DJ Jedi Interview

We recently caught up with one of the most innovative DJ in the T.O club circuit. DJ Jedi has been making some big moves in recent years, playing with Kanye West and jumping on the 1s and 2s at Celebrity parties that include such names as P.Diddy and Nelly Furtado.

Where did the name DJ Jedi come from why did you come up with that name?

Well you know Jedi came from my real name which is Jed Harper, I always hated the name Jedi. Its one of those nicknames that stuck with me, growing up from being a kid everyone called me Jedi and it kind of translated into Djing.

So it has nothing to do with Star Wars or the force or anything like that! I’m sure you have heard that a million times over?

(laughing)I have heard that millions of times over and it has absolutely nothing to do with Star Wars. I do like star wars and I’m a bit of a nerd but the name has no reference to star wars.

Your known as one of the top DJ’s in Toronto tell me about some of your musical influences and how you were be able to get to this point in your career?

Well I’m influence by a lot of music, I started out by playing mostly hip hop and classic house back in the day. As my career moved up I started experimenting with a lot more genre’s of music like rock, electro and all kinds of brake beat!

Favorite Hip Hop song?

The first thing that comes to mind is What The Scenario Remix by Leaders Of The New School feat A Tribe Called Quest.

Which tune made you want to be a DJ?

The first time I realized I wanted to be a DJ I heard a mix-tape my buddy had, his cousin was a Hip Hop DJ. It had him scratching a tune, I think it was some thing really ridicules like Snow ‘Informer’ (laughing). But when I heard a guy doing that I was like this is what I want to do! (laughing)

What did your mum say (Jedi laughing) when you wanted to DJ wasn’t she committing you to getting a job at the bank or something?

No my mum wanted me to be a lawyer she always thought my name would look good on a nice name plate (laughing) but she put up with me. She always thought it would be a fun hobby, but when I started bringing home proper pay cheques from djing she quickly realized that this was a viable life style and it’s not all about booze and parties; it’s really legitimate.

Jedi

Is there any dream gigs that you wanna play like Glastonbury festival or any other festivals round the world?

The epitome of any DJ obviously I think is doing a set in Ibiza (shaking my hand and laughing) cream fields maybe, there are so many great things! I had the opportunity of playing at the Miami music conference and opportunities to play in great places round world like china.

So what was it like coming from Newmarket looking for new opportunities in Toronto nightlife?

Newmarket is a suburb of Toronto so growing up I would always take the bus to Toronto, to buy records so I had a familiarity with the city. It was a little tuff a first because a lot of guys don’t want to open doors for you, as they would have their own click. Luckily I met some good people, Karl Campbell was a really good guy who helped put me on the Toronto scene. Carl Allan who was a DJ at CKLN also put me on and got me introduce to the Toronto scenesters and DJ’s.

You touched on coming down and buying records in the City, DJ has gone from spinning records to actually pushing keys on a computer what do you think of the whole technology aspect? There are a lot more DJ’s out there now and do you think the art of djing is getting better or worse?

That is a really great question I think there was a time when this whole digital stuff started, all of a sudden it exploded with everyone and their mother wanting to be a DJ. To be honest with you when you had to buy records there was like a gatekeeper that sort of restricted anybody and everybody being a DJ. You had to know who and where to get the right records. Now anybody can go online and get anything on the internet so it makes professional DJ’s work a little harder, to be a head of the curve and you need to be a little more creative than just playing records. You gotta include so much more, anybody now can play two songs on a laptop you gotta take it to the next step. I think technology has helped DJ’s be more creative but I also think it makes DJ’s work a little harder.

Jedi dJ

I understand you have a club I’m curious to find out the musical influence that you have at your club? What are you trying to do there, are you introducing new sound to the city and are you producing your own music after playing other peoples music for so long?

Okay that’s a two parter (laughing), well the first part of that is yeah in 2006 I opened up a small bar (TOI BAR) with my lovely wife, our prime focus was to introduce new genres of music and genres of music that were not being played in the city and the bigger venues. Sounds like minimal techno, Dubstep, drum n bass and just more alternative genres of electronic music are the main focus. We have had the opportunity to work with some amazing people helping us build a great rep for our place. The second part of that question I am defiantly getting into production I just released a record with Toronto MC Choclair (Get It Girl) that was very well received in the electronic community. I’m working on a whole whak of new projects with a single coming out with an artist called Lincoln and I’m working on some world sound funky house stuff. I don’t like to limit my production to just one sound; right now I’m trying to compile a whole album of different genres of electronic music.

So who’s DJ Jedi when he’s not Djing?

I like to sleep (laughs). Catch up on my rest from all these gigs. I’m currently reading a book called the Lost Symbol by Dan Brown which is pretty interesting. I’ve been catching up on all my shows like True Blood and CSI and then when I’m not doing that I’m playing some Wii golf, Tiger Woods! But I don’t get that much time.

So what kind of music do women usually ask you to play?

That’s a loaded question (Laughing) Reggae! Normally girls ask for reggae, Girls that want to wined and slow it up. That’s a real typical Toronto thing to ask but I try not to take any requests when I’m playing.

Yeah that’s best thing to do. Good luck with everything and thank you

Any time; Thanks