:: BB INTERVIEWS ::

:: JANETTE SLACK ::

Going Global with Janette Slack by Doug Vaccaro Janette’s house-driven progressive and breakbeats have rocked Australia, Asia, Europe and North America – from the hottest spots in Montreal to desert parties in California. She’s an experienced producer and remixer, and that’s before you mention label-management, club production, stage management and modelling. International DJing came early for Janette. She mastered her native Hong Kong with residencies throughout 2000-2001, took on gigs across the rest of the world, and is now based in London. Drawing on elements from progressive house, electro and breaks, she has a very defined signature style, but also the breadth of taste to explore the full range of the scene. Janette has guested on numerous radio shows including a live appearance on Ministry Radio, Rhythm FM (Australia) and makes regular guest appearances in numerous radio shows. Some include IBREAKS, NSB radio, Vibe FM and Ministry of Sound Radio. She shares a monthly residency with the Disposable Breaks DJs, in London’s Inigo. She’s appeared on bills alongside the Plump DJs, Leeroy Thornhill (Prodigy), Hybrid, Freestylers, Future Funk Squad, Tayo, Jonathan Lisle (Bedrock) Hyper, Stanton Warriors, Evil Nine, Rennie Pilgrem and many more. Oi, Janette! What’s up chica! Heya Doug, how ya dooooin’! Fine thanks! So, how was your trip to Toronto? Any gigs up there or was it strictly chillaxin’ time? Yeah Toronto totally kicked ass. I was there strictly on holiday, left the records, CDs and laptop home in London. Just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be tempted to touch anything music related for a good two weeks so I could just chill the frack out. Was hanging out with old friends and went snowboarding too, so I feel fully charged up now for 2006. I hear ya on that! You were recently out in China correct? I heard the breaks scene in China is blowing up! How would you compare it to the UK? Yeah, played in Shanghai over Christmas, they reacted to the breaks very well. I was surprised as the club manager told me that they are more into their 4/4, but when I played breaks they didn’t seem to want anymore 4/4! (laughs) I’ll be going back there in February to be a support DJ for Ali B’s China tour, so am looking forward to it. Breaks seems to be getting a good response over in China. Hong Kong has developed a good following of people who are loyal to breakbeat parties. I left Hong Kong nearly five years ago and everytime I go back to visit I notice more and more people into breaks which is fantastic! As for comparing it to the UK, breaks nights aren’t as regular there as they are here. There are pretty much breaks nights every night of the week here and then over the weekend you are spoilt for choice. Even though there isn’t as much choice in China, the bars and clubs that do actually provide breaks are solid and the DJs and crowd know their stuff. Sounds like you're a true maven of the skies. What is your favorite country to visit? Croatia is totally my favourite place to visit. I fell in love with the place when first went there during a mini tour during springtime ‘05. And it’s just so beautiful. During the summer it’s got proper sun weather like Spain and during winter it’s got snow slopes! They have the best of both seasons, and the water is so clean you can actually drink it directly from the lake. It’s up there on my list of places to retire, so I have bought a Croatian phrase book to get started on my language skills there. Yup, it’s THAT good. I'm convinced. How about you’re all time favorite gig? Damn it! This is hard one. I have to say it was a gig about 5 years ago in LA. One of the desert raves. It was my first time playing out there and I got the sunrise slot, and when light came up it kicked more ass then any other lightening effect in a club. Seeing all the people light up after being in the dark and cold for so long and the scenery just blew my mind! Considering it’s a great big dead piece of land, it’s absolutely beautiful. But I wouldn’t want to retire and live in the desert of course. Yeah, forget that. So, getting back to tunes. You recently dropped a new release on Re:Connect with some tasty remixes and have a couple of new remix jobs forthcoming if memory serves me right. Give me the details. Yeah the last half of 2005 was pretty manic. Trying to juggle production and engineering with DJing. I was thrilled when the Re:Connect boys were so supportive of ‘Never Enough’. It was also thanks to the Platform 12 crew (Clive Morley and Ladykilla) who were road testing it first literally the day after I finished writing it. Neil (High Eight) has been more than amazing to accept it to be part of the Re:Connect library. I have also done a remix for one of his tracks ‘Rock My World’ and a remix for Future Funk Squad’s ‘Towards the Sun’. Both should be out later this year. I have also done a track with house producer Dogmatix, called ‘Shake and Play’, which is gonna be on ‘Ali B presents Air Breaks’, his new compilation. I will also be releasing a single on AIR. I am constantly working on original material, other tracks I have finished are ‘Little Wai Tai’ and ‘Towards my Tech’. More news on that in the future! Wicked stuff! Neil's good peoples. I really have enjoyed everything on Re:Connect so far. Can’t wait to see what else they have in store for us. (Neil) High Eight’s ‘Rock My World’ is one to look out for, it’s got a wicked vocalist called Liz Melody dishing out sexy vocals with attitude on it. Also Merka has a couple tracks coming out, called ‘Muck Spredda’ and ‘Keep Me’, which are worth watching out for. Looking back, when did the DJ/producer route become the one you were going to take in life? There were many stages in my life where I wanted to pursue this path, but it wasn’t until during University I decided I would give it a proper shot! So around 1999 I decided it was best for me to complete the Hospitality and Business studies course I was doing first, so I wouldn’t be a drop out and have that used against me for life. I am competing with my baby brother who is a pilot! So I have a lot to live up to! Well done Trevor Wai Tai Slack, for making me look like a small potato. When did you first dive into production? I had friends at University constantly playing around with music producing related software, using loops in Acid, Fruityloops, Cakewalk and stuff, and also some basic hardware. I became fascinated by it and wanted to get stuck into it, but I really wanted to know how everything worked. I am also a freak for collecting movie soundtracks, sound effects and random bits of dialogue whether it be from comedians, bloopers or just random gibberish. So during my time at Uni I looked into Audio Engineering courses and colleges, as I wasn’t just interested in being just only a DJ or producer, I actually wanted to get into editing, recording and programming too. Another ambition of mine was to be a Foley artist, which is someone who actually creates sound effects. So the Audio Engineering course at SAE has been more than helpful. And DJing? I started DJing around 1998 and just did a few gigs here and there, and then when I finished Uni and had to wait a year or so to actually get into SAE. So moved back to Hong Kong in 2000 and worked as an English Teacher during the day and ended up DJing at night. From Hong Kong, I started getting gigs in Canada, LA and Australia through friends and various contacts. But just as things were getting good, it was time to go back and study again. I was actually tempted not to go back to study as I was ofcourse loving the life of a DJ, but I knew I would regret it later in life if I hadn’t stuck to my original plan and do the Audio Engineering course in London. So DJing took a back seat for a couple of years. I'm gonna get personal with this one. Are you a vinyl, CD or MP3 kinda girl? I will always love vinyl and collect special gems here and there, however, since learning how to use CD decks and carrying CDs around, it’s so much better to travel lightly ESPECIALLY when you have to run to gate 59 at the airport after having no sleep! As for MP3’s, I have been finding it easier and quicker to get my material out there to either a label A & R person, or another fellow producer who wants to hear what I have been doing pronto! As they can just hear it straight away and give me feedback. Rather than going through the hassle of burning a track, posting it and waiting ages for a response. I recently saw the mini-movie about you at DR Martens. Very cool! How did that all come to be? It was the beginning of 2004 when I got these messages on my phone that a director called Doug Pray wanted to do a ‘day in the life of’ me film sponsored by Dr Martens. I was like ‘Humm, they must have the wrong person’. As it was beyond me to think anyone would wanna film a day in MY life. They had thousands of people write in to ask if they could be the subject of the documentary, and apparently they didn’t fit the criteria for the ‘music’ candidate they wanted. So they contacted a guy called Frank Broughton who wrote ‘Last night a DJ Saved My Life’ and ‘How to DJ Properly’ to ask him directly who would he recommend. So he recommended me, as at the time I fitted the description of a ‘struggling artist, away from home, playing the odd gig, working on original material, loads of part time jobs, blah blah...' After they tracked me down, I was getting numerous calls from various people from Dr Martens HQ asking me questions about me and my life, just to make sure I was what they wanted. Four days later a twelve person crew was in my apartment! I really didn’t think it was gonna be on that sort of scale. It was directed and I was interviewed by Doug Pray, who did ‘Scratch’. He was really amazing and made me feel really comfortable, it seemed that he knew me better than I knew me! And Charles Peterson the photographer, who took most of the legendary Nirvana pictures, took really good natural photos. I was flattered that Doug and the rest of the team were interested in what I was doing. The other 5 stories featured in the ‘VEER’ project are also good. The painter’s story is my favorite! The thing that links us all together is that, we don’t get paid good or any money for what we do in the beginning, but it’s the passion of our job that keeps us going. It’s great to get emails from people all round the world telling me they can relate to my story, and not necessarily just DJs and producers. A lot of people in highly paid jobs they aren’t too happy with, but deep down inside wanna make a living out of something creative. My advice is GO FOR IT! Unreal! What a wild story. Being a female DJ in a predominantly male DJ genre of music, do you find it harder or easier to get the word out on yourself? There are positives and negatives to being a female DJ as with any job or industry. I sometimes do find it hard to get the word out on myself as there is a stigma attached to the whole female DJ thing aswell as trying to convince some people that I engineer my own material. I’ve learned that the best thing to do is to just keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully time will just tell. In some cases as a female you have to try and aim higher and perfect your skills so anally to avoid any negative criticism. Interesting. So what are your plans for the rest of 2006? It’s been a good start having already played in Russia and Croatia, and I got more gigs all over Europe and Asia confirmed. Also in between all of this, a US tour is coming up later this year. Depending on how and when it gets co-ordinated, you are I are going for a drink matey! A few drinks even! (laughing) But in the UK, I am working on original material every time I come back from these tours, as I don’t want the producing to fall behind. I am actually working on creating a lot of ‘after hours’ tracks, as it really does my head in after a long night of hard music you wanna go home and put something on pleasant to listen to. So I end up creating these calm-semi-uplifting-easy-listening tracks. If I end up with loads of these sorts of tunes - dunno what genre to put them in - I’ll end up putting it out as an album. More UK related stuff, my residency with Platform 12 in London has a lot of gigs lined up involving boat parties, The Scratch Perverts, Freestylers and the likes. And during the summer I have already been confirmed to play in a few festivals. Can’t wait to get my tan back, I am so untanned I look transparent. Also I am teaching myself how to build a website from scratch. As the one I already have is such an effort to get updated. So I have decided to do it myself! I have bought these 2 big thick manuals and I am just going through them now as we speak. So one of my new year’s resolutions is to make sure my website is more interactive and updated weekly, with tunes, pictures, video and anything else entertaining. I already know how to use a bit of HTML, Photoshop and video editing, so I thought 'hey, why not give this ‘Flash’ thing a go.' Web designers out there reading this are probably rubbing their hands together with an evil cackle. ‘MUA-HAHAHAHA! She’s only JUST begun! She’s in for a treat!’. And yes I know. I say just outsource that stuff. Or find a college kid to be your personal intern! (laughing) What else would you like to let the world know about? I wanna thank Mixmag for doing that article on me as one of their ‘Future Heroes for 2006’. Thanks for taking the time out to BS with me Janette! We wish you all the best in 2006! Cheers Doug, hope to see you later on this year! Happy Year of the Dog. Kung Hei Fat Choi! :: February 2006 :: For the latest updates and general info on Janette Slack, get on her mailing list by sending an email to info@janetteslack.com . Janette welcome all cyber-stalkers to visit her MySpace page at myspace.com/JanetteSlack

:: BACK ::