Feature: Jaden Raxel [Interview]

With consistent live support from Tale Of Us over the last year, Jaden Raxel has become one of melodic house and techno's most hotly tipped up and comers. Now on the cusp of a new EP for Infinite Depth, we catch up with the Dutch artist in the exclusive interview. Enjoy.

Hi Jaden, thanks for joining us today, tell us where in the world you are and what your plans for the week are?

Hi Progressive Astronaut, thanks for having me! I hope you are good and healthy. I grew up in Arnhem, The Netherlands and I'm still living there. I have to finish a lot of new originals and colabs, so I will be a lot in the studio. I will also hang out with friends during the weekend for sure.

Tell us about growing up and living in the Netherlands, how has it affected your musical taste and the music you make?

It was great to grow up in The Netherlands. When I was a kid, I mostly listened to Rock music, because my parents always played that music. That's why Queen is still my favorite band without a doubt. At the age of 10, I got my first CD player. That's when I got familiar with electronic (dance) music for the first time. I was dancing to 'Lethal Industry' by the legend Tiesto. Trance music always was a big inspiration for me and I think you can here some influences in my music.

Tell us about your record/music collection, where do some of your early influences live?

As just mentioned, I really loved a lot of Tiesto's work. His 'Just Be' album was just insane. Additionally, I really love the old school hip hop music. Eminem and 50 Cent were my heros back in the days. I actually started producing hip hop for a friend who was a rapper in highschool. The Daft Punk tracks are also really huge and innovative, still got a lot of inspiration from their music.

Are you musically trained? And do you think it’s necessary for success in writing electronic music?

I'm making music for almost 13 years. I never played any instrument or studied music theory and I don't think it is necessary to got successful. But of course you must have some talent to make good music. However, I gained a lot of musical knowledge over the years, but I always do it by ear.

The industry and how fans discover new music has changed dramatically in the last 10 years or so. How do you discover new music nowadays?

I mostly discover new music on Beatport and Soundcloud. And sometimes I look into Spotify playlists.

How have you been dealing with COVID-19? You’ve obviously lost gigs because of it and the impact it’s having on travelling DJs is hugely significant. What is your feeling on all the live stream sets happening now?

The COVID-19 situation has affected us all. It's been a rough time and I lost gigs indeed, but I try to stay inside as much as possible and make the best out of this situation by spending a lot of time in the studio. I loved the livestream idea at first and I have done a few. It was a great way to get exposure and still got a chance to show new music. But I feel like a lot of people are getting tired of all the livestreams. So it's time for artists and events to be creative and come up with new, innovative ways to play music.

What is something you do now (regularly) that you did not before Covid-19?

There isn't change that much for me to be honest. The only change is that I have to work from home with my side job (24 hours per week).

Once nightlife eventually resumes globally what kind of effect do you think this period in our history will have on the clubbing experience?

I think people will appreciate going clubbing even more. And I think events will keep focusing on being more innovative, because a lot of organisations came up with some unique clubbing experiences during the COVID-19 period.

You have a new EP out on Infinite Depth this week. Tell us a bit about the release and how you approached writing the ‘Words Of Zeus’ track, which is a collaboration with Severin Su.

Yes, finally! I'm really excited to release the 'Words Of Zeus' EP! I met Severin Su last year during ADE and we connected really well. We both like to produce really dark tracks, so we started exchanging some ideas and tried to come up with some dark, atmospheric ideas. We first worked out the break and I immediately felt inspired. From there we started working out the rest of the track. I'm really happy with the result and it's pretty close to what I had in mind.

Tale Of Us has been playing the track for some time now, describe how satisfying it is to see a dance floor unite to something you’ve written.

It's just amazing to see Tale Of Us support your track. They played it in almost every set since November 2019 in all the biggest venues all over the world. I got goosebumps every time see people go nuts on that track.

What made Infinite Depth the right home for this project?

Infinite Depth always releases really dark and deep melodic techno tracks. My style is also really dark and mysterious and I think 'Words Of Zeus' really contain those vibes.

How much road testing or friend feedback is done before you’re ready to say a track is finished?

When I feel like my track is almost finished, I send it to some producer friends, so I get some proper feedback. I'm experienced in mixing down my tracks on my Sennheiser HD 25 headphones, so I know how I want my track to sound like. I'm not playing that much (yet hopefully), so I can't do a lot of road testing unfortunately.

What’s a piece of gear or software that always gets used when you’re writing a track?

I only use software at the moment. I use the VST's Diva, Pigments and Serum in almost every project. My favorite distortion plugin is Decapitator. Almost every plugin from Soundtoys is amazing. Echoboy is amazing as well to create some crazy delay effects.

I think for a lot of artists music allows you to write a sketch of your own personal universe in a way; your travels, life experiences etc. Is this something which is true for yourself? Where does inspiration come from?

I feel inspired from all kind of things. I'm not just getting inspired by listening to other music. I love to listen to old jams and especially other genres than techno inspire me the most, like old house tracks, or cinematic soundtracks. I also got inspired by watching a movie, some visuals or after a walk in the park. But it really depends on the mood. There is no certain way to feel inspired every time.

Apart from music, what makes you happiest?

Chilling with my girlfriend, family and friends makes me very happy. And I love to play football and play video games in my spare time.

What does the remainder of 2020 hold for you? Anything you can share with us?

As mentioned before, I'm working on a lot of new music. But I still have to pitch a lot of new music to record labels, so I don't have any news yet.. but stay tuned and keep an eye on my socials!

'Words of Zeus' is out now via Infinite Depth: : https://bit.ly/3fAjkPd