Who is Beatport? James Kallendar interview

Who is Beatport? James Kallendar interview

12 September, 2008 | 10.34AM

• Written by: Dan Cole
• Filed under: Music News: james kallendar

Who are Beatport’s customers?  We decided to take a deeper look into the many faces of Beatport’s user base and see what they had to say.

James Kallendar is a DJ, promoter and producer from Bristol and is one of many of Beatport’s highly regarded users.

You’re a DJ and club promoter – please tell me more about it.

I DJ in a duo called Jackov & Kallendar. J&K sets are largely orientated around the dance floor and a variety of heavy basslines. When we can, we have a 3-deck setup but otherwise it’s back-to-back mixing.

I started out with a desire to learn turntabilsm. It mesmerised me and every time I saw a record I just wanted to mess around with it.  I actually learnt to scratch before I could beat mix. Scratching is what led me to DJ with Jackov. I started scratching over his sets and dropping in accapellas.

We ran a club night under the name BAGMAN, we had some great success booking acts such as Ghost, DJ Netik and Black Grass. We have now laid it to rest and concentrate fully on DJing, mixtapes and production.

How is the Bristol music scene?

It’s a pleasure to be part of the Bristol scene. Every genre has a good to strong representation in the city which is wonderful for keeping things refreshing. The cities promoters are experienced and cutting edge which is the perfect situation for both punter and DJ.

The variety on offer means it’s a dirty, gritty, polished and clean cut city all at the same time.

Why do you use Beatport?

Serato Scratch Live. 

I have access to thousands of songs and within a few clicks I have high quality, fully tagged tracks ready to drag into my Serato crates. Simple.

What kind of styles are you playing out at the moment and who are your main influences?

As J&K we play out d&b, dubstep, hip-hop, 4x4 and incorporate turntablism. Our focus is always on the dance floor, judging reactions from the crowd.

The DJs and producers who focus on the dancefloor and who influence a J&K set in this respect are Caspa & Rusko, Ram Records artists and the Scratch Perverts.

Personally, I am at present enjoying the sub genre of hip-hop being referred to by many as bleep-hop.

I find the original, off-beat sound that seems to emanate from LA’s notable artists very interesting and enjoyable. I absolutely love everything on the LuckyMe label too.

I am also enjoying the slightly more downtempo (but no less bassweight) house/techno/dub-step coming from artists like Appleblim, Martyn, Peverelist & Geiom.

I am also a big fan of the genre Skweee (of Scandinavian descent).

Do you produce, if so what kind of style?

I have started to concentrate fully on producing over the past year and have a promo EP under my belt which is being received well by other Bristol DJs and producers.

Hard as it is to pin down the style, I have had people make comparisons to early Aim, Rae & Christian, Bonobo and Samiyam.

Can you tell us a funny story about something that happened at one of your gigs?

We have a lot of the usual - silly requests, people looking through our record bags (when we were using records), playing with the faders, spilling drinks on equipment (though that’s not usually that funny), and the MCs repeatedly asking for mics when we have already said no several times.

If you could ideally change your day job what would it be?

I would work full time producing, DJing and doing artwork & photography for promotion.

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