by Chris Burrell // @Chri5B_
It was hot in our studio when DJ SYLO and Jansen came through and laid down a two hour set as part of our newly revamped Electronic Music Marathon. These two young Philly producer / DJ / party starters definitely delivered one of the sickest sets of the marathon, dropping everything from MK and Cajmere to Blawan, Jam City, and LOL Boys. They’ve got a ton of stuff going on individually, but have also lit up North Broad Street together with their Pizza Party series as of late. I can’t wait to see what power moves both these guys have in store for the very near future. Listen back to their set from the EMM and peep our chat here:
CB: How did you guys link up?
SYLO: Earlier in our Temple days, me and some homies were throwing parties under the name SFO – So Far Out ENT. Our CEO, Dubz the Don, was fresh as hell. He and Jansen linked up and that led to me meeting Jansen. SFO parties were wild – the last one we did had 700 kids in it, diverse both in terms of crowd and music.
Jansen: That was when I was still a lost little freshman taking photos and stuff. I started DJ-ing the next year and got my start spinning with this Philly rapper named Tayyib Ali. I was kicking it with him a lot, going to shows and then he just had the idea for me to spin for him. That threw me into the fire in terms of doing a live show.
CB: How did you guys get your first turntable set up?
Jansen: I spent loan money to buy some some tables off Craigslist that didn’t work too well and got a mixer for my birthday. I was lucky because my uncle who used to DJ back in the day was trying to sell his old 1200s, so I sold the shitty Numark ones I had and kept his.
SYLO: I used to go to my homie’s spot in high school and watch this documentary Scratch over and over, it’s about DJing. He had tables too, so we would mess around on those. But he believed in me and sold me his tables for super cheap and I was out. I have vivid memories of listening to “Life’s A Bitch” at his spot.
CB: That’s crazy – I talked with Matthew Law a few months back, and he also brought up watching Scratch. If you had to pick 2 tracks from HS or college that were super influential to you, what would they be?
Jansen: I grew up on hip hop/rap and lived in VA, so I was always into the trap shit and Southern rap, but was also always into some weirder electronic/dance/alternative type shit. I remember one of the first house parties I went to, I heard “Baptism” by Crystal Castles and it blew my mind. I liked them a lot because they were really different, original and hard. Second, and more important, was sometime during my sophomore year when I came across this Maya Jane Coles mix, I think it was like a live set. That mix opened my eyes to deep house and a more mature chilled-out side of house that I still love/play/produce today!
CB: Any reason why you gravitated towards the female artists, Jansen?
Jansen: I have no idea. Alice’s voice with Ethan Kath’s production is so unique to me and Maya Jane Coles is just like a goddess. The track “What They Say” — I saw the light when I heard that record.
SYLO: When I was first getting into club/electronic music in high school, I found Tittsworth – WTF (Nadastrom Remix) on hypem.com. I looked up Nadastrom and found out that they were from DC (I’m from Takoma Park, MD, inside the beltway) AND that they were playing this all ages party called Blisspop @ The 930 Club in a week. We got a crew together, put a bunch of vodka in water bottles and took the metro down to the club.
I remember so clearly THE MOMENT that I stepped into the club – everything changed. You gotta hear club music IN THE CLUB!
Number two I’ll say is the Two Inch Punch remix of that Birdy song “People Help The People”. I found that jawn in 2011 when I was living in London – it sent my whole taste in a more loved up, deep direction. New Bobby Shmurda also!
CB: Fast forward to today – tell me about the order of what happened between all the different things you guys have going on now.
SYLO: STUNTLOCO was born almost 2 years ago. Sammy Slice had been rocking Silk City on Thursdays for 5+ years and was looking for a young DJ to pass the night on to. I guested a couple times with him as a tryout and made the cut. I’ve been rocking every Thursday since [moved it to the 700 club in March]. Now, the whole thing has grown to the point where STUNTLOCO is something bigger – it’s our movement, it’s our crew, it’s a feeling that’s found across everything that we do. The crew is whoever is rocking with us: me, Matt Ford the MC, Daniel the photographer, Grace on visuals, Benz on marketing, Jansen spinning – it’s mad people, some more involved than others.
Jansen: Yeah so my point of view: STUNTLOCO (inspired by a Hispanic board game) was at Silk City for a while. I had been part of the fam for a while, but didn’t spin it until it moved to the 700 club. Then the Pizza Party just like came out of nowhere in a meeting.
SYLO: It started as this free secret house party, then just kept growing.
The idea was that we needed to throw a party for the people – get back to the roots and throw an ill house party.
We did four of those that were really awesome and then I was skating around looking for a venue for another party. I had thrown in the towel and went to go get a slice at Alessandros. When I saw they had a bar, you should’ve seen my face. The manager was there at the time and the rest is history.
Here’s a rare Pizza Party 3 gif:
Jansen: Originally, I had a specially designated “house set” which has grown into this beautiful thing where I can spin warm-vibey-pizza sounding house music – PIZZA HOUSE.
CB: What is a pizza sounding house track?
Jansen: It’s many sounds – Kaytranada fused with Julio Bashmore and a hint of French Express.
CB: One last thing – why pizza?
SYLO: Pizza is the universal comfort food. It’s amazing how many different types of people love pizza.
The whole point is to bring people together. Thank you pizza.
Jansen: Pizza is one of the better things earth has to offer. What’s better than eating a fresh piece of pizza and dancing to some groovy shit? I want pizza right now!
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TONIGHT, catch DJ SYLO at the 700 club for STUNTLOCO and catch Jansen as 1/2 of P.S. 118 opening up for Huxley at The Dolphin Tavern.
Also, check out more information on the Electronic Music Marathon – it’s a fundraiser between WKDU, Musicopia, and The Village of Arts & Humanities >>>> wkdu.org/emm
We’ll be posting the rest of the audio from the EMM throughout November, STAY TUNED !!!