News

Catching Up With...Jimmy Edgar

Kicking off your recording career by inking a deal with one of the world’s most respected independent electronic music labels, Warp Records, is quite a big deal but that’s pretty much exactly how it happened for Jimmy Edgar. After a two year hiatus following his ‘XXX’ album he’s back and he’s freshly signed to Scuba’s Hotflush behemoth, giving the world a fresh take on his sex fuelled electro funk music on his new album, ‘Majenta’. We’re hosting him in Room One a week on Saturday where he’ll be presenting a brand new live show for ‘Majenta’ - itself a reference to his extraordinary experiences living with synaesthesia and how it affects his approach to music making – where a sense of colour and shape definitively sculpt his output. You’re just about to release your latest long player – ‘Majenta’ – how does the sound compare to your previous works? It's more subtle, more raw, more connected, less personal but more exposing some feelings inside myself. A lot less egocentric. I'm wanting to give back more, whatever that translates into music. Where did the title ‘Majenta’ come from? I just found out about 10 years ago that I have some kind of mind vision that utilizes colors, some people call it Synaesthesia. It's a lot less paranormal or special than people think. A lot of people have this ability, or maybe they use it subconsciously… well the fact is I thought everyone had it "like me". Majenta, it's the new color I see coming through our sun through, what I suspect, being the center of our galaxy. A subtle thing that I noticed, which some of you may have seen too is the sun changing from yellow to more of a blue color. I can remember through childhood, a very yellow hue over everything. In short, I think soon people will start to see new colors in new ways and magenta is shifting up the spectrum to see into ultraviolet. What I also suspect, which is a big topic in quantum physics is that photon energy is able to influence us and we may be able to start seeing these colors with our eyes, not just with our mind. What motivated the move to Hotflush for this LP? A chance dinner meeting and a reference from a friend. But seems like a good fit. I'm always down to try something new. Why the take up of transcendental meditation? How has this influenced the music? I don't like to put labels much on it so I'm just using the term "meditation". Doesn't have to be transcendental… it could be called "chi energy" and lots of other things. But I was frustrated with struggling to find inspiration. I knew inspiration came within so I went on a search to find it within. I studied hypnosis for a number of years and this all tied in. I think there is a big idea starting to sweep lots of people, which is that we create our reality and we are what we think and feel. This is just me opening up and inspiring people to try it out for themselves and see what kind of realities they can discover for themselves. Would you say the record also reflects influences of Berlin living vs. Detroit where you moved from? I suppose, but I've been traveling since I was 17 so it's no big surprise that the whole world has an influence on me. But each path we walk we leave a little essence of ourselves. I feel like the traveling troubadour musician style is something I connected with… even though I'm doing it with integrated technology, I feel like I am speaking to a niche of the world… young people and old people alike. And now that I am doing 'Majenta" and using LED synch technology, it can be a visual experience too. Can you explain what you have prepared for your Magenta tour live show this year? I have integrated technology to improvise my music alongside a visual aspect… LED colors that are linked to every sound of the music and strictly synchronized so it's a complete visual experience. I am a visual artist more than a musician… I don't hear anything in my reality, I have hearing in only one ear anyway (10% basically in my left but I don't notice it much) so I work on the level of touch vibration and color spectrums. What has the technology involved for the visuals – did you get someone on board to collaborate with or it something you’ve taken on as a new technical challenge for yourself? It's all technological but at the root is an idea and a concept. For the visuals I am developing embedded suggestions to "heal" people in some kind of way. But it's a lot less some spiritual bullshit, more than it is just about having a good time and being in a trance mystified state to let go and thus be demystified and look inside oneself. It's important that we all challenge ourselves and each other, be inspired by art and feel good about it. I'm not anymore into this idea that I have to be drugged out, depressed or something negative to be inspired… that's an old paradigm which I am on a mission to forget. Thnx, all my love.
Tags
No items found.