{"id":65114,"date":"2022-02-03T16:59:44","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T15:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/?p=65114"},"modified":"2022-02-03T16:59:44","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T15:59:44","slug":"interview-jickow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/interview-jickow\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview – Jickow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey Jickow, welcome to Deep House London. How are you? What’s good and bad in your world?<\/b><\/p>\n

Hello DHL, thanks for having me today. I\u2019m great; I\u2019m doing as great as I can. I try to see\u00a0everything on the bright side on all levels; I became a father last year, so it\u2019s a whole new life and\u00a0organization. I embrace the sober life and continue pushing my productions and getting great\u00a0feedback releases after releases. I can\u2019t complain; just perhaps missing sun in Belgium right now\u00a0;D<\/p>\n

What goals do you have for the year ahead? What would you like to achieve?<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

One of my goals is to launch my two labels, What Matter is Dance, which will be found in mid-year\u00a0and especially Olympe Music, for which the first release is scheduled the 4th of February packed\u00a0with Ten Walls & Robert Babicz. I have also worked hard the last few years (mainly since\u00a0COVID) to produce music, and I hope this will gain more attention in 2022.<\/p>\n

What inspired your new one on Olympe Music? How do you work, do you have an idea in your head you\u00a0work towards or do you just experiment and jam and see what happens?<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

During my sleepless nights with my newborn, I binge-watched Dr House and came across the\u00a0episode where Dr House mentions the Burakumins. I\u2019ve decided to read and watch everything I\u00a0can about them. In one of the documentaries I\u2019ve watched, you can hear the vox I used in the\u00a0track. Then, I start working around and seeing how it goes, and I\u2019m pretty excited about the\u00a0result.<\/p>\n

When and when did you write it? What was in your mind?<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I wrote this song at the end of summer 2021. For an unknown reason, I\u2019ve been obsessed with the\u00a0story behind Burakumins, and when I hear this specific vox in the documentary, it makes it\u00a0evident that I need to use it. Everything came from that moment.<\/p>\n

What gear do you use currently, does that matter to you?<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I’m always a bit shy when it’s time to answer this question. I’m a geek (I work in the cybersecurity\u00a0area); nonetheless, I don’t need fancy gears like most of my peers. I try to focus on the bare\u00a0minimum. I mainly focus on VST. I now work with Bitwig Studio with an APC40 MKII, an Akai\u00a0MPK 249, and a Roland TR-8S.<\/p>\n

And what is your own sound, what makes your music unique?<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tricky question; I am not pretentious enough to say that my sound is unique. I’m just going to my\u00a0guts and see where I’m heading. Honestly, I always considered myself a DJ who impersonated\u00a0himself as a producer because of our days rather than a real producer.\u00a0Nonetheless, if I have to keep one thing from my production skills: It’s all about melodies &\u00a0emotions.<\/p>\n

How do you evolve your own sound while staying true to your roots and own signature and not jumping\u00a0on new hype bandwagons?<\/b>
\nThe whole point is not following trends \ud83d\ude00\u00a0Some friends pointed out that when I gave them to listen to the second opus that I will release on\u00a0Olympe Music in Avril (A three tracks EP based on Dante’s book: La Divine Comedie).\u00a0The release is packed with three massive melodic techno tracks that could be bangers years ago,\u00a0and a good friend told me to throw it away because “it is not following the current trend.\u201d\u00a0But when we decide that music should be a trend? It’s more than that.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps I’m too romantic for that game, but I produce music to spread feelings and emotions, not\u00a0to follow trends; I produce as I speak, nothing less.\u00a0Yves Saint Laurent once said, “Fashions fade, style is eternal”, and I could not agree more than\u00a0this statement.<\/div>\n

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Do you make music that suits certain labels or do you create first and worry about that later?<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
That is the whole point of launching my label. I don\u2019t calculate when I start to produce something; I\u00a0first finish the track, and after, I\u2019m asking myself where I can release the tracks. In the end, I still\u00a0have tracks unreleased after two years because of their \u201chybrid\u201d style. All these tracks will be\u00a0released in the following\u00a0months,\u00a0and I hope you guys will like it. I produce music for people,\u00a0not for labels.<\/p>\n

What else have you got coming up\/are you working on?<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

First of all, I will take care of my new baby Olympe. I have scheduled 5 or 6 releases in 2022. So\u00a0let’s hope for some good things over here.\u00a0Second of all, I will launch a second label in collaboration with a famous nightlife activist in\u00a0Paris who’s behind some great festivals, night shows and art directions. His name is Enzo. We\u00a0will showcase up and coming talents with international acts to bring attention to them. We\u00a0already have some excellent names confirmed, such as Elio Riso, Timid Boy, Cadillac Express,\u00a0Souldust and more to come.\u00a0It will be called WHAT MATTER IS DANCE.
\nBesides that, still music related, I will relaunch my party\u00a0\u201cHedonism\u201d in Belgium and France as\u00a0soon the covid situation is cleared as well as a booking agency\u00a0linked to Hedonism.<\/p>\n

What was the last record you bought and why?<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The last order I passed was to buy a bunch of old French rap albums: La Fonky Family (Si Dieu\u00a0Veut\/Art De Rue) and Le Rat Luciano (Mode de Vie\u2026 B\u00e9ton Style). The reason behind this is\u00a0that those albums shaped me when I was a child; I was 10\/11 and 13 years old when those\u00a0albums were released\u2026 and I wished to have them on vinyl. Unfortunately, they are pretty rare in\u00a0good quality; I had that somewhere in my head, and when Christmas time appears, it pops up in\u00a0my mind to threaten myself with these little gems.<\/div>\n
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