Play in popout

Who: dj Jelo
What: artist interview

Who is Jelo? He's a self described electronic music performer, song writer, remixer and producer. You could also say he's a bit of a promoter, internet geek, computer nerd, a wild hair enthusiast, comic book fanatic, movie nut, and a strong lover of his girl friend. Jelo was introduced to electronic music by his friend Oren Rosen, whom would leave random mix tapes in his basement, most notably Dr. Trance and John E's funky breaks. These mix tapes were very different to the Pink Floyd, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Metallica & Guns and Roses that were in Jelo's dual cassette deck of the time, but also had similar elements (namely the 909 syths) to Nine Inch Nails & Ministry.

At age 13, already obsessed with splicing mix tapes using the pause button as his cross fader, djing wasn't too far off. Being fascinated by the drum of the mix tapes left in his basement, and how the songs mixed flawlessly he took the next step. Off to the record store to buy his first pair of Tech 1200's and a Gemini mixer. He was even skipping school to go on crate digging adventures and practice mixing.

Fast forward well over a decade. Jelo is now approaching his lucky 13^th year of djing. He's been through every cycle; the "Wednesday release day" in the vinyl era, where he'd be at the record store like clockwork with dozens of other disc jocks fighting over the same rare releases; to the CDJ & digital era where  www.beatport.com & iTunes reign. He admittedly was one of the guys who swore never to touch a CDJ. Ironically he eventually mastered the new tools the CDJ provides.  Jelo learned to embrace new technology by the next cycle, the music software era, most notably Ableton.

He's remixed and co-produced with some of the world's best, like Kevin Drew from Broken Social Scene, Hatiras, Deadmau5, Donald Glaude, Adam K, Calvertron and Stupid Fresh. He's also played in every major club across Canada in every city small and large (excluding The Territories & P.E.I.), not to mention Greece, England, Dubai, Taiwan and coast to coast in the USA. Possibly Hamilton's favorite touring dj and always a guaranteed sold out show, whether is at Sizzle or O Lounge. He's also one of the most opinionated electronic music artists in Canada and always interesting to speak to.

What are your thoughts on the current Canadian music scene?
I have no problem admitting it. I have a personal attachment to Canada. With all my travels, it's allowed me a unique opportunity to see a lot of the world and we have a really good thing going on here as a society overall, and not just with music but yes with music too. There's an incredible collection of artist here in Canada that range from everything that I give a f*** about to shit that I don't give a f*** about. It's great. Because we're such a diverse culture, we have shit that's coming from everywhere. It's soul food.

What lead to the performance tool change from CDJ to Ableton?
Some of the biggest performers are using this platform to perform and there's a great reason why. You can use this program any which way you wanted. The way I use it is very different from someone who's next to me. Some people use it in its simplest form. Just pressing the launch button and some people are flat out composing and remixing live. I was a guy who loved vinyl and swore I would never use a CD player. Then the great Pioneers came out. Then I went "f*** vinyl". It had nothing to do with weight, money or carrying records around. Now why would I ever want to use a CD player? Because the song you're listening to me play was I made on my laptop. Why would I want to change that format? (going from CD to something else) I made it using this software that your listening to me perform (currently). It doesn't make sense to go and use a platform that's lesser than another platform I could use. The CDJ is a lesser platform. I have to burn my product that I finished creating, my art, and put it onto a little plastic disc and play it on a clunky platform that's considered archaic.

How have your Ableton sets differed from your CDJ sets?  What's your approach to using the new tool?
Oh my gosh. Way different. How am I using it? There's not enough time here. One operation could be a 10 minute conversation. Some people say "well the computer is doing everything". What's everything? Start. Stop. Fast. Slow? Ableton can do A LOT more than that hahaha! I'm able to go into the audio of the song I'm using and only use the audio I want. Never mind the fact that I'm running several plug-ins per channel which I've MIDI mapped to an XY pad and instead of using knobs, I'm able to draw the effect out on the XY pad. How cool is that? That's way cool.

It sounds like you're pretty busy in the booth.
Dood, I put on a show. I'm not up there to f*** around. If someone's paid money for me to go to a club, I'm up there to deliver. I'm NOT there to party and drink, do drugs and see what the girls are doing. I'm there to work.

What's in your home studio?
Besides my DAZ that I built that's comprised of a bunch of different MIDI controllers, I'm mostly rocking my Mac Pro book with Ableton, a lot of Native Instruments plug-ins, my 2 monitors which I love, KRK Rockit 8's, my Native Instruments audio interface. Nothing very complicated.

What's your approach to collaborating with your peers?
I think it's the old "give and take" when you work with somebody. You can bring all kinds of ideas to the table, but if someone of an amazing caliber like Adam K wants to, you know, go a certain direction with the track, I'm obviously gonna take that into serious consideration. His opinion is worth a million bucks. And I also want to learn from guys like that you know? But still maintain what is really important to me and I'm sure they're probably thinking the exact same thing

That's something I love about electronic music. It's sometimes a temporary band with the collaborations. I wish. That sounds dreamy. I've always had a personal desire to work with a mass amount of people. Mostly because it's a great chance to inject some of my flavor into doods that I have whole hearted respect for. And the cool part for me is these guys want to sit down with me. I'm a fan. I'm buying these guys tracks on www.Beatport.com and a few months later I'm sitting in the studio with them banging out tunes.

• Dean Lickyer
  Interviews & Articles
• Tommy Outlaw - Live at O Lounge - August 15th 2009
  Music & Radio
• Rockin for Willi Benefit Concert
  Interviews & Articles
• Dekoze at Sizzle Nightclub
  Events & Tickets
• One of Canadas most popular female djs, Sydney Blu.
  Interviews & Articles