It wasn’t that long ago that James Cayzer, aka Jaytech, was one of Australia’s most talented, yet undiscovered production prodigies, hidden away in relative obscurity in his beloved hometown of Canberra, with his talents in crafting beautiful melodic house appreciated by only a select few. Eventually though, one such “appreciator” that he ended up recruiting was UK trance trio Above & Beyond, who snapped him up to produce for their Anjunadeep label, the underground house younger sibling of their wildly successful Anjunabeats trance label.

Several years down the track, and both Jaytech and the Anjunadeep label are loved far and wide by fans around the world, to the point where the stable is very nearly giving Anjunabeats a run for its money. Jaytech is back in the spotlight now with the release of the already critically acclaimed Anjunadeep:03, the annual collection of the label’s latest and greatest that he’s mixed alongside label A&R James Grant. Here Jaytech speaks to ITM about the new compilation from his adopted home of Berlin.

You’ve said you’ll remain in Berlin for at least the next six to twelve months. Is there any difficulty in being a little detached from the rest of the Anjunabeats crew over in London?
London not so much because it’s just an hour’s flight either way, and it’s dirt cheap to go over there whenever I want, and I have the right Visa sorted now with the UK where I can come and go as I please. So London is actually pretty good in that respect.

But Australia is certainly a little bit different because it’s on the other side of the world. I only get to come back maybe two or three times a year. But my reasoning for moving to Berlin in the first place was so that I could be based in Europe, and still be close to the UK, so that’s worked out pretty well so far.

Returning to visit Australia two or three times a year is still a reasonable amount, I’d say.
I can’t really complain about that. It’s enough for me coming back several times a year to stop me from becoming really homesick, because I know the next time that I see my family and friends is just around the corner. But yeah, usually I get out of here around November every year and spend the last two months or so of the year back in Australia, just because the weather is so much nicer around that time of the year, and it’s nice to come home.