Singapore born and bred JPS aka Jerry Poon moved to Melbourne in 1999 to pursue his musical dreams. 12 years on, he is in the forefront of cutting edge music and is one of the most sought-after and highly acclaimed DJ-promoter in Australia. Syndicate speaks to the man about his music, how he empowers the scene and plans for world domination.
You’ve recently made history by hosting the first Flying Lotus Live Band concert in the Pacific. How did you managed to get Erykah Badu’s bassist and his bro on the drums with Flylo? How did all the gigs go? Any interesting stories?
Made history, I like that. Heh. The tour had already been set when Flylo basically said he wanted to then tour with the band. He had been working with the Bruner Brothers a fair bit and felt it was something he wanted to have happen. A few more flights were bought, a few more hotels were booked and as you said we had Stephen Bruner, bassist for Erykah Badu, Suicidal Tendencies and some one who’s played more basslines in tunes than I know and Ronald Bruner, who’s just won a Grammy for best Contemporary Jazz album on tour with us.
It was months of work and planning to get the three stalwarts of this progressive movement of music out (Flylo, GLK and Hudmo), but it was something I wanted to do for a long time. It was unfortunate that Hudson Mohawke who was supposed to be on tour with us broke his foot just two days before the tour, but the response from each and every city was enormous. With sold out shows in Sydney, Perth (two shows), Melbourne (two shows), Brisbane, Canberra, and 9,000 people in NZ going mental to it.
Well from flight delays due to the blizzards in New York getting chartered flights to get Ronald on stage 5 minutes after the performance started, hard drives crashing two hours before performace time and other minor technical difficulties the tour was highly enjoyable. It’s wonderful cause everyone in each city looked after the crew really well, we had beach time, great food and company. And the rest well as they say, stays on tour.
Flying Lotus has obviously managed to position himself in a clever space between experimental and jazz, reaching out to a wide audience and breaking genre boundaries. You spotted him way before he got big. Tell us how you discover him or what is your talent discovery process? Any new exciting talents which you have found?
I have to credit RBMA (Red Bull Music Academy) Melbourne for opening my eyes to a world of music. Working at the Academy as the booker, we had to align the participants to the various lecturers and set up the events throughout all the different venues in the city (total of 38 different shows in 5 weeks). Having to study all the submitted CDs was a wonderful task (60 CDs of all sorts of music), but so much of it was fresh, excellent music from all over the world. Flying Lotus was a participant that year and he played a set in St. Jerome’s outdoor area, there was a handful of us there and I was just blown away. It was heavy. And I knew I wanted him out again after that, and it made me dig deep into the sound and slowly I found others. I definitely had the recommendations from interstate promoters who were championing it as well as from my peers in Melbourne who’s opinion I respect to no end. The last 5 years have been spent pushing, building and growing the acts to what they are now, but that is also testament to their own dedication to the music they believe in.
Looking into Melbourne, we have found so much great music right here in our own backyard. Some of which are producers who have been doing it for a long time, some are total new comers. An amazing list would include the likes of Sean Deans, Galapagoose, Mike Kay, Beatnick, Fugitive, Able, Johnny Hooves, Opiuo, Spoonbill, Dream Kit, Consequence, Joe Seven, Kuya, and many many more who are starting to really come out with distinct styles of their own and the level of production is just amazing.
Credit as well to the Jazz Crimes fam who we put on The Beat Invitational with for consistently coming through with the goods, and showcasing crazy local talent.
JPS – Operation Syndicate by SyndicateSG
Give us the lodown on The Operatives and Espionage? What’s the history and the acts you’ve toured?
OP001 featured Syndicate’s (or Guerrilla rather) very own Kiat. That was back in 2004 and the direction was mainly to build acts from the Asia Pacific. It stared out with mainly drum and bass shows and slowly it diversified.
The Operatives have strived to showcase the most forward thinking individuals in this arena of music. Over the last few years The Operatives have toured the likes of Klute, Concord Dawn, Marcus Intalex, Doc Scott, Gaslamp Killer, Flying Lotus, DJ Marky, Scuba and many more. And hosted a range of events including a vast array of artists including DJ Craze, Gilles Peterson, Platinum Pied Pipers, Recloose, Fabio, Waajeed, The Nextmen, Mark de Clive Lowe, Freddie Cruger, Aloe Blacc, Jazzanova, Maurice Fulton, Theo Parish, DJ Marky, The Mixologists, Harmonic 313, Chase and Status, Loefah, Coki and the list goes on and on.
Espionage came about with a pure dedication to excellent electronic music with no genre boundaries. I wanted it to be a melting pot for music lovers, old and new artists, drum and bass to futuristic beats. It has evolved to something which I feel is more of a movement, setting a standard in pleasing peoples senses. Always maintaining an excellent visual aspect in the right environment, quality production and superb talent. Pushing the standards of the chosen venues so as to ensure that their service and product is of a high standard as well. It is the intention to bring new, exciting talent which are now also at the forefront with the new generation of intelligent internet savvy youth culture as well as music lovers intent on feasting the delights of these revolutionary producers and all time greats.
It would have been easier to just push out popular acts and probably make you more money as well. Why have you been pushing the frontier of electronica in Australia and New Zealand? What are the challenges and rewards?
Well money isn’t everything and I think there always was a long term plan and hope for this (fingers were crossed for a long time there.) I always felt it had a relation similar to football. We were a young team, and my focus was always to build ourselves as artists, promoters and to learn every aspect of the game as well as building and educating a young following as well. In the long run it has proved to be successful, where I feel as a reward we have influenced the actual culture of music in Melbourne and in turn in Australia in general. Challenges will always occur, as in anything in life and I think the main thing is that we learn from it, and are just mindful and respectful to everything that surrounds us, be it people or environment. And at the end of the day, when you can see the extreme joy you’ve provided for the people who are so receptive to accepting new and foreign sounds at times coinciding with maintaining integrity and a flourishing business, you cannot complain but only strive to better it. And personally, I love the music, it’s awesome witnessing your favourite artists in the flesh.
It’s been discussed over and over with no solution to date. “The value of recorded music is zero” meaning people don’t pay for the music they listen to but however, they’ll pay for the gigs. In Singapore and alot of other asian cities, we have this culture of free guestlist where people do not pay for gigs as well, expecting to come in free as they will buy beers anyway. What is your take on this observation? How does it impact you as a promoter or artiste?
It is a very interesting factor.
I think once again it’s a culture base, perhaps things have to change in Singapore. Time to educate the youth that if they want it to keep happening, there has to be some kind of funding. Coinciding with the venue and allowing for perhaps the old school Zouk way of drink tickets with entry and get a alcohol sponsor. I think if it is slowly implemented, people will understand. Or maybe i’ve been away from Singapore for too long. Heh. Might sound slightly elitist in a way, but if they really love it, they will come regardless. Then you build the true heads, and that will flourish. Obviously guest lists occur in every city, but there has to be a limitation and people have to understand it is someone’s livelihood as well. Unless we re-introduce barter, then you never have to pay for another meal, hotel room, doctor’s appointment, legal fee, etc…. Try that with the next person who wants to get in for free, ask them what they do, and ask them for a plus one.
And there are ways to increase the value of the local music as well in the city. I have been discussing with a few people about the actual lack of radio coverage as well. It is a problem in Australia and i’m not too sure about Singapore but if it is anything like when I was back home, there is not enough local music coverage. Hence, the only way for artists to actually make money is tour, or make it big overseas before there is any recognition. So maybe it’s time to petition the government to increase coverage of local music and artists. And it will have a snowball effect.
Your world domination plans for 2011?
I’m preparing my bunker for 2012. Heh. We all know The Operatives have Mount Kimbie, Lorn, Teebs, Calibre, Pursuit Grooves, Harmonic 313 and more coming up, but further than that I cannot devulge any information as our commitment to Espionage activities prevents us from doing so, or well, we might have to silence you.
Don’t miss SYNDICATE audiovisual show featuring JPS from The Operatives on Apr 2, 10pm. Home Club, #B1-01/06 The Riverwalk, 20 Upper Circular Rd., 6538-2928. $15.00 includes one drink
