Come help celebrate Jesse from timeOUT's birthday at The Heritage this Saturday night

In the Australian electronic music scene, there are few names that command as much respect and admiration as Jamie Stevens.

The Melbourne-based producer, DJ, label boss and all-round nice guy is best known for his work with dual ARIA Award-winning live act Infusion, who have been a driving force in Australian dance culture for the past decade and have earned their place as one of Australia’s top electronic imprints.

But for Jamie, Infusion is but one facet in his hugely successful career.

He has also worked on movie scores, is a successful solo producer in his own right, runs a label called Dieb Audio and, most recently, has begun DJ’ing again to ecstatic crowds around the world. timeOUT caught up with Jamie recently, to find out just what makes the man tick.

>> email info@open-records.net with your name, address and phone number for a chance to win one of five tickets to Jamie Stevens at The Heritage on Saturday night

Jamie says his first musical inspirations came from at home, through his parent’s record collection.

“My mum and dad were, and still are, big music lovers and we had a very broad range of records that were played most days and every weekend,” he says.

“At the time, a lot of it I didn’t really understand. What I mean is to my ears at the time, pop and rock music didn’t make sense to me because they sang over the music and I couldn’t figure out why people did that.

"Music for me was about the sound and the emotion, even when I was young. We had a Commodore 64 computer and I started making music with that and sort of learnt music that way because you had to move the quavers and semiquavers on the stave.

"I’d then make little tapes of these tunes.

"I just loved the sound of the computer because it sounded like nothing else and to me, that was really exciting being a big science fiction fan.

"It was all about triggering images and imagining scenes.

"So really, for me, film scores and computer game music captivated me and then I discovered Jean Michel Jarre and my life changed.

"I was obsessed. He made music that spoke to me- these seamless albums using sounds I hadn't heard anywhere else, melancholic musical phrases and, most importantly, a really hypnotic element.

"That's when I realised I wanted a real synthesizer so I got a red Roland SH101 for my birthday. After that Acid House music seemed a natural extension of the music I loved.”

Jamie says despite his lifestyle being fairly hectic at the moment, with a multitude of remixes, gigs and other projects on the fly, he’s loving every minute.

"I had a great weekend of DJ gigs and now I’m back in the studio doing some Infusion remixes and re-editing more tunes for the Cairns gig," he says. "It is my first time playing up there and I’m super excited.

"Quite a few of my friends have played there and raved how much fun it is and how the crowds are up for a good time ... so to speak!"

While the influence of Infusion on Australian dance culture cannot be denied, especially in the live realm, Jamie is quick to shrug off any suggestions that they started the booming scene. "A few people have said this but, to be honest, we never considered ourselves ground-breaking in that way," he says.

"We just did it because we thought it would be fun to jam at raves and clubs.

"We didn’t think at the time what we were doing was unique and I think, perhaps, that was because we lived our lives vicariously through UK music magazines, reading about acts like Orbital, Underworld and people like that, even though we hadn’t seen them. It was just a way of playing live club music and we didn’t think about the fact there were only a handful of people doing anything similar in Australia. Retrospect is a funny thing. But it’s just a way of playing and it’s not like we invented the wheel."

Another facet of Jamie’s personal interest is his love for art, graphic design, literature and photography.

He says they “absolutely” have an impact on the music he makes.

“I get all kinds of rhythmic and musical ideas from browsing bookstores, reading a beautifully written book or appreciating a brilliant design piece.

"It’s all lines, symmetry, colour, balance, rhythm of words and all these things. It’s pretty hard to talk about these things that I’m passionate about without coming across like a pretentious foold, but it all comes from the same place in the heart and mind.

"I went to university studying fine arts and I'd always just had music as a hobby but I found and my years of studying went on, I was combining the 2 so much that I realised that it was all one and the same.

"Brian Eno articulates these things far better than I. I find his interviews incredibly  inspiring and I'm in awe of that man.”

DJ’ing has only really been a recent pursuit for Jamie and instead of viewing it as a career, he sees it as just another fun, creative outlet.

"I’d always said I would never take DJ’ing as a career seriously because the world didn’t need another DJ and in a way, that’s still true for me in that I don’t go out and push and get gigs," he says.

"Other DJs do that because they want a career doing this, and that is absolutely understandable, but I’m not doing this for a job. I simply do it because it’s so much damn fun, so I’ll take an opportunity to do it when it comes along. I love it."

So what can Cairns crowds expect from Jamie when he stops into The Heritage this Saturday night?

"I’ve never been good at describing the music I like to play but you can expect music that’s all about the groove and drive in all its forms," he says.

"A good dose of house-y tech and lots of hip-shaking. I’m so looking forward to coming up, having an excellent time, a bit of jumping around, lots of bass, smiling and making sure my mate has a great birthday party!"

>> Jamie Stevens performs this Saturday night at The Heritage, supported by Adam Giardina, Scruffy Goat, Suspekt, Drewan, Mony and a mystery special guest. Tickets are $10 on the door. To read the full-length interview, head to www.cairns.com.au/entertainment

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