New York DJ and experimental electronic producer XIMERMJ is carving out a unique repertoire within the instrumental realm. His latest track Warped speaks volumes on behalf of the originality and artistic freedom with which he approaches things.
We caught up with the musician and composer behind the project, to find out more about the inspiration for the style, the ambition and intentions driving things, and plenty more. Here’s the conversation in full.
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Hi John – thanks for the interview! And huge congrats for the releases this year. Your sound is intense, creatively original but hard hitting – how would you personally describe a track like Warped?
Thank you!! The pleasure is mine, thank you for taking the time to chat, it’s very much appreciated!
I like how you added the song being intense and hard hitting. The reasoning of why I say that is because it’s fun for the shock value aspect – I like when I show a song or demo of my own to close friends and they say similar words.
I like to stand out a bit in the sense of hearing something very electrically enduring. It makes me think of the first time I heard some of the biggest influences of music upon me within the realm of PC music, where I believe if you are sonically inclined you just can fully resonate with the audio and what’s going on, almost like painting but without brushes; just throwing it on a canvas but having to carefully examine each clap, snare, effect and so on.
What was your mindset like when producing Warped?
To be honest, it wasn’t the best mindset. That could be why you found the single to be a bit hard hitting but creative. My mindset, wasn’t really apparent. I just lost two dear friends back-to-back in the month of July and I’m slowly pulling myself out of the grieving and all that, so no – I can’t lie and say everything was perfect.
“I felt like the walls were caving in almost daily and called off work for 2 weeks straight, but within the hurt sometimes treasures the most valuable art-forms to endure and make its way into the world.”
Where does your creative process usually begin, and what are your hopes when composing – is this purely for your entertainment, or do you have an audience in mind when crafting?
Usually it’s me just running to my home basement studio from work and letting off stress. The world is such a dark place at the moment, it’s frightful. I know this but not many others may know, music comes as a harmony and in my eyes symbolically that word means peace and unity.
There’s no sole purpose of me wanting to gain, this is in my blood, I’ve had a sonic touch since I can remember taking rides with my mom in her old Buick taking the cassettes out and aggravating her because of the mess I’d make, but that’s mostly because I was so intrigued. I always loved to dance and just kind of keep the fun times rolling in with family or friends by the choice of using music.
There’s really no one or the other because I do also see a community in my head as well – they don’t look a certain way, it’s more on how they act as a human whilst stumbling upon music, it’s how they hold the value of it. The craft of making music (in my eyes) brings like-minded individuals who take in any type of genre of music without saying they hate it before trying to actually listen.
I have a good friend whose house I visit frequently because he has a real old piano with the pedal, and plays wonderfully – hearing that is instead of the PC effects from electronic music is very nice, calming, and it’s therapeutic to stray away from the electronic madness that I blast from my speakers.
Who were your earliest inspirations in this style of music?
This sounds crazy but I’d say the old emo MySpace songs, if you mean in the terms of finding and paving my own path and getting away from what my parents were installing in my head. Very much Katy Perry Ur So Gay, to The Medric Droid Fer Sure, which I guess swayed me into being sucked in and cultivated by Lana del Rey, or Charli XCX by the time I was in high school and could tell what was in and what wasn’t. The MySpace days were left behind when I left middle school, and has further found more on key songs with originality formed into the music I hear or take in as an inspiration at my age now.
It’s a wildcard. I come from a family that separated (divorced) by the time I was 5, and it wasn’t ever a bad thing – they did great in my eyes, but I had my mother blasting Alanis Morrissette, and Earth Wind and Fire, and Stevie Nicks – and my father next week would be pulling up to Aerosmith, Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Then you have myself, who always discovered my own path at an early age whilst being so obsessed with it then and then was very into the MySpace era of that pop punk / alt but I’m not sure where that style of music would be categorized these days.
You’re a DJ and keyboard player, among other things – do you ever play music unplugged or is electronic design where your passion lies?
I haven’t ever played drums live (although I’d love to try) but yet alone played a DJ set for large crowd. I know it is not fear, but it’s the fact that I know I’m not that quiet, and clumsy. What I mean by that is that many DJs or others will fight for a spot to be playing live until the late hours, when I can sit in my home studio and just rock out and get the inspiration from the day I’m having or even doing it with close friends versus being in a sweaty club, which at this point of time is just DJs watching out for the fresh meat to get them out.
I think it falls upon when the time’s ready for me, and when it finds me; until then I’ll be here waiting but I’m not going to sit around waiting watching tv – it’s going to be creating new samples because I am eager to get my name known, and I handle all marketing for my brand, and be happy with what I do for a daily job. I’ve watched many people retire and go back to work, it’s all within the end set of keeping your mind preoccupied from the madness of the world.
How important is connection and collaboration for you as an artist?
Very important – I wouldn’t ever collaborate with somebody unless I was in the room with them and we matched the same energy, and if it did happen it would have to be Lana Del Rey which wouldn’t ever happen. So yes, I’m very hands on with it and I would expect the other artist to be the same way.
How often do you get to perform live, and is that your preferred place of expression over the studio?
Right now it’s all just being done from inside my home studio but like I mentioned I don’t have a preference but I’m done wasting time writing to my local venues who probably couldn’t even tell you who is sitting on the billboard charts at the moment. I want that organic feeling from music, not the feeling of it being rushed and pushed for a date.
How important is artwork, your logo, and the visual side of your creativity, if at all?
Artwork is the most important and it might be just as important as the music itself. I find myself on days like today going to record stores to see the styles of artwork and how they’ve changed, and the storyline that it tells within. The logo aspect doesn’t bother me, but just something to pop out, and that’s hard with a musician whose stage named “XIMERMJ”
What’s your biggest ambition for the months ahead?
The biggest ambition is to keep learning more and more from my own learning capabilities, but also meeting more musicians from the music scene and learning and growing further whilst watching what techniques they use.
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Find XIMERMJ on Apple, Soundcloud & Instagram.
