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James Rand has become known nationwide for his appetite for all things electronic. As a DJ he caters for people with an appetite for minimal melancholy as well as laying down electro slammers and ‘stuff that’s not even out yet.’ He is a Chibuku mainstay, runs his own night Jupiter Rooms in Manchester and London and is due to appear at The Warehouse Project in November. When he isn’t listening to music James is on Youtube or eating. ==========================================================================================
People will often deride DJs as being people ‘who just play records.’ How do you thwart this and en- sure that your DJing is an art form in its own right? As you are playing other people’s music, how do you make it your own? I’ve found that the more you find out about music, the more you realise that you know relatively nothing about it. Dance music in particular is a vast maze of compet- ing labels, producers, trends and fads. Yeah we do just play records really, but with DJing the work is the prep. The hours spent in record shops or online researching, catergorising, organising, listening... all amount to a lim- ited showcase of your own taste in a public space at the weekend. Playing the records and mixing them together is the easy part really. Possessing originality whilst do- ing this is the hard bit. The best DJs are the ones that maintain constant themes throughout their sets that you cannot quite put your finger on.
You play a range of venues, from trendy bars to old warehouses - why do you think that dance music can transcend these different cultural institutions,
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and say, punk rock cannot? What is it about this mostly wordless genre that people connect to? I believe every space has the capacity for a soundtrack. When I play in a venue early doors, I’m quite content to be largely ignored for the first few hours of the night. No DJ should really be trying to make you dance at 9pm if the night is going on till 3 or 4. A punk band by it’s nature is catered to demand your full attention and of course, this probably wouldn’t go down too well in spaces where people just want to sit down and have a drink. As for what makes people connect with dance music, I couldn’t really tell you. Some people might tell you it’s something to do with escapism but for me per- sonally, I dunno... I just like it .
Following on from that question, describe your ideal venue. I will not necessarily build it for you, although I may pretend that I might. I’m not sure about designing one from scratch but if you could magically link Panorama Bar and Upstairs in Watergate, then I’d be a very happy man. Both are su- perb spaces.
You are a self confessed techno librarian. Do you feel the need to play songs that nobody has ever heard, in order to surprise people, and is this something that you look for in your sets, rather than playing songs that people are familiar with? Do you feel that some DJs will play ‘hits’ in order to please a crowd, and is that part of the challenge? To create a set that not only satisfies the average ‘consumer’, but also provides a point of reference for purists? Or, are you far more self indulgent than that, and just play whatever you want? I try to play records that interest me regardless of popu- larity. Obviously you size up your room before you de- cide whether or not to put on that huge Berlin techno record or equally that Kylie single but it’s really entirely about reading the crowd as opposed to satisfying your own desire to play a bizarre tune for the sake of it and I don’t think that there is anything wrong with DJs playing ‘hits’ provided it’s done in an original way.
When performing, do you have a contingency plan if you don’t feel that the crowd are responding
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