Jules Beaumont has been around the dance music scene for many years. After a 2 year stint at Home nightclub in Sydney, Jules is back on familar shores in Perth, enjoying himself and the lifestyle that Perth brings. ITM’s Luke Notley talked to him to see just how he measures up on the eve of his first night at his monthly residency, Made to Measure in Sydney.
luke – Where are you currently playing?
jules – All over the place. I don’t really do anything on a weekly basis. I did a gig up on the Gold Coast over Easter, I’ve been playing at Ambar in Perth, guest spots at various different venues in Perth. I’m going back to Sydney this week, and once a month for the gig Made to Measure, and then a private party in Sydney the week after that.
luke – Ok, so you are just kind of having fun?
jules – I’m cutting back on DJing and concentrating on getting a really good monthly party happening in Perth and hopefully in Sydney as well rather than just performing on a weekly residency somewhere, which I find can be really demanding. Especially if it is for a lot of people. You have the responsibility of having to continue to play new music and continually setting the standard, which is a good thing to do, but after a couple of years it can really just become a heavy workload.
I’d rather play quality sets to a custom built crowd of people that are all there for the one reason and having a really good time once a month than to consistently be topping everything each weekend to like 2500 people.
It’s just a lot of pressure, especially after the success of Home in Sydney. I was offered to come back to Home. I thought about it and the pressure of getting something back up to the level that it was at and to try and do it consistently every week, it’s just a massive thing to do. I don’t see any reason why I need to dump that on myself at the moment. I haven’t seen my family in Perth for ages or my friends, and I’m having a really good time over here. Plus, I get to go back to Sydney once a month and spend a couple of days a week over there. I sort of have the best of both worlds. Enables me to catch up with friends and do a little bit of different record shopping.
luke – how did the Made to Measure gig you are doing on a monthly basis come about?
jules – Gas basically rang me up and asked if I’d do it, and I said I’d love to do it monthly. But to come back to Sydney and be the main ticket at a big club is one of the reasons why I’d left Sydney, because I’d had enough of that frontline pressure. And it is pressure. It’s got its rewards and its got everything, but it’s also a huge amount of pressure to give everyone a good night, which is great, but after a long time it’s nice to step back and concentrate on what you want to do. Not what some other promoter wants to do.
luke – Who are you DJing with at Made to Measure?
jules – Listed locals, also some really good international guests will be coming through on a regular basis too. Such as Deep Swing and Sandy Rivera.
luke – Are you working on any production stuff at the moment?
jules – That’s been put on hold. I’m actually about to begin another project with a good friend of mine, Jobi, over here, but I’ve got to wait to get my house all set up before I think about getting into a studio. That is going to be my main focus when I get back. My parties, production and multimedia things which are still a bit undercover at the moment. But when they come out, you will certainly know about them!
luke – What kind of labels or artists are influencing your musical tastes at the moment?
jules – Crafty Cuts, Black Science Orchestra, Afro Art, Mixture Stereo Phonic, bits of everything. I’ve cut back on the amount of records I buy as well, because I’ve gone from having that weekly pressure of having to buy and come up with new stuff all the time. I’ve really just cut back to the quality things I really enjoy and also buy a lot of hip hop and instrumental music. Now I can relax and concentrate on what REALLY drives me. And that is the idea behind setting these parties up. When I do get to play there, it’s the people that really like my music and my guests or whatever, and I can really branch out and get down.
The Perth scene is wicked, it’s small and tight but it’s underground and it’s not too hard to get the right people in the right place at the right time. I’ve got a lot of friends here and also having a good knowledge of the scene Australia-wide. It’s another reason why I’ve come back, because I feel I can bring a lot of good people they have never heard of over here, at a decent price, and expose them and also expose all the Sydney DJs to what is a relatively unknown cool element.
For the last five years of my life I’ve been all over the world spinning out and spinning around. I’m at an age and stage where I need to work out what I really want because it’s been proven to me that I can do whatever I want, and it’s time to work out what is best for me and how to go about getting it. Cut back on the DJing and work out what I really want to do. It can be difficult to obtain perspective until you take time out and take an overall view of what’s going on.
Jules Beaumont will play tonight in Sydney at M2M at Gas and Bohem and, as he says, all over the place around the country.
