|
 Rolf Ellmar aka Jam El Mar can easily be seen as being one of the first pioneers of trance music. He has been producing the finest dance music for nearly 20 years and at age 47, is no where near his limit yet. i:Vibes met with Rolf to speak with him about his long and successful career...
Jam El Mar, the German cult trance producer going in new directions…
His first project was Dance 2 Trance with Frankfurt DJ, DJ Dag. In 1991, he produced ‘We Came In Peace’, which was one of the first real trance tracks produced. In the next years, this project would celebrate many more classic tracks like ‘Let’s Get Rollin’’, ‘Tranceophobia’, ‘Where Is Dag?’, ‘Hello San Francisco’, or ‘Remember Exxon Valdez’. In 1993 came the big break through with ‘Power Of American Natives’, which landed in the German top ten. Even though Dance 2 Trance managed innovative incredible underground trance music, it was over-shadowed by the huge chart success of Jam & Spoon. This project was formally started in 1992 with Frankfurt DJ Mark Spoon. Their first hit was the instrumental ‘Stella’, which is seen by many as one of the all time classic trance tracks. It has been remixed many times, with the best mix still being the original. On the side, Jam & Spoon also started remixing other artists and in 1992, remixed ‘The Age Of Love’, which also reached cult status and today many still argue which was better, ‘Stella’ or ‘Age Of Love’. In 1992, a British magazine named it Remix of the Year. Late in 1993, Jam & Spoon released a double album ‘Tripomatic Fairytales 2001-2002’. ‘Right In The Night’ was the first single release and reached many top ten charts in Europe. This was also the beginning of the cooperation with British female singer Plavka. Soon hits like ‘Find Me’ and ‘Angel’ followed. Jam & Spoon would release two more albums ‘Kaleidescope Skies’ in 1997 and ‘Tripomatic Fairytales 3003’ in 2004. These two albums would release many more single hits like ‘Kaleidoscope Skies’, ‘El Baile’, ‘Don’t Call It Love’, or ‘Set Me Free’. However the last real huge hit they had was ‘Be Angeled’ in 2001 featuring the German singer Reamon. They also had two side projects Storm and Tokyo Ghetto Pussy, with Storm being the most successful. With Storm, they formed a project, which was supposed to allow them more freedom and not too much pressure with having to release successes like it was with Jam & Spoon. However Storm became a very successful project, which was a more hard trance sound. In 1999, they released ‘Time To Burn’, which was a huge hit in all major dance charts worldwide and surprisingly became a top five smash in the UK charts. They also had further hits with ‘Storm’, ‘Hurricane’ and ‘We Love’. Jam showed early on that he was a very versatile producer being able to produce all kinds of music. In 1991 he started the dance music with hard beats and raps. Groups like Snap, Culture Beat and 2 Unlimited paved the road for future projects wanting to combine hard beats with raps. Jam El Mar also wanted to be a part of this so he started BG The Prince Of Rap in 1991. His first release ‘This Beat Is Hot’ became a worldwide hit, even reaching the famous American Billboard Charts. The first album ‘Power Of Rhythm’ landed further hits. In 1994 as he was celebrating huge hits with Jam & Spoon, he managed to produce the second BG The Prince of Rap album ‘The Time Is Now’, which was probably the strongest album of the three (‘Get The Groove’ was released in 1996). The biggest hit was ‘Colour Of My Dreams’ which landed top ten status in many European countries. Sadly, in January 2006, friend and colleague Mark Spoon died at the age of 39. This marked the end of the project Jam & Spoon. Since then Jam El Mar has stayed busy producing the rock album for German singer/actress Jasmin Tabatabai and is currently working on the album for Eva-Diva. The first single will be ‘Night To Remember’. 2008 promises to be a very busy year for Jam El Mar. i:Vibes.nu had the chance to have a chat with Jam in Frankfurt, Germany…
i:Vibes: Hi Rolf, how are you? Thanks for taking some time to talk to i:Vibes. Where/how did you celebrate Christmas and did you have any special wishes this Christmas?
Jam El Mar: Christmas I spent with my daughter - no other wishes than peace for the world...
i:Vibes: Do you have any new year resolutions for 2008?
Jam El Mar: Make music - make love - lol!
i:Vibes: It is almost two years since the death of your partner and friend Marc Spoon. Time has gone on, but the memory of Marcus has stayed. How have you coped with the loss of your friend? How has your outlook on life changed?
Jam El Mar: Mark is around me all the time - I still feel him - he is present in my life. Sometimes I hear him complaining about the music and my work, lol...
i:Vibes: In 2006, ‘The Best Of Jam & Spoon (Remixes & Club Classics)’ was released which was a great collectors item for all dance music fans. There was talk of a second ‘Best Of…’ coming onto the market. What is the latest status concerning that?
Jam El Mar: It’s still one of the major plans but we will have to find the right timing - if there is a strong Nineties revival coming along the collection will be available...
i:Vibes: Your colleague Nosie Katzmann (‘Mr. Vain’, ‘More & More’, ‘Right In The Night’) is coming out with a ‘Best Of…’ album. You have a lengthy discography with loads of remixes and projects like Dance 2 Trance, Storm, Tokyo Ghetto Pussy or BG Prince of Rap. Would you ever consider releasing a best of Jam El Mar? That would be a big gift for all your fans worldwide.
Jam El Mar: Oh, a ‘Jam El Mar Best-Of’ would be like a ‘Jam & Spoon - Best-Of’, so it’s all in one, lol…
i:Vibes: You have been busy the last two years producing music. Some months ago you produced an album ‘I Ran’ for the German singer Jasmin Tabatabai. How did you meet and how was it working with her?
Jam El Mar: The work was wonderful, great singer, great songwriter, great artist she is - however totally different from all I did before...
How happy have you been with the release of the album ‘I Ran’?
Jam El Mar: Happy ;-) But there is always something that could have done more...
i:Vibes: You made a cover version of the famous Flock Of Seagulls track ‘I Ran’. How difficult was it producing this track? Your mix had a very tough edge, which was a lot different than the original version from 1982.
Jam El Mar: It had to be different. If you make a cover version and you don’t give a new interpretation to it, then it’s senseless…
i:Vibes: We know Jam El Mar as producing Dance music, but with ‘I Ran’, you produced a more Rock orientated Album. Was this a difficult transition for you and how different is it producing this type of music than more dance music?
Jam El Mar: It was different from the production side because acoustic drums, recorded live and played live is a tough thing to handle. I mean you have to make it heavy and punchy. Also recoding basses and guitars need different handling as opposed to electronically generated tracks. It is in fact much more demanding but also very, very interesting. A new experience, actually. But music wise I always was into rock, it is my roots actually and therefore it wasn’t a problem getting into the music.
I have to mention that I didn’t produce the album all by myself. Jasmin’s ex-husband did a lot of pre-production so I overtook at a certain point and had to work with the material that was already there...
i:Vibes: Will you be working again with Jasmin Tabatabai in the future?
Jam El Mar: Sure, if she still wants me, lol...
i:Vibes: You have been working on a new Dance/pop music project with Eva Diva. How did you guys meet and why did you choose her? You are a well known Dance music producer who could have probably asked any singer?
Jam El Mar: Well, she sent a voice sample and she had this great timbre that I love so much. Powerful voice on one side but a lot of silkeness on the other...
i:Vibes: What makes Eva –Diva so unique as an artist?
Jam El Mar: Her voice and her radiation, her magnetism...
i:Vibes: I heard the first track ‘Night 2 Remember’, which seems more a house track. Is this the direction of the album?
Jam El Mar: More or less, yeah, we are still working on ‘Night 2 Remember’. It’s dance-pop crossover, there will be dance mixes, however...
i:Vibes: In January 2008, you will be in New York working on the Eva –Diva album. Any special reason for this, besides maybe finding creative influences in the world’s most famous city, New York?
Jam El Mar: Inspiration, inspiration, inspiration - meeting other songwriters etc. We often spend some days in London as well, her hometown. You always collect new ideas, when you are in cities like that...
i:Vibes: Is Trance/Dance something you are trying to stay away from or can we hear a track like this in the future from you?
Jam El Mar: Well, trance has mutated to something different which I don’t like too much anymore – it’s too sweet, it’s sometimes really uninspired - the same formula all the time - Trance has to be re-defined musically... but still at times great tracks stick out of the masses of mediocre productions.
i:Vibes: In the last years, it seems like there are fewer dance/techno hits being produced. Is this something that helps your decision to go in a different musical direction such as with Eva-Diva?
Jam El Mar: No, but it’s true what they say - Dance has gone Underground again...
What are your plans for 2008? Besides Eva-Diva, what other releases can we await from you?
Jam El Mar: Surprise , surprise... lol!
i:Vibes: You had a lot of success with Plavka and the Jam & Spoon project. Would you ever consider making some hot dance tracks like in the past? Or is this a closed chapter for you?
Jam El Mar: I would like to work with Plavka, she is a great singer. She has plans though...
i:Vibes: You are still living in Frankfurt and still producing in the legendary Allstar warehouse studio. In the last 17 years much has happened and changed in Frankfurt. Guys like Torsten Fenslau and Mark Spoon died, clubs like the Dorian Gray and Omen closed. Many of the old guard like Talla 2XLC, Sven Väth, DJ Dag, Pascal FEOS and Heinz Felber are still around doing their thing. What has changed the most in this time and what experience from the past do you think of or get reminded the most of?
Jam El Mar: The beginning of the rise of Dance in the early nineties - it was an exciting time. It was a new genre of music to be discovered, a great playground for the most interesting ideas. Every time a circle has a special feeling - I still like to remember this atmosphere in these great clubs that you mentioned.
i:Vibes: What current artists in the Dance scene do you respect and would not shy away of admitting that you listen to their music and why?
Jam El Mar: I respect anyone that makes a nice and interesting and inspired track. I listen to so many artists and tracks - impossible to name them all here...
i:Vibes: You still have a lot of hardware in your studio. How much of that do you still use? Or are you shifting more towards software?
Jam El Mar: Yeah, but still I use some of them - they are killer...
i:Vibes: Besides your PC, what piece of equipment could you not live without in your studio?
Jam El Mar: The hardware - lol...
i:Vibes: What is your biggest strength in the studio?
Jam El Mar: Hmmm, dunno... Maybe that I am relaxed, lol...
One of your early remixes was ‘Back On The Block’ for the legendary producer of Michael Jackson Quincy Jones. When was this released exactly and how did you ever get this remix? I can imagine that Marc Spoon who was always good with words back then as A&R for Logic that he might have had a big part for getting that remix? How was it exactly?
Jam El Mar: Mark did not check the remix - it was the Faith of WEA in the remix-work of Jam & Spoon. However, Quincy had the last word. He had to decide whether the remix would be released or not.
i:Vibes: In 1989 you produced a track with Thorsten Fensalu (‘Mr. Vain’, R.I.P 1993). How did this co-operation come about and what memories do you have of him?
Jam El Mar: I always respected Thorsten, although we were not really friends. There was a bit of competition. The record we did together was shit - really. A stupid track, I don’t wanna remember - but it was experience. When you make a shitty record you always learn from it - at least I do. I think Thorsten wanted to have the advance to pay for his holidays, lol...
i:Vibes: Tracks like ‘Stella’, ‘We Came In Peace’ or ‘Age Of Love’ are 15 years old and are timeless and just masterpieces. When you hear these tracks today, do you ever stop for a second and think, “I made these tracks!”? Did you ever think back then that these tracks could still be so loved 15 years later?
Jam El Mar: No, of course not. I can’t look into the future, however, it’s wonderful that I took part in these techno-evergreens. You know, we just did it, we weren’t thinking too much about a concept - we just felt the music - great!
i:Vibes: From the early tracks ‘91-‘95, what was the most difficult track to produce?
Jam El Mar: The Kaledoscope-album.
i:Vibes: Do you have any more dreams or goals that you would like to realize as a music producer? I never understood why you never did music soundtracks…
Jam El Mar: Music soundtracks is something completely different. I am like a circle of people you have to belong to and you have to bring in a lot of effort to grow into producing scores or soundtracks. Some of our music was used for films however - and for advertisements too.
As a producer you always want to make a track successful - or an artist especially. You have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, so you don’t want to fail. It doesn’t matter if it’s just a club track or a million-seller, it has to be successful!
i:Vibes: What hobbies do you have now? I remember you followed Formula One. Can you still do that since Michael Schumacher retired?
Jam El Mar: Sure, but I am more in to Moto-GP. Those are the real guys!
i:Vibes: Thank you Rolf, for taking time to answer my questions!!!!!
Jam El Mar: Cheers! ;-)
|
![[i:Vibes]](i_pic/ivibes_new.jpg)
Frontpage
News
Reviews
Interviews
Party Reports
Artist Profiles
Label profiles
Diaries
What is...
Tutorials
Links
Radio-info
Forum
Chat
User Stats
Crew-info
i:Vibes Info
Related Links
Tell a friend
