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  The Jalporte Report - Jalporte Interview
interview 0410 added 18.05.06 words: Fierce Freas
technical:
QED
Like I said before, it’s good to see a local boy making moves;
so when Derby’s own Sanjay Jalporte finally got his promo EP Farewell Aquarius together we hooked up for a chat about life after Deprogrammed. Jalporte admitted that he was torn apart; a shell of a man, who could no longer find comfort in the silence of darkness. It was disturbing to see him so unhinged, so cruelly twisted and deranged. However, I was consoling and sympathetic, and through gaining his trust I was admitted access to the darkest secrets of his innermost soul, all of which I can shamelessly publish for you lot to revel in:
How have things progressed from your days as part of Deprogrammed?
 With Deprogrammed I learned a lot about live shows and performance, and certainly about myself and how I perform. I’m trying to take those things that I learned and implement them into my live show now.
I know I’m a better rhymer now than when I was in Deprogrammed, because I put in a lot more work, I’m a lot more dedicated to the cause.
Your musical influences are quite varied, as are your cultural tastes – how are these preferences affecting your musical direction?
Not so much with Farewell Aquarius – I tried to keep it as Hip Hop as I possibly could, and not let my other influences affect it.
I’m a big Indie fan, though, and sometimes every now and then I find myself writing lyrics in a rock n roll mindstate; lyrically, I’ve found myself in all sorts of places.
But there’s no Indian in what I do – the only Indian is me.
You often talk about your role models and how great they are – how are we ever going to get to know the real Jalporte with all these icons in the way?
You’re not. The whole way I’ve done everything is so you’re never gonna know the real me. If you listen to my music, you’re not there to be judging me, you’re there to be judging the music. I’ve got these personas and characters to keep the real me away from all that. The whole Jalporte project is like wet clay – you mould it into exactly what you want it to be. People ask me “What’s the title Farewell Aquarius about?” “Well, what does it mean to you?” And they say, “This, this and this.” Well, that’s what it is.
You’ve apparently been performing from a young age – can you give us some insight into that and how it will manifest in your new live show?
I started performing from 8 years of age in drama productions; we used to perform old Hindu stories down at the temple, and I had drama classes when I was in school.
We’ve been to a lot of Hip Hop shows in our time, man, and a lot of them are: here’s a DJ, here’s a microphone, and here’s a guy spitting…and you generally get quite bored quite rapidly.
I don’t want anybody in the room to take their attention off me for the whole time, from start to finish. I’m teaming up with Dave Rogers, and it’s going to be a very symbiotic show.
"...I’ve
always tried to keep the music as neutral as possible and not
let anything influence it..."
I read the UKHH interview with Orifice Vulgatron the other day; he was saying how he’d go to concerts and watch the energy and think “how can I incorporate this into my live show?” You go to a Foreign Beggars gig and they get people to mosh out and stuff and there’s proper mad vibes – I want something like that, if I can get half of what they’ve been able to do into my live sets I’ll be happy.
You’ve just come back from India on something of a personal pilgrimage – can you tell us about that and also about how such a mixed cultural upbringing affected your creative development?
 India was good man, I don’t want to say too much about it but I went with a mission to destroy and rebuild myself. I learned a lot of stuff and faced up to a lot of facts about myself; I’ve come back a lot harder now.
Cultural upbringing – that’s a strange one because I’ve always tried to keep the music as neutral as possible and not let anything influence it – it is what I want it to be. My cultural experiences and upbringing make me as a person, but they don’t make my music. I’ll never bring religion into music because I think that when you do that you start categorising yourself and then you start eliminating people from listening to it. I am Indian, and there’s an Indian market out there, which hopefully one day I’ll conquer and plunder…
What are your thoughts on the commercial development of India in relation to Western cultural influences, capitalism, nuclear armament and the consumption of finite resources?
The economy over there is ridiculous man, their economic growth is double that of ours – we’re struggling to get something like 3%, but last year India came back with something like 6% growth. Everybody is taking their businesses over there because everything is cheap.
They’re really modernising now, they’ve got the Commonwealth Games coming over in 2010, and Delhi has an underground metro system connecting the whole city. They’re cleaning up as well – it’s not as filthy as the first time I went over, they’re using LPG gas so the air is cleaner now. Every Tom, Dick, Harry, Surinder and Jatinder has a mobile phone. But the gap between rich and poor is still as big as it ever was – it’s probably going to get wider actually.
The Americans now are worried about the Indian economy, they’re desperately trying to grab every piece of business action in India. All of my uncles and cousins who work in big companies say they’re liaising with so many people from America it’s ridiculous. If it’s worrying them then we must be doing something right.
India still has the same problems as always – there’s still a lot of poverty over there, and the cops and the government are very corrupt, and everything revolves around who’s got the money. There’s a lot of stuff to be ironed out – they’re a long way off the secure democracy we’ve got here…
Other than that, they’ve got to sort the fucking roads out. It’s a death sentence driving round there.
"...the
gap between rich and poor is still as big as it ever was – it’s
probably going to get wider actually..."
What are your thoughts on the productivity of the Midlands Hip Hop scene – how can we make it better?
It’s good – we’ve got some really solid people who’ve got the ball rolling and people are starting to look towards the midlands. The guys who are properly repping the midlands are doing a hell of a job and there’s always the potential for them to be the biggest acts in the country. Hopefully one day when you ask this question to somebody else my name will get mentioned in there.
What do you think Farewell Aquarius says about you?
 It says there’s this guy out of the midlands who’s beginning a journey, and where that journey goes is down to how you feel about the EP. I feel that I got good beats for it, and I’d like to believe that it shows versatility, and has something for everyone.
It’s an introduction to who I am, or at least what I’m capable of. I’d like it to stand as a monument to that really – of what could be.
Do you bump it?
Yeah I bump it a lot – Red Pill’s got heavy bass on it and I’ve got a big sub in the car.
After touring this EP, what are the next steps in your development as an artist?
Hopefully we’re gonna run the mixtape alongside it, keep passing that out. We’ll keep the tour going, and hopefully have another mixtape out too, finance permitting.
Then all being well I should have a second EP or an album release ready. Hopefully I’ll have the funds to release a single too, but it’s all academic really. There’s so many things I need to do to get that far.
If you left the earth this very evening, how would you want to be remembered?
How would you remember me?
Probably for your outrageous outspokenness and your ‘take no prisoners’ dress sense.
People are always gonna think of me what they think of me, but I suppose if I was really being picky I’d want people to think “he was one of the hardest working guys we’ve ever met”, I think my spirit would be happy with that. After that it could be anything really: split personalities, outspoken, trouble causing…
People are gonna make their own decisions man, I am what I am, I’m living my life and you will take me how you take me.
A genius – there you go – I want to be remembered as a genius.
One of the greats.
Yeah man. Look at it this way – all the greats died young, so if I died tonight I’m sure I’d be remembered alongside Lennon, Ghandi –
"...The
guys who are properly repping the midlands are doing a hell of a
job..."
Ghandi did not die young.
He didn’t die young but he died prematurely. Jimmy Hendricks…
If you have any props or shoutouts to deliver, do it now.
I wanna shout out Jalporte…
No – straight up I’d like to shoutout people who helped me with sorting out the EP – Alex Blood, Dave Rogers for really helping me out. After that, anybody who thinks they deserve it. Like I put in the sleeve notes – you people know who you are, who I have love and respect for, and if you think you’re not one of them that’s your insecurity. Other than that, anybody who’s helped me in small ways, and the man upstairs for taking good care of me.
How do you think that interview went?
It was alright man. I’m just happy to get an interview. I was kind of thinking you’d ask me more about this shit, but then again you did didn’t you…
No I don’t – every man and his dog is gonna ask you about that. And in a way mate that’s what you want to chat about but it’s not necessarily what I want to chat about…
That’s fair enough, that’s how interviews are aren’t they…
Yeah, yeah.
You gonna turn this off?
The Farewell Aquarius EP can be obtained for free, you just need to send an email to
contact@jalporte.co.uk and include your postal address; the EP will then be sent to this address.
Jalporte is currently working on a mixtape with an aim to exploring a greater variety of sounds; he tells me that he wrote 18 tracks in 3 weeks whilst he was away in India, and he’s looking forward to throwing himself into the work. As you can see, he’s still as elusive as ever, but that adds to his intrigue, and in later days perhaps tracks like ‘Force You To Regret’ (Farewell Aquarius) will achieve a classic status akin to ‘Realism’, ‘Speed’, or the indomitable ‘Biochemistry’.
Sanjay no longer drinks alcohol and is also abstaining from the consumption of meat.
-
Fierce Freas
Related Links:
Farewell Aquarius EP
review
www.jalporte.co.uk
www.myspace.com/jalporte
www.myspace.com/siscopyke
 
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