Jameszoo's Strange, Funky Debut Doesn't Fit in Anywhere, and That's the Point

Photo by Nick Helderman

From hip-hop to dance music and onto the avant-guard of today’s pop, the bedroom producer has spun a loud revolution over the past thirty years. Kanye West calls on them, the rise of EDM was fueled by them, and shadowy European pop giants lift tricks from them. But as an increasing number are leaving the bedroom for the live stage, producing music in the confines of a home studio is no longer peculiar nor an end in itself. Rather it has become the first step towards something else, something that often resembles the old modes of music creation.

Mitchel van Dinther, the Dutch producer known as Jameszoo, is a perfect case in point. Emerging from the small town of Den Bosch in the late 00s, van Dinther first cut his teeth as a DJ, with an ear for jazz, prog rock, and beat oddities, before turning his attention to production. Beginning in 2011, he released a string of EPs through local labels Kindred Spirits and Rwina that placed him within the global beat scene. Thanks to an ear for unique rhythms, van Dinther soon caught the attention of the likes of The Gaslamp Killer and Mark Pritchard.

Over the past three years, van Dinther retreated from the scene that embraced him and sought to find a new direction. The result is a debut album, Fool, due out May 13 on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint. On Fool, van Dinther steps out of the bedroom and into a studio full of musicians whose contributions he assembles in a self-admitted naïve fashion to create a piece of work that can blend two traditions, electronic and jazz, that haven’t always seen eye to eye.

Fool is unlike anything van Dinther has released so far, channeling inspiration from classic albums by the likes of Robert Wyatt, Steve Kuhn, and Arthur Verocai alongside van Dinther's interest in electronic production. The album demands your attention with its unpredictable compositions and melodic turns. It is, in a way, a bedroom producer’s take on jazz: layered and obsessive with flashes of brilliance. With van Dinther at the helm, Fool features an international cast of musicians including Steve Kuhn and Arthur Verocai alongside lesser known, but no less important, session and live musicians from the worlds of jazz and electronic music. Later this year, van Dinther will be taking the album on the road with a quarter/quintet formation featuring part of the album’s cast.

For now, the young producer is coming to terms with a challenging creative process that allowed him to grow while forcing him to confront his own limitations. We caught up over the phone to discuss the album’s life, bridging traditions, and the evolution of the bedroom producer. Read on for our discussion and listen to the premiere of "Flu" featuring Brazilian jazz-folk great Arthur Verocai below.

NOISEY: When did you start working on this album?
Jameszoo: I started about two and a half years ago, that’s when I wrote the first compositions and arrangements. I recorded everything, all the musicians, within six months and mixed the album last summer.

You did a string of live improvisational shows around the same time you began work on the album. Were they connected?
Yes, there was an urge to do something in the vein of improvisation. For the sake of trying and also knowing I would form a lot of my record around improvisation. It can feel a bit strangling after a while to have a certain stigma attached to you, like how I was placed under the beats tag. I didn’t want to do that on this album. It’s also why I’ve often changed styles in my previous releases. It’s a fun quest to try and stay stigma-free.

But you wanted to arrange the album in an electronic manner?
Exactly. That’s what I know best. Working in the computer. I just tried to implement that skill, if you can call it a skill, to this record. Do everything in there, record everything in there, and start fooling around with it. And then I had an album. I was struggling with the album, not sure I could finish it, not always happy with the shape it was taking. I sent rough drafts to a few people and the basic feedback I got helped. It was a real learning curve. Gradually, I was able to slowly accept the reality of the record.

Why do you think you struggled with it?
When you start a new learning route, you learn new stuff really fast and you want to implement these lessons and get all the naïve stuff out. But that became a self-fulfilling prophecy for me after a while. I couldn’t hit a point where I felt happy with the record. It was an organic dynamic process, but it was hard. Eventually I learnt to appreciate the naivety of my approach and tried to look at it differently rather than obsessively magnifying my own limitations.

There are a lot of musicians involved in the record, including big names like Arthur Verocai and Steve Kuhn. Why was it important for you to have these people on this debut?
When I decided I wanted to make an album, I went into my crates and picked out a few records I was completely into at that moment by artists like Robert Wyatt, Steve Kuhn, and Arthur Verocai. So then I thought, ‘I should just work with them, cut straight to the chase!’ They’re all still amazing musicians so I got in touch. I went for the long shots and both Steve and Arthur said ‘yes, let’s record.’ At that point I knew I needed to form some musical ideas that would help make up for my limitations. I had a vision in a way, and that was the firmest thing. A vision of how of the record should be. I built the structure of it around that. It wasn’t always on point… some songs I recorded didn’t work out but in the end I found a few really key songs and key people with whom I clicked and the record coalesced around that. There is Niels Broos, a Dutch keyboardist, Julian Sartorius, a drummer from Switzerland who worked with Dimlite, Frans Petter Eldh, a bassist from Denmark, and John Dikeman, an American saxophonist living in Holland.

Jameszoo in the studio with Arthur Verocai. Photo by Pieter Goossens.

How do you feel about the album now that it’s done?
I feel ok. I sent it to people I think highly of, like Dorian Concept and the musicians who worked with me, and they’re all very enthusiastic about it. Ultimately, I know that the musicianship on this record is of a certain level, the musicians are on point. I’m grateful for that, it’s something I can judge. I can be a bit more objective about that because I’m not the musician in question. I played on the record, but I’m not judging my parts. That helped me accept the record in a way. The fact these musicians wanted to play with me on the record… that’s something. Another thing that helped was seeing the artwork. When that came in, it made it more official somehow. There was a subtle change when I listened to the masters with the artwork in there. It was strange to finally see the album as a product.

In a way, the album is about you making the transition from the modern understanding of a producer as someone in their bedroom studio, working in the box, to a more traditional understanding of the role, with arranging and directing. Do you feel more confident that you can go forward in that direction now?
Sure, it’s a first step. I’m not where I want to be yet but I’ve done some more traditional work and progress since. I can compose a bit better. It’s easier to go from my head directly to the music. It’s just about making that road as short as possible. That’s the goal in a way. It always will be a struggle. There are layers to understanding what people want and what you want yourself as well. I would consider doing another project like this because I had a lot of fun with it and because I’m eager to try and push the idea further. I still like working by myself. I would continue to be a producer in that sense, but differently. I like change too much to always work in the same setting.

Why do you think people like yourself are making this transition? Since 2010 there have been more artists from the same generation stepping towards ambitious albums and live shows: Flying Lotus, Dorian Concept, even someone like Hudson Mohawke.
I think it’s an artistic choice but also a bit of a ‘the grass is greener on the other side.’ Am I really a musician when I’m in front of the computer? Maybe it’s an attempt to be a “real” musician, but it isn’t less real when you’re on the computer in my opinion. Ultimately, everyone is just dealing with their own struggle. And I learnt from mine. Some of my favorite musicians made electronic records using their computer, so… It’s human to want to try. There’s still stigma attached to the whole electronic music thing. But then also to jazz, like ‘oh jazz is intelligent music.’ There’s no such thing as “intelligent music”. I love this clash of traditions, it was part of me moving forward with this record.

Laurent Fintoni is a writer based in New York City. Follow him on Twitter.