HAWAII IS GO!
Asylum brings underground dance music to and from Honolulu
SAY Hawaii to most people, and they more likely than not immediately think of surfing, grass skirts and the type of brightly-colored Hawaiian shirt worn by Fatboy Slim for the past 15 years. But in the last few years, quality underground dance music has found a home in this American outpost too — thanks to an after-hours club known to dance-crazy locals as Asylum. The brainchild of Willis Haltom and partners, Asylum came about when the guys were looking for somewhere to continue the party late into the night. “With the help of some others, we decided to open an after-hours in Honolulu for us to DJ at,” Willis tells DJ Mag. “I found an old recording studio, and we turned it into a place where you can come and be yourself and listen to good dance music till eight in the morning.” A whole raft of international DJs have been drawn to the epicentre of Hawaii, Honolulu, over the past few years. Justin Martin, Danny Howells, Mr C, J. Phlip and Lee Foss are just a few of the jocks who have graced the decks at Asylum in recent times. The nature of the beast is that the DJs hang out with the residents while in Hawaii — before and after the gig — and friendships are invariably
formed. Willis — alongside the other Asylum residents such as Loic Tambay, Zane, SoundSex and more — tells DJ Mag that he’s met some amazing producers who have given him advice over the years, and this has been invaluable now that the club is starting its own label — Asylum Confidential — and Willis has launched his own production career. The first EP on the label is by Higher Concept, the production moniker of another Asylum resident named Chris Chartier — one of the tracks is with Willis himself. Remixes come from Butane and Corey Baker from Wildkats, while the second EP features another couple of Asylum residents, Russoul and DJ Fathom. Recent visitors to Asylum, Ardalan and
J.Phlip from Dirtybird are remixing those. “The label is gonna be an outlet for our resident DJs to put out their music, with the help of remixers who come and play Asylum and are friends of ours [from] over the years,” explains Willis. “We have some cool music that we’ve all been working on for quite some time, and it seems like the next step in what we’ve been trying to do for ourselves and putting Hawaii more on the dance music map.” Willis himself has some of his own productions coming out on labels such as Get Physical and Riff Raff, as well as a Justin Martin remix he’s done with Lopazz. “I have a remix with my good friend Higher Concept coming out on Get Physical for Lopazz & Casio Casino,” he says. “I also have an EP coming out with Randall Jones from Tigerhook Corporation on Riff Raff, and another one coming out soon is another remix I did for Lopazz with Randall Jones called ‘U & I’. Very excited for when that comes out.” But what DJ Mag wants to know is why Asylum hasn’t gone down a more commercial route? “We really try to only book the acts we really wanna hear, and I’ve never been into commercial music so much,” Willis counters. “My friends would also stop coming if we did commercial nights, and Asylum has a loyal following.”
FRESH OUTTA
THE LAB With his recent collab for Size Records, Digital LAB is taking Miami by storm...
MIAMIhas always been one of the centers of electronic music. It plays host to Winter Music Conference’s countless parties, and has superclubs lining South Beach. Now, however, it’s also responsible for a new generation of producers who are making quite a splash. One making a reputable name for himself is Jared Matos, better known as Digital LAB. When not opening for industry giants like Kaskade, or touring the country playing at the hottest clubs, the DJ/producer lays low in his hometown of Miami, releasing tracks through labels such as Vicious, MixMash, Dim Mak and Spinnin Records.
Jared’s most recent collaboration ‘Hit It!’, with Miami natives Henrix and GTA, has found another new home on Steve Angello’s Size Records. Receiving immediate support from Kaskade and the former Swedish House Mafia man, it quickly became the Miami monster of 2013
at this year’s Ultra Music Festival, dropped by various artists throughout the festival’s two weekends. “We thought it was good, we thought it could go somewhere, we just didn’t envision this,” Jared says excitedly.
With ‘Hit It!’ getting so much attention during WMC, Jared’s plan for the follow up is garnering a lot of interest. “We just sent some new tracks to local vocalist Zashanell that me and Henrix are trying to do for Vicious,” Jared explains. It’s not his only up-coming release, however, with everything from remixes to more collaborations in the pipeline, while he also has plans for more work with Size Records with a remix coming for Wayne & Woods.
In the meantime, if you can’t catch him at a club listen to his regular We are the Night podcast on SoundCloud.
djmag.com 007
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