Balance Selections 216 – juSt b

As an accomplished DJ, radio show host, vocalist, producer, published writer, & promo label head, with no shortage of curveballs in her repertoire, juSt b has shared decks with some of the industry’s finest including Anjunadeep’s Martin Roth, Cubicolor, Sebastien Leger, Roy Rosenfeld, & Edu Imbernon, as well as Miss Melera, Tim Engelhardt, Sascha Braemer, BLANCAh, & the legendary Sasha & Digweed at Montreal’s Igloofest.

After a debut EP on Configurations of Self last year, the start of 2022 saw juSt b collaborate with new Hungarian producer NorB for a 3-track EP on John Digweed’s iconic Bedrock Records, followed by a special guest mix for his legendary Transitions Radioshow. With two more recent EPs released with Alexander Church via Life Scripts and the other on Configurations of Self, featured remixes by Vincenzo & James Welsh. The current release from this talented artists features a 5-track EP on the esteemed Balance Music.

With a string of European & UK gigs plus several new productions in the works, 2022 has been a promising year for juSt b with much more to come…

Balance Selections 216: juSt b

Tracklisting:

1. Alex Banks – Into the Realm
2. NorB & juSt b – ID
3. Sonic – Retrobrite
4. NorB & juSt b – ID
5. Sonic – Faith
6. Benjamin Damage – Binary
7. Europa – Den Haag Drummer
8. IBON – Lullaby For Dry Eyes
9. Damabiah – Sur Les Genoux De L’automne (Henry Saiz Remix)
10. M83 – Couleurs (Sasha Invol2ver Remix)
11. Lostep – Burma (juSt b edit)
12. Mattr – ID
13. Kessler – Cognitive Bias

Balance Selections Q+A

Name: Bonnie
Location: London, UK & Toronto
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Alias/Producer name: juSt b
Labels affiliated with: Bedrock, Balance, Configurations of Self, Life Scripts

My last 3 releases:

juSt b – Light Sweeper

Alexander Church & juSt b – Ego States

NorB & juSt b – Different Places

What music did you listen to as a child?

Music was always around from the very early years though nobody in my family was a musician really. I loved to sing randoms songs for hours in bed which eventually drove my parents nuts and I was in a choir for a while. I remember my parents had this big stereo cabinet in the living room, equipped with a record & cassette player and oversized headphones which I would put on when I was 5-10 yrs old and lay on the floor for hours, listening to Vangelis, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and a bunch of classic rock. My mother always had the radio on with 80’s & 90’s pop-rock and my dad was into country, folk, and Celtic artists. My older brother had a big influence on me as he listened to lots of cool stuff like Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, U2, George Michael, Yello, and Prince, etc…

When was the first time that you realised that you liked electronic music?

I think the first time I heard a dance track, outside of Madonna, and Michael Jackson, would have been mid-90’s on my mom’s radio, and listening to my brother’s CD collection, maybe C&C Music Factory or Snap. But, it wasn’t until 10 years later that I was really introduced to electronic music by a few friends in Ottawa.

When was the first time you saw a DJ in a club?

My first official introduction to the clubbing world and electronic music in a proper venue was about 15 years ago – at Montreal’s infamous afterhours, Stereo. It was for one of Canada’s finest at that time – Brad Copeland, and a breakbeat duo from the UK. It was pretty mind blowing. That night completely transformed my life in many ways.

Which producers/artists/acts inspire you?

I’m inspired by such a huge and diverse array of sounds and styles and thus, when DJ’ing, my palette is equally super broad. My earliest inspirations include Vangelis (who I listened to for the first time when I was about 4 years old), Pink Floyd, Bjork, Shpongle (hearing them for the first time in 2005 was one of the most epic transformative moments of my musical journey), Sasha (Involver vol. 1 was one of the first electronic albums I ever heard), Toronto’s Luke Fair, Daft Punk and genius minds like 16 Bit Lolitas, and Henry Saiz (who will forever be two of my most admired and biggest inspirations). More recent influential artists include Mattr, Alex Banks, Sonic, Jon Hopkins, Two Shell, Sebastian Mullaert, Kessler, Max Cooper, Somfay, Frankey & Sandrino, Skee Mask, & Locked Groove, to name just a few!

What was the last album that you downloaded/bought?

I’ve acquired loads of albums over the last little while from a wide range of artists & genres, often through PR promos or my own crazy Bandcamp scavenging, spanning hip-hop to ambient, uk garage to hard core bass and many in between. My most recent purchase was Sonic’s latest album ‘Venus’, and on the softer side, Snad – Loop DreamZz.

What is your current production and DJ set up like?

My DJ set up back in Toronto consists of a Pioneer DJM 2000 Nexus, 2 x CDJ 2000 Nexus, a Pioneer DDJ-SX 4-channel controller (my first purchase in 2013 that I learned to DJ on), 2 KRK monitors, and a pair of white Audio Technica ATH-M50x headphones. In a club, I always play on CDJs with USBs. I’m planning to learn vinyl this year just for fun, especially now with spending so much time in the UK.

Production wise, I always had a pretty slim studio setup with my Macbook Pro, Ableton, a micro Korg midi controller, Roland piano, a few favourite sample packs & VSTs like Diva, Vocal Synth 2, Valhalla room & shimmer, lokoverb, and Isotope RX & Ozone. I also have a fully equipped pro vocal booth since I do a fair bit of voice work. Recently, since I came to London, I have access to a few hardware synths and drum machines as well.

What releases do you have on the horizon?

Well I just had my debut Balance release with a 5-track EP entitled ‘Light Sweeper’, out last month. Coming up next are 3 more tracks with NorB, already signed as part of a V/A album which should be out in a few months. He and I also just finished up 4 brand new tunes which I hope we can release by early next year, if not sooner. And I have another EP with Alexander Church plus a few other collaborations with different artists that I want to wrap up and get out there as well. It’s been a busy 2022 needless to say!

Where can we hear you perform?

I’ve hosted my own monthly show called Undercurrents on DI.FM every 3rd Friday of the month since 2017. This past May I celebrated my 5 year anniversary.

Gig wise, you can catch me at the Eagle in Forres, Scotland Sept.3rd, the Marquis in London Sept.29th, a couple potential shows in Germany in October, then I’m off to India to play Distrikt Festival in November and a month-long tour through Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, and a couple other cities.

Tell us more about the podcast you made for Balance?

Similar to the mindset and method for my Transitions show in February, this one was incredibly special for me and as such, I treated it as something that in a way, should be somewhat timeless. That meant starting the scavenge & prep weeks in advance and honouring both old and new with quite diverse inspirations – everything from experimental acidy breaks to high intensity emotive trance. What makes it extra special are two very new unreleased tracks I just finished with NorB, featuring my vocals with lyrics that hold profound meaning. Also, a couple classics which I’m sure a lot of listeners will recognise, plus a tune from Henry Saiz’s ‘Balance presents Natura Sonoris’ mix – one of my all time favourite albums, and an unreleased tune from Mattr, one of my biggest inspirations of the last few years.

My process, like with all my sets, started by going through all my most recent tunes first – I usually get 50-100 or so a month so it makes for insane listening time. Once I knew how I wanted to begin the mix – the key, the feeling, the energy, that helped set the tone and I was able to start molding things around that. I then spent days going far back into my collection, as far as the early 2000s, testing out some older classic tracks, re-listening to old albums and sets, feeling things out, and configuring how I saw the journey unfolding. I finally felt as though things had come together just as the deadline for the mix was upon me. I play all my sets out live on my pioneer gear so that can sometimes lead to the odd time having to redo if one mistake is made or I find that something really doesn’t work as well as I thought it would (though on occasion I can easily edit it in Ableton after).

This one had its challenges as I tend to always push the limits & take some pretty wonky risks when mixing, trying to bring together really offbeat glitchy breaks, often dramatically pitched up or down …that sort of thing. Had to do some minor tweaking of the tracklist after I tested out a few mixes as some were just way too out there to work the way I hoped. After I recorded everything, I ran it through an MLoudness Analyzer by Melda Production (a cool free plugin) then some light mastering in Ableton.

Finally, a full listen from beginning to end to ensure I was satisfied. Overall, it’s a pretty intense & emotionally charged 70 minutes. I really hope the listeners feel it.

My Recommendations

The top track in my DJ wallet currently is:

Wow that’s a tough one as I have so many great tunes of late. But I’d say one of the recent bombs would be Two Shell – ‘Ghosts‘ from their new album ‘Icons‘. It packs a fierce dance floor vibe with slick futuristic vox chops and a mad percussive line. One of my fave artists from London.

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

I’d have to say my new ‘Light Sweeper’ release on Balance as it represents such a special and crazy long journey since I first started the original back in 2019…and, it’s my first solo project. All 4 remixes are a must listen as well 🙂

If I could recommend only one track for you to listen to it would be:

Henry Saiz- Spiricom (See you Soon)

As part of Henry Saiz’s first full length album – ‘Reality is for Those Who are not Strong Enough to Confront Their Dreams’ – ‘Spiricom (See you Soon)’ is a major heavy hitter for me, never failing to cut deep to the heart strings. It’s an album that served as the backdrop for a major shift in my life…as I was about to move to Toronto to pursue my musical path…and brings tears to my eyes every time I listen.

The last movie I watched that I really liked:

I rarely see movies but I did recently watch ‘Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics’ which was pretty enjoyable.