Jimmy Van M
The American house DJ drops his new mix Balance 10.1 on Tokyo

Courtesy of Futic

A resident at legendary New York club Twilo between 1996-2000. A DJ who’s played before 25,000 at Melbourne’s millennium party. The founder of dance music festival Creamfields Russia. With these and other notches on his belt, Jimmy Van M is one of the US’ key players in house music, and has been for the last decade. But in addition to his club and festival sets, Jimmy is also known for the intimate after-parties he gave at his house in Orlando, Florida, where he developed his signature layered sound. Metropolis caught the DJ in Australia in the midst of a month of touring that will take him from Cairns to Beijing, Cyprus and Sicily.

Give us a status check on the health of house music in North America.
Burning Man, Coachella, Love Fest San Francisco and the yearly festivals in LA are good signs. Every market has its ups and downs. Currently in North America I believe the scene is consistent with a growing interest in the creation of festivals.

Are you still holding your Sunday house sessions? If so, how have they evolved? If not, why?
The Sunday sessions have not been in play since the ’90s. Now I spend a lot of my time traveling and am not at home long enough to entertain after-parties. So I guess the evolution is that I go to after-parties at homes other than my own.

Tell me about your new compilation.
Balance 10.1 is more on the club side. After 10, which was more downtempo, I looked for something a little more driving. The disc has different styles and I tried to make it flow well. I wanted to make it like Bedrock disc 1.

What kind of numbers constitute good sales for a dance-music mix-comp?
These days, it’s a combination of physical sales and downloads. I know downloads are not as profitable for the label as physical sales. What the actual numbers are, I really don’t know.

What is the role of the mix-comp in a DJ’s career today?
Along with production and marketing, it’s absolutely key. It shows the DJ’s ability to change with the times. Production is also very, very important.

Will you still be DJing in a decade? How will DJing have changed?
I hope so. As for now I love DJing, feeling like I’m 18 again. How DJing will change, dunno… Making people dance, well there seems to only be one way to do this: mix music. So I think the change will come in the tools used to do this: CD players, software programs, mixers, etc...

What can we look forward to in your Tokyo set? Wicked upfront dance music!

Balance 10.1 Release Party@Air, Nov 15. See club listings for details.

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