JKriv interview – “I’m really feeling like myself again.”
The New York don on surviving Lymphoma and more
Brooklyn-based Jason Kriveloff is an artist long associated with positively charged musical vibrations. Best known by his JKriv moniker, the multi-instrumentalist, producer, and Razor N Tape co-founder has been turning out good-time sonics for decades. Out this week, his latest ‘Intuition’ EP marks another step in his evolution—one shaped by a particular set of challenges. Written during a period of personal adversity, the music remains as soul-stirring as ever, reflecting the strength of his creative intention.
“Fortunately for me, I was able to keep a very positive attitude through it. And I managed to still have a lot of energy. I was able to complete the record while I was in treatment.”
Jason has just returned to wintery New York from the relative heat of Miami as he sits down via Zoom. He appears upbeat, open, and ready to share his story. “We can talk about anything,” he says as we discuss his background, the label, his latest EP, and the illness he was diagnosed with shortly before its composition.
Though synonymous with the art of edits, JKriv’s aptitude for musicality extends far beyond the rework.
Growing up in New York, he began playing music around the age of 12, starting with bass and guitar and performing in various bands. Initially drawn to rock, he later explored funk before eventually turning to jazz—later studying the genre at Oberlin College and Conservatory in Ohio.
After returning to New York, his musical journey opened up in unexpected directions. “I thought I was going to be a jazz musician and pretty quickly realised that that wasn’t going to be the path for me”.
Throughout the late 90s and early 00s, he started playing acid jazz, funk and jam-influenced sounds in various groups. One such outfit, Tortured Soul, started gaining traction while exploring deep house topography in the early 2000s. “We had a couple of big records on Central Park Recordings, which was the record label run by Satellite Records, a big record store in New York City. And we were touring around playing live house music and basically playing a lot of venues that didn’t typically have live music, more DJ-oriented venues and festivals. And that was my real exposure to the club world.”
Having previously dabbled with and initially left lukewarm by the mid-90s nightclub experience, the addition of the live element imbued the form with new resonance. “That was sort of my big exposure to house music and getting more entrenched in club music.”
With the fuse lit, he started producing in the mid-2000s, DJing followed a few years later, before launching Razor N Tape in 2012, alongside partner-in-crime, Aaron Dae.
With its name and early output harking back to a bygone era of Ron Hardy-style reel-to-reel edits, before expanding its repertoire to include original compositions, Razor N Tape served as the standard bearer for the art of the rework in an ocean of cack-handed scalpel jobs. So what is the secret to crafting an edit that enhances, or at least does justice to, the source track?
“For me, I think the first question is, does the song need an edit in the first place? At this point, virtually everything’s been edited. Every known or even semi-known disco track has been edited. And then I think it’s about respecting the original music.”
For JKriv, the purpose of the edit is to gently refine the original, maybe shaving off a “wonky” middle eight, or subtly rounding off barriers to beat-matching. The early RNT manifesto was as simple as taking vintage or classic music and fine-tuning it to help it sound compelling in a contemporary club setting. “I’m not crazy about the type of edit where it’s just locked up, you know, perfectly to grid and a big kick drum under it. There’s a fine line there between doing something creative and respectful with it and doing something just ’cause you can, you know?”
One recent trend that leaves JKriv particularly cold is that of the stem edit. “The thing that gets lost in a lot of those is, man, the original mix was a huge part of the track. That stuff was being done by legends — John Morales and Francois K and guys like that — in the best studios in the world with the best equipment in the world where everybody knew their craft in and out. The energy of the music is in the mix. And then you get the stems and sync it all up in Ableton. And you just lost the energy of the music somehow.”
The departure from strictly edit-based material is perhaps unsurprising given Jkriv’s background, and the introduction of the Reserve suffix has seen RNT chart diverse sonic trajectories while increasingly providing a platform for entirely original compositions. “A lot of [the Reserve output] was still sample-based, to begin with, but it was more of a classic house or hip-hop way of using samples rather than strictly an edit. And then for the past, I would say, five or six years now we’ve really been much more focused on original music.”
The pigeon-hole dodging back catalogues of both the label and JKriv himself are particularly challenging to nail down. Though generally rooted in the classic disco and house sounds of NYC, there’s a shared eclecticism to the combined approach.
“The music that I make stylistically varies a lot,” says Jason, before highlighting how his musical background helps shape his sound. “I lean towards more soulful music, music that’s rhythmic. Most of the music that I make has some amount of live elements, you know, whether it’s percussion or keyboard, and I often play bass and guitar on my music. I like it to change up. Even club music, you know, part of it is the repetitiveness of it, like the hypnotic aspect of it. But I still like those little live flourishes and elements.”
The label’s inventory reflects this diversity, both in terms of genre and featured artists. The talent pool runs deep—disco house veterans like Dimitri From Paris, Dave Lee, and Ron Basejam; today’s shining lights Cody Currie, Felipe Gordon, Coeo and Eli Escobar; off-kilter maestro Ben Sun and maverick fusionist Tigerbalm; and cult heroes Boo Williams, Tom Noble and Nenor.
More than any particular strategy, the overriding prerequisite for music making the cut is that each of the label partners agree on its quality. If we [Jason and Aaron] both liked it, we knew that the Venn diagram resulted in something good. And now Jared [Cohen], our label manager, is also involved in A&R as well. It’s hard to put your finger on exactly, but we know when it’s there, and I think the catalogue kind of speaks to that.”
But that’s not to say their approach is devoid of method. RNT have made a habit of bringing together upcoming artists with established masters of the craft. “Being in the biz for as long as we have, we just are connected with a lot of people. We’re always looking for ways that we can make a project interesting. A perfect example is Diogo Strauss, who’s a great Brazilian producer that we put out some stuff from. We got a Ron Trent remix on his last record, we got a Kai Alce remix on his new one. It’s just fun to bring things together in that way and like, know, yeah, just keep it like varied and interesting.”
Surviving as an independent record label for well over a decade is no easy task. Thanks to a forward-thinking, holistic approach, the RNT crew have managed to not only maintain (or “keep the lights on,” as Jason humbly puts it) but genuinely flourish. From vinyl and digital sales to sync placements, merchandise to events, it’s fair to say what started out as a label has well and truly entered brand territory. “It’s about putting a lot of different pieces together,” he explains. “We just keep it moving, expanding, levelling up, and trying to reach more people.”
In 2022, the Razor N Tape record store opened in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. “It’s a very small shop,” he says, “but we stock our entire vinyl catalogue and a very curated selection of new dance music.” More than just retail, it’s become a community hub, hosting weekly DJ events that are live-streamed and archived on YouTube. “It’s been a really fun project,” he adds. “People come and hang for the events. When the weather’s nice, they gather outside, and we get to spend more time with the artists we work with.”
With the wind in their sails, Razor N Tape’s latest offering comes from JKriv himself, representing a subtle maturation of a sound that refuses to stand still.
The sobering circumstances surrounding his new ‘Intuition’ EP nourish the release in perhaps unexpected ways. At the end of September 2024, JKriv was diagnosed with Lymphoma, and he spent the last three months of the year receiving treatment. Fortunately, the illness was diagnosed in its early stages, before any sickness had taken hold. “I was able to keep a very positive attitude through it. And I managed to still have a lot of energy. I was able to complete the record while I was in treatment.”
While he suggests that the illness didn’t directly shape the sound of the record, it perhaps inevitably influenced his mindset while making it. “I don’t think that it necessarily informed the music aesthetically,” he reflects, “but there is a certain attention to detail.” Throughout the process, there was a strong sense of determination—“I had to do it… I didn’t want to not finish it because of what was going on in my life. I’m really proud of this record.”
Bursting with joie de vivre, the record rings out with positivity, even when compared to the generally feel-good nature of his previous work. From the searing hook, tightly woven synths and retro-futurist house flex of ‘Blueprint’ to the acid-flecked magnetism of the David Morales-inspired ‘Zone 1’, there’s an undeniable vigour to much of the EP. The slowmo throb and sparkling keys of the title track offer a heads-down change of pace, with evocative vocals served by Megatronic, while ‘Paula’s Dance’ echoes with heartfelt admiration for the one and only Larry Heard, name-checked in the release notes as JKriv’s favourite producer.
The sleeve art for the EP features a striking design based on a photo of Jason—reminiscent of a contemporary graphic take on Stevie Wonder’s seminal Innervisions LP. “This concept of intuition, it did resonate with me at that time—about just following the things you feel in your heart are important to you, and the things that you need to do for yourself.”
A triumph representing the power of maintaining a positive outlook during even the most testing of times, the EP suggests there is plenty more to come from JKriv’s musical mind. He’s now finished his treatment and will be in “a monitoring stage” for the next three years.
“I’m feeling great,” says Jason. “I’m back to full strength and my hair is coming back, I’m really feeling like myself again.”
Patrizio Cavaliere
To buy your 12″ vinyl copy of JKriv’s ‘Intuition’ EP, click here
JKriv will be performing a DJ set at Faith at No90 Hackney Wick on March 15