Interview :: Nordic Trax :: Neighbour & Jon Delerious :: The Calgary Connection

Interview :: Nordic Trax :: Neighbour & Jon Delerious :: The Calgary Connection

13 July, 2010 | 2.08PM

• Written by: nordictrax
• Filed under: Music News : jon delerious, neighbour, nordic trax

Well saddle up and prepare to get your freak on as two of the biggest names in Canadian house music—both from the Rocky Mountain city of Calgary—collaborate for the first time ever on THE CALGARY CONNECTION.

Check out the Interview with Neighbour & Jon Delerious…

How did the Calgary Connection get started? Tell us more about your collaboration and musical project with Nordic Trax.

Neighbour

Jon Delerious has been playing consistently awesome house music in Calgary. His influential releases helped motivate me to start our own imprint, Homebreakin Records. Jon’s Friday night “Tahiti Treat” at Bamboo and his various residencies at clubs like Cherry Lounge and Republik were also staples in my weekly dancefloor routine in Calgary.

The process involved me playing instruments such as the Juno 106, electric bass, Rhodes etc. My disco-dub influences ran alongside Jon’s “classic” house skills and resulted in a really interesting project that jumps out at you because although it’s deep house in the abstract sense, the arrangements have an immediacy and flow that leans towards more modern forms of dance music production.

Nordic Trax was a logical fit because they have managed to keep the credentials of a classic deep house label without being pigeonholed into releasing samey-sounding ‘tracks’. As well, I’ve always been impressed with the way Nordic runs its promotions and PR, giving artists the support they need to have a successful release. That, and Luke paid for a cab ride last year in Miami. Cool dude.

Jon Delerious

Neighbour and myself both wanted to try to collab and get some music done together for a while. Even though we were both living in the same city it took some schedule juggling to finally get in the studio together. I’ve always really liked Neighbours tunes and thought we should give it a go trying to mix musical flavours! He’s a really great musician so it was easy to jam and be creative in the studio. I just tried to keep it deep and funky!

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Neighbour I noticed that you have collaborated with other artists like U-tern, anything else you have up your sleeve? Jon do you have any other notable collaborations? Do you have other collaborations planned in the future?

Neighbour

My recent tour to Brazil linked me to like-minded artists like SuperComboFunk, Renegado, Royal Soul Records, and Voyage INC crews in Sao Paulo. I’ve had the pleasure of producing music for: Honey LaRochelle (Roberta Flack Band), Tonye Aganaba, Erica D, Dancehall-reggae artist Ouda Ouda, Devon “MC ThinkTank” Adams, Omar Khan, and Dave Nelson aka Emotionz. I’m doing remixes currently for Joshua Heath, Navegante, DJ DAV (Dave Allison), and Mr. Sofalumpkins (Formerly T-Power, Drum+Bass legend).

There’s always a lot going on at my Vancouver headquarters, located at Open Studios. I’ve never been a “lone wolf” style producer. I’m finding a new type of hybrid producer that employs electronic-style production alongside more traditional songwriting techniques for remixing and licensing which is a big deal in terms of the way the music industry is moving in this digital age.

Jon Delerious
I haven’t released many collabs, although I love working with other people in the studio. Sometimes it’s quite easy and you can really vibe with someone. Other times its super dry and tough to come up with anything. You never know until you get in there and give it a go.

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Can you please tell us a bit about your musical background, history and influences as producers and djs?

Neighbour

My father is a folk musician and my mother is an amazing singer and bass player. When they enrolled me in Kodaly singing classes at 3 years of age, they set the ball rolling on a career choice that was clear in my mind by the beginning of 11th grade. I started fooling around with drum machines and synths, and was already hooked on production when I started studying Jazz Guitar at Mount Royal College.

The Calgary “rave” scene was established with western Canada’s finest- Wicked Lester (DJ Vinyl Richie), Jon Delerious, DJ SpiltMilk, Luke McKeehan, and Tyler Stadius. The Shambhala music festival has been a yearly staple for 10 years, acting as a trade show and music conference as well as 5 day blowout party.

Jon Delerious

I started playing the drums before I was a DJ… Led Zeppelin for life!! I also love playing the guitar and percussion as well. When I was growing up I had a lot of different musical influences. My parents always seemed to be rocking out to a wide variety of styles from the Beatles to George Benson. As I got older I discovered Hip Hop, Dub Reggae and of course House music! I remember my first DJ set up - I was 15 and ‘borrowed’ my parents home turntable and would jam between their Pink Floyd records and my Hip hop tapes. Good times : )

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What producers are you feeling these days? Any producers from the 70’s or 80’s that you want to shout out?

Neighbour

Most music I buy was produced between 1975 and 1984, and I think that reflects my opinion of what makes a good record. The combination of analogue tape recordings combined with the virtuosity of the players on increasingly creative instruments (synthesizers, sequencers) created a hotbed of innovative songwriting and production. My favourites are Nightlife Unlimited, Gwen Guthrie, Teddy Pendergrass, Colorbox, Giorgio Moroder, Tom Moulton, Taana Gardner, and Steve Arrington, among many others. Modern productions that i’ve been digging include Crazy P, Ilija Rudman, Greg Wilson, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Joshua Heath, DCUP, 1200 Warriors, Escort, and Saturn Space Disco Orchestra.

Jon Delerious

Respect to some of the O.G. producers I’ve always loved! Joshua Iz, M.A.W., Johnny Fiasco, Fred Everything, Inland Knights, Jesper Dahlback, Nick Holder the list goes on and on! I’m diggin a lot of the newer tracks by Jimpster, my bro Atnarko, Nacho Marco, Mr.V and of course Neighbour : )

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How do you feel about the ‘digital revolution’ in DJ culture?

Neighbour

I feel really excited about the digital age of music, because it’s like the wild west again. Anyone with a great idea and the work ethic to implement it can create their own marketplace and find customers worldwide. Sadly, the culture of music theft is so ingrained that musicians are forced to maintain heavy touring schedules to pay their bills. That being said, nothing has really changed: great songs and production makes great releases, and artists that work hard and believe in what they do enough to promote it will always find success, whatever that means.

Jon Delerious

I’m fine with it. I realize that things have to progress and change however I still miss the days when you would just show up with your box of Vinyl and that was it. You had to plan your set around whatever you brought! Now you can literally have your entire collection on a computer in front of you. In a way its almost too much and its easy to get lost looking for tracks when your wading through hundreds & hundreds of tracks.

I’m thankful that I started DJing when I did because I have an actual record collection! The DJ’s of the future will only have their hard drives to show for their collection.

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Neighbour, your hybrid live acts and dj sets combine music and athletics.  What do you most like in a show? When djing what kind/genres of music do you play? Jon I know you’ve also worked with musicians in & out of the club, tell us more about that.

Neighbour

I mix down special arrangements of my tunes with space for me to play synth and guitar live, as well as using the instruments to do live remixing of other artists’ music. I love playing for mixed crowds; that is, a diverse audience allows you to expand in directions that you wouldn’t while playing for a more ‘genre-fied’ crowd. My sets are within the ‘groove’ genre, somewhere between disco, funk, house, boogie, soul, and afro-latin sounds. 

Jon Delerious
When I Dj at my Friday night residency I usually play with a live percussion player. I also mic him up & throw delay and echo on the Djembe/Congas. instaDUB!!

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Jon and Neighbour, what do you love about Calgary?

Neighbour

The cold winters make for long days in the studio, leaving many aspiring musicians with a pasty tan from the computer monitors. The whole town is a bit bi-polar because of the weather, which makes for amazing summers packed with hot nights and sweaty dancefloors. The Calgary music community is really supportive and welcome new additions to the scene with open arms.

Jon Delerious

What is there not to love? We have the Mountains, Calgary Stampede, and Hockey. We are close to Nordic Trax in Vancouver. Of course my favourite part of Calgary is my beautiful wife and kids :)

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Nordic Trax :: Neighbour & Jon Delerious :: The Calgary Connection EP

Out now at Beatport: http://beatport.com/s/rZfkt
Stripped down edit of the lead track: http://snd.sc/cmONZI

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