"Anjunadeep 04" – Jaytech Interview

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Anjunadeep’s star producer Jaytech started his musical career young, releasing his first track “Music 101″ aged 16, and his star has been rising high ever since. Known for his unique blend of deep melodies and the clubbier side of progressive, his “Anjunadeep 04” mix sees him combining artists like Solarity, Suspect 44 and Oliver Smith with two brand new personal productions and an exciting new mash-up of Dirty South’s remix of Kaskade “Sorry” and Andrew Bayer’s remix of Parker & Hanson “Alquima”.

Joining James Grant on the decks at Ministry of Sound this Friday for the “Anjunadeep 04” launch party, Jaytech’s set to bring the same electric, carnival atmosphere that the duo created at last year’s “Anjunadeep:03” launch. In the run up to the event, we found a few moments to ask him about the new compilation and his creative process as a whole.

You started producing very young at age 14 and released your first track when you were 16. What’s the best piece of advice you could give to young aspiring DJs and producers out there?

“Write tons of music, and release only the best of it. Use the other projects as a learning experience, a testing ground to learn new skills. Watch tutorials on YouTube to better learn the tools at your disposal and improve your sound. With plugins and software, try and get out of your comfort zone. Experiment with the functions you don’t yet understand so well, as this is usually where inspiring new sounds and direction come from. Get some half decent speakers, and don’t work in a really echoey room.

“Before signing off on a track, demo it to producer buddies, friends and people with a good ear for music, as they will often have ideas to improve it. Lastly, be patient. It may take a little while to get where you’re going.”

How do you go about selecting tracks for a compilation like “Anjunadeep04”?

“We get in touch with everyone we know who writes this style of music, or has released music with Anjunadeep before, to start gathering material for the compilation. We also put the word out for people to send in demos, and we make a list of the up-and-comers who we feel have been doing good work lately and might have something decent to contribute.

“There’s a team of about four or five of us who go through the tracks, we mull over them and often ask the producers to adjust certain aspects of the track, either sonically or musically. For the final release we often do our own special masters and edits to make the overall mix flow better.”

Your own tracks “Synergy” and “Atlantic” both appear on your CD, can you tell us a bit more about these tracks and how they came about?

““Atlantic” is a tune I produced in the Above & Beyond studio last year and played out for the first time at Tomorrowland in Belgium. For me, 2011 was all about my adventures back and forth between the USA and Europe, so that was the inspiration for the name. It’s faster than the stuff I usually write, I think 131bpm, and borders on being trance. However, I kept the groove stripped back and used some tough drums to bring it back to my kind of style.

““Synergy” is a slamming, clubby track that I produced in my Berlin studio. It’s got some pretty big electro elements happening in it which was really exciting for me, as I haven’t experimented too much with that kind of sound before. Really looking forward to playing it out.”

You’ve been called a perfectionist in the past, do you think that’s an accurate depiction, and can you tell us a bit about your creative process when starting a new track?

“I think it’s accurate, and it’s a good way to be I think. Being a successful musician is all about overcoming your own limitations and to do that you have to take so much into account. You have to look at your music from many different perspectives and you really need to second-guess your own work sometimes.

“Actually, writing a track can be quite an uncomfortable experience at times, as it can become a maddening puzzle that you have to solve. My favourite way to write a track is to have a really good think at the outset about what style it’s going to be and what kind of elements it will have. I also give it a name, even if it ends up changing later, to give the project some identity early on. After that I just start with a drum beat and go from there.”

How would you describe the progression and flow of your CD on “Anjunadeep 04″?

“The CD kicks off with “The Lemon Effect”, a retro synth infused house track from Italian group Answer42, then proceeds into the very intelligent new “Whoosh” from Kobana & Yane3Dots, who have been nailing it lately with their progressive house productions. I wanted to keep things fairly smooth and a little deeper at the start to help my disc flow on from James Grant’s. After that it picks up the pace a bit and heads into what I would call the tougher edged side of house music. As with most of my sets there’s some progressive trance elements in there as well.”

When did you first get involved with Anjunadeep and how did it come about?

“I had already been releasing music through various labels for a few years before I started working with the Anjunabeats crew. After they signed a release of mine in 2007, I travelled to India for the Sunburn festival to meet them and play my first warm-up set for Above & Beyond. After that, I continued to send my new original tracks to James Grant and the crew and we started piecing together what became my first album “Everything is OK” in 2008.”

What was your favourite Anjunadeep release of 2011?

“Gotta be “Beginnings” by Soundprank. Love it!”

What else have you got lined up for 2012?

“Now that “Anjunadeep 04” is well underway, it’s back into the studio working on my second artist album, which is nearly complete. It’s looking to be another year of solid touring, including a return to Australia, USA and Asia, so I’m looking forward to that as well. Apart from that, I’m gonna continue working with the team to build my internet empire and pimp out my studio, maybe start working with some hardware synths and continue the quest for the perfect mixdown. Wish me luck!”

Released on 27th February, you can now preview and pre-order “Anjunadeep 04″ mixed by Jaytech & James Grant in iTunes HERE. If you are based in US and Canada, preview and pre-order HERE. For CD pre-order click HERE.

Get your exclusive discount tickets to the Ministry of Sound “Anjunadeep 04″ launch party HERE.

Listen to James Grant’s “Anjunadeep 04″ mini-mix HERE.

Listen to Jaytech’s “Anjunadeep 04″ mini-mix HERE.