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I was smiling the whole way through this. If you know Randall, and for those of you who remember his memorable Tigerhook! shouts at WMC, I think you'll get a kick out of his many references to pimpdom in this letter....
Hello Hello!
Welcome all you cool cats to a monthly diary that I will write that gives voice to a few of my thoughts and relates some interesting experiences on the road and in the studio. Every month I will throw down in this space, expounding on various ideas and relating occurrences that might be entertaining or enlightening…
So lets start with July…
Cause it sure was a long one! Around the beginning of the summer I had committed myself to finishing a project I’ve been working on since I moved my recording studio south, out of NYC, and down to Houston a year and a half ago. Houston is an amazing town with a super hot vibe, beautiful girls and and an amazing quality of life and culture. I have a good fan base there which affords me to play a residency when I am home on Fridays at the hottest club in town, called MBar. Also it’s close to the beach and I can practice my other obsession, besides music, which is surfing.
Anyway, sorry to digress, back to this monstrous project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half of my life. It’s a two CD set entitled:
“DJs Set You Free”
Disc1 - “DJs Set You Free”
Musical melodies and themes, samples, vocals, drums, and basslines intertwine to take the listener on a deep and funky 60 minute trip through the music of Randall Jones. It’s not a single track, but it’s not a dj mix either. Disc1 of “DJs Set You Free” lies somewhere in the middle. It covers previously unexplored ground.
Disc2 - “The DJ Singles 2004-2005”
Disc2 is one for the djs themselves. Randall has taken themes and elements from the original 60 minutes and remixed them into 10 dancefloor rocking cuts!
OK…sorry, but I had to paste that bit in from the press release. It makes it a little easier to explain.
So I’m finishing this up which means a lot of studio time. Its always nice to spend some time at home so when I’m here in Houston and I’m busy recording this is what the typical day looks like for R.Jones.
12.00-14.00 hours - Wake Up (This depends on how late I was up the night before and what type of mindframe I’m in.)
14.00-16.00 hours - Hustle with agents and promoters online figuring out my schedule and whats going on in the world. Possibly have lunch with my dad or a honey.
16.00-19.00 hours - Avoid driving at rush hour. (This could put me in the studio, training or exercising, looking at stuff I’m into, messing around on the internet or any other type of indoor/outdoor sports/activities).
19.00-22.00 hours - If I’m recording or remixing I generally go into the studio around this time. I stay in the studio until anywhere between 02.00-05.00 hours.
If the surf is good all this gets trashed and I go immediately to the beach until its flat.
Looking at my hours, I guess you could call me a night owl. But honestly, I think musicians in general work better at night. Also its cooler in the studio in the summer at night. Lots of machines make lots of heat. My studio is located on the 9th floor of an office building right in the middle of downtown skyscrapers. It’s a really sweet spot. The level below is car parking and the level above is a workout facility that closes at 9. This enables me to play music as loud as I want all night long.
Now that is a beautiful thing. Another critical component is that we have a special key to an area where we store equipment. This area happens to have afterhours access to the heated outdoor swimming pool. This pool often facilitates late night entertainment on hot summer nights.
Anyway…
For the first two weeks of July it’s work in the studio and on Fridays I work on starting a new residency. Houston has a hot spot downtown, on Main and Preston streets called MBar. It’s a gorgeous venue that maxes out at about 1000 people. When I’m in town on a Friday I play there with two good Houston DJs, Sean Carnahan and DJ Surain. The crowd is always packed with honeys and its slamming.
So for the first two weeks of July I was in the studio and playing my residency on Friday nights. It was a nice break because I was swamped with dj dates in May and June and almost got sick. A vacation in Playa Del Carmen and two weeks at home was the cure for that.
As of July 15 I started a busy summer schedule of dj dates. First I hit Canada where I played a string of dates. Highlights were Montreal of course, which I consider to be the best city in North America. If you’ve never been there then go. There are three afterhours clubs which stay open the until the weehours and each always has at least 1500 people. You can go out on the street on a TUESDAY in Montreal and the sidewalks are packed with beautiful French-Canadian women hanging out in hot bars and lounges. I play at this club Aria which is one of the top clubs in the world. It unquestionably has one of the best dj booths. You can choose between a Rane setup or an Allen&Heath setup. Each setup has three decks and two CDJs. It is surrounded by glass and the sounds and lights in the club are sick. It also has a good hip-hop room which has acts like Gang Starr, Mobb Deep and Cypress Hill perform. I used to play a monthly residency at Stereo in Montreal about 5 years ago and a lot of my old friends came out to celebrate with me this time around at my new space at Aria. (Respekt to StefLeChef, Matty, Phil and Chuck!!)
Another notably good gig was in Ottawa on a Sunday. I played this small lounge called Helsinki and it was nuts. The promoter was a smooth cat and he brought like 8 beautiful women out to dinner with us before the show. They were all completely up to hang out and show a brother a great time in this small and cute town which happens to be the capital of Canada. I didn’t get much sleep in Canada and I wasn’t feeling that hot when I came to Houston at 8pm on a Thursday night. Especially since….
I had to leave for Mexico the next morning at 9am!
But like the professional I am, I made the flight and landed in San Diego, ready to cross the border and head for one of my favorite places in Mexico, Papas and Beer in the town of Rosarito. Thirty minutes south of Tijuana, Papas and Beer is an amazing place. It is a huge tourist/springbreak club like Senor Frog’s or Margaritaville. But the thing is that every time I play there…I rock completely underground floor bangers and they EAT IT UP. No top 40 requests or anything. This was their 22nd anniversary party and it was OFF THE HINGE. There were about 5000 people there and the party was INVITE ONLY! In order to attend the party you also had to dress like an Egyptian. An Egyptian theme party with 5000 people in the place and me on the decks is guaranteed fun. The party was rocking and I met some cute girls that go to University in Mexicali which is another city in Baja. They looked so fly in their little Cleopatra outfits. I ended up chilling with them at their vacation house which was right on the beach. It was so pretty and peaceful there after a hectic night in the club. I had a good time there and unfortunately had to leave a few hours later to catch a flight to Guadalajara. Guadalajara is one of my favorite cities in Mexico to play. I have a lot of fans in Jalisco and the nights are always packed and rocking. This time I played at a new club called Motion. It was a good party but the opening dj was playing too hard when I got there and it made programming the night a bit difficult. Also the turntables were feeding back so I had to play CDs the whole time which was wack cause I had a lot of great music on wax! It was a goodnight but then disaster struck! Somehow I had an allergic reaction to something and next thing you know….I was covered in some kind of crazy rash! I jetted back to Houston and went to the hospital so I could get a shot in the ass full of steroids! That took care of the rash and it was nice to get two days home before Europe.
I took off for the trip across the Atlantic super stoked and ready to rock.
I was really enthused for this journey because I would be playing at The Cross in London for Renaissance which is one of the most respected nights in the world. Ever since I had started djing in the early nineties, I had heard incredible things about Renaissance at the Cross. Epic things have occurred there, including the initial pairing of two guys named Sasha and Digweed in the nineties. Well let me tell you. The gig was blazing. I played for three hours and people were jumping off the walls. Two other really good djs named Desyn Masiello and Eric Prydz played as well. It was a sick night of talent. As a matter of fact, I will call it out as one of my top 5 gigs of 2005 which was refreshing because London always strikes me as a city like NYC where there is a lot of posing and not as much dancing. Maybe that’s being unfair because I’ve played amazing nights there at clubs like the End and nights like Bedrock or Renaissance where people are going nuts. I’m sure there are other hot nights that I don’t even know about!! I ended up staying in London for like 5 days or something and there is one thing everybody who goes to London should know. Bring a lot of money. That city is not cheap. I had a great time though and I got to see a good friend of mine named Zella from Amsterdam. She was there on a modeling job in London so it was great to chill out with her for awhile. I also saw my Russian buddy Andy who is working there now! He just bought a 999 year lease on a house there. That’s the only way you can buy property in London because the royal family owns it all!! I returned to the USA on August 1 and it was sure nice to be back. I’m here for a week and then I start touring again and there is some exciting things running in August so report back here in a month and we’ll see how things roll!
Your brother in this field of music,
R. Jiggy Jones
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TITS
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Post subject: randall jones is such a pimp.
