Welcome back to the Firepower Hotseat, our rotating interview feature that peeps into the lives of our recording artists. This week, we have JPhelpz whose brand new Beatdown EP is set to drop this Friday on Firepower Records. We couldn’t be more stoked. He’s brought the filth over and over again, and he continues to push himself and the limits of bass music in general. Read the interview below, and in anticipation of the release, he’s given us his remix of Datsik‘s “Scum” for free.
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.
What do you like about what’s going on in dance music right now? What do you think needs to just go away?
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.