QYou’ve been producing and releasing tracks for a while now but over the past two years their was a rumor of you being ill?
AYes, that story and rumor was actually not true, I was not ill. I was actually scheduled for a 2 week tour in Brazil, but at 2 AM, 5 hours before my flight to Brazil, my wife's water broke and we went straight to the hospital. She was 3 months early with her pregnancy. I had to cancel the first couple of gigs on my Brazil tour because I wasn't going to miss the birth of my daughter. Well. to make a long story short, my daughter Kaitlyn was born, I still had to full-fill my tour duty, and so while I was away catching the second week of the scheduled Brazil tour, the doctors told my wife that our daughter had "tumors" in her liver, the doctors also said it was cancer. We had no idea what was happening at the hospital because my wife did not want to alarm me while I was away working. But when I got back to the USA the first thing I did was rush to the hospital. There, the doctors took me to a quiet room and told me my daughter had cancer! My whole life changed that instant. We then went to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and went through 3 months of nightmare. Thank God that after all the cancer scare the tumors in my little girl's body were non-malignant which meant NO cancer....BUT one of the tumors decided to keep growing. It grew with 2 liters full of fluid, and my little girl was partially disabled for a year, because she couldn't move, walk or sit up with this big tumor taking over her body. My life in my mind and eyes was a living hell, and so was my wife's life. I didn't want to travel, I didn't want to produce music, a dark cloud was over me everyday. So I actually got a regular job to keep my mind busy and to support my family. Through prayer and pleading with God everything turned out well. My daughter went through a 3 hour operation to remove the large "growth" and thank God she is perfect and happy soul today. Now I am back in the studio and djing. My daughter keeps me company while I work, most of the time she doesn't let me concentrate because she wants all my attention, and I usually end up giving her all of it.
QHow would you describe your sound at the moment and where do you see it heading in the future?
AAs for describing my "sound" at the moment, Who Da funk is trying to stay away from the stereotypical notion of dance music. I am rooting myself to my underground pure form of house and tech-house livelihood. A innovation of old skool house, but rather more of the 2003-2006 sound. More raw. With the present stage of electronic dance music it feels like what rock music went through when all the rockers looked like girls and wore make-up, and then Nirvana came along and put a stop to all the garbage. Who da Funk comes from a strong "Miami Bass" background, and lately I have been messing a bit with that sound again in the studio. My sound is leaning towards more tech house, and a dirtier raw sound
QHow has digital technology changed your dj sets?
AI use Traktor and really like it. . It's all about selection, reading the crowd, and building the night. reaching that peak and keeping it there. It's all about vibe and feeling good. it's not about educating people on the dance-floor like i used to try and do early in my career. People want to have fun. They want to enjoy your set. Some of my best gigs have been in small dirty clubs, the people arms length from me and big bass bins thumping! i enjoy playing a tech-house set where I can get filthy and dirty, but if the club is VIP then mainstream they get but in a tasteful manner. I can bang out a mainstream set and still keep it "real", I am alway looking to hook the crowd with what they want, and then I slip in what I want it usually works out perfectly. A lot of preparation goes into my set, and traktor allows for me to prepare, it allows for me to create a better set, a more elaborate performance. I have a larger selection to choose from. It feels good and that's what matters.
QWhat projects are you currently working on?
AI am working using logic and that platform allows me to work on the sound I am looking for. I am working with Lindsay Kay (Eden records. Lectro Chik records) and Angelica De No, who was a former Subliminal records vocalist. I bang out the sickness, and they tame it down with sweetness. I concentrate a lot on the arrangement, making the drop as interesting as possible and building into mayhem as clever as possible and with as much intense energy as i can produce. Music sounds "bigger" with logic and all the mastering plugins at our disposal. I like using the Tr-Racks plugs alot and also the L2 from Waves to limit the mix. We release most of my tracks on my Label "Lectro Chik", this allows me to keep ownership and more control of my material. I work with a great licensing team and they find spots for my Lectro Chik records catalogue on tv shows and film. It feels good to get checks in the mail and know that I own 100% of my work.
QWhat artists would you cite as some of your biggest influences in terms of your own musical career?
AEarly on in my House Music career I would watch the crew at Subliminal records while they were in the studio. then i took my miami influence and drum-n-bass influence i started banging out some nasty production as Who Da Funk. Back in the day Felix the House Cat, Daft Punk and Bassment Jaxx where a major influence. Today in house music there are no influences, it all sounds the same to me, everyone wants to sound like the big dj/producers. i remember when hip hop had Run DMC sounding like Run DMC, and the Beastie Boys sounding like the Beastie Boys, an Public Enemy, NWA etc...they all sounded different than each other. Obviously techno and electronic music has exposure to a much larger audience in Europe than in America as with your summer residencies in ibiza,spain. How does this affect your approach to playing US dates, and what kind of a response do you get when you hit the US? I don't agree, there is a huge audience here in the USA, . It is extremely commercial here, but the big exception is the Top recognized European djs are packing in arena size audiences. The radio is flooded with house music, BUT they don't call it house music, they call it alternative music...So I am grateful for places like Bora Bora in Ibiza and numerous clubs in Europe and Russia and Brazil that are keeping it semi-underground. I remember when the USA was on top of the game. Remember, this is where in my eyes electronic music got its start, and then i feel we lost it, and then we got it back when Subliminal records was the best House label on the planet, and right now it's a rollercoaster ride.
QTell us a bit about your own musical journey – how did you get started in djing/producing?
Atitled Shake That Thang, it was one of the first Miami Bass (Booty Music) records to get regular rotation on radio. Power 96 played the hell out of it and we went on tour in the Southern part of the US. We did some big things as that group. We then hooked up with Magic Mike and he produced our album titled Vicious Bass "Back To Haunt You" on Cheetah records. It went "gold" (500,000 physical records sold) out selling most of our peers at the moment. when Miami Bass music died out, as do so many genres which come and go with the time, I was basically out of a job. So i chose to move to New York to attend Audio Engineering school. Upon graduation, I moved back to Miami and started working in South Beach studios as an assistant Engineer. I got to work on Rick Martin's album, worked with Shakira at the beginning of her USA career, and numerous rock bands. All the time as an assistant engineer in South Beach Studios I felt cheated, because I was once "on top of the world" as an artist and now i was an assistant engineer watching these artists realize their dreams. So i quit south Beach studios and moved to New Jersey. My cousin got me a job at a new label called Subliminal Records. i became an assistant engineer there, but in my mind I knew it would be temporary, i just needed to settle in and find my niche. This was during the time that House music was getting big in Europe, the Daft punk, Bassment Jaxx era. Then I became Erik Morillo's road manager when his road manger quit and he needed someone that same day. We got on a flight that same night and flew to Ibiza. It was at Pacha in Ibiza that I realized what real house music was. Erick's set that night inspired me to start producing and Djing House Music. i envisioned myself one day djing in the Pacha dj booth, 2 years later that became a reality. after that gig while we were at the airport i told Erick i no longer wanted to be his road manager because I was going to make a hit, he looked at me like I was crazy. 5 Months later Erick released a song I wrote and produced titled "Shiny Disco Balls". I did tell him i was going to make a hit:)
QWhere are some of your favorite venues to play out?
ABrazil and Russia are incredible, Bogota Colombia is awesome, and Mix Club in Paris is still my best night to this day. Creamfields is always an adrenaline rush. So many places I have played and i am grateful for that. I have a short documentary with some of my best performances at www.youtube.com/jorgemalo
QWhat do you think as a artist which had enjoyed the climax of success and due to circumstances that were out of your hand have to do to go from where they are do where they desire to be?
ALife is short, God is important, family comes second to God. you can't be on top of the world forever. This music business is a roller coaster ride. You can be staring at a blank computer screen feeling worthless because you can't create a great track and 2 months later you can be staring at a picture of you in a magazine talking about what a great producer you are. One day you may have no gigs, then a flood of requests come in for you to dj all over the world. It can really screw with your mind if you don't understand that life is short and you have to enjoy life at the present moment. I know people who are so obsessed with being super famous and they never live in the moment. They have a blank stare all the time, and then when they become famous they are obsessed to keep the fame and afraid to lose the fame, so they repeat the vicious cycle of not living in the moment, that same blank stare whether famous or not. i live life and love life, music comes third after God and family.
QI would love to know about your studio set up at home. Can you give me a visual description?
AMackie D8B, Genelec 1031, Tannoys, G5 Mac, and a Mac Book pro running Logic 8. Vintech mic pre, with an Audio Technica 4050 mic and I really love that mic for my female vocalist. i run protools HD hardware as my in-between from the Mic pre to my Logic inputs. I call my studio the Meat Locker, i love the darkness and grit that the basement gives me. I am not very unorganized with everything and it seems to work good. I record my vocals straight to my i-phone and then email it to myself and use those for ugly vocals. My female singers get the good recording setup. i have posters of me hanging everywhere and my 2 Winter Music Awards in front of my face to remind me of my accomplishments. A red couch behind me with piles of junk on it, and spider webs on the ceiling, it scares the hell out of my singers and i get a good laugh from that. Thousands of vinyl and a loud water heater.
QCan who tell us about Who da Funk Alterego
AWho Da Funk was born from a need to bring my Miami Bass/Jungle roots to the world of House Music. it was my rockstar alter ego, looking for an outlet to live, live, live and rock out on stage as a dj. Who Da Funk was freedom with no care as to who was going to embrace the Who Da Funk sound, and yet it was at one time the biggest name in House music paying respect to all those great miami Bass, Jungle and House producers that inspired me. And I was proud to represent the United States of America. www.facebook.com/djjorgejaramillofanpage www.jorgejaramillo.net
