On 6th November, Counter Culture hosted the first London Jackmode Party with Zombie Disco Squad, Christian Martin, Solo, Midland, Round Table Knights and many more in the deep dark tunnels beneath London Bridge Station. In the aftermath of this HUGE party, I managed to find some time to catch up with Daniel Zedelmair, the guy behind Jackmode and its roster, to talk about Jackmode, and also about their next party taking place on 18th December…
AB: Hi Daniel, so where did Jackmode begin? What influenced you to start an agency? Why not a club night, or a label?
DZ: Basically, Lucas Hunter from ZOMBIE DISCO SQUAD started Jackmode in London looking after the likes of Edu K, Crookers and Sweat.X. He stopped it, when the guys got big with ZOMBIE DISCO SQUAD. I worked for Support Agency in Berlin back then, and took ZDS on our roster. When I decided to start my own agency, it kinda started with Zombie Disco Squad as my first act, before we even had a name for it. The idea to name it Jackmode again just felt right considering what we planned to do.
I was already running a series of events in my hometown of Ulm for the last 3 years. But the agency soon became my absolute priority. Regarding events, we just started with the first Jackmode night at Counter Culture in November, which was amazingly well received, so we’ll have another one there in December. But we also have 6 Jackmode nights at Crux in Munich, one at Social Club in Paris, as well as two at Hive and Club Bonsoir in Switzerland next year.
To complete the question, the label will follow next year as well. We’ve planned to kick of with 6 EPs in the first 6 months of next year. But its a bit too early to speak about that in more depth.
AB: How was your current roster of artists put together? Its pretty impressive!
DZ: As already mentioned all started with ZOMBIE DISCO SQUAD. They hooked me up with SOLO and RENAISSANCE MAN (who left later to Decked Out). Then we overtook ROUND TABLE KNIGHTS, with whom we’d already been in touch with via their parties in Switzerland. When Made To Play stopped their own booking unit, Jesse Rose contacted us to take over their main artists. Our ongoing relationship with Andrew Kelsey and his US agency LIAISON ARTISTS (former Blue Collar) lead to our Europe engagement for dirtybird. Meanwhile we’ve been touring CHRISTIAN MARTIN and J.PHLIP very successfully and have 2 upcoming tours for JUSTIN MARTIN and one for WORTHY just around the corner.
AB: How often do you speak and meet with your artists? Is there a lot of trust involved? How is it being based in Berlin when your DJs are constantly traveling around the world?
DZ: I guess I can say that I speak or email with them on a daily base. In times of smart-phones and permanent internet access, its not a big deal to keep in touch.
AB: Do you got loads of strange booking requests? What’s the weirdest one you’ve had?
DZ: Basically the worst ever, which we unfortunately accepted, was a big party in France called Skins Party. UK people will know the TV series… so you can imagine what a chaos that was, the promoter being the same age as their audience. All wedding requests…. from weddings for right-wing Russians to weddings on private islands in the Caribbean.
AB: Why do DJs have agents? Is it not something they can manage themselves?
DZ: Each gig brings so much administration work with it, that a single person won’t be able to handle. We provide the structure for it, and sometimes its even tough for us to keep on top of everything.
Nobody would imagine the work behind each single booking. It really pays of when the profile of one of our artists really grows whilst they’re with us- you’ve got to stick with them! For everybody else we kinda work for free and helping to get them to that level.
AB: There is ALOT of hype around your artists at the moment, especially with the success of Made To Play and Deadfish churning out a number of this summers massive tunes. Surely this has been great for business, but also, has it allowed the agency to grow and extend its family?
DZ: I think we’ve been growing quite reasonably in the last 1.5 years of our existence. Soundwise, we also openend up a bit recently, as there is just more to do than one sound or style. We wanna be able to provide different musical line ups for different stages and occasions. We have also great responsibility for dirtybird now in Europe, getting all of the core members of the label playing as much as possible in Europe.
But yeah, the success of artists like ZOMBIE DISCO SQUAD, ROUND TABLE KNIGHTS, SOLO and JUSTIN MARTIN kept us busy this year, but also gave us the oppertunity to add for example POL_ON (Freerange, Connaisseur) or JET PROJECT (Snatch, Extended Play), both of which we’re big fans and expect lots in the coming year.
AB: We’ve just had Part 1 of the London Jackmode parties, and we can’t wait until Part 2… can you tell us what we might expect from the next party?
DZ: We’ve been so excitied about the first touchdown and how well it was received. We have, again, a great line up; with JESSE ROSE (Made To Play, Frontroom) as a very special guest. Zombies will be present too, who played an amazing set last time.
From Berlin we’re gonna bring OLIVER $; Jesse Rose’s partner in crime. Room Two, (which will be represented by our mates from the PELSKI blog again) will bring you different sounds from their own CHARLES DARKLY, Troublevision’s MR SOLID GOLD + PARK RANGER, PARDON MY FRENCH DJs bringing the Disco, all the way to the deep to techy house from Belfast’s JET PROJECT.
So we hope we will even have more people coming down and check that out…
That’s all from us- but what can we say? - GET DOWN AND EXPERIENCE IT YOURSELF… Jackmode @ Counter Culture Project, Saturday 18th Decembber 7-9 Crucifix Lane, London Bridge SE1 3JW featuring Jesse Rose, Zombie Disco Squad, Oliver $, Jet Project and more… Tickets still available £12 from Resident Advisor / Ticketweb
Jackmode Event Page on Facebook
