Meet Leo Justi, he is the producer out of Rio de Janiero that is fusing the sounds of his native Brazil with dancehall & soca riddims. We have been a fan for his productions for over a year and we decided that since we featured him on our Meet Your Matches mix with the Doggie Doggie Daymund & Carnival Madness from the Regent Street section, we might as well get a background on this Brazilian beat banger. Check the interview after the Carnival Madness track:
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Interview
What is your earliest experience with music?
Earliest i think would be listening to classical music when I was a baby… my both parents are classical musicians. My mom says she remembers me as a just born baby staring at the speakers while Mozart was playing lol.
When did you get into music?Playing? Dj? Production?
I started playing violin, then guitar, writing songs, been in a few bands, punk rock and later alternative rock. I started DJing like 2 years ago. Tho i started producing like 3-4 years ago.
What sounds influence your production?
I make heavy dance music, i’d say the sounds that influence me are Dancehall artists like Cutty Ranks, Burro Banton, Baile Funk artists like Mr Catra, also some Dubstep (although i’m not that into it), Rock bands like Deftones, Sleigh Bells… lots of brazilian genres like Samba, Baião, Maracatu.
Is Baile Funk a genre? Or style of party? A girl I met from rio told me baile is parties in Brazil not necessarily a musical genre. Can u elaborate?
Yes, Baile means Ball, a old word for dance party. The international press started calling funk made in Brazil (we call it just funk) Baile Funk. So it is a genre, cause you’ll find music labeled like that all over the web, but the term is not original from Brazil.
What is the history behind the traditional baile funk riddim?
The history of the Baile Funk beat is pretty much: Voltmix from Miami Bass, that was all they sang on in the beginning. There was songs and montagens, thats is the live sequencing of samples with the Akai MPC. Still today the montagem is a part of baile funk. Then i think in the 90’s a brazilian DJ (don’t know who) created the Tamborzão, or Tambozão loop, a different more broken pattern, more tribal sounding. That is often mixed with the Voltmix. Then came the Tambozinho (BeatBox), the latest ‘standard’, that’s the one with less bass in it, it’s a vocal beat box recording, more similar to Samba. But a lot of different percussion sounds are mixed with these basic loops.
The availability of production tools is rampant, what’s your plan to stay ahead of the curve?
Production tools you mean software, instruments and stuff? I dont really belive that makes much difference. It does in a way, like i can’t get some psychedelic/current electronic music sounds with some 1996 computer, but it’s all about having a good strong Idea, the more simple the better.
My plan is to try to have good ideas, basically. And inside Ableton Live there’s so much stuff i have to experiment with. Ableton or Reason, Fruity Loops, I find all of them great.
With past year releases like Major Lazer Pon the Floor and Lil Jon Machuka being greatly received by audiences; do u see this as a gift or curse?
Neither of them… i try not to judge the audience, but learn from it. But I like Major Lazer. Although i think its kinda weird that they for instance release Pon De Floor as an Original track, make it huge as theirs and in fact i heard that Pon De Floor is pretty much an Afrojack track, and Major Lazer simply mashed it with a Vybz Kartel acapella. I’m really thoughtful about naming my tracks to credit who deserves credit. But then again, maybe if it wasn’t for Major Lazer’s awesome overall work, the Track wouldn’t have got so big. So i think Afrojack must be happy with it all hehe.
A new record that’s hot is the Carnival Madness remix u did for MC Zulu. How did that come about? When will the single be released?
It will be in MC Zulu’s EP Crowd Control that’s out now in january, I think.
What will this year hold for Leo Justi? New releases? Any EPs? Albums? MixAlbums?Etc
I’m gathering some songs by some awesome MCs which i don’t wanna mention yet, but i was amazed i could get them to record for me, for a Riddim album for Beef Riddim, the instrumental on MC Zulu’s Carnival Madness remix. After that probably an album or EP with originals only, but showing more of my musical universe, not only club bangers, but some jazzy/indie stuff as well, maybe. So much good stuff has been happening that I don’t know really what will take my focus first.
