This is your third release with Firepower Records. How has your music evolved since the first release?

I’m always working to get better and better. I have a lot of love for my first release on Firepower, I worked super hard for months to make sure it was up to quality. However, I’d definitely say I have a lot more variety now in my releases. It’s easy to get stuck in one sound for a while, but I think you have to step out of the box every once in a while to grab people’s attention.

What do you feel has been your greatest key to success?

Always working hard and believing in yourself is the key; they don’t want us to be successful, so you know all of us here at Firepower are successful for them. But in all seriousness, if you just work your ass off at something and stay humble while believing yourself you will achieve your goals eventually.

There are a lot of people capitalizing on how popular festivals and EDM has gotten. You can see it with things like that Zac Efron movie; it wasn’t made by people that are passionate about music, it was made to try to make a quick buck on current trends. I’m not saying it isn’t good for EDM to be popular, but a lot of negatives come with it. It attracts people that show up to concerts because it’s the “thing to do” rather than for the actual music or artists. But like with all things, it will subside eventually and I think we will see the rise of the underground vibe again.

Whats your biggest pet peeve?

Disrespectful people annoy me the most. I’m a pretty chill guy and never have confrontations, but I can’t stand when someone treats others like less than themselves. That’s just something I won’t stand around and watch ever

If you weren’t DJing and producing, what job would you enjoy doing? 

Maybe a movie actor, I think that would be fun. Having fun is important in a job; no one wants to be stuck doing something they hate. I  also want to get into movie and video game scoring someday. Or maybe being a rapper if I liked hearing my own voice more haha.

Starting the EP is the title track, “Beatdown”, and it’s filthy. A big swampy synth leads the track, but JPhelpz keeps it minimal. Instead of flooding the sonic spaces with walls of sound, he keeps the listener focused on the track’s necessary elements. The result is a nice departure from an over-abundance of synth tricks and stylings.

The idea of genre in the bass music world is gone, and “Stiff Face” makes that clear. The track toggles between various dubstep and trapstyle beat structures without finally settling on any of them. But that makes the track dynamic. Minimal in its approach, “Stiff Face” proves that quality is always better than quantity.

“Snare Alert !!!” is the marquee track of the EP. Given the simple aesthetics of the rest of the EP, this track shows a kind of audio ethic that’s become JPhelpz signature sound. Mechanical yet technical in its production, the listeners will find themselves grooving to the smoother trapstyle elements and raging as the bass goes big.

Rounding off the EP is “Self Destruct”, and it might as well be a homage to the mech bounce style JPhelpz has helped pioneer. An extremely technical synth pattern seethes over the top of a big Dubstep beat structure. He drops the mid range sounds to ensure the listener is focused on the two elemental forces of bass music: the beat, and the synth. The whole EP, then, is a study in the fundamentals.

The tracklist for Beatdown is:

JPhelpz – “Beatdown”

JPhelpz – “Stiff Face”

JPhelpz – “SNARE ALERT !!!”

JPhelpz – “Self Destruct”

For more on JPhelpz:

https://www.facebook.com/jphelpzdubstep/

https://twitter.com/jphelpz

https://soundcloud.com/jphelpz

https://www.youtube.com/user/jphelpz

https://pro.beatport.com/artist/jphelpz/276797

For more on Firepower Records

FirepowerRecords.com

Beatport.com/label/firepower/24439

Facebook.com/firepowerrecs

Twitter.com/firepowerrecs

Soundcloud.com/firepowerrecs

For press inquiries, please contact:

Lee Underwood

lee@firepowerrecords.com

Publicity Manager I Firepower Records