Interview with Bassjackers – TURN UP THE BASS

Bassjackers’ career took off in 2011 when their track “Mush Mush” was signed to Tiesto’s Musical Freedom Records.  It grew to be one of the biggest club/festival tracks of that year.  Since then they’ve done remixes for artists like Rihanna and Moby, played in Privilege Ibiza alongside Tiesto, and toured around the globe.  This fall saw Bassjackers embark on a North American bus tour with Bingo Players and MAKJ.  That’s where we caught up with Marlon, the DJ side of Bassjackers, for a chat about what bus life is really like, the importance of not taking yourself too seriously, and upcoming projects!  

How are you doing tonight?

I’m doing really good considering the circumstances of having just played 20 shows back to back.  At the moment we are on the Rattle & Roll tour and we also have some of our own shows on and off the bus.  Tomorrow there is one more show in Edmonton and then I’m gonna have a day off.  I’m feeling good and really pumped for the show!  It’s looking really good.  I just took a peek and MAKJ is playing and the crowd is going crazy!

What do you have planned for your day off?

Sleeping! On the bus it’s not really sleep, it’s bunk bus sleep.  There is lots of shaking as you go city to city.  You don’t sleep much so tomorrow is gonna be a big fat sleeping sesh!

 

What have been the highlights of the tour so far?  The craziest moments?

That’s a really difficult question because there have been a lot of crazy things happening!  Every night has been slammed.  Every city was amazing with lots of energy.  Roseland was definitely one of the highlights because all of us have a really big following in New York.  I’ve never seen a lineup outside for a venue like that before.  It went on for blocks.  It was also a bit sad for the people that couldn’t get in but overall the end result was really good. The crew gets along really well.  It’s a fun tour.  It’s really important the people you tour with should have good vibes and that’s what it’s been all the time. So yeah good stuff!

 

You can tell you guys are having a good time.

Yeah, if you follow us on Instagram you can see all the silly stuff.

You have a really good sense of humor.  I think that’s important.

Yeah, my friends think I’m a clown.  That’s what Bassjackers are – two people. Ralph is in the studio working, the man behind the scenes, and I’m more the performer and definitely not taking myself too seriously.  I think it should be all about having fun.  There’s already enough serious stuff so let’s not take ourselves too seriously.

It’s a unique combo that you guys have where Ralph produces and you DJ.  It works quite well for you guys.  I really respect that.  I don’t understand why more people don’t do what you guys are doing instead of doing the ghost-producer thing.  Do you have an opinion on that?

With us it was what it was.  When we started out, we didn’t know where it was gonna go but I get with ghost-producing where it comes from.  Maybe if we knew how it was gonna be before maybe we would of chosen that construction because with this people don’t understand.  “Bassjackers?  It’s only one guy, what is this?”  In the end everyone knows, but yeah I get the concept of ghost-producers.  Everyone does it the way they wanna do it and we do it our way.

It’s good you guys keep it real.  You keep it straight up.

That’s what we’re all about.  Keeping it real!

What do you guys have coming up?  Collabs and new tracks?

On the production side, we have a collab with Jordy Dazz.  We are still working out which label.  We just want the best label for that record to do good. We want everything to come together to make it a really good release because we really believe in this release.  We do and Jordy does.  We are always working on new tracks.  On the tour side, we are going to Asia, then coming back to the states to wrap up the year, New Year’s Eve and all, and then a big Australia tour in March.  The touring schedule is insane and the release schedule is packed on both fronts.

Anything exclusive you could tell me?

All I can say is that we are working on really interesting stuff and interesting collabs!  You know how it is, you don’t want to say anything until it’s 100 percent sure.

You can’t count your eggs before they’ve hatched.

Yeah, exactly. We don’t want to disappoint anyone.  Just follow us everywhere you can!  Instagram, Facebook, Twitter….Yelp!  You will find out everything.  We always keep everything in the loop.

 

Awesome, thanks for the chat!

Thank you!

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