‘The Whole Twelve Inches’ – 12 tunes, 12 different release dates…
A little over a year and a half ago, Jesse came up with a plan: release an album worth of tracks in digestible pieces over the course of an entire year. Thus came the 12×12 series: twelve releases released on the 12th of each month. This enabled DJs and fans to be able to take in a body of music piece by piece, and enabled Jesse to accent each track with a remix, an instrumental, or even an entirely separate track. Now in 2014, Jesse Rose is taking the best of his grand concept of a broken down, bite-size release, rearranging, editing, reworking, and remastering it into a full-length album that pays homage to what an album truly should be: a well-told, thought-out story. ‘The Whole Twelve Inches’ showcases both Jesse’s signature sound and the depth of his knowledge across and beyond the house music spectrum. From honouring his musical heritage on “Love The Feeling High” to the techno leaning “Underbelly”, Jesse’s love of all things underground rings clear from start to finish. Here, Dan Prince checks in with one of modern dance music’s most prolific and pioneering figureheads…
Hey Jesse welcome to DMCWORLD, where in the world are you right now, last we heard you were ripping up BPM in Mexico?
“Hey mate, yes BPM was amazing, it was just great to catch up and have some fun with a lot of friends in the music scene as we don’t tend to see each other throughout the year.”
A massive congratulations on the release of your new studio album ‘The Full Twelve Inches’…a remarkable year’s worth of releases that have now been rearranged, edited, reworked and re-mastered into a full length album. What a trip! How did this whole idea of breaking down an album into 12 separate releases originate?
“Well at first I just thought it would be kind of an interesting concept to try and let the real fans and artists digest some different ideas I had…then I could rework it as I go along. I thought at first it was a really cool idea to release one track a month and if I’m being honest, it’s been a lot of hard work, but still great to do. The first record came out ‘Love The Feeling High’ and there was a really good buzz on it – because of that I realized there can be no filler releases and that I’d have to work really hard to make each one as good as the last. So yeah, that was the concept behind it.”
How has it been watching and listening as the year progressed and people were able to digest a track at a time…did it go entirely to plan?
“You know I’m really happy with it! It’s pushed me to work a lot harder than I have ever done before. I refuse to let a record go out that I didn’t think was top notch. This whole project just meant working my arse off. Organically with all the vocalists and producers coming round to my house working on the project constantly it all came to fruition. I literally never left the house or studio until it was finished! The whole project was never overly thought out, it was literally ‘I’m going to make 12 records and at the end of the year we are going to look at the results’.”
Let’s kick back for a while, back to the late 70s and London’s Ladbroke Grove. Music must have been all around you back then considering the decade and where you were living, what are some of your earliest musical memories from back then?
“Well I mean my dad was a musician, like you said I lived on Ladbroke Grove which was like soundsystem central back then. Everything around me was completely musically linked. Whether it was walking to school or coming home from school, playing music in school, or playing the steel drums at the carnival everything around me was pointing me in that direction.”
You started making music at a very early age, how were you able to get access to studio equipment aged a mere 14?
“Yeah that right, I was in the studio from 14 and I was listening to stuff from Jamie Anderson and it kind of led me down the path. Then we went onto producing stuff together by the time I was 16. By the time I was 18 or 19 I put out my first record, but it didn’t really take off until I was like 25 when I did ‘A-Sided,’ that one record changed my whole life really.”
Was music always going to be the career path for you or was there EVER anything else you had your eye on?
“Not really. Like I say, it was pretty inevitable for me to head down this route and thankfully its worked out well for me.”
Can you remember the first great club you ever went to?
“Well I lived in Bristol and the club was Lakota, which was very cool. Then there was the back room of Ministry, this was before Fabric had opened. Then when Fabric opened that was like, wow! This was the big start for me into when I got playing.”
During that time in Bristol you started running club nights with your pal Jamie Anderson. Bristol is a funny city when it comes to ‘outsiders’ coming in and trying to run things, what was that whole experience like for you down the M4?
“I mean at first I didn’t want to move there. I was like 12 and my mum made me, it certainly wasn’t a happy intention of mine if I’m honest. I was going to clubs from 14 onwards so from my point of view it wasn’t like I was an outsider. We started putting on nights from when we were 14 to 17. The funny thing was doing house and techno was quite rare back then, as everyone was into trance and drum and bass. It was hard but often easy as there wasn’t much competition. If you think of Bristol now it’s pretty much all moved over to putting on house nights.”
Back in 2006 you commented about your residency at Panorama Bar in Berlin, saying it was “like going back to 1989 or something”. When was the last time you felt like that in a club?
“I have felt like that at some other places. Maybe Womb in Tokyo or some warehouse parties in LA have the same kind of vibe. When you go to a club were everyone is passionate about the music you’re playing and not just to get drunk then you know it’s going to be a great club.”
A question you have been asked time and time again, but one last time…what is the most important thing you have learnt from the genius that is Dave ‘Switch’ Taylor?
“To listen! Just listening to everything you do is probably the best piece of advice. Even if its a million times over, try and leave no stone unturned until it’s perfect. That’s how you become a great producer. There’s no story to it.”
Your labels have unearthed some incredible talent over the years, what one artist were you really chuffed at breaking and making into a star?
“I’ve been lucky enough to have a few, but I’d say Oliver $ is probably the stand out artist. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some really talented people like Zombie Disco Squad, Round Table Knights and so on. Other guys came through quite quickly and with Oli it took about 5 or 6 years to really stamp his authority. He was doing the warm-ups and putting out some cool records, but when it eventually came around for him it was well deserved.”
Tell us about the Red Auction night back in November with Chic and U2…
“Yeah, well I remixed Bob Marley ‘The Sun is Shining’ for the (RED) compilation and the women who runs it heard it and really loved it. So they invited me to go and play and their auction with Chic in New York at Sotheby’s. It was crazy because I played before and after Chic, and while Chic were playing Chris Martin and Bono got up and starting performing. For me personally I was way more impressed that I got to hang out with Nile Rodgers but I think its one of the only times I’m going to be able to play house music after Coldplay and U2, so I guess that’s notable right?”
Was there anything Nile said to you that’ll you’ll never forget?
“You know what, I’m so cheeky and you don’t get opportunities like this often. I had read his biography and he always talked about the hits he made, so although it might have been a bit rude I asked him about the tracks that didn’t quite make it. You know, if all it’s about is making hits, it’s like being the biggest of the big. He mentioned that he wrote a couple of chapters on that topic but had to cut it short for some reason. I was kind of saying to him, ‘Did you make any tracks for the art of it?’ He said of course and that’s what keeps your momentum to make the bigger tracks as they unfold. It was really nice to hear him say you shouldn’t just make records for the sake of making money.”
Great moment! What is coming out next from you label wise?
“So much stuff, I mean for us now we have all the artists pretty much exclusive to us which is great. Christian Nielsen has been doing some great stuff, Oliver $ of course too. Brillstein has a mini-album coming out in early April, he is another producer that collaborated on my album. We also have Louis Boardman from Circus in Liverpool. It’s a really tight crew now which seems to be the trend with labels these days. It’s taken like 2 years to take Play it Down from a brand new label to the label it is today and it feels really good.”
You have held residencies at some of the finest clubs on the planet, Avalon in LA, Womb in Tokyo and of course Panorama Barhave all received the full Jesse Rose treatment. Looking back though, what has been the greatest ever club you have rocked?
“Tough one! I mean Panorama Bar is just incredible. The first time I played there I had made a track with Henrik Schwarz that day and it was a 110bpm. The DJ before me was played crunching techno and I started off with this track and the whole place literally went ballistic. I played the whole record which was like 14 minutes and I couldn’t believe the reaction. That was at primetime too.”
I was in the crowd down at Claude’s Dirtybird night in Ibiza back in August…what are your thoughts on the white isle in2014…you still think it’s got it’s magic?
“I mean I just love DJing, full stop. If there is a good crowd then you can’t really go wrong. I think Ibiza still and always will churn out amazing parties and memories for everyone. It’s great to see the place still as strong as ever. It’s exactly the same as it was from when I was 15, nothings really changed and I think that’s great. The feeling you get when you build a moment and the place goes nuts, it’s just incredible. It could be any venue on the Island it doesn’t matter.”
It’s your birthday – who are the 3 DJs you invite to play for you?
“Wow! Well Chez Damier as the guy is just a genius and I think is the only DJ that has ever made me cry, he’s just amazing. Juan Atkins from back in the day and then maybe Jamie Anderson as he knows exactly what I would want from a party.”
March 12th sees the remix album for ‘The Whole Twelve Inches’ released featuring twelve exclusive remixes. How difficult a choice was it picking the guys involved in re-working the tracks?
“It just all made sense. It was generally the people who I was either already in contact with or had met over the past few months or someone on the label I wanted to push. Everything came together quite easily without any forced issues. I feel it’s got a rounded feel to it with house and techno involved.”
And finally young man, as you said on your Facebook site a while back, what an extraordinary year 2013 was. What are you most looking forward to in 2014…?
“Well a day off would be good ha! I’m on tour in Australia at the moment, and then onto Europe and back to America so I’m looking forward to getting out there and playing…”
Jesse Rose’s New Album – The Whole Twelve Inches – is out on February 12th
You can listen to album previews here – https://soundcloud.com/play-it-down
https://www.facebook.com/jesseroseofficialpage