DJ B: Hi Julius. It looks like you've been in the Bay area for a while, are
you actually from Northern California?
Julius: I'm originally from Montreal, Canada.
DJ B: Oh, I noticed a little bit of an accent there, it didn't sound like?
Julius: Yes, I've been here for twenty-five years now, I'm an old guy so
I've been around. But I was born and raised in Montreal and, you know,
I've been out in California ever since. Did live in LA for three years
too, but came back here so I've been here since.
DJ B: What part of town do you live in?
Julius: Well actually right by the Ball Park.
DJ B: Really?
Julius: The San Francisco Giant's Ball Park, literally two blocks from it.
DJ B: So is that considered South San Francisco or is that still part of
City proper?
Julius: You know, it's still City proper and they came up with a new
name, South Beach I think they call it. It's a newer term because they're
rebuilding a lot of it and building new condos and homes and it's becoming
very residential, whereas just a couple of years ago really it was very
industrial and desolate. But now they're just trying to clean it up and,
you know, it's expanding out to that part of the town.
DJ B: So do you have like some loft space there, a recording studio?
Julius: Yes, exactly, it's actually a loft space.
DJ B: Awesome. So is that where you put together most of the tracks for
the reason we're talking today, which is the Heartbeat album out on
Loveslap?
Julius: Yes.
DJ B: And so do you want to talk a little bit about the creative process
there, I mean how long did it take you to put the album together?
Julius: Well, you know, it's actually a mix CD of neat house music which
is on the Loveslap label, which is run by Charles Spencer. And it's my
second mix I've done for them. This one is a little different because on
the first one I was using only Loveslap released material, and on this one
I was able to license different tracks from different labels, which to me
becomes, and has become, more electric in the vibe and obviously different
artists and different sounds. And that was definitely a welcome change
because some labels have a large catalogue so they like you to use some of
their music, if not all of it, and on this one we used one track from
Loveslap and everything else was everywhere else so it was great and
refreshing.
DJ B: I notice the distinct difference between this and the first volume
in this Heartbeat series that David Harness did, it seems that that was
focused a lot on Loveslap artists, whereas this one, as you said, you have
a little bit wider palette to choose from. So I'm sure that opened up the
possibilities. So how did you go about picking out the records, I mean
were these things you already had in your bag or did you go out and contact
people that you knew??
Julius: Yes, you know, actually most of it was stuff I already had,
things I came across. A couple of tracks that aren't actually released
yet, there's a couple on that and that I heard and I liked.
DJ B: Like what, for instance?
Julius: Well the ones that, like the one that's the So What, which is
featuring Kenny Bobien, that's a track that Spencer and?I call him Spencer,
most of us call him Spencer even though that's his last name, that's how he
goes by usually. Spencer and Gregoria Del Piaro produced, having Kenny
come in the studio and sing and they produced that track, and this other
one by Movido which is Spencer and Movido and Alex which, you know, they
literally had just finished those maybe a week or two before I heard it.
And actually just finished it so I listened to it and I actually liked it,
so I wanted to include it because I did like it. And there's a couple of
tracks, and even the one that I remixed, which is one by Deborah Bond, just
came out, actually was just released last, a week ago I believe. So when I
mixed the CD it wasn't even out yet. But there were three right there that
went out and I just happened to hear and I thought would be nice to
include, the rest I pretty much had in my collection. You know, some of
them might have been a couple of months old but I felt good about including
them because for whatever reason I liked them.
DJ B: So mostly this is pretty fresh meat and some of it is like, as you
said, not even really strictly out of the packaging yet.
Julius: Right.
DJ B: And so that's a nice way to do a mix CD really, it's almost like a greatest hits CD where you get some music you're familiar with plus you also get something new for the ear holes.
