Page 28 - DemoZone Magazine Issue 003

FEATURE INTERVIEW
In an age increasingly dominated by faceless machine-created sounds, DJ- Producer Rebecca Vasmant is bringing a fresh new twist to dance music with her love of jazz, the original form of unbridled spiritual sonic expression.
While promoting her own parties in Glasgow, starting her jazz record label Shiehallion and touring the world for Ministry Of Sound, her whirlwind schedule has recently fitted in sessions with eight-strong Ghanaian outfit Kakatsitsi, which will manifest as a live fusion show mixing traditional African rhythms with modern dance ingredients; two strains of dancefloor- friendly catharsis joining together in a vibrant new mutant.
Rebecca has already made a name in Glasgow with her Made In Glasgow and Know The Way parties, running a popular record fair with the venerable Sub Club and a monthly spot on BBC Radio Scotland playing contemporary jazz records in an attempt to bridge the gap between this much abused but crucial genre and the electronic scene. A huge jazz fan, she also airs this facet of her irrepressible musical passion at key events like the Glasgow Jazz Festival and the Baltic Soul Weekender.
Renowned UK clubs which have been treated to Rebecca’s sublime house and techno sets include a two year residency at Edinburgh’s Cabaret Voltaire, the Sub Club/Arches and 69 Below in Glasgow, Aberdeen’s Snafu, Dundee’s Reading Room, We Love... at Manchester’s Sankey’s, Leeds’ Back To Basics and London niteries including MOS, Pacha, Turnmills and East Village. She has also played festivals including Rockness, Audio Soup, Kelburn, Doune The Rabbit Hole and Wickerman, plus Ibiza spots such as Space, Savannah and Zoo Project.
Rebecca’s MOS activities have taken her to 22 countries in the last two years, including premiere spots in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Estonia, India, Africa, Nicaragua, Bosnia, Latvia, Dubai, Austria, Turkey, Serbia, Algeria and Bulgaria.
So how many years have you been on the scene and where did it all start for you?
Collecting music started around ten years ago for me, playing in clubs started in the summer of 2008. I did my first gig in London and it went from there. I did a radio production course back when I was 18 and I had been collecting records for a while before this and was always was fascinated by the concept of playing records to other people and would always imagine what it would feel like to play a record to a room full of people and see them reacting to that record. I decided to buy decks, and bought second hand belt drive monstrosities and starting setting out trying to learn how to mix. I don’t come from a musical background and I didn’t know anyone who was a DJ, so was not even familiar with what it was that I was supposed to be doing, but I just knew that when I got it, I would get it. I would just go on my decks and find myself in tears not knowing what to do and wishing I could make some sense of it. Eventually after at least six months of trying I started to get the concept and just kept practicing. It was not easy for me and took a lot of work, and it did not come naturally to me like some people. I just took it from there really!
You are one of the DJs for ministry whats it like to work for such a massive organisation?
There have been many ups and downs on this journey. I feel that of course one key moment in my career has been gaining the World Tours Residency for Ministry of Sound and I am grateful that this allows me to be able to play the music that I love so much all over the world and meet so many amazing people, and discover more music that I would perhaps not have had access to if I was not able to travel so much on tours.
You have trvelled the world in your own words sum up your biggest gig to date and why?
I would have to say that there have been many amazing gigs that stick out in my mind, the biggest crowd was probably in Nimes, France when I played a venue which was 10 thousand in crowd size this was an amazing experience and the energy level from the people, seemed to be huge, you could really feel that in the air. The biggest gig in terms of memorable experience probably has to be when I played Sarejevo, Bosnia. The party was in the bottom floor of a multi-storey car park, I arrived absolutely exhausted after having played a few gigs in a row the nights before so was feeling like it would be hard to keep motivated. I walked into the place and there was thousands of people going absolutely crazy, like nothing I had seen before. I instantly had goosebumps and thought ‘ this is going to be an amazing night’. No feeling like it, absolutely amazing and I will never forget it.
You do a bit of producing tell us about that Do you have any tracks you have out or have forthcoming?
I am working on my own material at the moment for release and have a few exciting things in the pipeline. I have been working on producing my own music for a number of years now, and wanted to wait until the time was completely right to release it, now is that time so I am very excited for all the possible things to come.
I am working on a live project with a 4 piece Jazz band which is called Glasgow Jazz Experiment. We will be playing live shows consisting of the band, and myself with hardware. I would describe it as a fusion of house, techno and Jazz. I am also working on a few remixes of an amazing band called Hansu-Tori which will be due out later this year. Also I have two EPs of my own electronic material due for release later on this year.
Life seems to be treating you pretty good away from the music side what do you get up to on your spare time if you have any..
In my spare time, I really love to listen to music. Mostly Jazz, and I use it as a kind of meditation to relax and allow myself to be completely free. I simply cannot describe the way that some music makes me feel. It is like a completely cleansing experience and the emotion that it derives from within our core can allow us to feel however we want to feel. Whether this is good or otherwise, we just allow ourselves to feel emotion that we may not feel in our daily lives and this is a beautiful thing. And I really do appreciate and respect musicians and producers for allowing us to be able to do that. When I hear a piece of music that I really feel, it can almost put me into a meditative state and I can allow myself to purely focus on what that piece of music is saying, whether it is classical, Jazz, Soul or Techno.. The emotion is still the same.
Music really is a privilege and I can honestly say that deep within my heart I am totally grateful for every piece of amazing music that I have been lucky enough to have been able to hear. And I realise that even if we spent every waking minute of every day searching for music, we would not have enough time to discover it all.. and this thought is overwhelming.
I thank every musician, composer, maestro and Producer for every piece of music whether it has been noticed or unnoticed and wake up every day happy to be able to just take the time to just listen and appreciate music.
I also love to eat, I love Japanese food, and whenever I can, love to cook and eat food. I also love art and have got really into some poetry of late. Needless to say, I also love to go out and have a good dance with my friends and drink wine!
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