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Joey Youngman - Young at heart

Author: Stuart Evans
Thursday, July 7, 2005
He's the owner of Fetish Recordings but Joey Youngman has been producing since the age of 11. Stuart Evans finds out more.

When you fall in love, you just can't fight or resist it.

As many with love lorn tales of angst can solemnly appreciate, when it strikes you there is little you can do.

Falling in love is just the predicament that Joey Youngman finds himself to be in, only the object of his affection is house music.

It was during the California music resurgence that Youngman "fell in love" with house music. So devoted he became that his energy and focus were empowering, and that his attention was solely devoted to house.

More recently, Joey Youngman formed Fetish recordings for a simple reason: as a medium for his own records.

Although a newcomer in record label terms (the label formed in 2004), Youngman's history in the music industry stretches back longer that most realise.

His history is in classical and jazz piano, and although the classical musical element was never his passion, it did provide an ample footing to develop his curiosity for electronic tinged music.

The teenage Youngman spent his days making electronic music, or at least "satisfying his obsession for making it".

Not satisfied with watching Mark Farina and Derrick Carter play to 25,000 people, Youngman picked up his first set of turntables and began to learn the craft of becoming a dj.

He learnt something that doesn't come from a textbook: The art of how to move people with sounds.

A short period of time elapsed before the bookings started to follow. And all before he reached the legal age limit to actually get past the burly security guards who normally block a person's entrance upon entering the club.

It's been a rapid 10 years of production, djing experiences and adventure for Youngman.

Much like his own personal record collection, he's built up a large library of original records for his endeavours (a quick peak at his discography shows just how far he's come).

But, having released material on many of the world's top house labels, Youngman declared the time right to form his own.

The result, Fetish Recordings, something which Youngman says is a feeling, a vibe and a passion. Oh, and somewhere in between all of these escapades he finds time to dj. Zebra caught up with him before his inauguration to Australian clubbing.

As this will be your first trip to Australia, what are your expectations on our clubbing scene-

I'm in New Zealand right now and the clubbing scene is great. It's basically what I had expected, from what people had previously told me.

Few people start producing music at the age of 11, what's been the biggest change you've witnessed with house music-

It's hard to say. As far as the music goes, I'd say the biggest thing is that technology has made it easier for everybody to be a "producer."
You can buy packaged discs with pre-produced loops and just throw them together with little musical knowledge. Sometimes it's hard for me to swallow as I have musical training, and I kinda feel like it's "not fair" in a sense, but it's something I need to get over.

You have a classical background in music, what's the appeal with electronic music-

I never loved classical music, that's just what I learned whilst playing piano. House music is the only music I've ever loved.

Why choose djing as an outlet for your musical ability-

That's the main way of bringing house music to the masses. If we could get decent house music played on mainstream radio in America I'd probably be a radio DJ!

You started Fetish recordings in '04, how's it going-

It's going great, better than I expected. As it stands now I think Fetish will be around for quite a while, assuming people keep buying records!

You wanted to 'bring music to the dj" do you feel that you're achieving the objective-

Definitely - the only people that buy Fetish records are djs. I doubt there's anybody just buying t
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