Globetrotting superstar DJ Judge Jules has set his sights on the US in 2006 with the release of both an artist album and a mixed compilation. A fixture on BBC Radio One and Sirius Satellite, Jules is one of the few DJs who can bring the cutting edge club sound onto the air and keep the feeling alive in any environment.
DJ Ron Slomowicz: You just got back from Asia and you are in Europe next week; how do you keep your life straight with all this international travel?
Judge Jules: I to try to grab bits of sleep here, there and
everywhere, wherever I can really. And I guess when you go on a short
trip, you've got to try and keep your body clock adjusted to your home
time zone, and hopefully it won't be too bad by the time you get home
again. Because this is a really short one, but it's a very long way.
RS: It looks like you're getting ready to do a full-frontal
assault on the US. Why do you think 2006 is going to be your year to
conquer the States?
Judge Jules: I wouldn't necessarily say that it would be the year to
conquer the States, it's the year in which I'm releasing a couple of
albums, but I've been DJing fairly regularly in the US for about three
years probably, just slowly building up a head of steam. I mean, it's
difficult for me, there's lots of other DJs who can probably tour more
than me, because of my UK radio show, I mean, I do two radio shows,
but the UK-based one on Radio 1, which is one of the biggest stations
in the world, only enables me to take a certain amount of weekends off
per year and treat them as pre-recorded shows. And that's probably
about twelve weekends a year maximum, it's not less than that, so I'm
kind of restricted in the amount of times I can hit the US but I try
and make the maximum impact during those visits.
RS: Why would you think that a lot of European DJs see the US as
such a big goal?
Judge Jules: I wouldn't necessarily say that the US to the exclusion
of everywhere else, I mean, you know, Asia's important and South
America as well. I just think you want to be exposed in all the
continents of the world, I mean there's not many places in Africa
obviously that one could be exposed, with the exception of… well the
obvious exception is South Africa and maybe in Morocco, so you kind of
exclude Africa. But really you want to spread the gospel of the music
that you believe in ultimately.
RS: Cool. And how much effect do you think satellite, your
hook-up on Sirius, is having with your role in the US?
Judge Jules: Well, obviously the whole concept of satellite radio is
growing and there are lots of stations, but as it grows, it benefits
me. I'm certainly getting plenty of eMail feedback from people who
are listening to the show, which is great. So as that grows, with
every sort of digital satellite radio receiver that reads there will
be more, there's more of a market out there. And obviously lots more
cars now, for example, are being fitted with satellite radio receivers
as standard, which is good news.
RS: Is satellite big in the UK and Europe right now?
Judge Jules: It doesn't exist actually in the UK and Europe. Well,
English stations, each has got its own way that it goes about radio.
I mean in the UK we've got quite a lot of non-commercial stations,
we've got BBC stations which are publicly funded and that kinds of
falls outside the media ownership and that doesn't need adverts and is
therefore able to support newer, more untested acts. To me, what seems
like the greatest advantage of satellite radio is the lack of ads and
the ability to champion musical areas that wouldn't necessarily fit in
on conventional commercial radio.
RS: Thank you for saying that. I just listened to your mix CD,
I really am enjoying it, it's called the Global Warm Up Mix CD. How did
you choose the songs for that CD?
Judge Jules: Well, I DJ a lot. In the UK I often do two gigs on a
Friday and a Saturday night, and when I travel- last count, I did
about a hundred and seventy-five gigs per year, and it's really just a
case of the tracks that have gone down best wherever they've been
played. It's as simple as that, but because I do more gigs than most,
the ability to kind of have a sort of litmus test of tracks in lots of
different places, it's better…
