OP1 x OTS: Interview with Doctor Jeep vol. 2

Doctor Jeep is the first out-of-towner to grace OUTPOST1 twice and for absolute good reason – July’s OP1 was top notch. Back in July, we featured a full blown Q+A and mix. Cue the mix nostalgia here and to re-familiarize everyone, I asked him a couple q’s to catch up with him. In a nutshell, since July, he’s been super busy working on his own productions, playing out with dudes like SBTRKT and being a full-time student at Northeastern. Jeep baby, how do you do it!

whoomp! by doctor jeep

His latest tracks, “Monica” and “Whoomp!”, have been rinsed in during KAB radio on WCDB the past couple of weeks and depending on travel time Friday, he’ll be back on the airwaves prior to OP1.

(q’s from knomad)

Q: many of your tracks have a highly frenetic sound, and drum ideas have a close resemblance to breaks and breakbeat. is this conscious? what did you grow up listening to before getting into production? being a kid in manhattan, were you able to access dance music at an earlier age than some of us who didn’t grow up in such a dance/edm oriented city?

A: Haha, I actually grew up in New Jersey and moved to Manhattan after I graduated. I didn’t even really pay attention to “dance music” at all until I got to college in Boston, although like a lot of people my introduction to electronic music was stuff like Daft Punk junior year in high school.

Before college I listened to a lot of (wait for it…) POWER METAL! Like, Dragonforce and Symphony X and bands of that ilk that sing about fantasy worlds and medieval times. I played bass in an 80’s metal tribute band called Axis of Harmony (lol). Also was into groups like The Fall of Troy, Horse the Band, Hot Cross, etc. I don’t listen to that much “band music” anymore though unless it’s chill instrumental stuff while I’m studying.

Needless to say my small collective of musician friends and I really liked fast, complex guitar music and 80’s/90’s videogame soundtracks which I think in a weird way influences how I write melodies, although I try and keep it simple enough for the club. For drums, I don’t really know where that comes from but I’m all about the party vibes and there’s nothing that says party like a solid breakbeat. Have you ever seen clips of the Detroit Dance Show? In an ideal world, all my gigs would be just like that. Everyone really into the tunes, not caring what you looked like when you danced, being silly, etc:

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(q’s from kc)

Q: so catch us up on doctor jeep! what have you been up to since you last slayed the club in albany?

A: Drowning in a sea of schoolwork and trying to balance music with academia. Majoring in Neuroscience is not the path to go if you want to spend most of your time producing so I’ve been kind of on hiatus with releasing music. Playing some really nice gigs though – I recently opened for SBTRKT / Araabmuzik at this club Royale to a pretty big crowd, probably somewhere between 500-700 people? That was a cool experience. Otherwise just being goofy.

Q: where do you think you’ll be in a year from now? done with college?

A: Hopefully! I think I’m slated to graduate December 2012. Assuming the world doesn’t end, continuing the music thing and milking that for as long as possible. Would love to spend a few months traveling post-graduation too, as I’ve been to quite a number of places in the world but still have so much to see. Who knows though, the future is a weird and uncertain thing!

Catch Doctor Jeep this Thursday at on the sly at (Le) Poisson Rouge and on Friday at the Fuze Box for Outpost1.