Hi Jahbo. Please introduce yourself for the benefit of those who don’t know you!
My full name is Rølike Jahbo Odgaard Bunzendahl and I was born in 1981. I play and produce under the name Jahbo.
My parents are hippies and I grew up with them and my brother and sister in the North of Denmark, where today there still is located a free “society” called Thy lejren. When I was 10 we moved near Aarhus where I am located today.
I started going to parties at the end of 97 in Aarhus and was hooked at once! The nice parties at that time were held among others by Giuseppe from Parvati Records and friends under the name of “Instant Karma”.
At this point I started to spend a lot of time to collect and trade music with psy-trance freaks all over the planet.
Around 99 I decided to try and make my own music and I started to study music production and sequencing at a school here in Aarhus. Since then, besides my regular job, I’ve been making music and travelling around to a lot of nice places on our planet!
I hope to continue the journey, there are still much places and people to see, experiences to have and music to deliver, out there!
You’ve been connected with the most night approach of psytrance. What are the main traits of differences between the approaches to dark and morning music, for instance?
Oh… thats a dangerous question (laughs). Well you can always generalize genres, like we all do with genres that we are not really excited about.
But the important thing in psy-trance for me is the psychedelic aspect. And I always tend to find the most psychedelic experiences in so called “dark trance”. Though, to be honest I never thought or intended to do “dark” trance I and I still don’t think I make that!
To be harsh and generalize morning trance a bit, which is somewhat the most popular genre, it is made in a “pop” concept for a lot of the time and the boundaries of ideas and sounds are tighter then in “dark trance”.
In the dark genre I feel that people are more open minded towards sound, choice and experiments.
Last I would say that I feel actually that the “dark” genre is now also somehow moving towards “pop”, and here I also see the standard productions more and more. I dont know if it’s bad or if I’m completely wrong? I try to open towards morning and other genres of trance, but still my place is the “dark” trance….
We are all different and we like different things. And that is somehow the most important thing here in the world I think, to be different! “Normality” is what i fear!
Do you use different production methods for each of your aliases or collaborations?
I don’t have specific methods or concepts for my various projects. When I do music it is mostly all from scratch, with a few ideas in my head. From here I just see where the track and sounds take my mind to, and work on from there. It is the same when I do collaborations, I try to absorb and understand the ideas and energies from the other producer. A good track in collaboration is the sum of all involved!
I always forget to make presets, so I kinda start from the beginning every time!
Who are the most influential psytrance artists for you and why?
In trance music, in the old days I was really seduced by the Finnish, Scandinavian and Australian sounds. Artist like Texas Faggott, Little Blue Men, Hux Flux, Visitors, Rip Van Hippie, etc. Later it was the early GMS, Lotus Omega, System Busters, Paps, Tripiatrik and then again the wave of Droidsect/Digital Talk and the artist of Aarhus and Russia.
Nowadays I still listen and sometimes play all the old tracks. New music I enjoy all the projects from Aarhus and all the new Scandinavian sounds from Sanaton Records, Yggdrasil, Cosmic Theatre among others and a lot of the new German and East European sounds are also very interesting.
Other music I grew up with – all kinds of 60´s hippies music and I still love and listen to it often. Bob Marley, Jimmy Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, etc. Reggae is my everyday music and it always makes me happy as well as inspires me over and over again.
You’re originally from Denmark. How would you say it’s impacted you, your music, your attitudes to life?
Well being from Denmark is not too bad… Denmark is a nice place and a quite easy place to live your life.
We had a good generation of hippies in the 60´s and one which created a big “room” in the society for creativity. Today it is like all places getting smaller, but we defenitely had a good wave there which kept evolving towards now.
I grew up in a hippie society, and in some way it has affected me in the way that I feel very open toward new experiences and quite suspect towards “Normalization”. (laughs)
Denmark is not perfect at all and the high value of general welfare is not healthy for the creativity of people, and I feel the government´s goal like all other governments today is to normalize us all, so it will be easier to run the company! (laughs) Just a short detour there… but it is my spaced out idea of whats happening around us.
That said I would still not complain, I love my life here, and I have what i need. Denmark is full of great energies and good people. And a great place for underground cultures and music in general.
How did you hook up with Parvati and what are the main ideas you share with the label?
As earlier said Giuseppe (Parvati Records), he is original from Italy, and lived in Aarhus for many many years. He and friends held most of the parties I attended when starting my psy-trance journey.
Aarhus is not a big city, so we all kinda know each other. When he started the label we knew about it and he knew all the artists making music in the city. So we got in contact and from there on our friendship started and now after many years we’re all very close and connected in the Parvati family.
What advice would you give to new producers and where is the future of production taking the bedroom producer?
Today music creation is technical and so much easier then before. You can start making music with just your computer, where in the past you needed quite a bigger setup. So I think that new artist gets much faster to the point of good production. But it is very important to remember the musical approach to trance and not forget that it’s still hard to make good and creative music.
Rock on… but try to create something new and not to copy and keep going further, don’t be satisfied with the easiest.
You’ll be playing at the next Boom. From your perspective, what makes a good festival?
Festivals, like Boom, are great because you meet so many other people that have the same sort of idea of life and are open to different ways of life.
Even if we like different styles in trance (morning, dark, full on etc). We are all trance! And that is amazing to experience.
And besides all the trance freaks, I think today’s trance festivals are attracting most of modern day hippies. Which I Love! It is cosmic connection.
Tell us something about your approach to this mix that we are releasing in Boom Radio?
My mix contains besides a few of my own productions, some of the newest Parvati Records tracks as well as tracks from Yggdrasil Records. It is hard to fit all your favorite tracks into 1 hour set. So in the end I decided just to express my mood of a Tuesday night… I hope you enjoy!
Tracklisting
1. HUITTI HEITTA – Indianer
2. PUROSURPO – More to it V2
3. KONKYLIE – Bikini Lagune
4. MUSSY MOODY – Chasing Diamonds
5. ATRIOHM/ENCEPHALOPATICYS – Ukalen
6. JAHBO – Track 01
7. GAPPEQ – Watermelon Sugar
8. VERTICAL – Traffic Head
9. JAHBO vs. LOON – The Monk
http://parvati-records.com
