Catching Up With...John Tejada

Beginning his DJ legacy in the early 90’s, John Tejada has become a regular fixture around the European club circuit and it was in 2004 that the synth loving producer would lay down the two techno tracks that would nail his careet. The classics ‘Sweat On The Walls’ and ‘Mono On Mono’ were instant smashes and compounded his fixture in the techno world. This year’s ‘Parabolas’ album on Kompakt came with its own upstanding cuts and for Tejada’s visit to Room One on the 15th he reveals for us he’s planned a hardware and digital environment where the album can be relived in all its glory, as well as helping us all get down to a good old fashioned geek out. Hey John, How’re you? What’re you up to at the moment? I'm doing really well. I'm just working away on the usual, doing a couple of remixes and getting the live show ready for the tour. Starting from the beginning of the John Tejada we’re familiar with, you started making music and DJing from a really young age playing drums and DJing hip hop - What was the main thing that spurred you onto move from hip hop onto electronic music? I got into electronic music because hip hop as well was experimental electronic music at it's base, especially some of the earlier synth and 808 based tracks or artists like Mantronix. I already had a preference towards these sounds because of the hip hop I was into, so when i started hearing the same type of sounds in house and techno, I just began to follow that more and more. Were there any artists in particular or tracks that you listened to at that time that made you think - hang on this is what it’s about? There were some tracks being played as part of the hip hop scene here. One of the first I remember being thrown into the mix was Model 500s "No UFOs." All Juan's projects like Cybotron, Channel One and Model 500 were big out here, but No UFOs was the first thing that sort of spoke in a different way. After that you'd hear more Chicago and New York house with hip hop elements and it all just began to make sense. You have two decades of work in music - ‘Sweat on the Walls’ and ‘The End of It All’ seem to have stuck out in people’s collective memories - would those be the the tracks you’d have singled out or were others more important to you? I think those 2 along with "Mono On Mono" were definitely the most successful. What is it about these track that you think have made them so special for people? I would be more interested to hear people's thoughts on that myself. I keep plugging away and some things work for people and others don't. ‘The End Of It All’, was a track I felt had a special feel when I made it. You run Palette Recordings where you release the main body of your work - after successes on some of the most revered techno labels in the world - why did you decide to start the label? I started the label in 96, 15 years ago, before most of my releases, apart from a couple of early things. I started it back then to just have the freedom to release what I wanted without anyone telling me how to do it. Do you find this more of a freedom or an added stress and distraction from your studio time? I feel it's an added freedom for sure. You must be sent demos a lot of the time - is there a reason you’ve kept it mainly to your output? 2002 was the last time you put out other artists work. Even after 15 years I don't think of it as a proper label. It was set up for myself and Arian Leviste's own output, which then expanded to also include my newer collaborators and some releases by other artists. The other artists that have appeared are very close friends. At the moment however, the label is just set up for myself and collaborators. This year your new album was released on Kompakt - ‘Unstable Condition’ has got to be my favourite track from the album, how did this track come to be? You’ve previously said that you have no strict pattern of working.. I still don't have any patterns when it comes to starting a track. On this track however, the basis was a real 909 running live, not sampled or plug in. I wanted the drums to have the real feel and sound of some older records I think sound cool that way. The big chords are the Code and all the other synth bits come from the modular. In general which machines were your set up for this album? Or did it differ a lot from track to track? I have some hardware things I really like, but not everything is running on every song. So every track does have it's own set up in a way. I think the only constant thing that always gets used is the modular set up which has expanded quite a bit. Some stuff used on the album is my eurorack modular gear (different manufacturers), studio electronics Code Synth, Moog Voyager, Rozzbox 2, bits of real 808 and 909 running. Logic’s a big part of your production and you’re clearly not biased towards either hardware or software in production - Logic’s EFM 1 was your favourite in your 2009 ‘Machine Love’ interview for RA - have there been any digital developments over the last few years that have impressed you as much? The EFM was a part of Logic that I cited because I always forget this really amazing little synth is built in. So many of the built in plug ins get taken for granted, at least by myself so it's fun to rediscover them. However I think i've only used the EFM once. Now that you've reminded me, perhaps I'll try it again. I still mainly use Logic with a bit of Ableton time to time. Ableton can be good for my collaborations to quickly record things as they are happening, but when it comes to making and arranging music I'm at home in Logic. The digital tools I'm most happy with at the moment are Madrona Labs Aalto synthesizer plug in. I finally got to try a real Buchla synth and that's when I realized how cool and Buchla-like this great little plug in is. Audiospillage Drum Spillage drum synth plug in is also one I'm enjoying. Do you have a pure hardware set up still for your live show or do you integrate it with digital technology also? This time it's a mix. There's a computer involved and a synth or two. When I do a hardware only set its more difficult to recreate some of my works, especially the stuff on the new ‘Parabolas’ album since many of the phrases are much longer and it isn't as loopy. I find when I do a hardware only set I end up with tons of material that was written just for the live show. This is fine and all, but this time my main focus is to play things off the album in a new way. When I do shows with another person live, then I feel a pure hardware set up is the way to go as there's someone helping out if things start to go weird. fabric’s a regular destination for you, what’s different when you come and play here? fabric has such a professional staff that there really isn't anything like it when it comes to being taken care of. I can pretty much plan anything show wise and have complete comfort in the fact that it will all be set up properly and go off without a hitch. It feels like a proper concert and I always look forward to that.