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Jock Club is Taking Over: An Interview with Deep House DJ and Destruction Unit Drummer Andrew Flores

"Ascetic House will take over. That's all I gotta say."

all photos by Nikki Sneakers

Jock Club recently blew up Nothing Changes, a weekly show at Home Sweet Home in Manhattan, with a mesmerizing and high-energy set of deep house. It was his 20th birthday and his last night of tour, and there is not much that could have stopped him from transforming the intimate gathering into an epic party. Jock Club is the deep house project of Andrew Flores, part of the Ascetic House crew from Tempe/Phoenix, Arizona, and also plays drums in Destruction Unit, the prolific psych-fuzz band on the same label. We spoke with him right before his Nothing Changes set about Arizona, jazz, electronic music, and killing it. Check out audio from his set that night as well.

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Nothing Changes returns to the LES of Manhattan tonight (12/17) at Home Sweet Home with CHEENA and Sheer Mag, the former featuring members of Dawn of Humans, Crazy Spirit and Pharmakon among many others.

all photos by Nikki Sneakers

Jock Club recently blew up Nothing Changes, a weekly show at Home Sweet Home in Manhattan, with a mesmerizing and high-energy set of deep house. It was his 20th birthday and his last night of tour, and there is not much that could have stopped him from transforming the intimate gathering into an epic party. Jock Club is the deep house project of Andrew Flores, part of the Ascetic House crew from Tempe/Phoenix, Arizona, and also plays drums in Destruction Unit, the prolific psych-fuzz band on the same label. We spoke with him right before his Nothing Changes set about Arizona, jazz, electronic music, and killing it. Check out audio from his set that night as well.

Nothing Changes returns to the LES of Manhattan tonight (12/17) at Home Sweet Home with CHEENA and Sheer Mag, the former featuring members of Dawn of Humans, Crazy Spirit and Pharmakon among many others.

Noisey: Did you grow up in Tempe? What was it like there when you were a kid?
Andrew Flores: Yeah, born and raised. Fucking weird, desolate. I grew up in a town that was pretty small. But I moved to Tempe after a while, it’s just a college town and pretty hip on music. That’s when I started getting into electronic music, hip hop and jungle and stuff. Honestly that’s where I crossed into deep house music was listening of jungle. Deep chords and all that shit.

And growing up were there were there kids who were older that were into that kinda shit?
Yeah, when I was in high school, which was not very long ago, kids were hella into Quasimoto, Madlib, Flying Lotus, all that shit was coming out. Stones Throw and all that shit was pretty cool. And kind of like a domino effect from there, I was just pushing back more and more and more. Just figuring out where this shit actually started. I love that kinda shit, like, this was the first heavy deep house record. That shit’s cool to me.

What is Jock Club the first of?
Fuck. I dunno, man. There’s gotta be something. I feel like most of the shit I’m trying to do is following. I don’t want to be exactly like someone else, but I pay respect to the music. I studied classical and jazz music in school, and that’s all rooted around paying huge respects to the people that originated the stuff, people that came before you. I feel like it’s kind of the same way with electronic music. The DJ’s that started it all. I'm trying to carry on something that started a long time ago.

Jock Club

So when did you start Jock Club and what was it like? What was your main reason for doing it?
I kinda just started messing around with synths and keyboards and stuff. The first time I ever heard like, a deep house chord, just a deep, deep chord, honestly I don’t know when it was, but I remember thinking it was just the sickest sound I’d ever heard.

Who are some of the people you look up to in music?
There’s a guy, this project called Head High, this guy Rene Palowitz. He does this project Shed, which is his main project. That was the first raw underground house I got into, he was putting shit out in the 90’s under the label Wax. There are five releases under Wax, and I credit those as the main records that got me into soulful house and minimal techno. I feel like I gained a lot of perspective from guys like Ben Sims. Robert Hood was big one me. When I found out about Robert Hood, I was just like, holy fuck, every track this guy makes is a complete masterpiece. Of course Jeff Mills is the god of techno music. And currently my main influence in every style of electronic and dance music is Todd Edwards. An east coast guy, but a UK garage legend. He makes these tracks that are so amazing. I sit around with friends thinking how could they make a record like that?

Jock Club

Tell me about this tour you’re wrapping up right now.
We just did a U.S. tour that was close to a month with Gila Man and Memoryman, who are both totally heavy hitters. Honestly every night was a crazy dance party. It felt like we had a real crew, like a soundsystem going. Gila Man started off every night, he's the master of warming up the crowd. He’ll play a long, trippy, ambient set, but at the end everyone is like fuck, that was sick. I would usually play after him, get the floor going or whatever. And then Memoryman would close out. He’s basically a master of that. He’s the best at completely maxing out a party to its fullest extent. Every night just worked out pretty well, regardless of who else played with us or DJ'd. It felt like when we all played in a block together, everyone was down. People were down to kick it or dance or whatever.

When you’re playing a show and you’re killing it or in your zone, what does it feel like in your head?
It’s like a feeling of relief, but at the same time it’s like a pressure that’s ever building. To the very last moment of the set, it’s like what can I do now that we reached this point that’s so great and so high? I don’t want to take the crowd any lower. What can I do to push it past the next level? When I get to that level I feel a lot of pressure, honestly. It’s not a bad pressure. It’s kind of an exciting pressure.

When other people get to that point, what do you feel like when you’re watching music?
To me, watching DJ’s when they completely blow up a room seems like black magic to me. Seems like how can a person do that on their own, just out of their music taste? I’ve seen a lot of DJ’s just completely make a room explode like dynamite. Every single person in the room is losing it, just because of the tracks that are being played. That seems like a very simple thing that has a huge effect on someone. Think about the people that leave that party and go home, and the next day they go to work are like, I went to the sickest party ever last night.

Anything else you want to talk about?
I got a new tape on Ascetic House called District. I think it’s some of my best work. I’m glad that it just came out. Ascetic House will take over. That's all I gotta say.

Noisey: Did you grow up in Tempe? What was it like there when you were a kid?
Andrew Flores: Yeah, born and raised. Fucking weird, desolate. I grew up in a town that was pretty small. But I moved to Tempe after a while, it’s just a college town and pretty hip on music. That’s when I started getting into electronic music, hip hop and jungle and stuff. Honestly that’s where I crossed into deep house music was listening of jungle. Deep chords and all that shit.

And growing up were there were there kids who were older that were into that kinda shit?
Yeah, when I was in high school, which was not very long ago, kids were hella into Quasimoto, Madlib, Flying Lotus, all that shit was coming out. Stones Throw and all that shit was pretty cool. And kind of like a domino effect from there, I was just pushing back more and more and more. Just figuring out where this shit actually started. I love that kinda shit, like, this was the first heavy deep house record. That shit’s cool to me.

What is Jock Club the first of?
Fuck. I dunno, man. There’s gotta be something. I feel like most of the shit I’m trying to do is following. I don’t want to be exactly like someone else, but I pay respect to the music. I studied classical and jazz music in school, and that’s all rooted around paying huge respects to the people that originated the stuff, people that came before you. I feel like it’s kind of the same way with electronic music. The DJ’s that started it all. I'm trying to carry on something that started a long time ago.

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Jock Club

So when did you start Jock Club and what was it like? What was your main reason for doing it?
I kinda just started messing around with synths and keyboards and stuff. The first time I ever heard like, a deep house chord, just a deep, deep chord, honestly I don’t know when it was, but I remember thinking it was just the sickest sound I’d ever heard.

Who are some of the people you look up to in music?
There’s a guy, this project called Head High, this guy Rene Palowitz. He does this project Shed, which is his main project. That was the first raw underground house I got into, he was putting shit out in the 90’s under the label Wax. There are five releases under Wax, and I credit those as the main records that got me into soulful house and minimal techno. I feel like I gained a lot of perspective from guys like Ben Sims. Robert Hood was big one me. When I found out about Robert Hood, I was just like, holy fuck, every track this guy makes is a complete masterpiece. Of course Jeff Mills is the god of techno music. And currently my main influence in every style of electronic and dance music is Todd Edwards. An east coast guy, but a UK garage legend. He makes these tracks that are so amazing. I sit around with friends thinking how could they make a record like that?

Jock Club

Tell me about this tour you’re wrapping up right now.
We just did a U.S. tour that was close to a month with Gila Man and Memoryman, who are both totally heavy hitters. Honestly every night was a crazy dance party. It felt like we had a real crew, like a soundsystem going. Gila Man started off every night, he's the master of warming up the crowd. He’ll play a long, trippy, ambient set, but at the end everyone is like fuck, that was sick. I would usually play after him, get the floor going or whatever. And then Memoryman would close out. He’s basically a master of that. He’s the best at completely maxing out a party to its fullest extent. Every night just worked out pretty well, regardless of who else played with us or DJ'd. It felt like when we all played in a block together, everyone was down. People were down to kick it or dance or whatever.

When you’re playing a show and you’re killing it or in your zone, what does it feel like in your head?
It’s like a feeling of relief, but at the same time it’s like a pressure that’s ever building. To the very last moment of the set, it’s like what can I do now that we reached this point that’s so great and so high? I don’t want to take the crowd any lower. What can I do to push it past the next level? When I get to that level I feel a lot of pressure, honestly. It’s not a bad pressure. It’s kind of an exciting pressure.

When other people get to that point, what do you feel like when you’re watching music?
To me, watching DJ’s when they completely blow up a room seems like black magic to me. Seems like how can a person do that on their own, just out of their music taste? I’ve seen a lot of DJ’s just completely make a room explode like dynamite. Every single person in the room is losing it, just because of the tracks that are being played. That seems like a very simple thing that has a huge effect on someone. Think about the people that leave that party and go home, and the next day they go to work are like, I went to the sickest party ever last night.

Anything else you want to talk about?
I got a new tape on Ascetic House called District. I think it’s some of my best work. I’m glad that it just came out. Ascetic House will take over. That's all I gotta say.