Up close and quarantined; an interview with Influenza.

By Nathan North

The cold front over Canada's West Coast music scene has recently warmed to the breakbeat sound. A whole new culture has taken hold. This radical change of climate unleashed an epidemic from Vancouver: the duo known as Influenza. Symptoms may include feverish bass, infectious groove and a nasty case of contagious funk. Onset is immediate and there is no known cure. Influenza was formed just a few short years ago. It all began with a three-bedroom apartment, two guys, and one common musical goal.

I know the story already, but why don�t you guys start by telling everyone the romantic tale of how you met.  

Jay:

Well, I was living with a local promoter Al Harding. We had lived together for some time, but he wanted to move closer to work. I didn't really want to live where he wanted to move. So I hit the Internet and posted that I was looking for a place another local promoter put me in touch with this guy Psidream. Seemed like a decent chap, but the place he was living in was way to short for a tall guy like myself.  So we decided to look for a new place together.

Jeff:

A couple years ago I was in need of a roommate and a friend put me in touch with Jason. We ended up hitting it off and found a cool place where we were eventually started collaborating on breakbeat tunes.

Roses, Insults, and Pot Smoking. 

What do you guys use for your current setup? Where do you guys stand on the whole hardware/software debate?

Jay:

I personally use all software. Logic on a P4 PC, plus various plugs, VSTi's and effects. I'm way to impatient for hardware. I wouldn't want to deal with all the patching and saving of each sound that you changed etc. Plus I just find moving the mouse around much easier. I never had any classical music training so, it's not like I need that hands on feel.

Jeff:

Personally, I'm a fan of a software setup, but that comes from years of using old tracker programs, and then eventually getting into Logic without having any outboard gear. I also can't afford to buy all that stuff, so I've just done what I could with what I've got. Jason got into the production thing through me, so naturally he had no choice =)

It seems you guys got noticed right off the bat. (You completed your well-received remix of �Man O� War � The Sting� within mere months!) Has that been a positive or negative? Did you guys think it�d happen this fast? Has it made you lazy at all, or do you guys still have the same drive you did coming in?

Jay:

Well, when I first met Jeff, I was just a dj.. had no expirience making tunes. Only thing I had tried to do was making MODs and S3M's back in the days of FAST TRACKER 2. But I was never talented at that either. :) So when we made the remix for Sponge records we not only had a deadline for the competition, but I had a major learning curve to battle. Jeff was very patient and a good teacher. It was mostly him doing all the engineering and me feeding the ideas. It didn't make us Lazy, Jeff never stops working in the studio, so I'm assuming it didn't effect him in the slightest.

Jeff:

It's been nothing but positive. The remix came together pretty quick, and Sponge Records released it smoothly. As far as how fast it happened, I barely remember =) Right now, we're not lazy about it - especially Jason. I'm a lot more focused on things in the drum & bass world than breaks by a long-shot, and if that were not the case we'd have a lot more tunes finished, but we're not doing so bad!

Your career as Influenza is already bearing fruit, but what direction are you guys pursuing? You already have some successful originals and remixes; do you guys have a preference on what you want to do? What is the ideal situation or best case scenario you guys had in mind?

Jay:

Well I'd like to think we're going to keep things as Dynamic as possible. I don't think any one direction is what we're looking for. Some of our stuff is techy, some of our stuff is proggy, some of our stuff is just down right dirty. I love doing remixes, they're amazingly fun to take a track you dig and redo it so it's got your vibe to it. Ideal situation? I dunno, would like to get some touring done together as we have a lot of fun when we're out on the town.

Jeff:

I'm more of a fan of original work, but remix work is also a lot of fun. You're able to create your own angle on a completed piece of music, which is really neat. As for best case scenario, I think we'd both just like to have an outlet that is reliable and treats us well. I just want the music to get to people who appreciate it and are inspired by it.

I�ve heard rumors you guys might be getting remixed by Krafty Kuts and/or Introspective. Care to elaborate? How did it make you guys feel to know you have forefront talents like them take notice of -- and want to remix � your work?

Jay:

Well the Krafty Kuts remix is in the works. He's remixing our track Prozac Nation, which will be coming out on Dmonic's Pure Phunk Recordings out of Toronto. I think it's due out late spring early summer as it's quite the Summer vibe to it. I still haven't heard the Krafty remix and I'm excited to see what he does with it. As for Introspective? He's a online buddy, we talk all the time.We've talked here and there about doing remixes but nothing is solid.

Jeff:

The Krafty remix is for "Prozac Nation", forthcoming on Pure Phunk. That should be underway pretty quick, and we're both excited to hear what comes of that. Having someone that is established and has a different style remix your work is always interesting because different sounds in music stick out for different people, so it's always cool to see which ones stick out for the remixer, and are used effectively in remix instead of trashed.

  Has being remixed been a flattering experience?

Jay:

Fuck yeah! Of course it is, especially by someone as huge as Krafty. My pride shot through the roof when I was told by the label.

It seems like production teams always resemble something like a marriage versus a friendship. Such as the case, which one of you would be the wife?

Jay:

Well fuck we're both going to point the finger at the other guy on a question like that. I have no clue, but if I were going to choose. Jeff.

Jeff:

                    It's my studio, so Oddmud is the wife. =)

Has the fact you both have your own separate DJ�ing stuff/other individual career stuff gotten in the way of your projects at all? How do you guys balance any conflict of individual and team goals?

Jay:

I'm pretty passive about getting our shit done. If Jeff has more important stuff to do, I respect that and don't bitch. There isn't much conflict, we're just trying to have some fun. When jeff isn't available, I'm working hard on new shit by myself. I often start out the track and then we bring it to Jeff's studio and finish it up together.

Jeff:

I suppose my devotion to drum & bass has taken away from the amount of time I have to put into our collaborative work, but we manage. Either way, we're both working on stuff and learning, and that knowledge is shared between us, so it helps us whether we're working separately or together.

It seems like Canada is being put on the map more and more�what do you think has helped expand the international envelope? Why do you guys think people are suddenly catching on in the recent? Do you really have to be from the UK to make good breaks?

Jay:

Well have you ever expirienced Canadian weather? It's cold and wet, so we're often locked up in doors which really breeds creativity. Well, maybe not breeding, but we got nothing better to fucking do. We work, we drink, we smoke, we produce. I think in todays global market, you can be from anywhere to make it as long as your product is good. I think that the rest of Canada is really starting to push themselves to put out quality products. So this just leaves you with more Canadian music to notice.

Jeff:

                  Of course you don't have to be from the UK. It's not 'something in the water'. This music is undeniably global, it's just taken longer to catch on in some parts of the world

Do you guys think the wide use of breakbeats in commercials and movie scores could hurt it in the long run? Could it become as much a novelty concept as �raving� if it keeps getting whored like a dockside hussy?

Jay:

Who cares, I look at it as a good thing If it helps us producers get our music to the people, all the power to it. People always talk about fads, and well if it's a fad, it'll die off, and leave the true people who love the music. mmmm.. dockside hussy... ;) (My girlfriend is gonna kill me�i love you sweetie!)

Jeff:

I don't think it hurts it at all. The exposure is good, and if it's in a car commercial, so what? It will introduce the music to someone who may not have otherwise heard it.

What do you guys have in store for team projects?

Jay:

We dont have big plans, we just keep making tunes as we go and hope they get noticed.

Jeff:

Just bangin' out the tunes, that's all! We also intend to DJ some breakbeat sets soon, which is something we haven't had the chance to do as a team yet.

Oddmud questions:

What was your background before you met Jeff? Talk a little about how you got into promoting/DJ�ing, and what made you decide to take it further.

Well, first came raving, then came promoting, then came dj'ing, then came the production. Raving got boring, but I liked the music. Then I thought I might as well have some fun and throw some big parties. That turned out to be a disaster of course, only like 2 out of 8 parties thrown made any real cash back. Then I decided I hated that, naturual progression, then came DJ'ing. It was something to do that still scored me some attention, and it was fun learning something new. Did that for about 2 years, then decided to give it up due to the fact that the scene was dying locally and the politics were just pissing me off to all hell. By that time I had tasted the production bug with Jeff and I was off to the races.. Recently I've started DJ'ing again due to the interest in Influenza.

. What was the Canadian westcoast scene like back then? What has changed since then? What is better/worse about it now?

When I first started? Oh jeez... We'd get 10,000 people to an outdoor party most weekends of the summer. 5000 people for the big indoor shows on the big nights: Halloween, New Years, Etc. 1000-2000 at a venue called Riverside. Now? You're lucky to get 1000 people out on a big night. It's rediculous how much of a fad RAVING was. :) People are sheep.

What made you get out of the promotional/event production end of things?

Well, I kind of explained that before, but.. Money, and it was sort of taking up all my spare time, which was pissing me off.

So I heard through my sources that you considered never DJ�ing again. What brought that on? [Editor note: Uhh Jay�what in the hell were you smoking?]

Well Influenza is starting to get noticed a little, and people have contacted us about doing tours and gigs. So I obviously don't want to pass that up. When I was dj'ing before some of the fondest memories was flying to other cities and playing to a crowd that I had never seen before

What current projects are you working on as an individual?

Currently I'm working on a collab with Transformer Man, but it will most likely be released as Transformer Man vs Influenza. I constantly make tracks now, Jeff and I often just finish and polish a track I had spent a couple weeks on.

Psidream questions:

Every bio I�ve read [or written ;)] about you guys refers to your extensive background in Drum and Bass. What was the deal with that? How did you get involved? Talk about the days before you met/lived with Jay.

I've been involved in drum & bass for a few years, and it was because of friends picking up various electronic music CD's and checking them out.. I got into some older stuff like Goldie, Ed Rush & Optical, and so on, and realized it was much more suited for me than most of the other stuff I had heard through them. At the same time, I was messing around with beats on the computer, and as I explored d&b more and found artists that I liked, I started to make more music in that tempo and found that it really clicked.

What piqued your interest in the slower tempos and grooves?

It's a whole other world working in that tempo... When I moved with Jay, I liked breaks but hadn't heard enough to really know what artists I was into. It helped me there and I found that I liked a lot more of it than I thought, so I thought it would be refreshing to try it.

Why do you still do both? Do you think it�s important for artists to do crossover work for fresh influence?

Well, I can't really let either go. Drum & bass is always #1 for sure, but breaks are really fun to work on, and Jason and I get along well in the studio. Working in the same tempo range gets boring after a while, so this creates a bit of an alternative for me.

Renegade Hardware hasn't signed anything from me, but I've been talking to them about other projects. Watch this space.. =) If my d&b work starts to take up all of my time, I don't think the Influenza thing will be affected too much. I have no intention of nuking the project with Jason, and he's really driven to work on stuff regardless of whether it's at my place or his.

Just the drum & bass thing, although I've started a couple IDM and dub tunes, but they haven't blossomed into anything significant yet. Soon!