Ahead of his first ever show in Croatia this Saturday at Tunel club in Šibenik, we were excited for a chance to do a short interview with the French producer and DJ Damon Jee.
How did your transition from ‘rock music’ fan to electronic music happen? It must be hard, making or playing new and different music… Tell us something about that transition.
First we have to put the context. It was around 1994. Electronic music was already present but in some cities, like Paris and Berlin, it was really new, like something secret that only insiders knew about. So when it was discovered, the Internet didn’t exist and there was no access to culture as it is now. I was 17 years old, and all the years before, I had learned guitar and played in a rock band with schoolmates, and one day, a friend older than me took me with him to a club in Spain, where for the first time I heard electronic music, and I saw the magic alchemy between the music and people in a new way than in concert. It was a real revolution for me, and I found my way of life.
Damon Jee
Is the future of electronic music in connecting organic and synthetic sound, with more real snares opposite to claps and stuff like that?
Your description is already the present and what we have done for so many years with artists like Andrew Weatherall, Jennifer Cardini, Curses, Rebelledo, Darlyn Vlys, et al. Now what will be the evolution ? That’s the real question. I think as we did many years ago, mixing 80’s influences with rock electro, techno and disco, we must include more influences (but the good ones lol) and maybe something new and fresh will result. I see my work in the studio as a laboratory where I create experiences that are always geared toward the dance floor, but not only in the future for me.
‘Dark disco’, if we can call all similar sound like that, starting – I think – to be more commercial what is good and bad. Good because more people will hear good music and organic electronic music and bad because commercialization will product many shitty music. What you think about that?
Unfortunately, this is already the case, and the pandemic has hastened the process, as many producers came from techouse, melodic house, and techno because indie dance/dark disco was the new hype, resulting in a shitty volume of music that had nothing to do with « indie dance/dark disco ». In all of this, some artists who came from other styles did the evolution to dark disco very well, and maybe the key to evolution is there.
It is a shame you are after all that years coming to Croatia for the first time just now (not your shame)… Do you know anything about scene here?
Yes, true, but why only now ? (lol) Sincerely, I don’t know a lot about the Croatian scene. I have just heard from good friends, Mufti and Theus Mago, who have played in Tunel, that people have really warm vibes and know the dark disco indie dance music and are open to the finest in this genre.
Theus Mago (Tunel, 2019.) / VAB RatCat
And please for end, tell us something about your night in Tunel, what will you play and what are your expectations?
Of course, I will play a lot of my own and co-production projects. I will be playing the first EP from a new artist called Shadow & I, who I have signed to my label, Dust & Blood. This ep comes with an additional remix from Niv Ast and Mmyylo.
I can’t wait to see all of you in Sibernik. I’ll see you on Saturday :))
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