John Tejada
john tejada is about to drop a compilation with fabric. leura heath catches the techno veteran for an quick telephone interview
by laura heath
: Hey John its Laura from word and rhythm online magazine. How’s things with you?
J: Not to bad, how are things with you?
: Good thanks. How’s LA treating you at the moment?
J: Its nice here.... its still warm, can’t complain.
: So, thank you for taking your time out to talk to us, appreciate it. I hear that you are the new man behind the forthcoming Fabric 44 compilation which is due out in January, very cool. When were you approached to do the compilation?
J: In early October, it was kind of a last minute thing as it always is. I just happened to have the time to do it, and i was glad to do it, it worked out well.
: Excellent, The Fabric compilation’s are apart of a really iconic series, they have had some amazing compilations over the years. How did it feel when you were asked to do the compilation?
J: It felt really good, i know the series and it’s really great to be apart of it. It definatly is like you say iconic series for mixed compilations and djs.
: Absolutely, a lot of people are very excited about Fabric 44 and so far there has been a lot of hype. Some people have even described it as a melodic techno masterpiece. Whats you inspiration behind that tracks that you have chosen? You have also included al ot of edits and really made it your own.
J: The edits are pretty subtle, i wanted to go just a tad beyond what you would get, as apposed to just playing the records the way they are. With a company like Fabric
i saw the opportunity that i could license songs that maybe ordinarily i wouldn’t have access to working with other companies. So to have people like Orbital and Plaid on there is really special for me. There is a combination of tracks from the early 90's and some really new stuff too.
: How long did it take you to complete?
J: I’m a pretty fast worker, it sort of took two morning and two night sessions. For a mix its probably the longest I’ve taken as I’ve done mixes in the past and you kind of just switch on the turntables, and 80 minutes later your done, more or less. So this was really going over with a microscope. I tried to take it one step further than i would normally do.
: If you don’t mind me asking, how did you make the compilation, which software, if any did you use? Was it partly mixed?
J: Some of the stuff came off turntables, because i wasn’t able to get the digital master files, which I was comfortable working on. Loads of stuff was done using repitch in Ableton. I was working with hardware as well, basically giving each song its own channel and settings to kind of match every song instead of just blending them together.
: I want to ask you about some of your other projects that you have going on, one being 'I’m not a gun'. Could you tell us a little about what you have going on and planned with this project for the future?
J: Sure... We released our fourth album in October and it’s on my label Palette, which i was pleased to be able to release it on finally. What it is is basically a collaboration between myself and a close friend of mine Takeshi Nishimoto .He is classically trained in Jazz and everything complicated. He plays some really amazing instruments and a seven string guitar. We met about 9 years ago and have this mutual love for the same types of styles. So we started recording and have every since have still been working on stuff. I suppose a lot of people would see it as a major different style but as i say often its all based on melody and rhythm which is not that different.
: I understand that you are the drummer of the duo?
J: Yeah, I’ve been playing the drums since i was really young, so it gave me a chance to use them finally in a recording and we play our stuff live on occasions too which is a lot of fun too.
: Excellent. So what have you got lined up for Palette in 2009?
J: So far I’ve got two things getting ready. I’ve got a new ep coming in January which includes one of the tracks from the Fabric compilation. Another collaboration of mine is doing his first solo ep and that should be out in February too, that’s by Justin Maxwell. I’d like to hopefully work on a new album sometime in 09 and get that out.
: So when can we next expect you at Fabric?
J: Due to the cd, we are just discussing a date in January. That’s pretty much locked down.
: See you there then! Thanks for your time John.
The new Fabric compilation is due for release on January 12th 09.
