Jasper James on new ‘Keepon’ EP: “quick ideas usually sound the best.”
The Glasgow tastemaker talks us through his new three tracker
Jasper James. one of the most exciting acts to emerge from Glasgow’s rich electronic scene, has been chatting to Juno Daily about his current new three track EP.
From being the youngest ever DJ to play at Sub Club through to back to back appearances alongside the likes of Ryan Elliott and his longstanding residence at Phonox, his distinctive brand of house sound led to studio explorations and release via ESP Institute, Optima Trax and his own Mitchell Street Records.
His new EP sees him joining the No Art family, after handing label founders ANOTR the title track for use primarily as a DJ tool – but they liked it so much they ended up releasing.
James told us: “The A1 ‘Keepon’ is an old track I made as a DJ tool for the DC10 Terrace. I gave it to a few friends, but I’d never planned to release it. Fast forward to last summer, and I bumped into the ANOTR boys at DC10, funnily enough. They asked about the record and wanted to release it, so here we are!
“The A2 track ‘Rise’ took inspiration from Mr G, who is one of my favourite producers. He’s a force to be reckoned with, and everything he makes always hits. I play his records in practically every set I play out, as you can guarantee it’s going to do the required damage. I used the Roland TR 909 for the drums, Juno 106 was the riser, and the old classic Lately Bass preset for the bassline, as well as a few percussive loops.
“The B1 ‘What You Say’ is a nod to 90s house music. I was watching a YouTube video that day on how to get drums to sound like Armand Van Helden, and I was instructed to add a shit tonne of saturation as well as a few other tips I’ve forgotten about. To no surprise, I sounded nothing like the magician himself.
“When I quickly realised I would never sound like AVH, I had a jam on my MPC2000xl. I chopped the vocal sample up, of whom I don’t plan on revealing or grassing myself up for – but for me, she has one of the best voices ever and has been sampled in tonnes of house records… I’m sure you can guess who! I worked some drums around it from there, and it all came together.
“It was one of those tracks I completed in a few hours, which doesn’t happen often. In fact, it’s never happened since, but when it does, I find that those quick ideas usually sound the best.”