Native Dubliner Air Jackson is fresh from the release of his debut album ‘Chemistry’, which dropped last month on his very own imprint Ten One Records. The eclectic DJ and producer took the occasion to showcase in supreme fashion his signature sonic blend that fuses the best of House, Breakbeat, DNB and Techno in a stunning melody-driven LP. We caught up with the man himself this week to get his thoughts on the milestone, the lengthy process, the reaction from the public, the essential production tools and all that is on the horizon. Hit the play button below and read on!

WWD: Congratulations on the release of your debut album! How did you mark the moment?

Thanks, it’s great to be back speaking to you again! Since I was 15 I have dreamt about being a successful DJ, playing my music to large crowds and all the glitz and glam that comes with that. I therefore thought in my younger years that releasing an album would be a rock & roll moment …. but it really wasn’t. I spent the day at home working through my massive to-do list and celebrated that evening with a bottle of wine with my wife in the garden. Pretty mundane, I know! But that’s the thing, I’m at the stage of my music career where I’m only beginning to build a fan base and I’m hoping that the album will be my springboard. I’m not an established act like Bicep or Four Tet who will have people waiting on tenterhooks for their new album to drop. Who knows, perhaps future ones may be surrounded by a bit more hype…

WWD: The album hit #1 in Beatport’s Breakbeats chart as well as rising high in Melodic House & Techno, Drum & Bass. How did it feel to see that positive reaction?

It’s been amazing, to go straight into the top of the Beatport Breakbeat chart, displacing Overmono from the number one spot was a moment where I really had to pinch myself. Those guys are literally one of the hottest electronic acts on the planet right now and I listen to their music more than most, so that was quite surreal. The album also entered into the Top 10 on a bunch of other online charts and broke the 10k album streams mark on Spotify within the first few weeks which honestly, I couldn’t have imagined that it would have gone any better. I expect the album to be the intro to Air Jackson that people will stumble across over the next few years and get them directed towards the rest of my stuff, it’s a pretty accessible record.

WWD: For those who haven’t listened yet. Can you describe the record for us in 3 words?

Diverse, Detailed & Dancefloor

WWD: What is your main learning takeaway from this first album experience?

Don’t do another album it takes FAR too long! Nah, I’m kidding…. don’t get me wrong, I loved the experience and I feel that it brought my skill up so many levels as I was striving to make each track as good as the last, but it is such a long process. From the moment I put down the first drum pattern to release date this LP took the guts of 2 years. 12 months composing, 6 months mixing and 6 months planning & promoting the release. It’s been such a worthwhile project in hindsight but there were times that it felt like it would never see the light of day nor turn out anywhere near the level that it did, so I’m really grateful that all of the hard work paid off. There were weeks that I would spend 30-40 hours in the studio just composing. I am certainly going to change my tact slightly for the next while and move away from LP & EP’s and perhaps release a few singles and get some remixes of my tracks made. More than ever with gigs returning studio time will be at a premium as I have a family, a label and other work that pays the mortgage while gigs have stopped, so I’ll have to try and balance them all.

WWD: Before beginning the creative process, were there any albums in the electronic domain that stood out for you as ideal examples of quality LPs?

Yes, absolutely. When I decided to compose the album, I wrote out a list of the albums that I had listened to most frequently in recent years and held those up as the benchmark in terms of the quality that I wanted to strive towards. I was looking for the catchy hooks & vocals of albums like O’Flynn – Aletheia. Bonobo – Migration, Bicep – Bicep, Four Tet – New Energy, Caribou – Our Love. However, also wanted to incapsulate the impressive diversity of albums like Daft Punk – Homework, Paul Kalbrenner – Icke Wieder and DJ Koze – Reincarnations Pt. 1 & 2. All of these are amazing albums that have taken up so much of my ear space over the past decade.

WWD: Can you tell us about some of the key production tools behind the album?

Ableton is my DAW and I use a bunch of VST’s for sound colouring and compression however all of the actual sounds originated purely on hardware. I’m very lucky to have been able to build quite a professional studio in my home and I used a Moog One, Moog Sub 37, Dave Smith Prophet Rev 2, Roland System 8, Korg Wavestate, Roland TR8S & Dave Smith Tempest to produce every sound that you hear on the album. I also have an awesome mixdown artist with an incredible attention to detail that really helps me get the most out of my mix and this is as good a production tool, if not more important than all of the hardware and software that I use. I used to mix all of my own music but there is no comparison in the quality of my tracks now, a good engineer is invaluable, honestly.

WWD: Will you get a chance to perform the music to a live audience in the near future?

Yes, very soon hopefully. We are still lacking a live music re-opening roadmap in Ireland but it’s not too far away hopefully. I have been working on a very cool audio & visual concept show with a talented Dublin based visual artist called Dermot Gartland. I don’t want to give away too much but it’s quite a different concept to how people normally experience dance music, it’s very immersive. I have a small festival show happening in September and a couple of other pieces in the works for autumn.

WWD: What else is on the horizon for the rest of 2021?

More music, I have just released a remix this week for a Wicklow based producer named Soul Campbell who has released on my own label several times. I also have 4 singles in the works but I find that my work flow is slowing down as I want everything to be an improvement on the album. This is somewhat inhibiting the speed at which I’m composing as I find that I keep re-working everything over and over again striving for perfection, where perhaps I went with the flow a bit more on previous projects. In fact, a couple of the tracks are actually ready but I just cannot settle on the right vocals to bring them to the next level. For me finding vocals involves days of trawling for inspiration on YouTube videos, old records and studio acapellas so it’s very time consuming however, the right vocal can be the difference between a track being good or shit hot, so it’s worth not settling unless you are completely happy. Most of this new Air Jackson music is likely to land later in 2021 or early 2022. I’m very keen to get back playing shows as that’s the main love in all of this for me, feeling that adrenaline and endorphin rush again that I have missed so much over the past 18 months. There is literally nothing you can do or take that makes you feel better than the high from DJ’ing to a crowd, it’s just amazing!

‘Chemistry’ LP is out now – Download here.

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