Jimpster - Freerange House
Jimpster – real name Jamie O’Dell – comes to Australia with 17 years of experience producing, remixing and running his label, Freerange. 3D’s Rezo speaks to the Englishman with a penchant for warm and deep house ahead of his first trip Down Under.
Jamie O’Dell has music running through his veins. His father a drummer and his mother a singer, it wasn’t unexpected for him to follow closely their example.
“We would have parties around the house all the time; it was like music for breakfast,” O’Dell explains. “I had lessons from a young age and hanging out with dad and going to studios – that’s what got me interested in producing and making music. I’d sit on the side and play with synthesisers and I was doing that from the age of eight or nine so I was lucky to have that exposure. Then I’d go to record shops with [dad] and I’d get a pile of bits and bobs to listen to in the booth – and that got me into collecting records. Eventually I was keen on a big collection and was getting into street sounds at that time – they were the compilations of early hip hop stuff. That was my introduction to music.”
O’Dell’s early motivation helped set the scene for what has become a promising career. It’s easy to be desirous of achieving what you’ve grown up with. And almost 20 years on he’s there.
“For me, it has been a matter of going through different phases in my life. I got into bands like Depeche Mode and things but it wasn’t until I went to university and got into jazz and fusion with exposure to guys like Herbie Hancock and that kind of stuff that I found myself. That evolved and got me into production so later I got into making house music; that was the first kind of music I got into when I was going out and working with different musicians.”
His record label Freerange has followed a similar path. What started as a label dedicated to drum n bass and trip hop has now moved into the beat house area where O’Dell claims they’ve found their niche: “That’s the sort of sound I like to play out and we’ve nailed it I think. Freerange is the voice of where my head is at, so from the DJ point of view at least, we aim our music at the dancefloor. It’s different with the albums but the 12s are what we like for the clubs and what we’d sign to the label. It’s what works I guess. Now we’re getting demos that are so good it’s hard to sort the good from the great but that remains our general mission – finding the best quality deep house and music from other genres.”
And you can expect some of those fresh sounds on his inaugural trip to Australia.
“To be honest, I just can’t wait to get out there to check out the deep house scene,” O’Dell says. “I’m looking forward to playing different styles in the different cities and in terms of what I hope to play, I just want to keep pushing the limits of the new and upfront music we’re putting out. I want to mix up the classics with the edits and give people a preview of upcoming bits and exclusives.”
WHO: Jimpster
WHAT: Plays Sounds at Civic Underground / Playground Weekender, Del Rio Resort
WHEN: Friday 30 January / Sunday 8 February
MORE: myspace.com/jimpster / playgroundweekender.com.au