didn’t go on until about 10am after it had been going for 12 hours but it was a good feeling to play. The production side of things came a lot later really and it seemed like a natural thing to want to pursue once I’d worked out the styles I really liked.
And yes I did scratch up that Vanilla Ice record, I was sick of it!
Like many on here you started off playing hardcore and hard house then when things got too hard and filthy for you, gravitated to mixing and making funkier beats, in your case techno and drum’n’ bass. More recently, according to your website, you’ve evidently got “very experimental” with your music. Please describe the current Jon Rundell sound.
I really began buying US hip hop imports to begin with, then progressed into the old skool sounds I was hearing on the radio. Then things did get a bit tougher but I was still mellower than most and would often just play looped up techno warm up sets at the parties in London. I always like to think outside the box a bit with how I play and these days and with the type of gigs I’m doing it enables me to play anything from a deep house record right through to some tech house, tribal stuff, prog, techno and if the timings right some breaks and d&b.
In terms of production my sound is really the tougher end of the housier end of techno, if that makes sense, I m not sure if it has a sub-genre name or not, I just kind of do what I feel at the time, I draw on all types of influences and right now I’m working on some techno, some house, some d&b, some live based tracks and some hip hop.
I first saw you play at Riot! at The End more years ago than I’d care to remember, have since seen you at the main room of Turnmills and most recently, last year’s SW4 Festival. How would you say your DJing style has changed and evolved over the years?
The BPM’s have slowed down, but I think that’s true for a lot of people these days. I have been lucky to be able to go abroad and experience different cultures and to listen and see how they react to different styles of music and this has had a great influence on the way I play. You have to take notice of what’s going on in the surroundings your in.
As well as playing at some of the first Riot!s you ran your own boat party — H20 — and graced the decks at most of the big hard house events around, including the Tidy Weekenders. Now there’s recently been a competition on here for the most fun and debauched story from a Weekender. What’s your craziest story from back in the day? Do you ever get tempted to play a hard house classics set?
Do you know what, I don’t think I have ever actually played a hard house record at one of those Weekenders, I did the opening sets so played techno, admittedly it was probably at 140bpms but that was very warm up material for what followed after that for the rest of the night. Sorry to sound boring but I don’t really have any debauched stories as I’ve never really been good at staying up for days on end and love a good 8 hours sleep when I can get it.
Your website says that your productions are “carefully crafted to inflict maximum dancefloor damage.” What does this actually mean on a practical level in the studio? What software and hardware do you use to craft your tracks as carefully as possible?
I have no idea I didn’t write it! In terms of the kit I use I use Logic 8 a software and some compressors as hardware, the plug in’s you can get these days with Logic are amazing so it doesn’t really require all the hardware to get a sound now, but the compressors do make a lot of difference with the warmth of the sound and making it sound less digitised for me.
Your techno remix of Devilfish’s Man Alive’ was No. 1 in the hallowed Beatport techno chart for 6 weeks in a row at the end of last year and reached No. 2 in the general chart. It must be nice to get such recognition for your work! What, in your opinion, makes a great track stand out?
Well that track was all about the parts of the original really. Without them it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did. I’ve since had a lot of requests for other remixes come in and they all want it to sound like that, which is difficult without those parts. But it did make me see how much more aware people suddenly became of what I was doing, which is a nice thing to experience. In terms of what makes tracks stand out for me it really varies, it doesn’t have to be over complicated or too clever to rock a dancefloor but I do always look for a nice groove and some kind of hook that people can remember and hum a little.
You said on here in 2007 that playing to 20,000 people in Melbourne was the best experience of your life up until that time. Is that still the case? What have been the highlights of your time in the music industry?
In terms of the amount of people in one space at one time then this is still the biggest moment, but there have been some other experiences in the last few years that have felt just as good. Melbourne seems to be a place where I always play well and have a good time, so when we did Billboard earlier this year for Australia Day Weekend I had one of the best club experiences so far. I played loads of really underground tracks and they reacted well to all of them, I guess everything just flowed and they got into the groove of what I was doing.
I also really enjoyed SW4 last year, it was the first time I had been given the opportunity to play and I’d only had an hours sleep and been travelling from abroad to get there, a load of my close friends all came along and I kept seeing loads of old faces from those days in the London clubs and I just went for it. The whole atmosphere was just buzzing and I was gutted I had to leave my mates there and go and play somewhere else in the evening.
Another highlight has obviously being able to work with and learn from DJ’s and producers I have looked up to for many years, I am still in awe of all of them and often stand there and think to myself, I can’t believe I’m stood here.
Carl Cox has been your idol since you were 15 years old and you’re now warming up for him on stage as well as working on your artist album together in the studio. Does this feel like ‘made it’ in the music industry? Or are there still new places you want to go? What goals do you have for the next few years? And beyond?
I think if you felt you had made it, then this is the point where you will get lazy and it will all start to go wrong. I still feel like I’m only just beginning and there is also still so much more to go out and do and see. I have loads of ideas for the future that I hope to create and realise, all kinds of things about the way I play music, the way people listen to it and can enjoy it, the way I make it, being part of new and upcoming scenes in varies countries, loads of things.
I once watched a great interview with Michael Parkinson and Michael Caine (who I’m a big fan of) and when Mr Parkinson asked Mr Cain, “What is it that still drives you?” and Mr Cain replied: “The fact that I always want to be better than the last film,” it really hit home with me. Here is someone who has achieved so much but still wants to work on being better each time he does something, this is how I have thought about what I do ever since.
Cox has obviously been a huge influence on you over the years. What other influences have had an impact on your work?
Anyone and anything really. Carl is obviously someone I look up to and he has been kind enough to share some of his own experiences from his early days to help me avoid some pitfalls along the way. There is also Mr Manager, Elliot, it’s really great working with someone like that who is on the same wavelength and has the same belief as you do. A big influence has also been some of my closest friends; they are there no matter what and it’s good to know. Then there are things that will happen to me every day that can influence my mood when I come to write tracks, or conversations I will have other more experienced DJs that will open my mind up to a new way of thinking about things. It would be foolish of anyone to think they know it all when you still have your whole life ahead of you.
You’ve been working hard in the studio recently on your artist album. How’s that going? Any idea when it might be released?
The album work I’ve been doing has actually been for Carl’s album and we have a couple of tracks we have come up that I hope will be included on the final cut. Having said that I do have around 8-9 tracks I’m always tweaking with a view to doing an album of my own when the time is right. It won’t just be a selection of club tracks mixed in with each other either, these are more ideas to broaden the horizons so to speak. The time isn’t right for me yet as an individual artist but one day I hope to able to put project like this into realisation.
You’re known for being something of a technical wizard, playing on 4 decks using vinyl and CDs. How have the changes in technology affected what you do over the years? Would you ever give up vinyl and CDs altogether and just play using a laptop?
You have to move with the times or you’ll get left behind is how I feel about it. I’m currently using Traktor with the CDs, it means I only use 2 turntables on it, but I always take CDs with me too and have a 3rd hooked up. I haven’t done any 4-deck stuff for a while. The music I’ve been playing hasn’t really been appropriate for it.
I have seen DJs like Hawtin and Liebing use the 4 channels on Traktor and no decks. It looks weird to begin with but the creativeness you can have with it is endless and in a way it’s the same as the 4 deck mixing I was doing but without having to do the beat matching, so you can actually become quicker with your creations, so eventually I think I will go this way too. When all is said and done though you still have to know what to play and when, this will never go away no matter what the format.
You’re constantly touring the world playing at the biggest events and festivals. Who’s caught your eyes and ears recently on your travels?
Carlo Lio from Canada is definitely one to look out for, he is making some great music and is also a top DJ. There is also Sunju from Bangkok who is a really versatile DJ and did a great set at Tunnel when I was there recently.
You’ve said before on here that in your hard house days you basically only like playing warm-up sets at events so that you could play what you liked and keep the promoter happy by properly warming up the club and Carl Cox is quoted on your website as saying that if you put you in front of 30,000 people, you naturally warm the crowds up. Over the years, you’ve warmed up for some of the biggest names in dance music, from Paul van Dyk, Danny Tenaglia, Fedde Le Grande and of course Cox himself. Do you still prefer playing a warm-up set or would you rather be on at peak time these days? What’s you favourite time to play at an event?
I do enjoy doing them for sure, it’s great to take a club from completely empty and build it to be packed 3 hours later. Especially when doing it for some of the DJs I’ve been lucky enough to do it for and they compliment you on it. Obviously I like to play later too though, who wouldn’t! As then I can really go for it and hope that people also enjoy it.
With Jon having had such an interesting career, it’s not surprising that this turned into a very long interview. Watch this space for Part 2, which will be live very soon...
Photos courtesy of Elliot at Safehouse Management. Not to be reproduced without permission.
Carl Cox 24/7
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On:
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Thursday 9th April 2009
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At:
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KOKO [map]
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From:
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22.00 - 06.00
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Cost:
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Limited Early Bird tickets priced £15 / Standard tickets £20 / MOTD
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Website:
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www.locknloadevents.com
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Ticket Info:
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www.ticketweb.co.uk - 08700 600100
www.viewtickets.co.uk
www.residentadvisor.net
In person from KOKO Box Office (Mon – Fri, 10am – 6pm)
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Buy Online:
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Click here to buy tickets
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More:
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Lock N Load Events & Safehouse Management present...
CARL COX 24/7
EASTER THURSDAY 9TH APRIL 2009
KOKO / LONDON
Featuring:
CARL COX (1st UK set of 2009)
Plus very Special Guests to be announced
If the Great Wonders of the World were extended out to DJs, then clubland giant CARL COX would most definitely be the first name in the hat. No other DJ comes close to the achievements made by Carl throughout his illustrious career spanning more than 20 years. From his early days as a mobile DJ, through to his pioneering role in the rave and acid house era, via his undisputed ‘King of Clubs’ moniker in Ibiza, his legendary Carl Cox & Friends parties and EVERY major club and festival played and smashed across the globe... Carl Cox is every bit the walking, talking superstar DJ of modern day clubland, still in massive demand across the world. It’s fitting then, for Carl to return to his homeland with a massive UK tour and to kick things off, 9th April will be Carl’s 1st UK Set of 2009 and his only London date this side of summer. Set to take place at London’s KOKO, the date (and following UK tour) will co-inside with the release of ‘Carl Cox 24/7’ – his forthcoming DVD and we should see another clubbing roadblock!
Brought to life by Lock N Load Events and Safehouse Management, the all important date is Easter Thursday 9th April - which conveniently means no work the next day for most of us! Last year Lock N Load Events & Safehouse Management hosted two sell-out Carl Cox & Friends events at Heaven, plus Carl headlined Lock N Load’s summer festival South West Four for the second time, where he played the final set in front of 20,000 sun-drenched clubbers!
‘24/7’ is the name of Carls forthcoming DVD, which is due for release in spring 2009 worldwide. The DVD is an exclusive documentary covering the everyday life of the man himself. Never before has anyone been granted this kind of access into Carl’s life outside of DJing. With over 1 hour 20 minutes of exclusive interviews and footage, and an additional 45 minutes of bonus live footage from Carl’s set on the opening night of matter in London, this DVD affords a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of the inner working of one of today’s biggest DJ stars. Keep an eye out for further news regarding this release.
FULL LINE-UP ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON!!
In the mean time, put this date in your diary now... Carl Cox is back in the UK, and you don’t wanna miss this!! Tickets on sale now!!
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KOKO. 10pm – 6am
1A Camden High Street, London. NW1
Info: 020 3189 0075 / Tube: Mornington Crescent
Web:
www.locknloadevents.com
www.safehousemanagement.com
www.carlcox.com (New Website coming this Feb!)
www.koko.uk.com
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Flyer:
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 - 
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Region:
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London
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Music:
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House. Techno.
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DJ's:
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Carl Cox (1st UK set of 2009)
Special guests to be announced...
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Other Features By HarderFaster:
HarderFaster Awards 2016 - The results are in!
HarderFaster Awards 2014 - The results are in!
Lashes, Dimples and the Brighton Music Conference
HarderFaster Awards 2013 - The results are in!
HarderFaster Awards 2012 - The results are in!
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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da boy dun gud 
