WILL JAX: THE HOUSE THAT JAX BUILT

Will Jax has been building a solid reputation in Adelaide’s house scene for quite a while now, with gigs at the TechPhonics parties, Marble Bar, Stereosonic Festival, and a Thursday Night show on Soundpond.net. He’s also played interstate and released tracks on nearly a dozen labels, including Greenhouse, HuHu, Juiced! and Shak Digital. Onion caught up with him to discuss production methods, Adelaide’s house music scene, and the future…

Having started out as a DJ and moved into production, which aspect do you feel is most important for you at present?
As much as I love DJing, it has got to be the production side of it. It's always a challenge trying to get that exact sound that you want, or trying to bring all the elements of a remix together to do something completely different.

Your tracks have an organic feel, with lots of sampled instruments and vocals – how do you go about achieving this sound?
Well I've always been a fan of disco, jazz and hip hop so incorporating elements from here was always something that I wanted to achieve. I spend quite a lot of time looking for older stuff that I can use in one way or another. With all the sample packs and what not out there now, it's quite easy to revert back to using vocals etc straight from them, whereas I like to go and find something that I can use somewhere else.

  Rooftops ( Greenhouse Recordings ) by Will Jax

There have been a number of excellent house producers turning out releases in Adelaide over the last several years, including Jorge Watts, Sonny Fodera, The House Inspectors, and Guy Moor. Is that just a coincidence, or do you get together to share ideas and techniques?
I know! When I talk to people overseas they are always saying that Australia is pumping out some of the best house music in the world, it's quite funny. I guess the good thing here is that Adelaide is so small and we all know each other. Sonny and Jorge make a great combination and I've just teamed up with The House Inspectors to do a remix for a New Zealand label. When you have that talent like we do in Adelaide, it's hard not to share ideas and try and collaborate with each other.

You recently travelled to Melbourne to play at School Of House – have you got any more interstate travel lined up for this year?
The School Of House events that they have been running in Melbourne are gradually getting better and better and I think that it's going to be a great event over time and I'm stoked to be a part of it. I was hoping to get to Queensland in the middle of the year to play with fellow producers Wongo and Zare and possibly over to New Zealand later in the year but we'll see what happens. 

  Ones & Twos by Will Jax

What are your thoughts on the dance scene in Adelaide? Is there a big place here for funky and jackin' house?
Well from all the recent events lately it looks as though house music is coming back strong. When you have all the talent we have here, it's a shame that there aren't more events promoting the music, but as I mentioned, there are quite a few night spots running, or about to run, house nights. I think with the right venues and the right people pushing the music/night, it will work really well.

What do you expect you’ll be doing in five years? Do you plan to make a career out of music?
I really don't know. I'm finishing up my degree in the middle of the year and I have a full-time job so music has to be put on the back burner quite a lot. I went in to production thinking of it as a hobby, something I really enjoyed and didn't think anything would really come of it but things have changed quite a lot since then. I'm not sure I would like to do it as a career though, I get so much fun out of making music when I feel like it and not having it as something that I have to do by meeting deadlines etc. 

Words: Joe Miller

For more info on Will Jax head to myspace.com/willjaxmusic or soundcloud.com/will-jax

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