J Swink is a proven integral player in the Washington D.C. club scene. He has shared the decks with the likes of Dubfire, Victor Calderone, Carlo Lio, Eric Morillo, Green Velvet, Christian Smith, Julian Jeweil and Layton Giordani.
We premiered J Swink’s new track “Evolution” that’s taken from his new EP on Cerebro, and we caught up with him to find out more about the release and his other projects…
https://soundcloud.com/change-underground/cupremiere-j-swink-evolution-original-mixcerebro/s-Wv0Bv
Hi J SWINK, can you start by telling us about yourself, and how you first got into electronic music?
Well, currently I live in Washington, D.C. where I work at a children’s hospital specializing in Cardiac Anesthesia. In my free time, I like to focus on music production and djing. I’ve actually been djing now for over 16 years and a few years ago I bit the bullet and ventured into music production. I’ve always loved music and it’s actually more of an obsession than love at this point. I started listening to electronic music when I was a little kid. My mom would always be playing dance music. Whenever it was playing it just gave me good energy and made me want to dance. It just made me happy. I’ve been listening to electronic music ever since and I will definitely still be listening and dancing to it even as an old man.
Could you talk us through your new track “Evolution”, and the EP that it features on?
When I was making Evolution, I wanted to come up with something that sounded huge in the club both with the low end and the main synth. I wanted each of these elements to have a great presence but not overpower each other or compete. It took a lot of fine-tuning for the main lead to make it sound and sit right. I also put a lot of detail into the automation of the lead making it evolve over time and that is why I came up with the title “Evolution.” I’m very happy with how it turned out and it’s definitely passed the club test multiple times. There has been a lot of good feedback from it so I’m looking forward to seeing how the release goes.
How did you meet the team behind the Cerebro label who are releasing your new EP, and is this your first release for the imprint?
Cerebro is based out of Greece and I ended up meeting them through Soundcloud. They sent me a message saying that they like my music and wanted to see if I could send them a track for their label. At that time, I actually had a track ready to go so I sent it over to them and they said that they wanted it. However, I was also working on my first vocal at the time so I sent over what I had so far and they said they wanted both for an EP. That vocal is titled “Man on the Moon” and it is actually the labels number one selling track.
Which other labels have you worked with, and what’s been your proudest moment to date?
So far, I have worked with Fierce Animals, Dense Audio and Cerebro. I release the majority of my music with Fierce Animals and I’ve had very successful releases with them. The most successful release for me with them so far was my “Hypnotized” EP which had remixes from Cosmic Boys and Ron Costa. I can say that I am happy with what I’ve done so far but I am very goal-oriented so as soon as one goal is achieved I’m on to the next one.
Have there been any big-name DJ’s supporting your music, and who is the DJ/producer that inspires you the most?
I have had a lot of great feedback from my tracks from bigger artists but I haven’t had that moment of a big artist playing my music recorded in a set or a video at a festival or a club. I know as long as I keep working and making more music eventually I’ll get some good support.
If anyone inspires me right now it’s my buddy Charles D. He’s making amazing music right now and I definitely think a lot of people are going to know who he is in 2020. We actually released together on Maksim Dark’s label Dense Audio and I just did a remix for him that comes out on January 27th.
What’s next in your schedule after the Universal Language EP release hits stores on the 14th of January?
As mentioned above, I have a remix coming out for Charles D that is titled “Addicted” and will be coming out on Fierce Animals. I also have another remix coming out in February for Ryan Michael Robbins, one of the label owners at Fierce Animals. Then I have a few other tracks that I’m about to send out for mastering so hopefully, those will be out sometime mid-2020.
Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers about?
I would like to say thanks for reading this and thank you for your support. I plan on releasing a lot of music in 2020 so keep me on your radar! Cheers!
You can soon order a copy from of J Swink’s new release on Cerebro from HERE