Exclusive Interview with J-Cush

Siam2nite had the opportunity to have an exclusive interview with J-Cush, shortly before his performance at Ocean Bangkok on 16th May.

You are a DJ & Producer commuting between London and New York. You founded “Lit City Trax” in 2012 as part rave night, part record label. The music you play and produce is a mix of Grime, Footwork, the Angolan music style Kuduro and the South African music style Kwaito. How would you describe those genres in general for someone not familiar with it, and how would you describe your own music in a few words?

I deal with more than just those particular genres you list. As you point out, Lit City Trax is part record label and part rave night so we deal with music that commands you move your body. We're not into music that sounds like the rest. We seek out the most cutting edge, vanguard flavors, from as many different scenes on many different continents. The sets I play and the music we release are very linked – I fixate around a lot of different innovative producers and a handful of MCs who make some very special, next-level music. The music sounds cutting edge.

You have played at the prestigious Boiler Room, had exclusive mixes of yours featured in the respected New York music magazines DIS & The FADER and you have played several times for London’s renowned Rinse FM radio station. Besides that you are a member of the “Future Brown” DJ group, with Nguzunguzu (who have performed in Bangkok in September 2014) and Fatima Al Qadiri. What can you tell us about this project, and how does it differ from your work as solo artist?

Future Brown is a crew of producers/DJ who link up to work on beats for vocalists. We've worked with many of our favorite vocalists, both new ones and veterans. All our solo work informs the music we make as Future Brown. I see them as all intrinsically linked. My stuff definitely takes from a real grimy sound palette.

What's on your agenda for 2015; what are you currently and focusing and working on?

Working on more music and the label between touring most of the year. Really excited to announce the next bunch of records coming on Lit City Trax – it's all very exciting. I'm getting to work with many heroes of mine, and help usher in a new wave of incredible talent. Look out for some solo stuff too.

What was the best and the worst gigs you ever played and what were the funniest things that occurred during your performances?

There's too many special sets to mention. The biggest shows are always super memorable. I got to play to 10,000 people a few times and really go in with some special tracks. I've loved playing with the Grime lot. Playing on Rinse FM recently with D Double E meant the world to me. He's my favorite MC. Just as special to me was getting to DJ for Skepta and Jammer in NYC to 5,000 people at MoMa PS1 – helping bring this special English sound and culture to people who may never have the opportunity to be exposed to it otherwise meant a lot to me. Around this time, they were surprise guests during one of my sets at a Lit City Rave in Brooklyn and we had ordered a couple pizzas to the club right before we went on. During the set, the pizza pies were brought to the DJ booth, where Skepta and Jammer proceeded to remix their lyrics to reference the pizza that had arrived before handing it out to the crowd. I've never really had a bad gig though – you learn to always make the best of everything.

On 16th May you will perform an Audio-visual Trap live set at Ocean Bangkok. Have you visited Thailand before? What can the Bangkok crowd expect of your upcoming performance?

I've never been to Thailand, although I've been to Asia 3 times in the last year. I like to play music at a fast speed to keep the energy high and mix through a lot of different styles. There's a lot of tricks and playfulness to how I play a record. I'm hoping to do a 3-deck set here, so I can play up to 3 tracks simultaneously and really play a lot of special music in a very special place. Both Drippin and I have some very exciting A/V sets. I wouldn't say it's a trap set at all. We play a lot of different urban sounds for sure but I don't play big room EDM 'Trap'.