Audio: JJ DOOM Mix For Dazed Digital + Jneiro Janel Interview

Jneiro Janel (the JJ portion of JJ DOOM) recently sat down for an interview with Dazed Digital (<-- can't say I do) and also blessed 'em with an interview discussing both the inspirations for the mix-up as well as the nature of collaborating with a metal-faced fugitive from all that is holy. Still working my way through the mix but DOOM talking melanin and velvet skin over some big-ass Tears For Fears drums is a good place to start. Listen below and read an excerpt from the Q&A after the jump.

Dazed Digital: DOOM recorded most of his vocals for the album in London, which is very much reflected in his lyrics, whereas you produced the beats for the record at your studio in New Orleans, did the city inspire the sound of the album in any way?

Jneiro Jarel: I’m a huge fan of jazz, and to be in the city were it was born, music is in the air. I actually went to this place called The Music Box which is out in New Orleans, it’s like a music park with instruments made out of just random things; like bicycle spokes, telephone lines, and water. One had sounds coming out of the instrument through water, that’s why I called the intro to the album ‘Waterlogged’, because it was an organ that was pumping out air into a water tank making this bubbly sound.

DD: Would you have preferred to have been in the same studio throughout the recording of the album?

Jneiro Jarel: We tried that, we were neighbours in Los Angeles. We’d always get up and try to vibe with music. But the problem with us is that because we’re friends, we always get distracted, we’d get talking, talking about the old days and what music used to be and then you realise you don’t actually get any work done. So we actually work better when we’re not with each other. I think I work better alone and I think he does too and I think that’s the special chemistry that we have.

DD: You’ve made an exclusive mix for Dazed, what’s the inspiration behind it?

Jneiro Jarel: I’ve been hugely inspired by the music from the UK since the ‘80s. I was into New Wave, I used to listen to Duran Duran, Tears For Fears, etc. People know me as ‘vintage-futuristic’, I like to always remember and pick the things I love from the past and bring it to the future. So that’s what I was doing, bringing Tears For Fears to now and mixing it with a newer song like ‘Winter Blues’, and also having a Gary Newman song come on before ‘Rhymin Slang’ because believe it or not, that’s the kind of sound that inspired that type of production.

Read the full interview at DD