by Handcrafting some of the grooviest house music currently coming out of Japan, JAXX DA FISHWORKS is steadily separating himself from the throng of other immensely talented music producers. His latest stellar release came in the form of his 100 Percent EP, out on the illustrious Night Bass label, and it’s already garnered attention from a broad swathe of the industry. With original tracks also gracing the easily recognizable platforms of Insomniac Records and Wukileaks, he’s consistently proven that he can play with the best in the entire business. Recently, we had the great opportunity to chat with him about his journey spanning multiple continents, his thoughts on the music community, and what he has coming next. Check out the full interview for yourself below!
You currently live in Japan, but you started your career in Australia! Can you tell us a little about how the music scenes compare in both of those countries, and how Australia kicked off your career?
I’d say Japan is way behind, and there are so so many reasons to be like that but one of the biggest reasons is that we don’t speak or understand English. The language barrier is enormous and isolates us from a lot of good things happening in Western countries. Australia has no issues with the language topic though their lovely Aussie accent is there.
But the barrier does a few good things too. The isolated country built our own community in the 90’s and house music and techno got massive without importing so much of music culture overseas. This means that I believe producers, bands and all underground musicians in the 90’s were the best even if I include 2021. They had their music plus their Japanese culture that the isolated vibe built behind.
But I’m now only looking at the Western market surely including Australia where I started my career. I was just a DJ when I used to live there. Started making edits and bootlegs just like upcoming and young DJs nowadays.
I started hanging out with Ministry of Sound guys and Sweat It Out that I just did a remix of ‘We No Speak Americano’ for, and met a lot of artists through them. Also, LO’99 from Sydney became a good friend of mine and actually now we are working on something as well. You can look forward to this ?
Your latest 100 Percent EP has had tremendous success since its release just one week ago, can you tell us a little about what went into creating the project and what the inspiration behind it was?
Thank you very much for your support on the release. This is absolutely my favorite release in the past few years especially “100 Percent”. But it was not as easy as other records I put out actually. This talk is more about AC Slater and myself, but it took me a few months to get a go sign from him and we had a talk about “Creativity”.
Now anyone can make good solid tunes because of great and easy plugins, DAW software, and all happening in the decade, but I felt like that I didn’t try to get out of my comfort zone for a while, which meant I felt too comfortable where I was and didn’t make an extra effort to step up next after we talked.
This was the story behind the record to be honest, and I digged the vocals I recorded 5 years ago out and went back to old catalogs in 2000’s likes of Fake Blood, Magik Johnson and many more to build the groovy beats, and the vocals stand out with the groove, this is what I really like about the tune.
Did you start out making house music? Or did you eventually transition into it from other genres?
I used to play and make breaks and break beats, but naturally shifted to fidget house and started working with Ministry of Sound in the UK so it was good timing for me to try a new thing.
Then I went everywhere like future bass to trap, breaks to big room as you probably know, but I reckon I learned how deep producing house music was so don’t think I’ll go something else under JAXX DA FISHWORKS name for sure.
I am probably a rare one here, but I don’t listen to music outside my studio.
Many artists state that they can’t listen to the same genre they produce in their free time because it wears out their ears. Do you find the same thing to be true? What artists/genres do you mainly listen to?
I am probably a rare one here, but I don’t listen to music outside my studio. All I listen to is promos I receive and featured tunes from blogs. And of course my friends’ tunes. So maybe people listen to other genres while I’m not listening to any, but I can understand why they say that though I don’t think I want to produce other genres under my name.
Especially for producers who work in a studio, their mental health needs to be well and straight after working in a little dark box for 12 hours. I used to do the same and drink alcohol a lot probably my body needed to chill, but now I go to a studio at 9 in the morning and get home around 5 or 6 in the evening. I have other things to look at and hear with my family in my life, so it works out perfectly.
You recently tweeted that you wanted to make the jump from FL Studio to Ableton live for production! Can you clue us into why you felt the switch to be necessary?
I started thinking to go back to Logic when they had an update last year, and I couldn’t stop thinking to switch software from FL. I think this is my bad habit actually. I started making beats with Reason ages ago and then moved to many others.
Then I started preparing my live set with my analog drum machines and synths because there are no shows in the next few months anyway and I thought there will be a lot of time to prepare. When it comes to a live set thing, Ableton was as smooth as I wanted it to be and super simple to do anything compared to other software I felt. I’m doing a virtual live set for NIGHT BASS at the end of this month, please look forward to that as well.
Who are some producers that you firmly believe deserve more attention right now?
There are too many talented producers who are underrated. If I say a few good ones now, I’d like to say ANGELZ first. I’ve never met in person or asked directly but I’d be surprised if he didn’t make beats for other people. His knowledge and skills are very diverse and he can be a perfect man to sit produce many singers to rappers like performers.
Another one is Tisoki. I didn’t listen to his kind of music much until I checked his sample packs. He’s one of the great ones when it comes to sound engineering for sure. I make house beats that can sound raw but it doesn’t necessarily mean it can’t sound crispy. His mixing skill and how single sound sounds are the next level technics to me.
If you hadn’t become a music producer, what do you believe you would be doing right now?
No idea, even never thought about it. But receiving a set salary every month for a contracted work time schedule might be good to try for a few months as I never had that kinda secured feeling in my life haha. Probably because I’m not that kind of man really, but I’d love to have a moment I don’t need to worry about deadlines and bills, I mean less pressure life.
To be able to be creative or keep creating freshly, you as a person need to be happy enough…
What’s your current favorite aspect of the music community as a whole?
Definitely meeting new people. People usually start music as one of their hobbies, then it becomes a job. So once you can’t have a good time doing it, you won’t be able to deliver anything inspiring, this is what is creativity to me. To be able to be creative or keep creating freshly, you as a person need to be happy enough. I learned so much through this job and don’t want to forget about the origin.
What’s your favorite show/fest that you’ve played, and what’s one that’s on the top of your bucket list?
It’s hard to pick one but playing at Ministry of Sound in London was special one to me, can’t remember which year it was though. The sound system was as enormous as I’d heard and the vibe was insane. Pure music going throughout the night. I’d love to go back and play there again.
The top of the bucket list is definitely EDC Las Vegas. I’ve been focused on this since 2018 and it hasn’t changed. I used to look at the UK as my main target but the US experiences in the past 5 years I had with my producer friends’ support and help changed my image of the country. The virus ruined all in 2020 and probably 2021 as well, but I haven’t given up yet.
With such tremendous success in such a short amount of time from your latest EP, what’s next on the horizon for you?
Thank you very much for saying that. I have so much music sitting in my hard drive since I locked myself in my studio when we couldn’t go outside in Japan. I already have a couple of releases locked in with my favorite labels as well. I believe another single out in April. But more likely I’d love to build stronger a relationship with Night Bass of course, plus the labels I recently started working with the likes of Tchami’s Confession and CruCast in London in 2021 as well.
Please look forward to more of my new music. Thank you very much.
