“My least favourite way to play is up on a stage where the focus is directed towards you.”
Credit: Press
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Artist and label owner JKriv feels we should focus less on DJs during live sets, and instead shift our priorities to the energy in the room and the people dancing.
JKriv, who co-founded the Razor-N-Tape label with Aaron Dae, has opened up on the different “hats” he wears as both a music maker and label co-owner, sharing his opinions on matters such as streaming and the current state of live music in a new interview with MusicTech.
Speaking as an artist when asked what he hopes to see more of in clubs and venues, JKriv responds, “I’d love to see a move back towards dark rooms and more anonymity for the DJ. My least favourite way to play is up on a stage where the focus is directed towards you and less about the energy in the room and people interacting and dancing. I think festival culture has driven that – it’s now about the personality of the DJ and the ‘performance’ they’re giving.
“We need more listeners and dancers and less DJs, too,” he adds. “Back in the day, music discovery was a different process. You had to spend money on it. You’d have to go and dig for records and learn the craft of doing it. And now, with digital DJing and digital record collecting, it’s much easier. That’s good, obviously, but also the market is just flooded.”
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Further into the interview, he also gives his take on streaming among ongoing criticism of the low payouts the system provides to artists. “[With vinyl], you sell a white label record, you press 1,000 copies, you sell it, and when that’s done, you’re probably not going to repress it. So that’s all the money the artist will make from it, right? Streaming is obviously pennies, but the music will sit there forever. And it grows – you start to see over time how that income stream can build for you and for the artists. So that’s a positive thing,” he says.
“I would love to see a platform like Bandcamp build out some features that could compete with a streaming service like Spotify. Most people would love to know that the money they’re paying for music is supporting artists a bit more. I think if you gave people the opportunity to do that, they would go for it, and it would be a real success.”
JKriv’s new EP, Intuition, is out now. You can check it out, plus more releases, via Razor-N-Tape.
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