“I went to see two movies yesterday! I saw Judas and the Black Priest and Cruella. I’m a huge dork, the feeling of being in the movie theatre again was amazing!”
I think it’s safe to say Canadian producer and spirited selector Jayda G is happy that lockdown is reaching its final stages, but don’t let that fool you. Over the course of the last year and a half she has been hard at work in the studio fine-tuning her production skills, evident from her Grammy nomination for Both of Us at the end of last year and All I Need, which features on the artists incredible DJ Kicks mix (and also marks the first time Jayda has sang on a track!)
Spending time back home in Canada with her mother and childhood friends had a huge impact on her selections for the iconic !K7 Records mix series. “I always find going home is a way of centering myself so I can get in touch with the things that are really important”, she says. “Being home reminded me of where I started; I learned to DJ in my old bedroom and used to throw parties in Vancouver. It brought back a lot of good memories from that scene and was a good jumping point.”
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In 2019 Jayda ran a series of discussions surrounding her experience in environmental toxicology and she is keen to continue to blend the words of sound and science.
“I have so many things cooking in the kitchen there!”, she exclaims excitedly. “We just got signed off to talk about this, it’s a project called Undercurrent. It’s an immersive, interactive experience and couples that with an artist’s music and an environmental awareness tied to it all.”
“I asked them if we could make a video game, and that’s literally what we did. There are so many environmental things that we can talk about, but this one focuses on agriculture, forests and forest fires.”
As we explore her environmental work further, our conversation turns towards the current vinyl issue. With most plants experiencing huge delays, and the well documented environmental implications of vinyl, will the old mediums continue to prevail? Or is this just another step towards an all-digital market?
“I love records, I love having something physical. For me, it’s a very tactile thing”, she says. “I think there’s still a market for it, but now it’s about being smarter about what happens to records. I know Ninja Tune just started a project with AIAIAI and they’re making headphones out of used records. I thought that was the coolest thing! It’s about being innovative and thinking outside the box. There is plastic that’s already out there, and it isn’t go anywhere, so we may as well find a use for it.”
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Words: Andrew Moore
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