INTERVJU JIMPSTER

18 November

Jimpster är mannen bakom det respekterade skivbolaget Freerange Records och en av de största deep house -producenterna just nu. Christoffer Falk, som precis köpt sin första dator, passade på att maila lite med Jimpster inför fredagen:

You produce under so many different aliases. Jimpster, Jamie Odell, Audiomontage, Franc Spangler and of course your live band The Bays. Is this a conscious strategic decision?
- Not really, no.  And for the last few years it’s only really been my Jimpster moniker that I’ve been using.  When I first started it seemed like a nice idea to try and establish Audiomontage for more club orientated stuff and keep JImpster for the downtempo/chill out bits.  But it never really worked like that in the end and stylistically all my pseudonyms cross over a fair bit.  The Bays is in hiatus while everyone spends some time on their individual projects but there are some interesting bits being talked about right now which might mean more gigs together in the future.

With the music industry still so affected by piracy and most consumers ‘expecting’ music to be free, what are Jimpster’s thoughts on the state of play in 2011? How has this affected your own label and career plan for example?
- Well yeah, we’ve obviously seen a drop off in physical sales and perhaps there are more people using Spotify or just listening to all the podcasts/mixes that are out there but I’m still quite hopeful that from a business perspective the DJ’s buying digital files will continue enough to keep us and labels like us afloat.

You have signed Andreas Saag from Gothenburg to your label. We understand you and Saag are working on further material together, could you tell us a bit more about that?
- Yeah, Andreas has been releasing music on and off on Freerange for at least 10 years now.  He’s a really talented guy and we always have great fun in the studio on the occasions we’ve worked together on projects.  He has a plan to put together a new collaborations project so he came over recently to my studio before our gig playing at Fabric together and we got some basic ideas down.  Seems like he is definitely getting out and about more since his move to Berlin and I’m really happy to hear that his creative juices flowing again so to speak!

Its no secret to those with their fingers on the pulse, that you are also behind the superb Delusions of Grandeur label. An imprint seemingly more dedicated to the nu-disco movement. Was this a conscious decision to react to market changes or are you finding yourself pulled more in this direction creatively?
- Actually, I wouldn’t say it’s more Nu-Disco, just more ‘underground’ or maybe just ‘less deep house’ than Freerange.  When you’ve been running a label like Freerange for 15 years you obviously fall into certain routines and patterns that you could say take a little bit of the edge and excitement out of things.  I suppose you could say that the primary reason for setting up the new imprint was to prove to ourselves that we still had our ears to the ground and we were confident that the music we wanted to select for Delusions would go down great with the more underground house and disco heads.

What news on forthcoming projects from Jimpster?
- Remix wise I just finished something for Freak Seven on 2020 Vision and a new artist called Acos Koolkas for a new label called Audiotonic.  They should both be out in the next month or so.  I’m about to start work on a remix for Manuel Tur who has just finished his second LP for Freerange – it’s amazing!!  Also, I really want to try and make a new Jimpster LP for release next year so I’m starting getting ideas together for that.  As with my previous LP’s it will be more of a home-listening thing, more song based and hopefully more experimental.

Finally Jamie, we can’t wait for you to play. What can the good people of Gothenborg look forward to from Jimpster at Lounge(s) 18th November?
- Thanks a lot!  well you can expect plenty of fresh upfront Freerange, Delusions and Jimpster stuff of course, but also some recent edits of mine and well….  just plenty of deep, warm and musical house music to make you happy!  see you on the dancefloor!