Jacq teams up with Phonix to deliver ‘I Feel Good’ a heady house groove on Toolroom Trax.
When something is organic it happens with ease and this collaboration is no different, with Jacq and Phonix meeting at a Toolroom event at Cream In Liverpool, it was inevitable natural forces would bring them together. This was the reason to speak with them a bit more about this single. Enjoy the read and grab your copy HERE.
Hello! Thanks for your time! How would you introduce yourself to our audience?
Jacq: Hey guys I’m Jacq, I’ve been a DJ for over 20 years and a producer for the last six years. I was one of the original masterclass graduates at Toolroom Academy. From this I’ve gone on to release tracks with Toolroom Records, Great Stuff Recordings and Wh0 Plays Records
Phonix: Hey we’re Phonix we have been DJing now for around 20 years also and I have been a producer also for around 15 years under different aliases and different genres. In the past two years since we created Phonix we have solely focused on house music, our release and gig schedule over the past two years includes: Toolroom, Warner, Carpe Diem Musica and playing at Hi Ibiza, Steelyard, Creamfields and Brixton Academy.
Tell us something more about your transition into house music?
Jacq: I’ve always been involved in the house scene since the late 90s.
Phonix: For me I used to be a trance producer for the past few years and I had quite a bit of success in that genre but eventually I fell out of love with making trance and moved more into the progressive trance sound before eventually making the switch to house & tech house around 18 months ago.
The reason for this interview is your collaboration, a track named ‘I Feel Good’. What can you both tell us the idea behind it?
Jacq: Our collaboration was an opportunity for us to bring our two individual sounds together, and make something fresh between us. The good thing about this was, we could bring lots of new ideas together in the studio. So much so, we bagged enough music for lots of future releases together.
Phonix: The inspiration behind “I Feel Good” was really to blend both mine and Jacq’s sound and create something housed with the tough driving Jacq sound, originally the track was made as an instrumental with the idea to get a vocal on it at some point.
https://www.facebook.com/jacqukmusic/videos/668002930552415
What more can you tell us about this track? What led to this collaboration between you guys and the vocalist SJ Johnson?
I (Phonix) have worked with Sarah for around 10 years and she has featured on a number of my productions in other genres too, as soon as we made this track I knew her voice was perfect for the track and she proved it, as you can hear!
Tell us something more about your collaboration with Toolroom?
When we came together to make this track we produced it with Toolroom in mind, giving it some signature sounds fitting of the label. Once we had added our individual Jacq and Phonix sounds we knew we had a big track so we sent it over to the boss Mark Knight. The feedback we got was amazing and he was instantly interested in signing the track.
How would you describe the current situation on the global electronic scene?
It’s complete chaos at the moment, with a lot of uncertainty for the scene. It’s definitely a time to diversify and embrace change but there’s a glimmer of hope the industry may return to some sort of normality in 2021. From our own situation its allowed rising artists like ourselves to release music and stand out
How would you describe your sound?
Jacq and Phonix have quite different sounds. Phonix is more focused around percussive house sounds and Jacq makes big dancefloor rammers. We found blending our styles together created an amazing balance of sounds which created this gem of a track.
What’s your opinion on the current livestreaming trend among DJs?
Live streaming is a great platform for DJ’s during this pandemic but it’s not something we have been involved in ourselves. We have spent our time in the studio being creative making tracks.
Do you believe that an artist has to be both a producer and a DJ?
We think in today’s scene you’re expected to do everything, DJ, produce, marketing, social media etc. It’s not necessary to be both as I know great producers who don’t DJ and don’t wish to either, and also great DJ’s who don’t want to produce but can control any dance floor in the scene.
What are your top 5 house tracks at the moment?
Jacq & Phonix ft. SJ Johnson – I Feel Good
Ludo Lacoste – When We Were Down
Lewis Tala – Higher
Deeper Purpose – Elevate
Martin Ikin – Hands Up
Are there any new projects you are working on in near future?
Both of us have loads of projects on at the minute and a few more collabs together for the new year. Phonix has a couple of solo tracks with SJ in the pipeline and Jacq has been working on another release with Wh0 Plays out around March 2021, and some other projects for Toolroom with the talented Costa and also another Toolroom artist Husko.