Theory Therapy 83: jp
‘90s nostalgia recontextualised by New York’s J.P. Wright
Hey jp. How are you today?
Chilling but also been super busy but in a good way I guess :)
What was the last song you listened to?
Been shifting back into guitar/fall mode here so have some John Fahey tabs open right now lol. Also the new posthumous Mika Vainio record is really good obviously </3. New Joanne Robertson too of course.
Where’s your favourite place to listen to music?
I haven’t owned a car in a long time but that’s always been my fav, especially a good CD on repeat.
What’s the best music discovery you’ve made recently?
Been really into this label based in Mexico called Melody Krafter. All really great stuff and super slept on. Want to try to book some of them in NYC sometime whenever they’re down though. I’m literally gonna hit them up right now actually while I’m thinking about it.
Is there an artist or album you listen to a lot we might not expect based on your music?
I don’t know if this is unexpected per se but just not the kind of music I make lately, but will occasionally revisit old punk-ish stuff me and my friends were into in high school like Leftover Crack/Choking Victim, Against Me!, etc.
Take us through your musical history. What was the first album you remember having an impact on you? When did you get into electronic production?
Really age-doxxing myself here but the first album I remember actually owning was probably my cassette copy of the Mighty Ducks 2 soundtrack with “Whoomp There It Is” by Tag Team on it. I grew up in South Florida so heard a lot of that kind of Miami Bass stuff on the radio in the 90s and didn’t realize until later that that was sort of a regionally specific thing maybe. In hindsight that was probably the earliest electronic/club music I heard and really liked though.
Some of the other electronic stuff I got super into early on was definitely Prodigy and Crystal Method and Orbital and stuff, probably just from hearing it in movie soundtracks especially the Blade soundtrack haha.
I started playing guitar around 13/14 and got completely obsessed with that for a while through high school and early college. I had heard some Aphex Twin and probably seen the Come to Daddy and Windowlicker videos but specifically remember downloading Ambient Works 1 & 2 on Limewire after seeing them recommended on someone’s ‘best albums’ list on the Myspace guitar forums I used to lurk on when I was like 14/15. Then I got much more into synths and electronic/club music in college when I lived in Gainesville, FL which has always had a really amazing and super slept on diy scene and still does.
Your new album is out this month on the label. Tell us about the process of putting it together.
A lot of it is stuff I’ve been sitting on for quite a while actually, like 5–6 years some of it, but the most recent ones were made in the last 1–2 years. I was minorly tweaking all of them right up until the very end though smh haha. I’ve made a lot of other stuff in that time too, mostly unreleased, but these felt like they sort of fit together as a body of work I dno. Feels good to get it out there and get back to making more new stuff :)
Which artists, sounds or experiences shaped the album most?
It’s definitely nostalgic of stuff I grew up listening to like 90s idm and whatnot (idm is a stupid term but unfortunately the go-to signifier for this type of thing I guess, if you have a better one please lmk).
I think nostalgia sucks and can definitely be stupid and reactionary which is very much symptomatic of the times we’re living through right now, but just sort of reckoning with that contrasted with how beautiful I think a lot of that music is and so ahead of its time that it’s still super relevant and only starting to really be appreciated maybe. And going back and digging and finding stuff that I hadn’t heard from smaller artists from that time who weren’t just the major Warp people everyone already knows obviously. That’s the good side of nostalgia I think because everything moves so fast and it’s actually really important to go back and check out stuff you or everyone maybe missed at the time even if it’s just from a few years ago. That’s the whole point of DJing/digging culture not just everyone playing the same newest promos and then immediately moving on, although playing new and unreleased stuff and being hyped about it is great and important too obviously.
I also do think it’s important to keep revisiting stuff that you’ve heard before. Some of my absolute favourite music is stuff that I didn’t immediately get at first and later realized was really amazing after coming back to it. That feeling of something familiar suddenly clicking and becoming your new favourite thing even though you’ve heard it a million times is really special and important I think. That being said if I had to cite one single major influence it would probably be the Autechre live 1994 Quirky Brixton youtube video.
We’d love to hear about your Theory Therapy mix: where it was recorded, and if there are any tracks that feel especially meaningful to you.
Recorded it at my house. I think I had been out late the night before with my friends Masa (DJ Healthy) and our other homies who were visiting from Japan, Konida and Ichiro, so was kind of just chilling that day but also feeling pretty good music wise.
As far as particular tracks I love that Freeform one, super sleeper Skam record. Then that Patten track right after it is one of my all time favs that’s kind of tricky to play and have been wanting to work it into a mix for a long time. Love that guy’s stuff especially that first record really blew my mind when it came out. The last 3 tracks I really love also and pretty happy with how those blends turned out, but like em all obviously :)
Where would you recommend listening to it?
Car on a burned CD on repeat. I’ll make you one if you want just hmu.
Tell us something exciting that's coming up in your life, music or otherwise.
The new Ahem record (my other project with my friends Jeffry Astin and Brian Kinkade) is almost done, so pretty excited for that but also definitely still working on it. It’ll hopefully be out early next year though. Been getting back into playing guitar and trying to start a new project specifically for that stuff too. Just excited to make more new music in general just starting from zero doing whatever with no real expectation or direction or anything just seeing where things go :)
Tracklist:
Kettel - Red Shed
Saint Etienne - People Get Real (Death in Vegas Mix)
Dubtribe Soundsystem - Sunshine's Theme (Sunshine's Remix)
Phenomyna - Earthfall (Nuron Mix)
B12 - Practopia
Underworld - I'm a Big Sister, and I'm a Girl, and I'm a Princess and This is My Horse
Sun Electric - An Atom of All Suns (live)
B.F.C. - Please Stand By
Freeform - The Brink
Patten - Fire Dream
Legowelt - Experiential Awakening
Seefeel - Spangle
Code 6 - Third Aura
Ian Pooley and Alec Empire - untitled
jp’s album ‘we’re here all the time’ is out October 24th on Theory Therapy. You can buy it on Bandcamp and order the vinyl via One Eye Witness.