Though, if you ask a Jeff Bujak fan to describe his music, a blank face followed by a smile would prove to be a common trial answer, then usually words like 'dirty' and 'epic' start pouring out. His music falls into a large pool of electronica dance genres, lands on one and leaps to the next while he wails away on his keyboards to create something truly moving, smart and original.
Interview by Maisie Leach
HGMN: Where are you from?
JB: Well I live in North Hampton Massachusetts and grew up in Syracuse New York. But yeah, I live in Western Massachusetts now.
HGMN: Well tell me about yourself
JB: Personally or musically? They are 2 different worlds.
HGMN: just be open...it'll be better that way.
JB: The past few years' music has been my life. I'm pretty much on the road as much as I am at home. My wife's' at home...she has a pastry chef job. She does cakes and wedding cakes. So she keeps herself occupied. As far as me, you know being on the road and music is my life. Meeting new people and playing music is pretty much all I do right now. Now that I'm stepping out of the business aspect of this and letting others take care of me in that way...I'm able to concentrate on what I really want to do, playing music and less of the business aspect of it. Getting back into my normal life and being myself.
HGMN: So you are starting to do more marketing?
JB: Yeah, my team is doing the marketing. In the past I represented myself and did all of my own work. You know, being a solo artist there's just me doing all this stuff. So, this was for about 3 years and then I started bringing on a manager and I took on a couple more people to help me out. Now, it's interesting...3 or 4 years of just doing the business side of things, I kind of forgot who I was. I realized after doing all of that playing music is really what I want to do instead of trying to schmooze and work out deals and stuff like that. So as far as me, I'm just an easy going, music lover that's pretty much it. I absolutely love music from the bottom to the top, I love making it. I'm a very selfish music lover, there are only a handful of bands that I can actually put in a cd and really listen to. I try to give as many bands as I can a chance. But I have a very narrow market of what I actually listen to.
HGMN: You're picky...You're like a wine connoisseur.
JB: I'm very picky. That's kind of why I make my own music of what I want to hear.
HGMN: One thing about music is that you get to pick whatever the next move is and it can go in any direction. And it can influence people so much.
JB: Oh, without a doubt. And sometimes you don't even try for that. I don't really have songs. I just have tracks that I play...but I have live versions, studio versions. I have a lot of different versions of all my tracks. But um, a lot of times with my live thing I'm like "Okay my main goal is just to make people dance." Then I start writing a song and sometimes it will turn into something completely different and I'll just let it go...let the flow go and see what happens with it. I'll start with one thing, try for one thing and it'll end up in a different area.
HGMN: What is your process like?
JB: It's very random. I am pretty much free. I have 3 sections of my career. One is a live performance. That's when I have all my keyboards, my mixers, all my gear and all my loopers and computers. I pretty much want to make it a dance party. When I'm on stage I want to make people to at least move or at least be engaged in what's going on, upbeat and full. I make the music as full and thick as possible. I make it sound like a full band. But in the studio...it's where everything starts. It's where I create all my beats and everything. And I'll start out a song very simple. I'll just write a song and record it in the studio and edit and add intricate little things. And then I bring it to a stage and start adding loops and certain things so the songs are kind of written as I go. I'll sit down and I'll start writing a song or writing a process of a song and...by the end...I... I don't plan much.
HGMN: Your plan vanishes...
JB: Yeah.
HGMN: But then it's goes in a good direction.
JB: And if it doesn't I start over and do something else. Being alone, I'm able to do whatever I want. This can be good, it can be bad. I don't have any other influences and in a way I don't want anybody else saying "Hey, let's try this or that." I just want to do what I do. And if I come up with an idea and I do it on stage and I notice that people aren't really into it, I just don't do it again. So in the studio I do what I want to do, and on stage I kinda do what I want to do but I have to incorporate the audience into it. Like, "You really wana dance? Okay I'll give you something" Or if they're the audience that's sitting there watching me, I'll give them something to watch. I'll cater to them...but still stay within my own realm of what I want to do. But my studio stuff is exactly what I want to do. And then I have a remix career where I take other songs and I do mixes of them and I throw them into a new original that I write. So I take other peoples songs and I rewrite them. I'll take 3 or 4 different artists and mix them.
HGMN: Who are some of your favorites?
JB: A lot of hip hop artists right now. I mean there's southern hip hop like T.I. and people like that but then there's early 90's hip hop. I really like Wu-Tang, a lot of Nas, Common...
HGMN: Me too! I like Jurassic 5
JB: Yeah, Jurassic 5 exactly. I actually sample J5. Hip hop is very easy to remix because it's not necessarily based on melody. Which is what I like to create is the melody part. Just take rhymes and you can stretch em out and make them match my own beat. That's what I do. I take what other people have done and put my own spin on it. This is a smaller section of my career...I just let people download it. I don't want to sell it because I'm using other peoples' music...it gets complicated.
HGMN: Do you ever run into any legal issues?
JB: Not really because labels aren't going after people who are using samples because labels are not failing but you know, big labels just aren't doing as well as they used to and they don't have the full on power of going after an artist that's potentially doing better than the actual recording artists. You know, like Girl Talk, he's a mash artist. And he sells it. And not one label has gone after him because he's giving those songs life again. And some people might go out and buy those albums again. So yes it is illegal, it really is...to rerecord something and sell it is illegal but they aren't going to come after you. So, I just don't want to get into that world. There are a lot of musicians who say "No this is my music. Please don't use it for your own gain." So I try not to make money off of it. But there are people who enjoy it. But my studio original stuff is my main goal and then my live show is becoming quite big. I'm getting LED hoopers and a lot of lights and incorporating a lot of different things into it, making it more like a circus. Fire spinners...I use that a lot in the Northeast.
HGMN: Are you the father of this type of music? Were there other people doing it before you?
JB: Well there are different aspects of what I'm doing. Like with the silent disco I have headphones. That's been done with Dj's and stuff but it's never been done at a live function so as far as I know I'm the only person using it as a live thing through a laptop. It's radio transmission so it gets very technical. You have to specifically mix it and compress it in a certain way to send it out. It's different from a live band...you can't have any external noise at all. It all has to be through a mixing board. So my setup is appropriate for that and works for that so I just happened to be able to do it. So I guess I am like the first to kind of try this but maybe others have done it. I don't know really. It's hard to say.
HGMN: I came to your show Thursday night and it was kind of a weird experience for me. I was with my boyfriend and he doesn't even like electronic music and he was getting down. It was funny. But then I felt a little weird because I couldn't feel it (the beat) you know what I mean?
JB: Yeah, it's just your ears. And for people who don't like to be judged it can be a downside because people on the outside don't know what you are hearing. And they are looking at you like, "what?" But then you look around at the others listening and it's like, "I get it". It's a whole different world and when you take off your headphones and look around, it's a big jump from one to the other. It's really interesting. Obviously I've never been out in the crowd because I'm playing but I'm sure it's strange.
HGMN: You need to see what it's like to be in your crowds shoes.
JB: Maybe tonight if I get a loop going or something I can jump out and see that. But the silent disco thing is something I don't do as much as my loud set. I do festivals and I do like a "normal set" where I go on stage and then I'll do a silent set and it's 2 different things. There isn't that thumping to dance to. Some people like it better than others.
HGMN: How did you start doing this?
JB: Well, um, since I was 23 years old I've been on the road touring. I'm 32 now. I've been in bands touring around the whole country doing jam band stuff and other things as a keyboardist. Really long story short, I joined a band, toured around the country a lot and started learning the craft. Taking over positions in the band so we could get more exposure. I'd be like, "well, we don't need a manager anymore. I'll take over that". So I learned all the aspects and I started making connections and it got to a point where the bands I was in were kind of settling down and I started beefing up my gear and thought I'd try something solo. It started out really basic. Slow beats and just piano. It was going to be a very ambient thing. Over 4 years it's just turned into this. A heavier electronic thing. And in 4 years I don't know what I'll be doing either. It's evolution. When I get bored I'm fine...I just try something new. So people who saw me a year ago say that it's completely different.
HGMN: And do you provide the head phones and all the gear needed?
JB: Those are all my headphones. I travel with all this stuff and it's very difficult. It's a production. There's 2 main goals: #1 is getting all the headphones back. Since they're wireless they disappear very quickly. You have to treat people like cattle (laughs) You have to keep them in.
HGMN: Yeah, I noticed the tape.
JB: And that's minimal. Like that's all we could do. I usually like fencing just because those headphones work for a while and people are curious so they, like, walk to the parking lot. Or they get in a conversation and go to someone's campsite and get talking and end up putting them down and forgetting about them. It's rare someone will sneak them off on purpose. And then goal #2 is setting it up and getting people comfortable with it. Getting people to understand what's happening. A lot of people have questions and you just have to say "Just, here. Put these on and listen". People are always curious because they are wireless headphones.
HGMN: You should get Dr. Dre to sponsor you!
JB: Yup, with "Beats." And you know there are companies that sell thousands of these things and they do festivals out in the fields. And a lot of them have 2 channels. So you can go back and forth from 2 DJ's on stage...one on channel A and one on channel B. And there's ones that have 6. So you have 6 DJ's, 2000 people and you have, like, a dub step DJ, a trance DJ, a house DJ and you get all these people dancing in one place to 6 different things. It's far out. And you can tell the people that are really getting into it. You are like "What are they doing? What are they flipping through? What are they dancing to?" And then you turn the channel and figure out "That's it!" just from the way they are dancing. You see this girl trancing out and you can go to that. It's really fun.
HGMN: That's a really good idea. I want to go to something like that. That's a whole different experience.
JB: Yeah, and a lot of people have that judgment. It's not to replace a PA. A lot of people will use it because you can't have loud PA at night so they do headphones. It's not a replacement. It's a whole different experience. And there are some silent discos where they just have subwoofers. They're not doing it to keep the sound down; they're just doing it for the experience. They'll run subwoofers across so on the outside you just hear low humming and occasionally a beat. So when you put it on you can hear it and feel it.
HGMN: So hip hop is your favorite?
JB: To remix, yes. To listen to it's really heavy metal. Like Swedish heavy metal, really intricate. It's metal that's not easy to bob to. It's stuff that you're listening for. Everything's written out. It's like classical music. I'm a classical piano player, so. Europe and Scandinavia love the real intricate stuff. Other than that, I have respect for musicianship. I like slower, I like darker. A lot of electronic guys like Deadmau5.
HGMN: Have you listened to Porcupine Tree?
JB: Oh yeah, I opened up for them 2 years ago in New Jersey! It was an awesome show. Yes! I lived on one of their albums for like a year. That whole Prague world. I love that style of music.
HGMN: What do you live by?
JB: I just believe in morality and being the best person you can be. I have a drive to succeed. I don't feel like this is a competition at all. In the music industry there is a lot of competition and I can't help but feel like, okay, I need to do better than that other band and their draw because I want to be bigger. It's a selfish thing. So I just try to do things in the most positive way. I'm in no position for entitlement. I don't believe I'm entitled to anything. I'm just trying to do something good here and make people feel good about the money they spent coming in. I've been working 11 years for this music thing. This is the time when I really need to make it happen. And it's starting to definitely happen. So I'm walking a thin line and making sure that I don't get a negative backlash. I've seen it ruin careers.
HGMN: What are you most looking forward to?
JB: Being able to present the show I want to present. And just not being worried about shows anymore. Like worrying if people are going to show up. That's the biggest stress for a musician. I'm looking forward to showing up at a show and not being concerned. And knowing that there are going to be a lot of people there who will enjoy it. I make my best music when I'm not stressed out. I have to close my eyes and cancel out everything. I'm constantly thinking ahead at what I'm going to play next. But at the same time I'm constantly looking at that front row. If I see someone turned around. I know that somehow I lost their attention. So what am I going to do to make them turn back around? That's a game in itself. It's really fun.
HGMN: You have a good fan base back home?
JB: Yes. In the North East it's really growing. The electronic music scene is this generations (20-30year olds) Grateful Dead from the 60's. And they are so happy about it that they are spreading the word and telling all their friends about everything that they like. Electronic music is being explored and is very diverse right now. This is a great time where people are bragging about the music that they found and others go listen to it. And that's what's happening.
Upcoming Gigs
TUE OCT 18 - Wonder Bar in Boston, MA
WED OCT 19 - Nectar's in Burlington, VT
w/ The Lynguistic Civilians, including a wireless headphone BUJ set
THU OCT 20 - Arch Street Tavern in Hartford, CT
w/ Turbine
FRI OCT 21 - Red Square in Albany, NY
SAT OCT 22 - The Waterhole in Saranac Lake, NY
WED OCT 26 - Nectar's in Burlington, VT
w/ The Lynguistic Civilians, including a wireless headphone BUJ set
THU OCT 27 - Arch Street Tavern in Hartford, CT
w/ Wyllys and the Hustler Ensemble (Bujak @ 9pm)
FRI OCT 28 - Supo on Main in Willimantic, CT (formally Opus on Main)
SAT OCT 29 - Iron Horse in Northampton, MA
THU NOV 03 - Stone Church in Newmarket, NH
Part of "Electronica Series at Stone Church"
FRI/SAT NOV 25/26 - Rock N Roll Resort 1.5 in Kerhonkson, NY
http://www.facebook.com/jeffbujakmusic
http://www.myspace.com/jeffbujak
