Nicolas Jaar

Nicolas Jaar is one of electronic music’s most exciting young producers, with heaping praise coming from both within club culture and outside of it. But even with his seemingly universal appeal, Nicolas Jaar is not easy to pin down. His musical maturity seems beyond his years, whilst still studying, he finds the time to pack out late-night clubs with slow 95BPM grooves. His fans scramble for genre tags, landing on everything from house, to trip hop and electronica, whereas the artist himself hears the rawness of hip hop. Most of all, he has become an unlikely (and unwilling) poster boy for the new sound of club land, but he remains earnest, idealistic and committed to creating meaningful art.

Pulse: You’ve played in Berlin a few times now right? Nicolas Jaar: A little too much.

Why do you say that? I’ve played more in Berlin than anywhere else, 6 or 7 times this year. For a live set that’s a lot.

Has anybody in particular inspired your performance style? Yes, but I’m not there yet: Keith Jarrret. If I could be like him, I would be a happy person. I want to build it to that later on, playing actual concerts. I would love to have a piano and machines around me; really improvising with the piano for a nice 10 minutes with the beat, I can’t wait for that.

You’re at the centre of this critical mass at the moment, how does that affect you, knowing that people may be coming to your shows because they know of ‘Nicolas Jaar’, more than your music? Well, last night didn’t feel like that, and maybe it was because it was a Wednesday night, and it was my record release party. It wasn’t a Wolf + Lamb night.

I’ve heard about, but never been to the Marcy Hotel parties in New York, can you describe what its like to be there? Well the first time I went it was during the day, Gadi had just heard a track of mine. I get there, to this beautiful red building, I think Deniz Kurtel opens the door for me. I go through this kitchen, it’s all super dark and kind of gothic, looks kind of insane. I get to the dancefloor - which is also the studio - and it’s all made out of wood and they’re playing music there, in a tiny room, and Gadi really looks at home there. When there are parties there’s just an incredible crowd that kind of made it what it is, until it got too popular.

I’d like to know a little more about the story behind your album. Well the cover is a picture of me (as a baby) between East and West Berlin. The violence that comes from that no mans land, that absence is a very true to life feeling, the fact we have this absence inside is what creates our drive. We kind of want to fill [it], but you’re never able to, and this kind of exemplifies that, you know?

You mean saying that it’s a visual representation of nothingness? Right. Derrida has this concept that I’m in love with, called trace, and it’s the mark of something that is not there. I think a lot of the time, music is like this moment that can fill space in a very natural way.

It’s funny you mention absence, when I listen to your album there’s a thread of longing and sadness, a feeling of something not being as it should be. Is that what you intended or am I reading too much into it? No, of course not. That’s what most of the things I do are based on, for sure. Separation, coming back, missing things, missing feelings… at the beginning of the album there’s a guy that says, ‘There’s no way to get out of the system because there is no system anymore.’ The sadness of that…
 

"There’s a difference between playing with politically correct ghosts and playing with politically incorrect ghosts, and it all lies in the decision of the sample, how much western mentality plays a part."

That’s quite a nihilist sentiment... Well, global pessimism, mixed with cultural idealism, I guess. How culture can maybe get us out of these more systemic problems. They seem so much bigger, but then maybe they’re not because culture is so strong.

How much do these ideologies factor in when you’re making music? It’s always there.

How long did you work on Space Is Only Noise? Did you start writing these tracks knowing that it would be an album? It was kind of a four-year process, to the extent that there are some songs that I knew were going to be part of the hypothetical album that I was going to have at some point, and that I never gave out to anyone, I kept them for myself. I always knew être was going to begin the album. When I started working on the album I already had half of it done, with my favourite songs of the past four years. And those were like pillars in which I had to construct a story and a meaning around.

Did you have to modify any of those tracks within those four years? No. Apart from être which I literally cut in the middle and put it around the album so that there was that last surface layer of the whole album.

What’s your usual starting point when you’re working on music, if you have one? Every time it’s different, it’s very chaotic. But honesty always has to play an integral role.

Is there anybody you perceive as being truly authentic, portraying themselves as musically honest as possible? Teebs and Mount Kimbie. Those were my two favourite albums. I would say some of the [James] Blake stuff, but not all of it.

What’s your opinion of James Blake’s trajectory at the moment? I think its super important for music, the fact that this is happening. I’m the first person to tell you that his hype is good. He should be where Lady Gaga is, that would make music much better. He should be the pop idol of the UK. That should be pop music.

And what kind of feedback have you been getting for Space Is Only Noise? You usually only [have] good things told to you, but friends of friends are saying the big thing against it is that “he’s just making trip hop” or “he’s just making acid jazz.” Which is interesting, because I love trip hop and there’s some acid jazz that I find pretty cool. But the fact that it could be categorized as lounge music for some people is sad to me. You could never say that to Thom Yorke. The Eraser could be trip hop, but it’s not. It goes beyond it, of course, and the fact that you can say that about my music is a little frustrating. But that’s my fault probably.

You’ve remixed an interesting range of people in the past, who would be the one artist on your wishlist? I would love to remix Waves by J Dilla. When I DJ I loop that, and I play it like a dance track with some dirty old school house underneath. I do this, in college, because people know J Dilla in the US.

You’ve spoken a lot about the influence of hip hop in previous interviews, but it seems that people who are coming to your music from a club perspective could easily miss that reference. Right. People come up to me and tell me “What do you mean, hip hop inspired? I don’t hear any hip hop.” I’ve been listening to only west coast hip hop for the last year and a half. Cool that you don’t hear it, but it’s there.
 

"If playing live constantly is like shooting your music, interviews are like shooting yourself..."

 
What kind of west coast hip hop? Most of what Stones Throw put out, and I went back and really studied Dr. Dre, but studied it like “Why is he using these cheesy instruments, and it works?” Like 50 Cent In Da Club, it’s an incredible beat, and he’s using a music box and it’s like “What makes it not sound like an electronic music box?”

Did you figure that out? Yeah, kind of...

And what was your conclusion? He doesn’t quantize so much. He uses an MPC so the hits are bigger, I started using one.

Did you start using an MPC specifically for this album? Or have you always used one? Mostly now. The mentality that hip hop has, playing with sampling, I started thinking: it’s kind of like playing with ghosts, and that started being super exciting, like “Oh, I’m using these sounds of the future, and these sounds here have life, like real life and people.” That dichotomy started freaking me out, and listening to Madlib with that in mind is really weird, if you really try and conceptualise the music, you know? Instead of just feeling it. So the playing with ghosts thing was kind of also part of the album, how I sampled. Cos I did sample, for sure. But what I did to the samples I have never done before and that’s totally coming from a hip hop perspective.

What you were doing, specifically? Taking jazz records, like a 3-second saxophone wail, and cutting it up and changing the pitch and making a solo out of it.

I’m interested in what you said about playing with ghosts, particularly with vocal samples. What’s your take on club tracks that take vocal samples out of their original context? There’s a difference between playing with politically correct ghosts and playing with politically incorrect ghosts, and it all lies in the decision of the sample, how much western mentality plays a part. I can’t tell you how many times people have told me my music sounds exotic, they tell me “It must be because you’re from Chile”, and I tell them “Yeah you know, growing up with apes down there was like really, really influential…” I just look at them. And then they’re like “Ohh, really?” And I’m like “No, of course not! It’s not a fucking jungle!"

Do you think that your heritage causes people to approach your music in a different way than if you were… White white white?
 

"I think a lot of the time, music is like this moment that can fill space in a very natural way."

 
Yeah. If you were Nick Jones? Hmm… maybe.

Do you find it difficult to be part of this process, interviews and publicity? Yeah, it’s a big problem. If playing live constantly is like shooting your music, interviews are like shooting yourself, you know? But, it also depends on the interview. It’s also sad that this press world is kind of like… everyone is using the other person, in the end. It’s not like a true, genuine curiosity. Most of the time it’s “Oh, let’s get this person for this website” and “that’ll help us, and oh, it’ll help you too”. It’s very economic and market-based and takes away from the music for sure.

Does it concern you that it will take away from your music specifically? Of course it does. It’s already happened. You’re dead already, the first time they take a picture of you. I went to a photo shoot a year ago and I’d never done a photo shoot in my life, obviously. The woman had sunglasses for me and a suit and this shirt and these fancy shoes, and I told her, “I’m not a model. I make music.” But the whole system will try to turn you into that. That’s why I don’t want to only do music, you know?

So what are your other outlets? Film and writing. I really hope that I can do both of these things just as much as I do music.

So your own rising profile has been paralleled with a shift towards slower tempos in club music, but as we all know, trends move in cycles. Where do you think that will place you in the future? Trends will be trends; I have no say in that. I'm just going to try my hardest to stay honest. Let's hope it works…

Christine Kakaire

Check out Nicolas Jaar's mixes on Pulse.