THE QUEEN OF HARDCORE : DJ JEN-E Back in the day as a fresh faced raver I remember first hearing word of this female DJ from Brisbane, who not only rocked it, but mixed hardcore. Having finally seen her play live at a rave HARDCORE HEAVEN 3, it was with that night I decided Jen-E was one of my ‘favs’. So with ECKYTHUMP just around the corner, and an opportunity to see her play once again, I was more than happy to send over a through questions to one of my favourite hardcore DJ’s from my rave days. Jen-E is a name synonymous with the Brisbane rave and dance community since the early 90’s. Not only as a DJ, one of the very best during her time behind the decks, but also a contributor to dance music scene through a number of facets. Having dropped countless sets in a number of styles across the country as well as her own production, radio show, magazine contributions, you cannot deny she was integral in the development of the scene. This is the Queen of Hardcore, JEN-E. THUMPER PROFILE : DJ JEN-E YOUR ERA: 1992 – 2003 GENRES : Hardcore, Nu NRG, Hard Trance, Hard House, Breaks 1. Word association: First thing you think of when you hear ‘ECKYTHUMP’? I don’t really think anything, but my hearts starts a-thumpin J ....... Second thing you think of? YAYYY!!! 2. First things first… Lets have an introduction… How did you stumble across raves, clubs and dance music in general? From a passion for music and dancing. 3. …. and most importantly, how did you find your introduction into DJing? I was clubbing every weekend and was already buying records. The DJ was playing one of my favourite songs and I could hear all this other stuff in the track that wasn’t in the record. So I stopped to watch and realised he was doing it. I thought to myself ‘this will be my musical instrument’. 4. In the 90’s you were known as being Australia’s top Female Hardcore DJ. What was the attraction towards Hardcore as a DJ? I always liked music with a harder edge, I had a lot of energy to burn. Being the first female dj at the time where I was definitely had something to do with my attraction to hardcore. I really hated the preconception that I played fluffy girly music because I was female. I liked the idea of showing that chicks could not only be into hard music, but also mix it like a mofo! 5. You played a number of the countries large rave events during that era, what were some of your highlights gig wise? There was a gig at Festival Hall in Brisbane where I supported Paul Elstack. I remember playing ‘Name of the DJ’ and the crowd chanted my name during the chorus, that blew me away. Another highlight was supporting the Dream Team at The Arena, nothing specific about that one was just a crazy party that was heaps of fun. 6. You played Sydney a number of times at events such as ECKYTHUMP, 2019, and HARDCORE HEAVEN. What are your memories of the Sydney scene and the crowd at the time? I remember being apprehensive, I knew my home town like the back of my hand but this was my intro to a bigger city, and the parties were huge. I was struck by the young faces as a few of the gigs were all ages and the numbers at the events. I was impressed with the set ups at the gigs too. 7. Production wise, you had some studio time with our local legend DJ SPELLBOUND. Can you tell us a bit about that? That was fun! I’d been gigging in Sydney a bit and got a phone call one day out of the blue (I hadn’t really met him I don’t think) from Spellbound asking if I’d being interested in coming down to Sydney to make a track. When I said yes he was like, ‘you are??’ I remember laughing a lot in the studio with him and Mikey but it was perfect because we still churned out 3 tracks I’m still proud of (available for download on my soundcloud page). 8. During your earlier years you were involved in other aspects of the scene such as radio and being a contributor to Brisbanes ‘SCENE MAGAZINE’. How did these ventures come about? I’d always been into writing and met Howard, who ran the Scene Mag and he asked if I’d like to be a contributor. This evolved into me having my own column that rounded up dance events each week and featured a few interviews with local and international artists. From this, the Crucial Cutz radio show connection came about. I think my interviews would run on the show sometimes, and I was eventually asked if I’d like to be a resident on the show. I was very honoured as I used to listen to the dance show religiously in my clubbing days; it was an institution in Brisbane. 9. Later in your DJ career you ventured into other genres such as Hard House. Was this a natural progression as a DJ? Yes definitely. I went from doing parties to clubs and alternated between that. Having a residency changes what you play because it’s a different context. I played clubbier hard house when I had residencies. I ended up playing breaks though before I left it all. 10. What are you keeping yourself busy with these days? Are you still DJing in Brisbane? I stopped DJing in 2004 and went off to study for 10 years. I finalised that this year by submitting a PhD that I did in Perth. I also became a yoga instructor in that time. Now I’m back home I’m getting DJ gigs again. I did miss it and will see where this wave of gigs takes me. 11. How did you feel about being asked to jump on board for ECKYTHUMP: ENCORE? Ecstatic! I was going to try and make the last one but I couldn’t with my study commitments. I was wrapped I had the opportunity to do this one. 12. Can you tell us about your favourite memories of playing at an ECKYTHUMP event here in Sydney? Hm … all a blur I’m afraid.. I do remember being on a boat for one of them tho and that being a lot of fun! 13. In the meantime, have you been digging into the crates for a classic hardcore set? What do you have in store for the night? Yes!! I can’t wait to play these again. Just digging through them and hearing some of this old stuff gave me goose bumps… the energy is definitely still there! 14. Lastly, what would be three tunes you know for certain you will be dropping during your set? Going back to back with Spellbound, we’ll most likely be playing our track, Attention. I mentioned ‘Name of the DJ’ – a classic that means a lot to me.. and there’ll be stuff from my fav labels – Terror Trax, Dwarf, Evolution, etc.. EVENT : facebook/events/225574644305930/ TICKETS : moshtix.au/v2/event/eckythump-encore/71241 WARM UP MIX : DJ JEN-E - SCOTT BROWN MEDLEY MIX https://soundcloud/jenny-juckel/scott-brown-medley-mix-dj-jen?in=jenny-juckel/sets/jen_e
Posted on: Thu, 12 Jun 2014 08:31:08 +0000
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