The Jazzassins are a collective, a mutual mindset with a formidable collective background in music who opted to explore their love of stylish beats and creative music in a totally unique way. It’s really the stuff of dreams: the sort of process of creation that many would speculate about but never do in a lifetime. Let’s find out more…
Hi there, who’s the The Jazzassins?
The Jazzassins consist of Paul SG, Flowrian, Pulsaar & Decon.
We’re four guys from three different European countries with solo and collaboration releases on labels such as Jazzsticks, Good Looking, Liquid V, Med School, Shogun LTD, Tru Thoughts and many others.
The idea of starting a bigger collaboration project was born back in 2012 after we did countless tracks as solo-artists together for years already. We felt that it was time to form something new, to show how it sounds when we really merge our similar, yet individual approach to D&B… and music in general.
The release is called The Chalet: I’m assuming that the title has a resonance, connected to the recording process?
‘The Chalet’ became a quick favourite as our album title after spending a week in an actual chalet in the Swiss alps. We already visited each other regularly but felt it would push the whole idea to a new level if we rented a place.
To be detatched, alone and without distractions like televison or internet.
We ended up writing 14 tracks, working from the morning to late night. The place – St. Peter – was absolutely stunning and calmed us down within hours after arrival which made way for an intense week full of ideas and creative processes.
Did you take all your gear there then?
Yes, we brought two complete studio setups into the mountains which gave us the chance to work simultaneously on different tracks. The studios were installed in two separated rooms, only divided by a thin wooden wall but it worked very well.
When did the creative aspect happen specifically: when did you all start to work on music? Was it night/day or any time you felt the impulse?
All four of us brought various ideas, snippets, breaks and samples to the alps. The thinking was that it would give us a start, to avoid wasting time, knowing well that we’d not need to prepare anything.
We were creative from dusk till dawn and even if one was cooking while the others had a cigarette break, there was always someone sitting at one of the desks ready to push the idea to the next level.
Even though we’re all making music for many years and being involved in business and musical background work, we never ever felt anything like it before: the pure synergy in full effect!
Whenever one of us got off his desk and walked around, we directly went to the other room to hear what everybody else was up to on their desk, we ended up rotating and that kept everything moving and lively.
The nature around the chalet with it’s little pathways even made us do some field-recordings of all sorts of noises and natural sounds which you can spot on the album if you carefully listen!
What about mixdowns?
The final mixdowns were made in Flowrian’s studio in Aarau, Switzerland.
It took us over a year to get everything the way we wanted due to the different locations and places we live.
I see it’s strong on the graphics front so what can people expect to see when The Chalet drops?
Martin from The Creative Surgery, who is responsible for all things visual at Jazzsticks Recordings did an absolutely amazing job as well as our multiple talented Flowrian who has made our lovely logo.
The Chalet will come out as a digital album mainly but with a special – and very limited – vinyl sampler in a full colour sleeve.
We also did some cotton totebags with our logo print which we are going to sell online as well as some logo-shirts as summer is just around the corner! Just keep an eye on our fb page as well as the jazzsticks page as this is where we’ll put all information regarding bundles and merch.
So how would you encapsulate your certain sound, your unique vibe? And what if the chalet experience had NOT have been there… would it have been the same?
Our sound is heavily influenced by jazz, old and contemporary mixed with bits of funk and soul as well as soundtrack-y, ambient soundscapes. We draw from a rich background of music theory and try to bring all this into our idea of how D&B should sound.
The ‘Jazzassins’ sound is organic with a lot of instrumentation yet futuristic at times with a straight hint of the ‘good old times’ in both D&B and music in general.
That sound is what we’re all about in our solo careers too but we want to believe that it sounds different when we all work on music together with each member contributing the individual influences and ideas.
To be able to live together for a whole week in a fantastic place like St. Peter definitely shaped the album to what it is and there is a bit of that in every track.
And over the course of the album how does the music vary?
The album ranges from driving ‘spy-movie themed’ rollers to organic and sophisticated steppers with everything in between. We are actually already planning the next trip when it’s time for the next album!
The word that pops up here and there is ‘jazz’. So what’s five picks from time?
Well it’s hard but… here are five tracks that stand out and will always do:
George Benson ‘The Changing World’
Hubert Laws ‘Guatemala Connection’
Herbie Hancock ‘Cantaloupe Island’
Robert Glasper Experiment ft Erykah Badu ‘Afro Blue’
Ronnie Foster ‘Mystic Brew’
Are there shows planned? People will really want to experience this!
We’ve planned quite a few shows to launch and celebrate the release of The Chalet with dates in Germany, England, Switzerland and Hungary and we’re working on adding more dates to the list. If someone is interested in booking our DJ set then get in touch for details.
A few of the dates – including two radio-shows – are:
05.04 The Jazzsticks Show on Bassdrive/Vienna/Austria
17.04 Nirvana/Düsseldorf/Germany
15.05 Density Radio/Basel/Switzerland
16.05 Basel/Switzerland
29.05 London/UK
06.06 Mokka/Thun/Switzerland
31.07 Fabric/London/UK
Any shouts?
We want to say thanks to our longtime supporter Danny Bukem, to Bryan Gee, Marky and Fabio, everybody at Jazzsticks and also to our Distributor Triple Vision.
Again to our friend Martin, our man for graphical content – it wouldn’t be the same without you! Also to Raphael (Farbenfroh) & Nina for the shooting and makeup!