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Who are you?

I am me. I am Jake. I was born in 1976, the year of the dragon.

Let's go all the way back to when you started getting involved in the electronic music scene while growing up in San Antonio. You threw some of the biggest raves in town, which were legendary.

My cousin Gino and I started getting into it together. I got into it too when this girl showed me this techno tape, and I was really into her. So I got into that, and my boy started getting into it, and we were like, we need to start bringing some fresh people, so we did our first event, and it went well. I had always been into producing hip-hop, but then I started getting into the 4-4 action.

How old were you?

I first started dabbling with it when I was 17. I started getting serious probably when I was 21, when I was in art school in Houston.

A lot of people say they have a very definitive, significant moment with house music when they first realize "I love this" - like it just bites them in the ass. Did you have a moment like that?

In Houston, I used to live in these apartments, and there was a club right behind them. It was called Middle Earth. I was walking there, and we got robbed. They took our money. It was three dudes, and they had guns. Then my friend took off, and I went to the club by myself. So I walked in there, and I was like "what the fuck is this?" People in big pants and shit. I had seen it before, just not all in one room. And then I heard Witch Doctor. So I guess that was my first taste of house, because I was into more like techno and drum 'n' bass, but house, I was like "yeah." I went home, started fucking around on the keyboards, listening to some industrial shit and trying to make those sounds I heard, hanging out with different DJs, and there you go. I'm glad you asked me why I like house. But I like mixing all different sounds into it.

You play some instruments.

I play drums, keys, bass, guitar and trumpet, but I'm not the best at them. If I start with a bassline, then I start playing with the keys. I'm not a scholar in that shit.

And you have different vocals that you use.

I've got different personalities that I use. Paparazzi is the English fuckin' stuck up fuck. Morning Star is the industrial wannabe mother fucker. And then Lil' Prince is the down South rapper. That's about it for right now.

You just released a full-length album on CD.

It's called Perception: Volume I. The series is going to be where I pick my favorite artists, and they just mix all of their own tracks, so it's their perception of the music, and it's their own shit. The first volume is me, and it's all my shit mixed together.

How is it being distributed?

I go through two different distributors: Downtown 161 and Soul Unlimited – Dust Traxx. Next will hopefully be Inland Knights – Perception: Volume II.

Let's talk about one of your tracks, "Pimpin' Ain't Easy."

A lot of cats think when you talk about that, it's like a sex thing. Pimpin' Ain't Easy. You can take it as a sex thing, or you can take it as a politics thing. You know where investors buy out all the houses in a poor neighborhood, and they build all this luxurious shit around it and force the residents to move out. Well, if you look at that song, it's the two investors calling each other and trying to get rid of those cats in the poor neighborhood, so they start building up – "We can do this all night long." So you can look at it as a sex thing or as a politics thing. It really depends on what the person wants to see.

Do you always insert double meanings into you music?

It's not always like that. There's "I Like It Dirty," and there's no double side to that, but a lot of the tracks I do have two meanings.

Earlier this year, you released a record called 11:11.

It's the number of enlightenment, which is where I was at. Not really enlightenment of God or any of that bullshit, but just knowing who you are and what you want to get out of life. I've found enlightenment through a lot of struggle and a lot of seeing what basically I don't want to be, and seeing that I've already been that person. I want to try to get rid of people like me. You know what I'm saying?

What do you mean?

Like I know the way I used to be, and I want to totally get rid of that mentality, because I was very angry. I still am. And it goes into my music, and I'm holding myself accountable for all the shit I've done.

So you feel like your music is self-effacing?

It's kinda like keeping myself in check. Like "you gotta change your shit, man." Because I did some fucked up shit in the past. It's self-medication. If I can move other people, that's cool.

So how did "Boom, I Fucked Your Girlfriend" make it onto 11:11?

It was at that time that I did that track. There where reasons that I put it on that record. The other side is "Dirty H-town."

Spettro did a sick remix of "Dirty H-town."

That will be coming out pretty soon.

There's a vast disparity in your production styles – you do some really growling synthy sounds like "Telephone Tag," and then you've got your softer sounds like "Do You Feel What I Feel?" How do these reflect your personality?

It's just what I conjure up. That whole "I wanna fuck you all day and all night" was to piss off this one dude, because I saw him screwing with one of my friends mentally. It just pissed me the fuck off. So in the record, the dude keeps calling. And I wanted him to think that this chick was like, you know, involved with me, to piss him off. They ended up breaking up. It was great. It worked.

You've been doing some work with Luis Roberto.

It's called Texas to Cali EP. That dude is just an amazing dude, and we really vibed off the beats, because he has the punchy, silly, dirty, grindy beats, and it's really good with the synth. We just mashed it together. We became good friends.

You recently did a track for Drop called "Smokin' Trees" featuring a new vocalist, J.A.M.O.N. Who is J.A.M.O.N.?

That's my project. Besides the house stuff, I want to start producing and then sell it to bigger labels. That's what I'm doing with J.A.M.O.N. – R'n'Bish with a little house stuff, but more the R'n'Bish soul, synthy side. The first one will be on Drop Music. Actually, it won't be called "Smokin' Trees" because they just bought another track from me for the whole EP, which will be called Business to Pleasure EP.

For a lot of people trying to get into production, they want to know what the steps are. From start to finish, how do you produce a track?

First I started sampling a lot of shit and made templates. Then I couldn't find anymore samples, so I tried the keys and started making all the shit myself. I use a sample here and there, but not a whole loop. I started trying all the different chords and basslines, getting more into the percussion side of it, trying to make it sound solid. Then I started incorporating vocals, because I've always been a vocal kind of person.

Do you start with the bassline?

I don't always start with the bass. I start with off with a beat, and then the bass, and then the keys. Or the keys, then the bass. Or first the keys. I kind of do have a pre-set way of doing it, but then I always change it up.

Do you sit down and say "I'm going to make a track," or does something come to you, and then you create it?

It's more like I sit down, and I open up something, and I think I'm going to do a downtempo track and it turns into house track. It's almost like surfing. I just wait for the wave, because whenever I try to force it, it doesn't turn out right, and I'm just fucking around with switches and knobs and keys.

How do you know when a track is finished?

I know through a 16 bar loop. If I make that 16 bar loop sound dope, then I know I have a song right there, and I just spread it out and add to it. So I start with a little loop and try to find the bassline, try to find the keys. Make that little snippet. If that shit's sounding tight, I just spread it out like butter.

How would you describe your basslines?

Very choppy basslines. It depends. Dirty and funky. I just try to change it up a lot, especially the basslines in the song. I've got to have at least two change ups. A lot of people do the same bassline, the same keys through the whole song and then they just add like a "de de dee," which is cool, but I take the jazz approach to it, where it breaks off into this whole different shit, but it's still in the same key, or a different key, just like jazz.

What software do you use?

I use Nuendo, Reason and Outport Gear.

What's happening with your tour schedule?

I head out to Europe from October to November. That's the plan. And then back to Johannesburg for a month/month-and-a half. I'll be on tour there.

Cool. Does South Africa have a good house scene?

I love it over there. I'm going over there every six months now.

What are the clubs like?

In South Africa, it was really packed. The people are really into it. Capetown was off the chain. In Johannesburg, I played at this huge festival called H2O, and that was mad people - 10-15,000 people. That was just crazy.

10-15,000 people? Oh my God.

Yeah, I have two photos. We are starting a label there called Spoonfed with the people who brought me. A nice little tech-house label, and it's going to be fun.

When do you expect to launch that?

In about two months.

What's going to be the first release on Spoonfed?

Some tracks I've been holding onto for a while – "Voodoo Religion" and "Curse Of The King."

Really? Why haven't you released them on Uni.form? Are you sticking to synthy house there?

That's exactly what I want for Uni.form. Sometimes I have tracks – I just have a feeling about tracks – where they should go and when I should release them. It's to help my friends out in South Africa. They've shown me love, and I want to give them really good tracks to start off their label. And another thing is, when they host shows and shit…

They go all out? What do they do?

The whole time I was there, they were postering everything. They had about 500. They were postering every day on the streets – every day – woke up, started postering. So I saw that and I was like, if they run their label like that, yeah.

What gets you up in the morning?

I feel like I have something to do here – a lot of payback, a lot of shit to give back to, because I was given something, and I feel it's my duty to give back. I think the music starts diminishing the more I get into the self-absorbed – the "I made this" – but actually, I didn't make it, it's the shit that goes through me. I want to use that flow and the doors that open up to me to help doors open up for other people too.

Do you think art imitates life?

What does that mean? What is art?

Yeah, what is art?

Art is just expression. It can even be how you carry yourself. A plumber could be an artist if they're really good at it and they have their set ways of doing it. Same shit. You don't have to draw or paint, it's just how you carry yourself and how you communicate.

Do you think you can live a poetic life - live life poetically with the decisions that you make and the person that you are?

You can live any kind of life that you want on this earth. If you think it, then you can create it. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

What is your dream?

My dream? Interesting. For one world government. I could get really deep into this, but that's another time. That's my dream. I want everybody to be unified without war.

What about with music?

The whole thing is that I like to communicate with people. I'm not worried too much about the money, because that will always be cool. I just want more people to hear what I have to say and hear what they have to say, because all in all, people are reflections of me, and vice versa.

Do you think that the world is a fucked up place?

No, not at all, but yes it is. It could be. But I'm a part of the system, so that would be saying I'm fucked up. Everybody has their downfall and shit, everybody has their ups – there's no good, there's no bad, there just is. So yes, it's fucked up, but it's a good place to be.

Can you make a difference through your music?

Well, that same question would be like saying, "Can you change somebody's mind by talking to them?" Music is just communication – that's all it is, a tool to communicate, that's it. There's no fuckin' genius behind it, no like "Ohhh, I'm into music." It's all about communication, that's all it is. So yeah, to answer your question, of course, because if you tell somebody "don't cross the road," they understand it, and they don't cross the road.

What have you learned?

That shit doesn't happen overnight. It takes work. I mean, it can happen overnight, but it's gonna be a difference between a one hit wonder and somebody like Johnny Fiasco. That motherfucker's been in the game for a long time, been putting in work hard core, been dealing with a lot of people all the time. Everybody respects him, and you can't fuck with that dude. Then you have a one hit wonder who releases one huge dance hit, and nobody's ever heard of them before or after. I don't want to rush things. I'm in this for the long haul. Just got to play your cards right.

Describe yourself in a color.

Mirror. A mirror reflects all colors.

What do you love?

My family. And people that love me.

What do you hate?

My family. And people that love me. It's a double-edged sword.

After Jake and I conducted this interview, we walked outside. There was a water fountain. Jake took off his flip flops and got in.