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  Jehst Interview
interview 0341 added 07.10.05 words: Rockett Time
technical:
QED
The monthly Shoestring
party at Babylons (Bath) this month hosted Jehst
supported by the usual IQ and Asaviour combo. Jehst has been
quiet on the live front over the last few months, working on
tracks for his new album due out on the 7th November. Rockett
Time caught up with Jehst after the show in the backstage area
of the venue. Talk was of Roll Deep and Ipod Nanos, but
ukhh.com’s own Radio DJ managed to squeeze in a few words with
Mr W Shields himself.
 With the prospect of Will and the boys tearing up the venue, the
room was filled, getting a warmup from DJ Bobafatt before the
High Plains Drifter hit the stage. The show consisted of some of
the new tracks off the album, as well as the old favourites from
Falling Down and The Return Of The Drifter. By the noise, it was
obvious that a large portion of the crowd owned these, but they
were also receptive to the new tracks that he brought out. He
probably knew these tracks better than the old ones, forgetting
a few of the lines from some… However he promised to go refresh
his memory by going out and buying Falling Down again on Monday!
Welcome….please introduce yourself to
the readers.
It’s Jehst, Jehster, The High Plains Drifter, Billy Brimstone,
Jehstafairi up in the house with crazy noise and shit going down
in the background. Yeah man, its good to be up in Bath, nothing
but love. Dropping some new tracks from the new album, testing
them out, trying to get the lyrics right!
"...you’ll
definitely hear some more Billy Brimstone joints on YNR, but he
doesn’t like leaving the house..."
So you’ve just done the second show
with the new tracks, how it going?
We did Leeds last week, so this is the second show with the new
tracks. It’s just getting used to them, seeing how people react
to them, respond to them. It’s been good man.
You’re here with IQ and Asaviour as
standard. As a trio, you’re notorious across the UK, so is there
a lot of pressure on you to keep improving the set to maintain
that quality?
Well, damn man I suppose there is. We’re probably not reacting
to it too well. We try not to get too caught up in that
pressure. As you can hear from what he’s saying in the
background about how a track came in, and it really worked. You
have to try different things out at each show, to keep it fresh
and keep yourself interested. That’s what people respond to the
most- the vibes. So you can come on stage and be really military
procedure. You can come out also and vibe and flip things. Like
‘Don’t do that track there’, ‘Stop that’ and ‘Let me do this’.
That’s how you react to the pressure. By letting us have fun
with it we do our best show because we’re enjoying it. It’s just
standard man. You got to go out and promote your music, but at
the same time have fun with it. I’m out to perform the tracks to
the best of my ability.
"...You have
to try different things out at each show, to keep it fresh and
keep yourself interested..."
Tonight we heard the tracks from the
new album. When’s it coming out?
Seventh of November apparently, but don’t believe the hype man.
A lot of people are hungry for this, as
it’s been two years since Falling Down. What’s the general sound
of it?
 This album is more moving it the direction of sound over content
in a way. It’s more like me kicking back and working on beats,
working on rhymes that are more from a performance perspective.
It’s not so much sit down at home and put it on, bill a zoot,
drink tea. It’s more like come out to the show, and hear the
tracks at the show. Like Asaviours saying in the background,
it’s all about bangers this time. Trying to hype it up, keep the
tempo up, and come back out. It’s a re-introduction, that’s all
it is really.
Does Asaviour want to say something
about it?
He’s not allowed to comment on my records, as he’ll just
incriminate me in some way or another!
You feature on a lot of other people’s
tracks. Who have you brought in on yours?
No one. They’re all whack, they ain’t coming on my album! No, no
I’m playing! A lot of people got brought in, but the thing is
what’s happened is that I’ve done a lot of material, but then
narrowed it down to a short tracklist. So in terms of tracks
that have made it to the album, there’s only one track on there
with people on. The track on there with people on is called
Pepperspray. Featuring Kashmere and Sir Smurf Little, who is a
member of The Colony. I’ve been working on an album with Smurf
called My Alpha. That’s all my production, Smurf spitting. We’ve
got one beat by LG, and one beat by Appetite, out of
Huddersfield, but none other than that. You definitely need to
watch out for the Smurf shit dropping right now. We’ve got the
first single called Outside, with the B- Side City Nightlife,
both produced by me. And a video dropping too, that’s the latest
YNR project.
"...This album
is more moving it the direction of sound over content in a way..."
On the album guest wise that’s it man, just Kashmere and Smurf.
All my beats, so there’s not even any different producers there.
The thing is I worked on a lot of stuff through the process of
getting the sound together, so there’s a lot of things that have
been recorded that will come out on other albums or other
projects. I just wanted to keep to my own beats, because after
the last album a lot of people said to me ‘We love the High
Plains Drifter shit, when its just your rhymes, your beats, its
all just about you, your sound. So I responded to that and I’ve
kept it to just me for now. All the other tracks will still get
used, so people like Beat Butcher, LG, IG Culture, Evil Ed and
the other producers that I worked with. I’ve still got other
joints with them that will come out at some point. Plus I’ve got
a production project that is still pencilled to come out on
Lowlife, Underworld Epics Volume 1, which is all my production.
Basically exclusive tracks and remixes from the best of the UK
crew. We’ve got Verb T, Terrafirma, Michael Parkinson, Sir Smurf
Little, Kashmere, Sundragon, Asaviour.
What’s up with YNR at the moment? Is
stuff coming out?
YNR is all about Sir Smurf Little at the moment. Backed with
City Nightlife. We’ve got some other things in the pipeline that
I don’t want to say too much about just yet. Obviously the
latest release on YNR has been the Billy Brimstone 7”, keep it
live, and shout out to my twin brother! He kept it real on that
one, digging in the crates for the jazz shit. Billy’s definitely
working on some other material, so you’ll definitely hear some
more Billy Brimstone joints on YNR, but he doesn’t like leaving
the house, so I might have to spread the word for him.
"...there’s a
lot of things that have been recorded that will come out on
other albums or other projects..."
There’s still the usual suspects in the background, as always
working on stuff. Tommy’s got more stuff, he’s got another album
there, Evil Ed, Cee-Why, people like Groundwork Entertainment
out of Huddersfield. What I want to do with YNR is bang out
12”s. Putting out whatever, like Kashmere’s got a record, we
bang it out, Parky’s got a record, we bang it out, Asaviour’s
got a record, we bang it out. Just building like that and doing
compilation albums, just continuing in the vibe of providing
nourishment for the ears. Not getting caught up in the whole
politics of the industry.
When do you think that the mainstream
media will embrace this scene?
Never. Next question!
That was the last question!
The questions put by the rest of the room then descend into
further Roll Deep conversation, and Jehst dissing the IQ
mixtapes. This interview will also be played on the Rockett Time
UK Hip Hop radio show – so go check a broadcast on Mondays
9-10pm on 1449urb in Bath or via the web on
www.1449urb.com.
Check for the next Shoestring party – coming live at Babylons,
Bath.
-
Rockett
Time
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