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J HAZEN (Sound of Habib, Strategik, SF)

Photo by Philip Wartena

J Hazen starts off this week with a mix that should immediately grab your attention. He put together a mix of brokenbeat, 2 step, dubby IDM love. Whoaaaa, you might say. Why not breakbeat? Well, he told us, “I’ve just been finding so much in these styles that I had to put together a mix to show my take on it; its nice to see what you can do when you’re a bit outside your comfort zone.” We agree. Artists going outside the(ir) norm…off the beaten path…is what Jungo Road is about.

I was in San Francisco last weekend for the LovEvolution festival. I seeked out the Strategik float to see if J Hazen was performing and…would you believe…he was performing right then. Serendipity. I was lugging around two cameras and a tripod for interviews but I still got my freak on with his glitchy breakbeat sounds. No need to worry about him bailing on the beats. Instead, he is keeping it varied and fresh; including anything and everything.

We got together with J Hazen (John Hazen) for a brief interview and we ended up deep into a discussion about his lifelong passion for music and his approach in its creation and performance. Below, we bring you the gems. So, get to know this creative music producer and performer a bit more. Long live the adventurers off the beaten path!

When did you or your family notice your interest in music?
I started playing instruments at nine. So, I did show an early interest. But, it was when I picked up guitar at 14 and started writing music that I got really serious about it. My parents saw I was pretty into it and were supportive from the beginning even if they didn’t really understand what I was trying to do…and…despite how much I sucked at times. After many years, I think I may have broken through a little though; after I sent my dad a new track he replied with an e-mail that included the phrase “dude….the bass!”

When did you get interested or exposed to electronic dance music?
It was toward the end of high school. I was a complete metal head [editor's note: Bassnectar is a metal head too.] and didn’t want to have anything to do with anything else. But, I had a friend or two that were always tossing in the odd dance music CD—all of which were awful in retrospect—but some of those tunes at least opened my ears to electronic music. It wasn’t until I was in college and eventually met my sister’s boyfriend, now husband…DC based soundFLUX who is a breaks DJ, that it became my main focus. It was the first time I’d really connected with bass and beats like that and it started a huge snowball effect that is still going at the moment. I remember him playing the Infiniti remix of The Red Pill in his basement on two 15″ subs, which were outrageously overpowered for the tiny space, and thinking “ooohhhhh so that’s what this bass thing is all about!”

Do you have any formal training in music? Or been in any bands?
Yea, I was in a lot of bands from the ages of about 15 to 21, playing guitar, but never really got past a few gigs and some decent recordings. I found it incredibly difficult finding a healthy creative balance between all the members of the band, let alone finding my own voice. That was one of the biggest factors that drew me to production…its all you and you know exactly where all the credit (or blame) lies. I graduated from New York University with a music degree, and was studying music theory seriously since the beginning of high school up through college. I was also trained on sax for 10 years, but as far as guitar/electronic music/dj’ing are concerned its all self taught.

Then when did you start DJing?
I only started DJing in 2007. I’d been buying vinyl years before then and figured I might as well learn the basics of mixing, but I never fell in love with it. I’ve always been a producer first and foremost. I had a hard time going from the total control of production to the relative lack of control with vinyl; the “I wish I didn’t have to wait another 16 bars for the breakdown” sort of thing. I was awful and not really into it, but since I was collecting huge amounts of music anyway, I would piece together mix sets in my sequencer for fun, so I learned a lot of the nuts and bolts of mixing before I ever really started doing it live.

In 2007, I started using Ableton and immediately fell in love with DJ mixing with it. I’m not in the 12 loops running at all times hyper-complexity camp as far as my approach to Ableton is concerned. I’ve always considered myself more of a selector type of DJ instead of a technical mixmaster. But, it does allow so much more flexibility in how I do mix; especially in terms of tempo and genre changes, looping, rearranging, not to mention the FX processing you can do as you go along. Its just incredibly liberating to be able to react to the audience and tailor the music to exactly what’s needed in the moment.

I think the only trick I have going for me in my DJing is my obsessive digging for new music. I shop for music every day and I don’t see how I could ever stand out as a DJ unless I did that. For awhile, it seemed the consensus was that digging was somehow becoming a lost art. When in fact, I think it’s more important now than ever. There is such an avalanche of new music coming out; true, a lot of which probably doesn’t need to be. But, now instead of having select labels dictating quality control, each individual DJ can exercise their own if they have the drive and the patience, which is crucial in my opinion. I think whoever complains that there isn’t enough good music coming out just hasn’t put in the hours.

Tell us about being a music producer; when, how, and more.
Production is hands down the most important thing to me. I started around 2002. I didn’t set out to be a serious producer from the beginning; but, just wanted to experiment, have fun and get some of my ideas down in some medium. The first track I considered a success was the remix of D:Fuse’s Everything With You that I did with Austin based DJ^3. At the time, I was working at System Recordings, the record label that released it, and swiped the remix parts from the office so I could build up my remix chops. We just did it for fun…and the label and D:Fuse ended up loving it. It was the first thing I ever had released (this was in 2005), it ended up on a few compilations, and was a huge confidence booster. I’m also proud of 700ft. It was the first thing I did that I felt really reflected the vibe I was going for. It had a slew of wicked remixes and was the first thing I had on vinyl.

As far as my approach to writing music goes, I try to keep a very “zen-like” approach. I don’t force things as I go and try to just let everything happen of its own accord. Once I get that first little bit down in the beginning, its important for me to get my expectations and ego out of the way and let the music dictate where it wants to go. I’ll sketch something out and listen to it looped, and let the melodies and bits and pieces pop into my head themselves, and then just program it out. I’m not a noodler, I don’t even use a keyboard when I write. Basically, it’s all formed in my head then written down in my sequencer. I mainly use Sonar with the same well worn plugins including a UAD1, Battery, Waves bundle, z3ta+, and Reaktor.

What do you like, or moves you most, in music?
I’m a huge sucker for good melody, harmony, and clever rhythms, no matter how they’re delivered. I like musical songs that really pull things out of you and toy with your expectations. Even though there never seems to be a shortage of pounding dance tracks that can work on a dance floor, I think a more creative and subtle musicality is lacking from too much of it. I like stuff that’s intricate and graceful, which could apply to all kinds of music, even really heavy stuff. I always like when I have the feeling that I know how a song or melody or chord progression is going to go, that I know what to expect from it, but instead it does something completely different and far better than anything I could expect. It’s sort of that “lightbulb moment” that makes a song really smack you in the face.

I think there is a middle ground between truly different, creative music -and- accessibility. A lot of what I really love falls into that. I definitely like plenty of straightforward dance floor tracks that don’t cover any new ground too. But, all the music that keeps me going as a musician is the stuff that goes somewhere I haven’t been yet, or captures a different mood or creates a new atmosphere. There are a lot of people out there with really unique and inspiring visions, and their music is what I’m drawn to the most.

What are those music producers and DJs that you admire?
The first producers to really open my eyes from a production standpoint were guys like Bil Bless (SOTEG), Dave Tipper, Si Begg, Andy Page, Kilowatts, Lawgiverz, etc.; big twisted bass and beats, excellent sound design, vivid, technical production, but with really ingenious music underlying it. They are just as good musicians as they are technicians. I’ve always admired outlandishly good production and programming; and people who aren’t afraid to jump off into the deep end and come back with something totally individual and fresh; and who don’t just simply rehash whatever has worked for them in the past.

The producers I’ve been getting all worked up over these days are guys like Floating Points, Boxcutter, Hudson Mohawke, Bibio and Bullion, and pretty much everybody else in this mix. I literally can’t keep up with the amount of exciting music that’s coming out right now, across a ton of genres, and there is such a glut of new talent it’s scary.

You’re known for breakbeat. Do you want to keep focusing there?
I don’t want to be known for any genre actually! I always liked the types of musicians where you never knew exactly what you were going to get from them, but you knew it was going to be good no matter what it was. I think that’s the point that I’d like to get to with people. If you stick to one thing too closely, then that is the type of audience you will attract. Which, in turn, pressures you into continuing along the same lines to placate them. I don’t want to be in that position.

I see my music expanding to include a more diverse palette of sounds and styles. But, I always want it to sound like a J Hazen track. I want to aim for things that are more off the beaten path than what I’ve already done; but, without becoming inaccessible. I want to make a lot more bangin’ dance floor tracks too. I’ve always been a very slow producer and I’ve been working on speeding things up. Because, if I want to do all the things I want to do, I really have to pick up the pace.

What’s next for you?
I’m coming off a pretty busy stretch of DJing. So, I’m planning on taking it a bit easy to focus on production more for the near future. I do have some nice releases lined up with Sound of Habib including two tracks on October 19th called Forerunner and That’s What They All Say followed by Danger Danger and Artificial Thing shortly thereafter.

Thanks!

You can next catch J Hazen on Friday October 16th @ Sanctuary Presented by Strategik (Fairfield, CA) and on Saturday October 31st @ Opel’s Night of the Living Bass (Mighty, San Francisco). Keep up to date on his other live performances at his websites below and the Jungo Road calendar.

More about J Hazen on Facebook, MySpace, and SoundCloud.

Booking: Click to reveal email

Play individual tracks and then click on the links below to purchase!

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1. Little Dragon – A New [Peacefrog]
2. Terror Danjah – Zumpi Hunter (Swindle Remix) [Planet Mu]
3. Search & Destroy – Blue Mantra [Destructive Recordings]
4. Synkro + Indigo – Heaven [Smokin Sessions]
5. El-B – Son De Cali [Soul Motive]
6. Martyn – Far Away [3024]
7. Floating Points – K & G Beat [Planet Mu]
8. Blue Daisy – Fall [Black Acre]
9. Boxcutter – Old School Astronomy [Planet Mu]
10. Debruit – Like D’s Bees [Civil Music]
11. Sprutbass – Ulykke [Dodpop]
12. SLA – Groznyi Nightlife [Harmonia]
13. Bibio – S’vive [Warp]
14. Nosaj Thing – IOIO [Planet Mu]
15. Lusine – Gravity [Ghostly International]
16. Scuba – Disorder [Hotflush]
17. Boards of Canada – Amo Bishop Roden [Warp]