Jauz Ignites EDC Orlando With GG Magree and The Shark Squad [Interview]

Since stepping onto the scene, DJ/Producer Jauz has been moving electronic fans non-stop with his powerful and rhythmic beats, bass, melodies, and soul. Within a few years his shark squad has grown to a worldwide fan base, and whether it’s headlining a main stage like at EDC, or rocking the house down at clubs all over the world, Jauz commands dance floors like none other. Getting more wild and more riveting with each and every performance, this San Francisco artist is wrapping up 2017 with insanely exciting music and label news.

Jauz’s EDC Orlando set this year stepped up his game tremendously, as the night time slot allowed him to electrify thousands of fans who, in previous years had to take it a bit easier on the headbanging in the sunshine state’s intense heat. Being able to interact with the crowd in this different setting brought all the new energy you could imagine. Mixing in his classic tracks like “Rock The Party,” “Feel The Volume,” and “Deeper Love,” (just to name a few,) gave fans the chance to rock out to jams they all know and love. Jauz’ set turned white hot as he mixed in edits and bass heavy sounds like Flosstradamus, GTA, & Lil John’s “Prison Riot,” DJ Snake & Lauv’s “A Different Way,” Martin Garrix’s “Scared To Be Lonely,” and even an unmistakeable version of The Vengaboys’ “We Like To Party” throwback. Up at the rail one can only imagine the sorts of thrashing and head banging activity in occurrence. These fans did not come to mess around, and Jauz gave them everything they expected and more. With a perfect flow of slower melodies into deep bass, then endless fast paced beats blaring through kineticFIELD’s speakers, the crowd was absolutely non-stop dancing and jumping, and Jauz was simply the mastermind behind a slew of multicolored lights, shocking lasers, fire, and cannon blasts.

Topping off Jauz’ smash performance was special guest GG Magree, who blew the crowd away with the second live performance of their hit collaboration “Ghost.” GG’s appearance on stage with Jauz created the most dynamically passionate duo this set could have hoped for. Fans up at the front had the chance to see these two up close and personal singing with them, while fans in the back got to experience the full vision of “Ghost” through kineticFIELD’s vibes in its entirety. Either way, the party encompassed each and every member of the crowd and without a doubt left necks basically broken from such a high energy throwdown.

Photo: Bryan Plaza Photography

Taking it to the day one after party at Orlando’s esteemed Gilt Nightclub, Jauz, GG, and the entire shark squad showed up to show down. Amped up partiers trickled into the club from Tinker Field dressed in all kinds of rave wear, ready to kick up part deux of the evening. Following up his after party at Tier Nightclub last year, Jauz brought his entire crew to hang out, play some music, and have a kick ass time. Featured tracks included favorites like “Plur Police” and his “Sleepyhead” remix, as well as popular crowd jams like “Cinema,” “Summer,” “Mr. Brightside,” and “How Deep Is Your Love” – all of which ended in smashing headbanging.

With a full house and all the good EDC vibes, Jauz thanked his fans for continuing to party with him after 12 long, sweaty hours at the festival. He showed it by bringing out good friends Snails, Sikdope, and GG to “make some fucking music.” Safe to say everyone present was feelin’ the volume out there.

This weekend was pure celebratory mode, as Jauz’ brand new label ‘Bite This’ brought its super recent launch to life. Watch out world, because Jauz is about to blow your minds with this label’s launch. Following up the debut is the release of his Off The Deep End Volume One compilation album which features fellow friends Slushii, Sikdope, GG Magree, Crankdat, and more. Fans will find remixes as well as originals, and his most recent single with GG on “Ghost” for a little something extra special.

Photo: Bryan Plaza Photography

We had the chance to sit down with the man, the myth, the legend himself – alongside GG, following his adrenalizing performance on Friday evening. Read our Nocturnal Times exclusive Q&A below, where we discuss getting rowdy, some funny stories, and some pretty sweet insider knowledge towards what goes on beyond the stage.

Nocturnal Times: How does it feel to be back this year at EDC Orlando?

Jauz: It’s been fun! GG came out, she sang and did her thing and it was dope – we had a lot of fun. It was definitely cool to get to play at night this year. Last year I played during the day and it was very hot and I feel like the crowd was more reactive this time because they weren’t so dead. A lot of kids go really early because they want to see those people and then it gets towards the end of the day and you’re dead and no one has time to eat because they want to rage.

Photo: aLIVE Coverage for Insomniac

Nocturnal Times: You’ve got your second year in a row after party at Gilt – what’s in store for that?

Jauz: I don’t know, afterparties are whatever. Most importantly there’s going to be a lot of my friends there who are DJs. I’ll probably be playing a minimal set – there will be a lot of people commandeering it. Probably a French guy who resembles a snail…and a Polish guy. Maybe a frozen drink. It’ll be fun!

Nocturnal Times: 2017 has been a big year for you. You’ve been playing a lot of b2b sets – how do those compare to your individual sets?

Jauz: I mean I love playing b2b sets, especially when you really click with the artists. Sometimes if it’s something that’s forced and not something that just happens naturally it can be just okay. But when you’re doing it just to have fun and have a good time, and also if you’re with people who know how to DJ it’s different. I used to do b2b’s all the time when I didn’t really know how to DJ that well. It would be me, Diplo, and Skrillex and aw man. I remember I did a b2b in Australia the first time I was there, and it was the last night of this festival tour that we were all doing. It was me, Tchami, What’s So Not, Diplo, and DJ Snake all playing at the same time. DJ Snake, if you’ve never seen his set up on stage, uses vinyls like real shit. There’s no way to actually have headphones on. Normally when you’re mixing you have headphones, and it’s playing the stuff that’s already playing, then you mix in what you’re about to play. But with Will, I always got pinned as the guy mixing into whatever Snake was playing.  There was no way other than me putting my headphone against my ear and then trying to hear what was coming out of the monitors, which was slapping back and I couldn’t see what tempo his stuff was at so I was just guessing. It got to the point where Diplo was like, “if you eff up one more time I’m kicking you off the decks…” And this was early in my career – it was a little intimidating but it was a blast. It was a lot of fun.

GG: – It’s supposed to be fun it’s free form music.

Jauz: But it’s also different when you’re playing mainstage at EDC Vegas. There was definitely a little more planning that went into that one but at the end of the day we just kept it super mellow and everyone just went up and had a good time. Alison’s an incredible DJ, Wes is an incredible DJ. I’ve gotten a lot better at DJing so yeah it was a blast.

Nocturnal Times: Let’s talk about drum and bass. It takes over the music scene in countries like New Zealand and Australia – would you like to see that more over here or stay where it’s home over there?

GG: I do in a way love the fact that it is special to home and when I do go home, I know what’s gonna bang. But over here I like the fact that it challenges me. You’re forced to find different avenues of music and I think that’s a really special thing because it makes you look harder.

Nocturnal Times: Have you taken a lot of your influence from that?

GG: No – I play whatever I want!!

Jauz: I’m going to be the polar opposite of GG and say that I really wish that drum and bass was more poppin in the states because I love drum and bass so so much. I would love to give it a shot. I’d love to play it!

Nocturnal Times: How did it feel playing “Ghost” for EDC tonight?

GG: It was amazing.

Jauz: It was awesome. The song is pretty short because we wrote it to be pop length and just a couple minutes but the crowd reaction was great and it was really fun. It was the second or third time we did it so it was cool. It’s different than when I play it myself because people don’t know, but then bringing GG out is totally different. It’s really cool.

Nocturnal Times: With Off the Deep End Vol. 1, are there one or two tracks you’re particularly hyped about? Or just the whole thing?

Jauz: Yeah so I knew that it was the right time to put “Ghost” out, and getting ready to do off the deep end re-release with all the remixes, so I decided to make “Ghost” the bonus track on the EP and then it makes it feel like I’m not just re-putting out an EP that I already put out. It’ll add something a little bit extra and give people something to get excited about, plus all the remixes, I feel like it really rounded out the whole release. It’s totally polar opposite than everything else on the EP which is really cool. All the remixes are so fucking cool too, man. I just remember getting every remix in and being like yes yes yes! I’ve never really done that before; gone out and sourced remixes from homies and done the whole A&R thing that you have to do when you’re running a label, which is what I do now.

Nocturnal Times: Speaking of, tell us about your new label ‘Bite This.’

Jauz: It’s exciting! It’s cool. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s definitely a learning process and we’re still learning a lot.

Nocturnal Times: Do you have any idea where it’s going to go?

Jauz: My whole goal with it is just to keep it as natural as possible and let it grow. And if it blows up into something huge then great, and if not then at least we’re having fun.

Nocturnal Times: You throw out tons and tons of remixes. How do they compare to your own productions?

Jauz: I started producing doing remixes. It was always what was natural and comfortable to me. I really like working with vocals and building around a vocal. It’s a lot easier than just starting with a blank slate, which is why I started getting into doing remixes. Lately I’ve been trying to stay away from that and just do original stuff because that’s important. Then when I go back to doing remixes I just smash it. Remixes are so much fun.

Photo: The crowd at Gilt Nightclub for Jauz (Bryan Plaza Photography)

Nocturnal Times: What would you say is one of your productions/shows that has stood out to you the most? Why?

Jauz: Show wise, like we were talking about before – the Bill Graham show in San Francisco. My hometown is 8,500 kids and we sold out – that’s enough said. Nothing will beat that. As far as music goes, I really don’t like my music that much. The second it gets released I hate it immediately. I do still really like the remix I did for “XO Tour Llif3,” which I think did pretty well. I think people have heard it. We just kind of threw it out there. I think I did it right before EDC Vegas. I was in the middle of making my set and I was working so hard on making a dope set that my natural procrastination forced me to – cause I was just making an edit of “XO Tour Llif3” cause I wanted to put it into something else, and then I just kind of started making a remix and I was like okay I’m just going to go down this rabbit hole. And that was my way of procrastinating from all the other shit that was stressing me out. And it actually came out really fucking cool. And I love doing that really melodic shit like “Ghost,” you know. But I was kind of put off by putting that stuff out because that became such the thing that everyone was doing, and I don’t want to do the same thing that everyone else is doing. But I liked what I did with that song so much that I didn’t care. I also realized I can’t let that kind of stuff affect what I’m doing. If I make something and I like it, I put it out. That’s it. That’s what I did at the beginning of my career. That’s why I am where I am, so I just have to keep that in mind.

Nocturnal Times: Speaking of music, what are you both jamming to at the moment?

Jauz: I’ve been listening to a lot of 80’s stuff cause it’s super inspiring for me. It has a lot of the same vibes of electronic music and it was the first era to really embrace synths. I have three of the biggest spotify 80’s playlists and that’s what I listen to on planes. Also, before I was listening to electronic music I played guitar and wanted to be in a metal band. I’ve been going back and listening to the stuff that really got me into playing guitar, like really heavy metal and the stuff that I was really into. I try to listen to as little electronic music as I can.

GG: I love Grime.

Jauz: Yeah me too.

Nocturnal Times: What do you guys have in store for the rest of the year? Music wise/show wise?

Jauz: We’ve got the next single coming out on the label now that Off the Deep End Volume One is out. Not a single from me, it’s a single from someone else coming out on the 17th. That’s going to be the first single off the next compilation which is going to be all original music from a bunch of different artists. A couple different songs from me but that’s going to be the first. We’re showing that these are the artists that we’re fucking with. These are all the sounds that we’re doing and it’s going to be the first real thing.

GG: I have another single coming out in about two months. It just depends, I really fuck with “Ghost” and so far that’s been the favorite. That’s my favorite song I’ve put out so far. It’s just really nice. I like the way I sound and I like everything about it so until something hits that level, I’ll just wait for it.