Emmerald: How did KemeticJust get started?
Justin Chapman: KemeticJust is comprised of me and DJ Kemet, who is probably one of the better known DJs in Atlanta. He was formally in Arrested Development. We first met at a hip-hop gig in ‘96. I think we were opening for Cash Money, not the New Orleans Cash Money. There’s a great battle DJ from Philadelphia named Cash Money, who’s been around for a long time. Kemet introduced himself to me, you know, we caught a vibe whatever. And then I think we ran into each other at the record store, and he came over to my house one day and we vibed out again. And then one day, I was playing at this old club called Yin Yang and I played a John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" into Masters At Work and George Benson's "You Can Do It Baby", and Kemet came up to me because he said that he had been trying to figure out how to work "A Love Supreme" into a house kind of a thing. And so from then we were like OK, we need to hookup. He was just getting his studio together, so we decided to make music. The first thing we, worked on, was a tribute to John Coltrane. And so yes, it started from there and we just connected. It’s just an easygoing relationship, and a certain vibration exists between us that allows us to work together.
Emm: What was your first single?
JC: It was an EP called the Maiden EP on the Silver Network label. It was four songs. I'd met Jeff K from Silver Network in ‘99 at a party, and I gave him a CD and he emailed me back and that was it. Silver Network is a great label. It deals with Iz and Diz and Pepe Bradock, and a bunch of other guys.
Emm: KemeticJust's first full-length album is coming out soon. What will it be called?
JC: The new album is called the "Peace Between Us".
Emm: When is it coming out?
JC: If I knew I’d be a rich man. It was supposed to come out at the end of September 2003, but it’s apparently been delayed again. It's on Ian Pooley's Pooled label out of Germany. I think they are having distribution issues for the CD distribution, so they’re trying to work those kinks out before they put a date on it, so we’re waiting on that.
Emm: You already have one single out now, which is "Highways and Mindwaves", with Terrance Downs as the vocalist.
JC: Right.
Emm: You usually do the vocals on KemeticJust projects. How did you all end up working with him?
JC: We've known Terrance for a while. Terrance and I both worked on the original Ananda Project record with Chris Brann. Atlanta’s a pretty small scene in that everybody knows each other, or is one person removed from someone else. So we’ve known Terrance for a few years, and this summer we just decided to kind of spread the love. Like you said, I usually do all the vocals, and we just decided to try something else. He’s got a great voice.
Emm: Will there be any other singles before the album release?
JC: Yes, the next single will probably be "Thank You".
Emm: Are you going to tour?
JC: Hopefully. We’re still trying to work out how we’re going to make that happen and where it’s going to happen. For the past three years we’ve pretty much been on the road. Last year I was gone, every month of the year I was somewhere else. This year we went away for a week and other than that it’s been local. I’m sure that, the economic fallout of September 11th has had a lot to do with that. I mean, everybody is, at least in the house music thing playing mostly local venues. For a lot of underground artists where it’s more hit or miss in terms of whether you’re going to pack a club out or not or whatever, you know, some of the promoters are just sticking to people for whom they don’t have to pay a transatlantic flight. But hopefully once the album comes out, I know that we’re going to talk to some colleagues in Japan, and we’ll probably do some of Europe.
