Saturday, April 20, 2013

INTERVIEW: STAZMA THE JUNGLECHRIST

When we were at Norbergfestival this summer we got the opportunity to interview some artists. The following interview was broadcast on Episode 38(?) which unfortunately was lost due to the radio station's recording computer being FUBAR.
  

BRRRAP!: BRRRAP! is at the Norbergfestival with STAZMA THE JUNGLECHRIST, you just finished a quite short, but really awesome set!

STAZMA: Thank you. That was cool!

B: So how are you enjoying the festival so far? Have you seen any other acts?

S: Yeah, the festival was really great, I've been here since yesterday and saw a lot of really good music. I'm a BIG acid fan, so I was really in paradise there! This was a really, really nice festival, clearly.


B: So, the one thing we've been wondering about since we heard you the first time, how did you come up with the name 'Stazma the Junglechrist'?

S: No, no, please don't ask me that question! Well, the 'Stazma' part is really not funny at all, because when I started making music, I subscribed to a forum for people making music on the same software. I had to choose a name for the website, and I was listening to Puppetmastaz, you know, the German hip hop band, with puppets - you don't know that?

B: No...

S: You have to check it out, it's fucking great. It's a band called Puppetmastaz. At the moment, five years ago, I had fucking NO idea that I would be making music 'for real'. So, I was like, 'I have to pick a name', listening to Puppetmastaz, 'Mastaz... OK. Whatever. I don't care'. But after, when I started to really make music, to have gigs and stuff like that, I was thinking, Mastaz is a fucking horrible name, I have find something else, but if I change it completely, nobody will recognize me, so I just inverted it - made it Stazma!
The 'junglechrist' comes from, five years ago I had really long hair, so everybody called me 'Jesus' because of the beard, and the long hair and stuff like that. One of my friends, when I was making a jungle DJ set, called me 'the junglechrist'. So it becomes STAZMA THE JUNGLECHRIST! Sorry, this was really not a funny story...

B: It's very interesting! So, it seems to us, in Sweden we have hardly have any scene at all when it comes to breakcore, but it seems like France has a bit more of a healthy scene, you have Peace Off, for example.

S: Yes, we have Peace Off. At least, we have Peace Off! In France, and I think everywhere in Europe, the breakcore scene was going down for a long time, and now, for me, it feels like it's going up again. There is way more people doing, not really breakcore parties, because an entire night of breakcore... even me, I don't like to go a night and listen only to breakcore. But there is way more people booking breakcore artists into, like, dubstep parties, or electro parties, you know, mix up the style.

In France, that's the cool stuff, because we have a lot of people doing parties, somebody will make dub, somebody will make dubstep, somebody will make acid stuff, somebody will make breakcore, and drum & bass, and jungle... you know, all this stuff. It makes a really fun party, with all kinds of music, and that's cool. In France we really have a nice electronic music scene in the 'wide' way.

B:You have a bit of unity in the scene?

S: No, you can't really talk about unity. But we have some labels and some people who are really into that. That's cool. Mainly there's Peace Off for breakcore, the big label in France, and there's Jarring Effects, I don't know if you've heard of them, it's like a big dub label, and they're making every kind of music. They're really fantastic, they can make a party that will start with a post-rock band, and then a dub band, someone will do hard electronic music, someone making breakcore, somebody doing dubstep, and everybody's like 'WOW, this is a real party, when you never have the same kind of music'. Each artist plays a really different kind of music.

Like there! Like in this festival. There's not only one kind of music. That's the cool thing about it. Everybody's happy, and that's cool!

B: Is there anything we should keep our eyes open for?

S: About me? I have a vinyl release coming out on Peace Off, in September or October... before 2013! And you should be looking for the new Ruby My Dear album, it's already been released. He played yesterday, and his new album is awesome. It's released on Ad Noiseam, and basically everybody should be aware of everything Ad Noiseam releases! My only advice is 'follow Peace Off and Ad Noiseam'. If you like hard electronic music of different kinds, like the fast way and the slow and bassy way, you have to follow both of them.

B: Alright, thanks for taking the time to talk to us!

S: No worries!

BRRRAP! EP 52 INTERVIEW ADDENDUM: STAZMA by Brrrap! on Mixcloud