Jimmy Pé

We still remember going bat crazy over some heavy bass tracks Gaslamp Killer played at his show a few weeks ago. After some deep research, we found the producer behind the beats, hailing all the way from Bratislava, Slovakia. Jimmy Pe has already been producing since 2007, growing noticeably stronger with every release.

Who are you, can you tell us something about yourself?

I’m Jimmy Pé, producer and co-founder of an independent label called Gergaz. I’m from a small village called Moravsky Svaty Jan, but at the moment I live in Bratislava, Slovakia. I have been producing electronic music for about 8-9 years now. My creativity often takes me to new musical territories. Sometimes I’m tending towards melancholy, but I’ll always unmistakably find the point of return to protect the listener from darkness through significant portions of euphoria.

Tell us something about the beat scene in Slovakia.

Beat scene? Hard to say something about that because basically it doesn’t exist. There are a couple of people who make music and play shows in clubs and that’s all. I think we have some talented producers who are really great, but for us it’s a bit difficult to make it abroad. It’s also harder to play outside of Bratislava, because many people who love our kind of music already live in Bratislava. I sincerely hope that the future situation will improve for us.

On the other side, many young people listen to hip-hop and there are a lot of hip-hop based producers, but I don’t like it that much. Hip-hop has a strong base of listeners and if you want earn some money, go and start making it, hehe.

What are the best places to search for new music in Slovakia?

In general there are festivals like Pohoda, Wilsonic and Waves Bratislava. All great festivals where you can easily discover a lot of new music.

What do you consider as your own personal masterpiece (so far)?

Phew, hard to say. Probably the songs I made last, but some of my favorites are ‘Tachyphemia’, ‘I wanna get…’ and just all the remixes. Basically all the songs I released are my ‘masterpieces’, I don’t want to publish any track without that certain great feeling.

What is the last song you listened to?

Radiohead – Kid A (Live from Eurokeennes 2003)

Describe a perfect day in the life of Jimmy Pe.

It’s quite simple. I’ll wake up around noon after a solid eight hours of sleep. Produce some music during the day and have a gig later on in the night. I am happy if I can put full focus on my music and not have to care about anything else!

Your tunes got that Jonwayne and TNGHT vibes around them, are they part of your inspiration?

Yeah! The guys from TNGHT are a great inspiration for me, notice the reference on my track called Hudson River; It’s my humble gratitude and dedication for Hudson Mohawke – that’s also that the reason why it’s called Hudson River. My main inspiration also comes from the people around the Brainfeeder label, also Burial and Radiohead.

How did The Gaslamp Killer get his hands on some of your tracks?

It’s thanks to Daedelus, who did a remix on my Fake Fantasy EP. He played the whole thing to Gaslamp Killer and he loved it so much that he now plays it in his sets. At first I didn’t really know about it. I followed his sets for a long time to find out about new music, and you just can’t imagine the look on my face when I heard my track in his sets. Couldn’t believe it, Gaslamp Killer is my favourite DJ! I just feel really satisfied, honoured, like a dream came true. I always wanted to see him dance to my track, he’s a crazy guy!

What piece of equipment would you most like to own and which one you can’t live without?

Push, hands down. At the moment I’m using Push 1, but I just can’t wait for Push 2. It’s a really great controller. I also love the Korg Kaoss Pad KP3 Plus and Quad.

What projects are you currently working on and what can we expect from you in the near future?

I’m going to release the second part of the Fake Fantasy EP on Gergaz soon, it is planned for November 22. I’m currently working on three songs for various compilations, so I hope the guys from those labels pick me. If not, I’ll just use them on another EP or something like that, haha!

LBMX#20 • Welcome to Los Bangeles – Jimmy Pé