Jonene Interview

Following successful releases in the past 12 months on Aroma and DoubleDown, Jonene aka Jonny Kaboom has been been firing on all cylinders with his Safe In Sound label and new project stompy.com. Now firmly entrenched in the West Coast scene, I tracked down the prolific master of disaster for a brief chat….

DHN: I hear you're just back from a tour of Brazil... What's the house scene like over there? Any 'City of God' moments?

Brazil was just absolutely amazing. What a beautiful country. The people are really friendly and outgoing. I ended up playing in Rio, Campo Grande and Sao Paulo. All the gigs were absolutely through the roof. Brazil has a intimate house movement down there but everyone who shows up, is down to get down. It was a bit rainy when I first arrived to Sao Paulo, a city of 22 million people. Talk about your concrete jungle, woah. After being there for about a week, I arrived in Rio. The sun broke and the beaches filled quite rapidly. Half naked as far as the eye could see. It was a pure bliss my friend. I highly recommend to anybody to make a trip to Brazil in your lifetime. I only scraped the surface of seeing what Brazil had to offer. I have been booked for Carnaval in February, so I am going to take some more time to check out the rainforests and beaches on that trip. Take some time to let Brazil absorb into the soul, if you get me? It was quite overwhelming on my first trip. Looking forward to my return trip to the land where the eat, sleep and crap football! Viva Brazil.

DHN: What's the deal with stompy.com? Do you think that increased technology and projects like stompy will ever render vinyl obsolete?

Stompy.com is a digital download site that was started by my partner Preston and myself. Preston had previously been throwing Stompy events here in San Francisco for the past 12 years. I became a Stompy Player sometime in 1996, and Stompy has been my love ever since. Stompy.com is your home for house music online. We offer audio file DJ Singles & compilations for the busy club DJ and exclusive MP3 DJ Mixes from your favourite House DJ for the hardcore enthusiast. We will be taking our Stompy parties on the road next year coming to a city near you, so keep your eyes and ears out for us. You can always check us out on the net and see what is up at http://www.stompy.com

It is hard to say if vinyl will ever be obsolete. There are some hardcore vinyl collectors out there. Me personally, I love vinyl and will probably never stop collecting it. In terms of Djing and playing it out, well that is another story. I have been Djing for a little over 13 years now and it is quite easier to take a book of CDRs on a plane with you instead of lugging around 100 pounds of records on your shoulder. Currently I have been playing about 50/50 to vinyl/CD ratio. With the new CD players on the market like the Technics SL-DZ1200 , Denon DNs and Pioneer CDJs, digital evolution it is definitely giving vinyl a run for its money. The sound quality of vinyl and CDs are becoming more and more close. With new mastering technologies to CDs, it is hard to distinguish what is what when playing over a system. If the CDR is mastered poorly, then it is pretty apparent. I believe once CDs go to 64 bit, currently at 32, it is going to blow vinyl away in terms of sound quality. Plus now there are DVD mixers out there where you can pre load your own visuals and play your music from DVD. DVDs can hold up to 100s of songs per disc. So literally you can have over a 1000 songs to choose from, or you would have to bring upwards of 300 records to have the same amount of music, holding a couple DVDs in your hands. There are a lot of heavy players out there not playing vinyl anymore and only playing on CDs. So I am sure they are going to have a direct effect on the future of vinyl. There are actually DJs out there who are using strictly computers now. Mixing digital files from archives on their computer with programs like Traktor, Ableton Live and others. I am personally pretty excited about the future and where technology is going. Looking forward to seeing what is up and around the corner.

DHN: Briefly tell us how you got involved with the West Coast house scene...what is it about the left coast that seems to breed dope house producers at an alarming rate?

I suppose it is just one of those natural phenomena's that we will never know about? No with all seriousness here, there are just some talented artists living around these parts. Funny thing about Southern California artists and labels is that most of the cats making noise now, we all grew up together in the underground scene somewhere around 90/91. Natural Rhythm, Wally Callerio with Dufflebag, Jamie Thinnes with Seasons, Dean Decosta , Duane with Alluv and so on. The West Coast in general just produces dope ass DJs too. When I moved to SF in 94, there were already DJs here creating new sounds. Jeno & Garth from Wicked had their own thing going on with this sort of dark, melodic house. Ernie Munson, Mark Farina, John Howard were doing their thing with Stompy. Stompy was known for chunky cutting edge house with its Chicago appeal thanks to Mark . Doc Martin, Marques Wyatt and Tony Largo were doing the deep house thing in LA. There was a lot of influences going on all around us. Was pretty easy to get sucked in.

Now as for me getting involved. I was in a new wave cover band in the 80s. A good friend of mine told me about “rave” undergrounds. Wasn’t too interested at first, but finally got coerced into going to one. My first experience was in 1989 called “X Bound”. I was always looking for something new to influence me at the time. Before this was Depeche Mode, Erasure, Yazoo, OMD, the Smiths, the Cure and so on. After that show, I was immediately hooked. I hooked up with a buddy of mine and we created Deep Squared. Did a couple releases with Deltra and Phoenix recordings before both they went bust. Our track “legs akibo” actually became a pretty big rave hit back then, kind of funny now that I think about it.. Getting caned by the Wicked crew and Micro from Caffeine. Keep in mind this was 1992. So, it was in late 93 when Doc had a birthday party. I went to check it out. The music was cool, alright at best, until this DJ with glasses and a long pony tail hopped on. The music did a complete 180 degree turn. I was literally left standing there speechless, granted I was out my mind, but it was intense none the less. I asked Doc who it was and he responded with, “ Oh this is Mark Farina from San Francisco”. So I set out and went to my first Stompy party in 1993 up in San Francisco. It was my second trip to the city by the bay. Derrick Carter was slated to play that night with Mark Farina. Derrick flaked, nothing new, and Mark ended up playing for 4 hours. Blew me away. Went back home, packed up my shit and was back up in the Bay Area with in a few months. The rest is history.

DHN: So, what tickles your musical fancy when you're not listening to/producing/spinning house? Rumour has it you're a big fan of the 'new romantic' era...

Mmmm… not so much. Actually I am and will always be a 80’s nut. I can’t live without. Heard most of the music 10 times over and still love it all the more each time I hear it. All the major new wave bands still to this day inspire me such as 10,000 Maniacs, Flock of Seagulls, the Cure etc. All time favourite now and forever, Depeche Mode still to this day. Abstract ones too, like the Flying Lizards, Waitresses, Trio, Taco and Falco. Love me some underground hip-hop, classic rock, jazz, nu-jazz and old school like Dazz Band, Starpoint, WAR and so on.

DHN: What's your take on the current craze of hip hop and other bootlegs in house? Good or bad thing?

Well, it just seems like everywhere I go these days, someone is playing it. They get pretty beat down and really not feeling it as much. I can get with the R&B boots Jill Scott, Brandy and such... Just the hip hop thing is well, should just stay in the hip hop clubs. So they can keep their Thong in a bunch and just Lean Back all they want. Just my take on it.

DHN: 'Kevin Costner' and 'funky ass music' - not two terms you would ever expect to be linked. However, you managed to pull it off with the help of No Assembly Required... how did that project on Aroma (Corner Pocket EP) come about?

Pretty easy. A trip to Chicago to play with Justin Long. Then we drove up to Milwaukee to play. Ran into Dan X, smoked a joint or six and got up in the studio. We had the TV on actually and the Untouchables was on. That part of the movie came up and we recorded it.... I could be totally making all this up because we were high, but I am pretty sure that is how it happened.... Ah shit, I think it was actually a DVD... So that is how it was already recorded.. We just heard it and we all starting laughing. So we broke out the sampler... Well it is actually the computer and recorded it in. We all had a great time in the studio. We all work really well with each other. I already had some stuff out with Aroma, Let iT go - Jonene & Touchdown, a collaboration of JT Donaldson and myself and a remix project of Fears, that JT and I did. So I hit up Raoul to peep at the tunes and he was into em. Voila, it came out.

DHN: Is it really true that Chris Lum is the most flatulent man in America, or is that merely internet gossip?

Don’t count me out my man. Just give a night with pizza and beer and I will have a head to head..well, maybe its a ass to ass competition with ol’ Mr. Lum. They don’t call me Tootie Bootie for nothing.

DHN: What producers should we be keeping our eyes (and ears) on? What other projects have you currently got in the pipeline?

Got quite a few things in the pipe right now. Remix coming out on Afterschool. A new Ep on Scenic. There are two Eps being shopped right now. Both have been picked up but no contracts signed as of yet, so can’t really disclose who they will be with. I have been working a ton with my partner Joey Youngman. We are going by an alias of MANWHORE. There is an EP that just came out on Doubledown this summer. Another EP on Doubledown should be out in October and there are two more Eps that are being shopped right now. I have another remix for Ion that should be hitting the shelves soon as well. Have quite a few releases coming out on my own label, Safe In Sound. A new EP by Crackanice, Thomas Sahs and Merrick Brown is out next month with a remix by Thomas Sahs and myself.

DHN: Finally, any shouts to the people out there?

First off a shout to my boy Preston who is my partner with STOMPY.com. Next want to give some words to the folks that support my music and where I play. Thank you it really means a lot. Couple other shouts I would like to give are to main man down under, Collin, DJ Freestyle and the Break Even Crew. Jason Hodges, Gryphon, Sneak, DJ Elana, Justin Long, Dan X, Tasho, Duane & Zola @ Alluv, Jamie @ Seasons, Natural Rhythm, Rithma, Migs, Kaskade, OM posse, Stompy.com Reps, Nate & Trevor, Scott Pace, Paul Peredes, Brett Johnson, Demarkus Lewis, Spettro, Joesal, Guido, Thomas Sahs, Dizzy, Fiasco, Mark Grant, Heather Doble, X’ess posse in Chicago...shit I will be here all day. Got a ton of peeps out there I would love to say hello to... If I didn’t mention you, sorry, but you are still being thought of.

Much respect to you all!