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 Jondi and Spesh have been occupied of late, with running their own night, their own label and making their 3rd album, they have been very busy but they made time for i:Vibes.nu and we asked them what was up.
Jondi and Spesh should be household names to people in Electronic Dance Music by now. If you don't know, here is a quick synopsis, Jondi (John David Moyer) and Spesh (Stephen Kay) got together in 1993 and started their own label called Looq in 1998, that year, they put out their first album called "Tube Drivers" on their own Looq Records. They also formed their own club night called Qool, which was a roaring success. Their releases found massive support from John Digweed, Danny Tenaglia, Pete Tong, Paul Oakenfold and many other A list deejays. They really took the scene by storm in 2000, when they released their 2nd album "We Are Connected" to critical acclaim and many magazines had the album in their top albums of 2000. Since then, they have continued to release things on Looq, they have continued to DJ, Jondi formed Momu with Mark Musselman and released some well received tracks. They decided it was time to make another album, so they went back into the studio and came out with "The Answer" (Out June 22nd. 2004 on Spundae Records) and their tour is coming as well. i:Vibes.nu caught up with the busy guys for an interview.
i:Vibes: How and When did you guys meet? What was your first impression of each other?
A: J: 1993 at Novabass's house ... Sam was living in the ugliest apartment building in SF at 9th and Market. Everything smelled like Chinese food.
S: Yep! But he had lots of really cool studio gear.
i:Vibes: When did you decide to work together?
A: J: That night.
S: Yep!
i:Vibes: What was the West Coast scene like back then
A: J: Raves! Big-ass floppy hats. Cool glitterati types at the clubs though already. Too cool for skool, you know. DJ's were just starting to get genre-specific/snobby. Spesh was playing "party trance" which was a tribal sound far ahead of the time back then. Tenaglia made it really popular eight years later.
S: It was a really cool mix of Mondo 2000 pre-web computer types, new sounds, and energy. Clubs that played hip hop were finding new energy with house music. It was an exciting time. We were changing the world with every party, don't you know!
i:Vibes: What the West Coast scene like now, How has it changed, How has it grown?
A: J: Zillions of promoters. Every shoe store, deli, and cocktail lounge has two Technics and an mixer and DJ's every night of the week. We started the techno happy hour thing with Qoöl in '95 or so, and that kind of party has flourished to say the least. But that's cool, we love it. Diversity in the scene. Most people are doing it for the love.
S: The scene is great. It's huge and diverse. It's constantly changing from a music perspective, and those changes seem to be analogous to branches growing from branches. For instance, a DJ plays a certain sound as part of his set and a year later, there's a whole genre attached to that sound. A year after that, the sub sub-genres appear. But I have to say, the West Coast scene is really the same as any other good music scene. It just rocks.
i:Vibes: So when and why did you form Looq?
A: J: First release was 1998 ... our first (and mostly unknown) artist album Tube Drivers. The only place in the world you can buy it is amazon.com. We put out a few 12"'s that same year and presto ... new dance music label. We knew what we wanted to do from the start but it took a few years to get it going ... a local supported label with a global feel. Progressive, breaks, whatever, about good music and not genre-snobby. But still a clear identity and sound, which I think we have achieved.
S: The formation of Loöq was also about Jondi & I going solo after being involved with one of San Francisco's early collectives, Trip 'n Spin recordings. I think that's in part why there's such an independent sprit surrounding Loöq. We just made tracks our own way, sent them to DJs we liked, then made more tracks. Kind of like what we do today!
i:Vibes: How is your club night Qool going? What was the inspiration behind that?
A: J: It's going great. I mean after nine years we keep thinking people are going to stop showing up, but they keep coming! It's not as huge as it was in 2001 which was the biggest year, but that was just out of control crazy with a line around the block at 5pm and no room to dance. It kind of sucked actually. So we really like the crowd we have now, old-timers and newbies included. It's a great vibe. We feel *very* lucky to have such excellent people to entertain. Qoölios rock!
S: I really can't imagine life without Qoöl. It's such a constant in so many people's lives, including our own. The inspiration was very simple. Play music. All we did really was find a place to play records once a week in a place and time that suited us. Apparently the place and time we chose worked for a lot of other people as well. What's really incredible is to see people week after week discovering Qoöl for the first time. As recently someone we know overheard someone at Qoöl saying to a friend in the middle of a packed and rockin' dance floor, "I can't believe it's only 7pm... on a Wednesday!". That pretty much sums Qoöl up right there.
i:Vibes: Are you humbled at the big name progressive deejays loving all your releases?
A: J: More humbled at the thought of all the dancers and clubbers digging the tracks ... I mean as producers that's the real point, not to get some "big DJ played it" feather in your cap but to get it out to the people, which the DJ's do! But of course it tickles you when Paul Oakenfold calls and requests you send him stuff. Then again, it's like "where you have you been Paul, living in a cave?"
S: Humbled. Yes. Great word.
i:Vibes: Complete the sentence If it was not for (???), I would not be where I am today
A: J: I'll complete the sentence for Spesh. "If it was not for a skateboard accident, I would be playing professional tennis instead of DJing and making music."
S: Ok, and I'll return the favor. "If were not for my reluctance to be a scientist, screenplay writer, philanthropist, computer programmer, or any of the other things that I'm well suited to do, I would not be making all that excellent music!" Ok that was fun.
i:Vibes: So you released “We Are Connected”, a few years ago and the music critics’ reaction was massive, hailing it in the top albums of that year along with Paul van Dyk’s Out There and Back and others albums, Were You Surprised by this?
A: J: Uh, yeah. I mean, we try and make good music and all, but that was pretty surprising.
S: Taken back, really. I think for a lot of people, We Are Connected was the right album at the right time.
i:Vibes: In your own words, describe “We are connected”
A: J: Progressive dance music songs. Really emotional.
S: Driving, yet deep. Sorry, that's the best I could do =)
i:Vibes: So why the four year gap between “We are connected” and “The Answer”?
A: J: What, four years? Oh shit you're right. Ummm, working on the music for a long time. No, not true, we made the new album in five months. I guess we were working on the label and stuff. We're not stoners I swear!
S: From the looks of our discography, I think we spent a lot of time remixing stuff after We Are Connected came out. That and Jondi has forgotten to add nearly a year of time spent making many small but important changes to some of the tracks on The Answer!
i:Vibes: In your own words describe “The Answer”?
A: J: Harmonic minimal wide open. Very emotional.
S: Expansive, both inwardly and outwardly. Enveloping
i:Vibes: I noticed a more vocal led approach on “The Answer”, was that something you had wanted to do since the last album or did you just decide to do it because more producers and artists are doing more vocal led tracks?
A: J: We wanted to write songs ... it's harder to do that in the 12" dance format so we grabbed the opportunity when it came up.
S: Vocals just felt right for this project
i:Vibes: I noticed that you guys added your own vocals to some of the songs, did you set out doing this? or was this just plan B?
A: J: Well, we usually use our own voices in temp tracks, and once in awhile it actually sounds decent so we keep it.
S: Agreed.
i:Vibes: You seem to have more electro influences on the album as well, when did you decide to incorporate electro into the album?
A: J: We didn't really decide anything except to lock ourselves in the studio for at least three months and work on the album every day. We wrote hundreds of sketches, most of which ended up in the trash. I think electro has always been part of our sound to some extent.
S: I think our electro influence really just comes from being around dance music for a long time. After a while, this kind of beat or that kind of beat becomes simply the beat that works for what you are working on at the moment.
i:Vibes: Explain the stories behind “Ten Cities, Ten Days” and “Everybody went to burning man”?
A: J: San Francisco gets lonely during Burning Man. The other title makes me think about being in Europe just out of college with a 2nd class Eurail pass.
S: No real stories there except that, because we are based in San Francisco, we are exposed lots of Burning Man culture. When you don't end up actually going to Burning Man, it can sometimes feel like everyone went to the Black Rock Desert without you! The clubs can feel seriously empty in SF that week.
i:Vibes: Do you feel this album contains a more mature polished sound compared to your first album?
A: J: Yeah I think so. I don't know if we're any more mature, but our plugins are.
S: Sure, I'd say so, but not intentionally by any means. Lots of what we were doing, or what we ended up with, was very raw in terms of proximity to the original sketch or idea. And the sketches were almost all created very quickly, almost as a working method.
i:Vibes: What’s next for you two?
A: J: We're working on a Qoöl branded compilation for 2005. I think we'd like to have another artist album out by 2006. We'll have some singles and remixes on Loöq for sure, and I think we'll be sending a few tracks to other labels pretty soon too.
S: We'll think we'll be DJing together a lot more, and on the road a lot more. We already are, in fact!
i:Vibes: Were there songs that did not make “The Answer” that we might see as remix EP? Or did you just end up with 11 tracks?
A: J: There are at least two tracks we'd like to see on either the European or Japanese release. We have about six that are complete but didn't make the cut.
S: Werd.
i:Vibes: Any other things to add?
A: J: Please listen to our album. If you dig it, buying it would definitely help us out too. Let us know what you think ... write us at mail@jondiandspesh.com. Thanks!
S: Yes! I'm thankful to have music in my life. Aren't you? =)
We thank Jondi and Spesh for their time, "The Answer" is out on Spundae Records on June 22nd.2004, it was reviewed on i:Vibes.nu as well. They will tour North America, check www.jondiandspesh.com for the latest.
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