Idle Hands _ Interview With Jake Conlon

That rings true anyway Jake, as from chatting to you before and hearing your tracks, I think you have a pretty open approach to what you produce. How important is research / experimentation / sharing ideas & sketches with friends etc.. to the learning process?

I’m really glad I have never listened to anyone and took what they say as gospel. If I hadn’t have questioned what they were telling me, I’d be sat on 1000+ tracks waiting for someone to come along and release them. Where is the fun in that? I don’t want to be the one sitting on a load of samey Techno tracks now, just to remain “underground”.

Sharing and collaboration are important, I doubt I’ll ever be able to finish a collaboration that will see the light of day. But, The private sessions in the studio are always nice, it opens you up to someone else’s way of thinking and that can only be a positive, even if it is the long way round of doing something. It also lets me get personal stuff out to my closer friends. someone could recognise an odd melancholic noise and then go on to ask if there is anything wrong with me, or if there is something up in my day to day life or if something is bringing me down. I have always made music as a release and my close friends can hear me and my head in the music I make.

You’ve told me about some of the things that are in the pipeline release wise, which are very exciting to hear. Its great seeing you getting plays on the CLR podcast too. Will you talk a little about that if you don’t mind?

Yeah, I’m working with Pareto Park a lot and hope to do a ton more by the end of 2013. George is great to work with and he has his ear in with us Birmingham lot. I’ve also got an upcoming EP out on Rebekah’s label DECOY, which will be out on vinyl and feature an Inigo kennedy Remix of my track Danica, which Surgeon has recently played on his Rinse FM radio show too. Rebekah actually played Danica and my TrusT recordings contribution ‘Compound Dialect’ on the CLR 200 special. Its pretty cool, to be getting air on that show.

I’ve got an album in the making, currently called ‘Idle Hands’,which will have a few Eps of derivative works and also be formed into a live set. Hopefully if I time it right, it may get its first full live performace at Process in Manchester.

Excellent. I will definitely be looking forward to those then..

A typical and dumb question that is always asked is “What is the scene like right now in XXX” – but it does seem that there are lots of active Producers in Birmingham atm.. who are also involved in running or playing at regular club nights. Being on the inside, so to speak, do you think its gathering momentum? When is the next wave being launched out of Birmingham. Who should we be looking out for?

Yeah, its gathering pace, the time between nights now is a couple of weeks, where as two years ago you would be waiting round for 6 to 12 months for a night, that is before Resonance and AUM came along and gave it a Shoeing. You should be keeping an eye on Adverse Event, InnerCystem, Dave Thornton, James Jaymal, Vijay Jaymal, Scott Zest, Doug Graves, Dare&Haste, Mutant and the xe:tech:no lads Simon Owen and Chris Allsopp.

If you are ever in Birmingham there are a million nights to look out for, aside from House Of God and Atomic Jam, you have us Resonance lads, AUM, Enter, Stewpigity, BOSH, Movement and Osmosis, which was the first techno night I want to a very long time ago. The sheer quality in Birmingham is ridiculous, you can come out and be treated like a friend all night, everyone is out for the music at all the nights and there is no ego.

Sounds perfect.. Whats coming up for Resonance then? Is doing a label ever going to be part of the plan?

Resonance is forging on. It’s 2^nd Birthday time soon so we should be organising something big for that. Resonance will eventually have a record label arm, but we are all working lads who will have to sit down and talk about it first. Their is stuff in the pipeline and we have been talking to show local people who would be willing to help.

If you had one wish, what would it be?

To be settled down and married with a shed full of synths and soundsytem at the bottom of my small well tended garden. The shed door could be open, blasting music, while me and the wife sort the borders. (I think it’s a pre-requisite that she likes loud Techno).

I can picture that. Make it happen haha

And thats pretty much us Jake.. Thanks a lot. It turned out great. So what are you going to get up to after finishing this interview?

Taking my glasses off, stretching my fingers, putting some clothes on and going for a walk in the rain down the A456 to KFC then straight to the pub for a pint with my younger brother Fergus. Simple pleasures.

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