Sunshine Jones Interview
SUNSHINE: The equipment was arbitrary, but the act of limiting myself to a few pieces of gear was intentional. When you have a studio at your disposal, sometimes I find that I am wanking around and not doing anything. I mean, if anything can happen, then very often nothing does.
I needed as many rules and restrictions as I could impose upon myself in order to give myself something to resist, something to come to the end of and work harder with. Considering the electronic and pure intentions of the album as a diary of a week, I felt very good about how lush and fully realized the work turned out in the end. I was delighted with those basic pieces of equipment.
5: I was surprised when I heard the album - it was so much simpler than some of the orchestrations that came out of Dubtribe. Does it strike you as revealing that when you called on your soul, a sound that echoes the early Chicago Trax and DJ International sound came out?
SUNSHINE: Interesting. I think that it's both a shortcoming as well as a beautiful piece of how we consider "dance music" at all in America. On the one hand we trust a DJ and allow them to turn us on to tracks... we associate those tracks with the DJ, or the event, and go with it. There's something beautifully auspicious about that kind of acceptance and letting go of art. On the other hand, as an artist working in a more or less disposable medium, there's no reason in the world why I should expect anyone in the moment to have any familiarity with my body of work.
I was inspired originally by Mr. Fingers, Robert Owens, Adonis, and the original House tracks of the '80s. When I finally really felt House with my soul, it was like finding long lost comrades. There was just so much music, so much experimentation, exploration and beautifully simple threads of genius on those records. Even in the early '90s... the simplicity of a Murk dub, or the original sounds which came out of R/S, Global Communications, Gorilla Records and the all-too-brief life span of the trance-tribal era. Those were truly revolutionary times in our lifetime. We collectively changed all music forever.
So for me there's not much of a stretch, rather it's a return to my roots. My intention was to re-explore what I even liked about House Music in the first place. I definitely nodded to Frankie Knuckles, Larry Heard and my true heroes. And being alone, and limited to four pieces of equipment would indicate that I wasn't going to be able to produce the sort of complexity which had become a signature for me at that time. Frankly the nudity of a bass line, and the power of a kick drum was a really vulnerable place to be. To think about how the kick sounded, and know that there weren't going to be six other sounds on top of it to push the speakers was a deeply refreshing perspective to rediscover.
5: Dubtribe had a very communal spirit in terms of the audience feeling like they were part of the performance. Yet I've read that you prefer to work alone, and every single note on Seven Tracks was done by you. Is it difficult adjusting to working alone from working in collaboration, or vice versa?
SUNSHINE: As far as Dubtribe goes, You're absolutely right. Few people have really expressed that so well. I think that a live performance with Dubtribe Sound System absolutely required an audience, and the bigger the better. We were fully engaged with the crowd, and it was all about reciprocity. We gave a little, felt the response, then gave a little more. It always made the sets oblong in their emotional impact... the first song was always strange, never made it on the albums, or really grabbed the audience. It wasn't until we were really in a give and take with the room that the vibe was really present.
Working alone, performing alone is entirely different. That said, I know that when I grab the mic and start yelling into it people freak the fuck out. They love it. But that's a voice I know I have, and am full aware of. I am not interested in extrapolating further in that area. I know what it is to deflect my own vulnerability onto a room full of people.
5: Your DJ sets are more than two CDJs - I understand that you'll remix tracks right in the booth with a laptop?
SUNSHINE: Well, I'm not really happy as a DJ unless everyone is dancing, and tuned into the music. Sometimes it takes six or seven hours to get to that place. I think of it more as an expression of my limitations as a DJ than anything else. Some people can walk up to the decks and create that energy in one or two records. It takes me a few hours... I'm getting stronger, and learning a lot right now. For me, I am just not interested in bumpin' the junk. I really believe that music, rhythm and dance are revolutionary elements in the human psychology as well as in our basic physiology. To move, to relax, to let go, to resist, to get in tune with others, to cheer, to feel, to sweat, to sway, to flow is a spiritual experience.
Now I'm not saying that I am a spiritual vehicle. I am saying that these are basic needs of society. No different than a mosh pit, or a backyard on Sunday. The collective experience with dance music is something which really touched my generation, and changed us forever. I'm not going to bail on the content or the positive experiences I've had just to make a buck. The idea of pitching up my records, slamming some of the classics and then getting out of there because I have another gig to go to is a complete turn off to me.
5: You do the Sunday Soul radio show on 90hz.org. Meanwhile we get things like Dancetracks in New York shutting down, along with countless other brick-and-mortar places where the community used to congregate outside of the club. Do you think the internet's been a net positive or negative for House Music?
SUNSHINE: I gotta say that I am totally divided about this. I originally hated the though that MP3s would close down the local record shops, and was pretty bitter about how online file stealing shut my business down. But now, with my entire record collection on my laptop, portable, light and ready to go anywhere, any time, I am seeing the other side of the technology.
Sunday Soul has taught me so much about how to be a DJ, how to explore music, and shown me all sorts of new ways to express myself. I create a theme every week, and then come up with at least three hours of new music for each program. I am out there all the time scouring the world for music I can buy that will help me shape the week's theme. It's really exploding right now, and giving so much back to me. I love Sunday Soul, and I do it for love.
5: A number of your early Dubtribe recordings were released on a Chicago label called Organico. When an indie label goes under, what happens to the rights to the music?
SUNSHINE: We were young. We were idealistic and naive. We imagined a popular 12" single in our little world might change the greater world around us. We also took everything very personally. Having run my own label, I have a deeper understanding of more than one perspective now.
We signed a contract which gave Organico the rights to those original recordings forever. We also had a five year re-record clause. When the five years were over, we re-recorded some of those songs and included them on a Dubtribe archive CD, but quickly realized that the past was the past. Much as we loved those days, they were gone.
How we handled the rights to music after Imperial DUB closed its doors was essentially to give back the rights to all the music released on IDR to the artists who released them. Some artists wanted paperwork stating that, others didn't even communicate with us. Either way, those records stand as an experiment, in some ways a bright and wonderful success, and in others a sad and very unhappy failure. But we had a lot fun along the way, and hold no grudges toward anyone. The indie music business is a truly horrible one. Grappling with the ideals and egos of young and ambitious artists who have little or no experience is a dangerous game, a precarious place to want to put yourself. I will never go into that field again. I don't belong there.
5: What do you have coming up as far as new releases go?
SUNSHINE: Right now I am producing a few artists, and recording and mixing tracks for my new album. King Street have an option for the new album, but there's nothing in stone.
I am also working hard on preparing Treehouse Muzique for it's official launch. I'm aggregating my music digitally through Osaeo, and they are doing a terrific job of distributing my back catalog through iTunes and Beatport and other outlets.
So I'm taking my time, and considering what an album is now, what an EP should be, creating edits, b-sides, and developing more realized collections for release.
5: Who do you consider your primary influences - not just musically, but personally?
SUNSHINE: I'm emotional, and curious. So a lot of things really interest me. But personally I am a bit of an island. I have always adopted a take what you need and leave the rest attitude toward my teachers, heros and influences. I am inspired in this moment by all of my peers and contemporaries. I love that it feels like we are undergoing a deep revisualization of what dance music is, and what our culture and values are. Right now it's really about the music. The time for talking is over. For now.
Treehouse Muzique is Sunshine's new outlet; visit treehousemuzique.com for original tracks, remixes and music news. Since this interview was done, Sunshine's begun a revolutionary project to fund his next record by taking pre-orders and offering up benefits on a sliding scale. Visit sunshine-jones.com for more info.
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