Interview – Jickow

Hello DHL, thanks for having me today. I’m great; I’m doing as great as I can. I try to see everything on the bright side on all levels; I became a father last year, so it’s a whole new life and organization. I embrace the sober life and continue pushing my productions and getting great feedback releases after releases. I can’t complain; just perhaps missing sun in Belgium right now ;D

What goals do you have for the year ahead? What would you like to achieve?

One of my goals is to launch my two labels, What Matter is Dance, which will be found in mid-year and especially Olympe Music, for which the first release is scheduled the 4th of February packed with Ten Walls & Robert Babicz. I have also worked hard the last few years (mainly since COVID) to produce music, and I hope this will gain more attention in 2022.

What inspired your new one on Olympe Music? How do you work, do you have an idea in your head you work towards or do you just experiment and jam and see what happens?

During my sleepless nights with my newborn, I binge-watched Dr House and came across the episode where Dr House mentions the Burakumins. I’ve decided to read and watch everything I can about them. In one of the documentaries I’ve watched, you can hear the vox I used in the track. Then, I start working around and seeing how it goes, and I’m pretty excited about the result.

When and when did you write it? What was in your mind?

I wrote this song at the end of summer 2021. For an unknown reason, I’ve been obsessed with the story behind Burakumins, and when I hear this specific vox in the documentary, it makes it evident that I need to use it. Everything came from that moment.

What gear do you use currently, does that matter to you?

I’m always a bit shy when it’s time to answer this question. I’m a geek (I work in the cybersecurity area); nonetheless, I don’t need fancy gears like most of my peers. I try to focus on the bare minimum. I mainly focus on VST. I now work with Bitwig Studio with an APC40 MKII, an Akai MPK 249, and a Roland TR-8S.

And what is your own sound, what makes your music unique?

Tricky question; I am not pretentious enough to say that my sound is unique. I’m just going to my guts and see where I’m heading. Honestly, I always considered myself a DJ who impersonated himself as a producer because of our days rather than a real producer. Nonetheless, if I have to keep one thing from my production skills: It’s all about melodies & emotions.

How do you evolve your own sound while staying true to your roots and own signature and not jumping on new hype bandwagons?
The whole point is not following trends 😀 Some friends pointed out that when I gave them to listen to the second opus that I will release on Olympe Music in Avril (A three tracks EP based on Dante’s book: La Divine Comedie). The release is packed with three massive melodic techno tracks that could be bangers years ago, and a good friend told me to throw it away because “it is not following the current trend.” But when we decide that music should be a trend? It’s more than that.  Perhaps I’m too romantic for that game, but I produce music to spread feelings and emotions, not to follow trends; I produce as I speak, nothing less. Yves Saint Laurent once said, “Fashions fade, style is eternal”, and I could not agree more than this statement.

Do you make music that suits certain labels or do you create first and worry about that later?

That is the whole point of launching my label. I don’t calculate when I start to produce something; I first finish the track, and after, I’m asking myself where I can release the tracks. In the end, I still have tracks unreleased after two years because of their “hybrid” style. All these tracks will be released in the following months, and I hope you guys will like it. I produce music for people, not for labels.

What else have you got coming up/are you working on?

First of all, I will take care of my new baby Olympe. I have scheduled 5 or 6 releases in 2022. So let’s hope for some good things over here. Second of all, I will launch a second label in collaboration with a famous nightlife activist in Paris who’s behind some great festivals, night shows and art directions. His name is Enzo. We will showcase up and coming talents with international acts to bring attention to them. We already have some excellent names confirmed, such as Elio Riso, Timid Boy, Cadillac Express, Souldust and more to come. It will be called WHAT MATTER IS DANCE.
Besides that, still music related, I will relaunch my party “Hedonism” in Belgium and France as soon the covid situation is cleared as well as a booking agency linked to Hedonism.

What was the last record you bought and why?

The last order I passed was to buy a bunch of old French rap albums: La Fonky Family (Si Dieu Veut/Art De Rue) and Le Rat Luciano (Mode de Vie… Béton Style). The reason behind this is that those albums shaped me when I was a child; I was 10/11 and 13 years old when those albums were released… and I wished to have them on vinyl. Unfortunately, they are pretty rare in good quality; I had that somewhere in my head, and when Christmas time appears, it pops up in my mind to threaten myself with these little gems.

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