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Whether you went out last weekend to check out an uber-geeky beat magician or a depressingly awesome indie rock band, we all know there’s always some serious musical talents rocking around the Dam. You might not recognize them all yet, but don’t worry, you will soon. In this series of interviews we talk to remarkable artists about their music and their inspirations.
He has an awesome last name (‘Lovehouse’) and his awesomeness doesn’t stop there. Jorn Liefdeshuis breathes music. He’s a Trouw resident and has his own romantic electronic music party called Pixel, but did you know he also owns a booking agency and works for DJ Broadcast? We met up for some tea and even though we were both moody because of the dark winter days we still had a lovely chat.
Favourite festival: “Lowlands or Nachtdigital.”
Favourite city (except Amsterdam): “I recently went to Cape Town, gonna go with that.”
Favourite Trouw resident: “Nuno dos Santos or William Kouam Djoko.”
Favourite drink: “Beer.”
Favourite drugs: “Coffee.”
Do you like being interviewed?
“Assuming that whoever interviews me is actually interested in who I am and what I do, it gives me an opportunity to talk about the things I love doing. I can’t imagine that wouldn’t be fun.”
My next question is more fun than realistic. If from now on you could only play b2b and never play solo again, with whom would you form a duo?
“James Holden or Four Tet! It would be amazing to play with someone I look up to. They are both very diverse musically, they could teach me a lot. More realistic I would say Nuno. We have a musical click and both like a lot of different music. I think we could surprise each other with music that we don’t know yet and like it.”
A lot of journalists ask you why you don’t produce. You say you just don’t have the urge, which I can imagine. Don’t you feel as if people take you less serious as an artist because you don’t produce?
“I don’t get taken seriously all the time, but that has a different reason: I don’t take myself that serious. Seriously though, people probably do, but that’s not my goal. I just want to do what I love and if others like it that’s fantastic. Some producers say that they have something creative inside them that needs to get out, but what’s in me gets out through DJing. I’d like to produce though, if there were four more days in a week. When I’m done with work I just like to relax. Learning how to produce would take too much time and focus, I would set the bar too high for myself.”
So you’re a perfectionist?
“When it comes to music, definitely. I’m a total bitch, there’s a lot more music that I don’t like than music that I do like. In the beginning I wouldn’t let myself play at my own parties because I didn’t consider myself good enough yet.”
What’s a nice track to wake up with?
“I recently got new speakers which I can control with my phone. Now I can play music before I even move. William Onyeabor’s entire album is amazing and even more amazing to get up to in the morning. It’s so happy, which is necessary in dark winter days.”
I agree. Let’s talk about Pixel. You’ve been doing it for a while now, do you see a development?
“The party used to be more diverse musically. When I teamed up with the guys from Next Monday’s Hangover I let them handle the concept and marketing and I started focussing solely on the music. Now the music is tightly defined, maybe not so much for the audience but I know exactly what I’m doing. Because of the hype more people are open to, with all due respect, the more interesting deep house now.”
Trouw closes next year, sadly. What’s going to happen to Pixel?
“I can’t really tell yet, we’re going to decide when the time comes. It’s not like Pixel belongs to Trouw, it used to be in Club 11. We’ll decide after summer what’s going to happen but now we want to focus on what probably will be the next four editions this year.”
Are you still happy with Pixel or do you see yourself moving on to a new project in a couple of years?
“Pixel just feels right. I know exactly what I want musically. I used to hop from concept to concept but now I feel as if the circle is complete. I’m happy with how everything is going. The name’s catchy and fits well with the nerdy vibe. Of course you never know, it’s hard to say what will happen in a few years. So much can even happen in six months.”
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