Jaydubb at Loi Lay

Phanganist talked to Mr. Jaydubb after his performance in  Loi Lay  on Nov 4 and he turned out to be such a nice man who introduced himself like this;
Hi  – my name is Jan, my friends call me Jan, and I hope I’m somewhere in what they call the ‘middle years’ of my life.

I guess this interview is related to my playing of other people’s music, so I do have a DJ name, mostly because people outside of Europe seem to be a bit overly creative when it comes to pronouncing ‘Jan’. Jaydubb is a mutation of my first and middle name initials J and W.

We asked the “forever always asked” question of origin, whit the “forever used words” of .. Where do you come from Jan?
I was born in and grew up in North-West Germany, but frivolously moved to New Zealand at age 21 with a Kiwi girl.
University, mobile DJing, various girlfriend upgrades and a two-year stint in London followed.

How did I begin musically?
My dad loves jazz & plays the saxophone pretty well so that was my first conscious encounter with music, if that doesn’t sound too pretentious.
Oh and here’s another pretentious bit: my first vinyl was the White Album by the Fab Four.
Got forced to pick up the violin, and later played the guitar in a late 80s/early 90s band called the Drunken Horsemen.

NZ since the mid-late 90s had a decent and dedicated dance music scene - of which I wasn’t a part as it was pretty much only in Auckland, and I lived in Hamilton.
But house & techno always featured in my CD collection, and a few dedicated DJ friends kind of inspired me look a bit deeper in this world.
It was never much more than an intense hobby, as I had a professional job which meant a lot of travel.

What else? I left NZ at Christmas 2009, went travelling and got stuck in Thailand.

What is your Koh Phangan story? 
First visit: March 2011, during those nasty South Thailand floods and rains that imprisoned us on the island for a week.

Big disappointment if it wasn’t for those lovely Phanganans looking after us, and also not running out of beer and card games.
Since then I picked up a job doing marketing for a company in Koh Samui, so I got to visit a bit more often under more sunny circumstances.
Liked it a lot.

Have you been involved with projects here before?
I did DJ at a couple of parties last year but nothing too memorable and I figured you’d have to be there to get your music in front of the right people at the right time.

Had a few drunken ideas that never came to fruition, and most of this year I have been real busy in Bangkok promoting parties with my homie Felix Moreno.
But who doesn’t stop dreaming of sun, surf & South Thailand fame & fortune every now and then.
Which is why we are so happy and grateful that the talented & charming Darragh Casey, musical leprechaun extraordinaire, arranged for Felix and I to play Amanda & Lek’s Loi Lay Party.

How would you classify your music?
Classifying music makes me tired and confused.

I play a pretty wide range of House, Techno and Disco, with a passion for the good old days, but my musical compadres keep me up-to-date with what’s hip and last week.
Certain sounds and vibes go good together with certain audiences so we kind of arrange our music by the different parties that we throw.
DISCO ROBOT for booty-shaking classic and nu styles of Disco, for Funk, Soul, early House & Techno.
BERLIN BEATS for the more Electronic & atmospheric, and possible harder, sound coming out of Europe and particularly Berlin at the moment, and MUSICPEOPLE for any style of House that excites us, old and new, but always aimed at the dance floor.
Phew….Next!

Which music did you bring in your record bag for Phangan?
Well, we didn’t know anything about the Loi Lay Party or even that we’d be the only DJs on the night.

We are not Laptop Djs, but in the heat of Thailand we felt very lazy and sweaty and didn't carry our usual CD arsenal when we boarded that plane"..
We still like to play the right music for the occasion and crowd, so Amanda, Lek and Darragh gave us a good briefing before the show, and Felix and I spent a solid amount of time preparing music.
I suppose our approach was to give our hosts and our audience a good idea of the sounds that we like to play, without any jarring mood changes.
Thus we threw in a good amount of the Techy Berlin sound, a bit of American House music, some spacy nu-Disco and even some classic high energy Disco.
From where we stood it looked like people had a good time. I only saw two people leave – and they went to the toilets to have sexy time.
Job done.

What are your next projects?
Felix, I and Bed Supperclub resident Markus Mathias just started a Sunday day party at this amazingly beautiful colonial-inspired boutique hotel. Their courtyard and swimming pool are only a size S, so it’s pretty intimate and folks can come to chill, nurse their hangover or get a groove on.

Personally, I’m trying to get off the sauce a bit, as the extra padding I carry around is starting to look unmanly, especially considering we hope to get back to Phangan and play in our Speedos. 

So we thought maybe to ask what Jan would like to make if he was a magician thinking it most likely would have something to do with Speedos .. to our surprise he answers instead:
Right now I’m craving eggs benedict with salmon, with capers and hollandaise sauce.
Do I get more than one thing to pull out of the hat?
Yes Jan. The next one you get to pull out of the hat is if you would see yourself playing on Phangan in 10 years from now?
If not here where do you see yourself then?
Felix and I want babies, but we haven’t figured out exactly how.
Sounds wrong, I know, but if these plans work out, we’ll probably only play at our kids’ birthday parties.

We are sure you will succed somehow!
What cartoons would you watch with your Baby then? .. that being Felix or any future Junior to come?

Die Biene Maja, and Captain Future (best soundtrack ever)

Before you become a mother yourself, what would you tell yourself if you were your own? 
“Que sera sera. You can always just shave it all off”

As last words in this interview, before our hopefully upcoming Speedo performances in 2013 and future husbands and babies - Is there something special you would like to communicate to the people regarding your music or projects or just something that you feel should be mentioned?
DJs like it when you buy them drinks. It gives them confidence.
Just be a little bit careful and don’t spill the tequila all over the gear.
Thanks.