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INFRARED/INTERVIEW
ISSUE 57
J Majik was described by Goldie as “the Luke Skywalker
of D&B”, which years later seems like a very
fitting description for one of the scene’s most
talented and influential DJs and producers. After releasing
on Lemon D’s Planet Earth and Goldie’s Metalheadz
labels, J set up his own studio and label in 1994, Infrared.
And as with a lot of seminal D&B labels and producers,
nearly 10 years later the label has changed the scene
in ways many people could never have thought possible.
Building on some very strong releases such as ‘Your
Sound’ on the aforementioned labels, J Majik proceeded
to build on these foundations a label that has become
synonymous with quality music. In 2003, J Majik and
Infrared are still coming good, hitting the D&B
heads with tracks stronger than a Bruce Lee punch. I
had the chance to catch up with J Majik in between studio
sessions and dubplate pressings to find out exactly
what Infrared has in store for us this year.
The label has always had different people passing through,
and talking to J it seems that since about a year ago,
it has settled down to a core group of producers that
are becoming, pardon the pun, the new generation for
Infrared. As J explains “What I am trying to do
with Infrared, is not just put one person in the front
but build a little crew, and they build the label up.
That’s one thing with the successful labels out
there, like Full Cycle and others, they all produce
each other’s albums, they do their thing together
and I think that’s leading the way of having it.”
New on the scene are people like Wickaman and Cookie
Monsters. “Wickaman, is a guy I met about a year
or so ago, I used to go to school with him. And I hooked
up with him again, and we are doing a lot of stuff together,
which is really cool because I love working with other
people.” Cookie Monsters are also smashing it on
the label at the minute, as well as Futurebound, who
is one of his best mates and has been with the label
since day one. Also coming through is an old friend
of J called Shakka, who also goes by the name of TKL,
with a track called ‘Spinna’ which will be
out in the near future. As J explains the more people
in the studio, the better for him. “It’s nice
to have a lot of people around in the studio, have a
few drinks, chill out and bang out loads of music. We
have got a really good vibe going on at the minute,
with a load of people and also a load of mates, so there
are more people involved this year which is cool.”
Last but not least Sonic and Silver will also continue
to contribute, after spending some time setting up their
own label.
This leads us to discuss the much argued Disco D&B
shift in recent years. Having been tagged with this
label since the 2000 release of ‘Love is not a
Game’, J is quite keen to clear out a few things.
“I don’t see anything positive about milking
a style, when I started doing more vocal house-y stuff,
I never meant to do it, and all of a sudden I had started
a whole new sub-genre. And it ends up that suddenly
people are basing their whole style on it. And at the
same time I never really did it, I made 3 disco tunes,
‘Love is not a game’, ‘Space Invaders’
and ‘24 hours’. I only did 3 the whole time
myself and still I got labelled with starting Disco
D&B. At that time when I was playing out I was never
playing a whole disco set, you know. I did a few tunes
like that and I am going to continue to do what I want,
so its cool, just let people do what they want to. And
the same has happened with ‘Capioera’. But
that’s what you get.” It happens with pretty
much any genre, “I just like D&B man, f*$k
it. It’s all about the tempo to me, you know. If
I had to choose one style of it, I couldn’t. There
is not one style I prefer.”
Which brings us nicely to ‘Capioera’, undoubtedly
one of the biggest tunes of the last year, as well as
just being a damn fine piece of D&B history. So
how did it come together and who the hell is Gil Felix
anyway? “I hooked up with him through this guy
I met called Tim B, from Switzerland. He had heard of
me through ‘Space Invaders’ and the stuff
I did on Defected. “After a few collaborations
with him he introduced us to a Brazialian friend of
his from Bahia who turned out to be Gil, and he had
heard of this D&B thing, and he was intrigued about
what it was. And so we all got together and we came
up with ‘Capioera’. It was Wickaman and myself
as well as Gil and Tim B. All four of us sitting in
the studio. It happened really quickly, in a couple
of hours, the actual mainframe of the track and then
we had this thing that was ‘Capioera’. And
we experimented with different stuff, loads of vocals,
and at the end of the day we kept the chorus bits and
took the verses out to keep it dancefloor. I wasn’t
really trying to go for something Brazilian I was just
trying to go for a vibe. I don’t know anything
about Brazilian music, it just happened. Gil sang over
it, played the guitar loop, we put a hard bass on it,
and then the beat. But we never expected it to be so
big.” And big it has become, fitting perfectly
within the popularity of the Latin/Brazilian sub-genre
that first hit these shores in the form of Marky and
‘LK’. On top of that it is just an amazing
track, perfectly put together and with one of the most
memorable build ups in ages. “It was a collective
effort, we were having a few drinks, it was a nice hot
day, and Gil actually recorded the vocals in the garden.
We put a laptop in the garden, we were kicking a football
around and Gil was singing on the laptop. It could have
been worse you know?” Indeed it could have been
worse, it will probably be out by the time you read
this, keeping the D&B massive warm and sunny in
these long winter nights.
As we part, one thing seems to stick in his throat as
we discuss the ever increasing presence of CDs and CD
decks. Is it a bad thing I ask? “This is all very
clever but no-one is thinking of the long term implications.
If everyone starts mixing on CDs within 5 years then
there will be no scene left at all! I think its cool
for a producer to go and play the odd CD when he has
just finished a track but hasn’t had time to cut
it and needs to test it out on a system. But if top
DJs start basing their sets around CDs I think that
within 5 years there will be no vinyl sales at all.
Aside from that I think a track always sounds better
on vinyl, to me CDs always sound a bit brittle.”
Words by Laurent Fintoni
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