Junior Jack Interview

Junior Jack Interview image

MUSIC IS THE DRUG OF JUNIOR JACK!

Experienced Italian DJ producer Junior Jack has been active in the music business since the mid 1990’s but had a particularly good year in 2002 when ‘Thrill Me’ was a considerable club success. A year later and Junior (Vito Lucente) has firmly established himself in the upper circle of the dance music circuit by producing both the ubiquitous commercial ‘Make Luv’ and the infectious club ‘E Samba’ singles. Junior Jack photo image

In 2004 Jack is set unleash his debut artist album ‘Trust It’ through Defected Records. Hotly anticipated by an eager industry audience and beyond, ‘Trust It’ shows Junior’s depth as an artist with Latin, acid house and electro influences among the traditional 4/4 beats and filtered bass lines. But that’s not all, there’s also Jazz, funk, Chicago style bump, disco and funky house blended in there for our aural pleasure. Jack’s trademark mix of throbbing bass lines and complex energetic house rhythms are taken to new places through ‘Trust It’ and as Junior stops for a brief respite we grab him for a quick interview. Read on as Lisa Loco makes enquiries about Junior’s surge of creativity, his DJ virus and the curse of ‘E Samba’ of course…

You’ve had quite a year, has it been all work and no play?
"I’ve always worked hard, I never stop it’s not just this year. This year people have just recognised that I work too much, but it’s been ten years of hard work!"

What did you do before you became a professional DJ producer?
"I’ve always produced, my first love is making music, I DJ for fun… Starting only three years ago with Kid Crème, I soon got the DJ virus! But the work is every single day in the studio producing, and I’ve been doing that for fifteen years!"

How was Ibiza for you? E-Samba everywhere, the Pacha Awards etc…
"It was all fantastic! I can never ask for more, I got an award for making track of the season and the crowds were amazing! There’s nothing better that can happen for a producer, I don’t look to become some big star like Justin Timberlake I am happy enough staying at this level. This is my pleasure to make music and play it in the club to see other people happy as a result!"

What’s been the highlight of 2003 for you?
"Just the fact people are beginning to notice that I exist! Also we have had incredible parties in Ibiza this season, which was fantastic! What can I say, it’s been amazing with people appreciating my work and so on!"

The ‘Trust It’ album will be out February 2004, why was it put back so much?
"We were proposing to release ‘Trust It’ this December but now it will wait until February 2004. We did this after meetings with the record label because we felt that after a busy year to release the album at the very end makes no sense. It’s a better climate after Christmas and New Year to release new records and we thought it better to wait until next year, as then the album has a full year’s life ahead of it."

Regarding the cover art for ‘Trust It’ is that your own arm and is it a drug reference?
"No it’s not mine. It’s an idea from the design team, we were supposed to shoot the picture with my own arm but I was away in the studio that day so it’s the arm of the photographer. The pick up is mine though! I’m a little sad that it wasn’t my arm but hey whatever. It is a drug reference I suppose, as music is my drug and it’s what is in my veins!"

…And the E Samba cover, whose ass is it - that isn’t yours either?
"It is the ass of one of my girlfriends. My wife’s ass is nice too but that’s private and not to be put on the cover!"

The single ‘Make Luv’ under your Room 5 moniker has sold almost a million copies making it the biggest single this year! The alias is obviously important to you?
"Not really but it is important because it’s part of my work you know? If I had to choose my first production alias it would be Junior Jack as this is where I do the music I really enjoy first for myself. I don’t think about media, radio or anything when I make Junior Jack music, I do what I feel and enjoy myself. The ‘Make Luv’ track is three years old to me now so it came as a surprise when it was popular, and so I had to do a Room 5 album very quickly! It was a little hard because to put on deep underground, tribal tracks made no sense and I didn’t want to disappoint the listeners who maybe want to hear similar stuff to ‘Make Luv’ It’s always difficult to think and talk about my music myself, I just do it in the studio and then look back a year on and say that was bullsh*t or that it was good… ‘Trust It’ is maybe too fresh for me to understand just now but it’s not my baby anymore, it’s up to the people now in the market place. I think it’s too fresh, maybe in a year’s time I’ll be in a better position to judge myself but I can’t listen to these tracks anymore…"

How was it for you working with Robert Smith on your latest single ‘Da Hype’?
"I was a big fan of Robert’s and when I was sixteen I had all the releases and videos, so it was weird to work with him in the recording room at my studio. A few years before he seemed to be untouchable, but then I worked with him - It’s cool! When I listen back to that track with Robert Smith it’s very strange, as it seems more like The Cure’s track than something of mine… A new Cure tune or an old remix I’ve done for them maybe…"

Your website’s funky, when will it be complete?
"We are working on it. It should be done by the time the album’s released next year! I leave it to the design people, which I know is stupid, but there’s too much otherwise with the music MP3’s, covers, pictures, DJ dates etc for not only Junior Jack, but for Room 5 too!"

Is your own label ‘Noisetraxx’ still going?
"Yeah I still work with that but I’ve been so very busy it’s been hard to keep up. But now I am back with it and I’ve just finished one track with Justin Brown, which is a very cool garage production with full vocals. I’m coming back with more stuff on my label soon!"

What other DJ’s have impressed you this year?
"It hard to answer this because I have no time these days to hear new people playing. I go to the club then leave but Erick Morillo and Roger Sanchez are good - there’s nothing more to say! It’s funny really as years ago I used to be like ‘wow this guys incredible’ but nowadays it’s work and a job for me and it looses some of magic from the days when other DJ’s were untouchable - It’s just people travelling and making music."

If you could remix anyone in the world who would you do?
"I dream to remix Mary J. Blige because she’s my preferred artist, but what happened to me was horrible. I was working on the Room 5 album and was so busy I had to refuse the Mary remix I was offered. I refused my dream, but hopefully they’ll come back to me with another track!"

How do you work in the studio?
"I sometimes use an engineer to discharge some of my brain to be creative rather than worry about wires and so on. I don’t always use someone but it helps to get the track done if you can free up a bit and concentrate on the arrangements for instance. I can do it by myself as I know all the equipment in the studio well, but if I use an engineer I always direct them with my own vision of my music."

What’s Jack’s favourite studio item?
"My desk and all the compressors, EQ’s and valves! I’m not too into the digital stuff, I like old school equipment."

Any plans for 2004, will you be touring with the album launch?
"I’ll be DJing and promoting the ‘Trust It’ launch then I’ll take off for a break with my wife for a few months. I plan to go to Miami because I need some sun, you know I’ve been working all summer long so I need a break and chill under the sun with my wife."

Junior’s album ‘Trust It’ is out through Defected Records on 02/02/2004. It’s contains the ‘E-Samba’ anthem, among thirteen other tracks including ‘Da Hype’ the second single from this album, to be released after Christmas with new mixes… Check out the Junior Jack site early next year as it develops…

www.JuniorJack.biz

Loco Rites* 21/10/03 www.LisaLoco.co.uk