Balance Selections 014: Jay Tripwire

Never one to be pigeon-holed, Jay Tripwire is an artist that effortlessly straddles the line between being a crowd-pleaser and an underground favourite. For over 2 decades now the Canadian producer/DJ has entertained and educated global crowds with his ‘signature fusion of deep Detroit textures and intricate rhythms’. He is an always an in-demand remixer with an average of 10-15 remixes per year, and in 2010 the producer was honoured by Future Music by being named alongside Frankie Knuckles, Larry Heard, Charles Webster, Atjazz, and Tom Middleton as being one of the most influential innovators in-house music. On the verge of releasing a new album, we are extremely pleased to have an underground mainstay like Jay Tripwire deliver us a 2 hour Balance Selections journey …

Balance Selections Q+A

Name:
Jay Tripwire

Location:
Vancouver Canada

Alias/Producer name:
8Channels

Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/Mr.Tripwire

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Mr.Tripwire

Labels affiliated with:
Superfreq, Pokerflat, Bass Culture, Elevate, 1trax, Zombie Soundsystem and hundreds more.

My last 3 releases:
Remix of Mr C on Superfreq, a single on Superfreq and a collab with Pig and Dan on Elevate.

What music did you listen too as a child?
Disco, Motown, Soul, Blues and a shit tonne of Elvis, then as I got older it was early 80s Nu Wave. Nobody was particularly musically inclined in my family, I’m the first.

When was the first time that you realized that you liked electronic music?
The first electronic music I heard was Kraftwerk as a kid, I really liked it and wished more music was like that. When Industrial started in the 80’s I was really into it and from there the scene morphed into techno, then house. I liked the machine sound with vocals that weren’t pop, some tracks were just instrumentals and that was even better.

When was the first time you saw a DJ in a club?
There was a shitty teen club here I went to once, it sucked and I got into a fight, they were playing a bunch of cheese too, I distinctly remember Careless Whisper being played LOL! I had seen DJs at school dances growing up, and they only played vinyl. I grew up with vinyl, I’m a 70’s kid. The first DJ night was probably one of those dingy Gastown industrial parties I went to, the music was great, all really underground shit too…

Which producers/artists/acts inspire you?
I love Kraftwerk, they are my original music heroes. Right now I’m pretty blown away by my good friends Dance Spirit. They are amazing as a dance act/live show and I love Mathew Johnson vs Minilogue. My favourite DJs will always be Mr C, Doc Martin, Eddie Richards and local guys Mike McSuede, Tyler Stadius and Madness.

What was the last album that you downloaded/bought?
All Them Witches ‘Lightning at the Door’. I got the vinyl and the digital version, they sound like a cross between Black Sabbath, Hendrix, and Waylon Jennings singing lyrics written by Johnny Cash.

What is your current production and DJ set up like?
Dj setup at home, I still only have 1200’s and play records at home, mainly because for a working class DJ CDJs are stupidly priced. Studio wise I use some old beatup hardware and Logic 8, my Mac is from 2007 and the OS is so old it wont run Logic X lol. I work what I got, I like my studio to be fickle and challenging like the Millennium Falcon.

What releases do you have on the horizon?
I have another full length album on Zombie Soundsystem coming up soon so I haven’t been releasing originals in a while as to not saturate myself in the market. For 2016 I have some really cool projects to shop to labels that are getting finished up.

Where can we hear you perform?
I get around, I travel a shit tonne all over North, Central and South America. I have a residency here in Vancouver at Gorgomish once a month, because I’m still here living in North America I get booked a lot here and the scene is on fire right now in the Americas. I can’t really comment on my own country of Canada though, other than Vancouver I rarely play my own country.

Tell us more about the podcast you made for Balance?
I re-edit everything, I figure if I’m gonna play wav files, I’ll make em unique. I did a bunch of edits for my gig at Gorgomish and hit record. I was originally going to record it at a gig in Miami but they cancelled. It’s mixed live on CDJs from 6-7 50AM on a Sunday morning, I requested that time slot so i could play tripp, deep and out there shit that is fun to listen to on a podcast that still works well on the floor.I don’t use a laptop for DJing or a sync button, the mix isn’t perfect but its probably as good as humans can do mixing the old fashioned way using your ears and hands, telling a story to people.

My Recommendations

The top track in my DJ wallet currently is:
An edit I did of Kraftwerk ‘Trans Europe Express’.

If I could recommend only one of my tracks for you to listen to it would be:
Save Each Other