Spain’s Jessie Garcia kickstarted his career in dance music way back in the mid 80s, so he’s rightfully earned himself the title of ‘veteran’. Though you’d be wrong to write him off as an old timer; he currently works in A&R for both Tribal Spain and Electric Spain Recordings, and he’s produced with some of house music’s biggest names including Lee Cabrera, Harry ‘Choo Choo; Romero, Copyright Steve Angello, Milk&Sugar and more. He isn’t showing any signs of slowing down either, in particular forging a strong relationship with Roger Sanchez and his legendary Stealth Records imprint. ITM chats to this Spanish house veteran ahead of his Australian tour.
Jessie you started to build your DJ reputation quite strongly back in 1987. What was your initial inspiration to getting involved in the music scene?
I began then as DJ, and that moment was an important one for house music, and all the years since I began DJing my style as always is house, as a producer too. I started as DJ because my brother had a radio show based in house music in 1986-87.
At what point in time did you start developing your production side?
In 1997 with a remix of a classic of house tune Come On Lets Work for a Spanish label, after that I’ve always been into producing. Since then I’ve worked with some of the best international labels, in particular Roger Sanchez’s label Stealth Records.
Apart from your DJing/production work, you are also an A&R manager at two record labels, Tribal Spain and Electric Spain Recordings. How do you manage to maintain such a massive workload?
Really I have no time for my labels, but I have a person responsible who is working on them, for the last few years I’ve very much been working in the studio with gigs in many cities across the world.
Your list of remixes include international artists like milk&sugar ,Lee Cabrera, Steve Angelo, Copyright, Peter Presta, Dub Deluxe, and you’ve also shared the turntables with some real DJ superstars. Tell us your most memorable gig.
Pacha at Ibiza with Roger Sanchez this summer, and I have special memories of a club in the Philippines last winter where the reaction of the public was incredible. Bed in Bangkok is also fantastic, some very good moments.
In terms of production work what can we expect from you in the future and will this be your main focus?
At the moment my new productions for Stealth Records are due for release in October, along with a lot of new remixes. My sound will be based around tribal house and electro.
Your tune Off The Hook was a massive hit that received loads of international attention. How much time went into the production of this track and what equipment do you use in the studio?
It was a big record for me, #1 on Beatport for two weeks and with a lot of international success too, really did well. With my studio I’m always searching for the best way to use the software and hardware too, I don’t work only with plugins and digitals synthesizers. I like to work with true synthesizers because your sound is thicker and it has more character. I think that it’s the best formula and the best way for made a big sound.
2005 proved to be one of a peak year for you. You were awarded by ‘Technics DJ Awards’ for your contribution to the tribal house genre, also earning a DJ Mag nomination in ‘DJ Revelation’ category. A year later you were recognized your production skills with a nomination for your remix of Underground by Celeda. How did these accolades affect you and your career?
Something that’s more important to me is my nomination this year as the ‘Best House Artist’ in the Beatport Awards, I was being the only Spanish DJ nominated for this prestigious award and it was am honor for me that I wish to repeat next year.
Where do you see the future sound of music heading? Can we expect big changes in the next five years?
Music is evolving day to day and some of the styles from the past years are now going strong once again, I think that after 5 or 6 years with so much electro house, vocal house is coming back again along with tribal.
What travel and touring plans do you have for rest of the year?
I have completed several tours recently, Colombia and Brazil for example, and I’m sure that I’ll go back to Phillipines, Indonesia and China in the next few months. Asia is one of my favorite places in the world. Check out www.jessegarcia.info for more info.
Catch Jesse Garcia at the following shows…
9th August – Vegasmode, Perth
15th August – Bedroom, Gold Coast
16th August – Onelove, Tank, Sydney
ProdigyChild says...
Is Garcia really playing @ Tank this saturday night or what? hav'nt heard anything about it??