Each month ZapTown highlights DJs from around Indiana to bring you not only exclusive mixes to showcase each DJ’s unique talent and identity, but to provide you with a proper resource and guide on each individual DJ. This month, we celebrate the work of DJ Action Jackson. Fresh to the city of Indianapolis, but certainly no stranger here, Action Jackson can be seen tearing up the decks at OMG! at the Casba on Wednesday nights or down in Bloomington putting pressure on Killroy’s dance floor, a few small examples of Jackson’s busy DJ schedule. A balance between Indianapolis and the university city act as building blocks for Jackson’s growing and creative talent. Plan on your eardrums having a good time when in his presence.

(Action Jackson performing at Blu. Photo by Rachel Rubenstein)

Links:

Action Jackson: http://actionjackson.bee-town.com/
ZapTown’s photo coverage of Action Jackson at Record Store Day 2010: http://www.zaptownmag.com/2010/04/record-store-day-at-luna-music-photo-recap

Exclusive ZapTown MixDown: Action Jackson (43.42)

Tracklist
1.Paul Simon 2. Al Green 3. Morrissey 4. Level 42 5. Get Famous! 6. Janet Jackson 7. Fleetwood Mac 8. Talking Heads 9. BreakBot 10.Lykke Li 11. Jinder 12. Out Hud 13. Classixx 14. Michael Gray 15. Prince 16. Telephoned 17.  Soulja Boy 18. The Martin Brothers 19. Gyptian 20. Bag Raiders 21. New Order 22. Ciara 23. Sheila E 24. Ready For the World 25. Michael Jackson 26. Riton

What made you want to become a DJ? What are the things that attract you to being a DJ? How long have you been a DJ?

Well I’ve always been really into music and dancing, but I never imagined I’d be a DJ.  The first DJs I really experienced were at this now defunct under 21 club called the Junction.  DJ Topspeed used to play there every Saturday and it was the highlight of my week in high school.  And I would always listen to the DJ mixes on 96.3, I guess that was my first exposure to it.

Then I started tinkering around with it back in 2003 or 2004.  I wanted to get into production so I bought a turntable off of eBay to sample records, I had no idea what I was doing but eventually bought another turntable and then started doing house parties at IU and then got my first club gig at this place called the Jungle Room (RIP).  It’s snowballed since then, and I’m fortunate enough to do this for a living now.

Give me a little history about your career and your time in Bloomington? How was the reaction did the university town have towards what you do?

It’s a really good town to come up in.  There’s people there from all over the country so you’re exposed to a lot of culture and people are really open to all kinds of music, new and old.  Also, there were a bunch of great DJs that kinda came up together around the same time in Bloomington.  Basically towards the very end of the vinyl phase before everyone switched to serato and quit lugging records around, DJ Wushu (now in Denver), DJ Metrognome and I (now in Indpls), Flufftronix (now in Philly), and DJ Sleeper (now in LA).

But yeah sorta what I touched on above, I started at one club and it just sorta spiraled from there.  Also, in 2006 Flufftronix and I formed Rad Summer and started our Daft Crunk party, that sorta put us on the map nationally I guess.

Before we go on, let’s talk about your style. You are very adaptable to different genres and styles. What attracts you to using these various styles? Is it a conscious thing or do you have a pre-planned agenda before you go into a set? The ’80s genre seems to be the most accessible as of late, why? With that you are not afraid to incorporate songs that many people would not normally put on the dance floor, yet it works for you? How is that so?

I just have a genuine love for music.  I also get bored dancing to or DJing at the same bpm all night long so I like to jump around a lot regarding the tempo and genre.  I try to keep it from being ironic or cheesy though and make sure that it makes sense and flows nicely.  I don’t really have too many details planned out beforehand but I do like to just have a generel idea of where I’d like to go during a set.  As far as being not afraid to play left-field songs or not so obvious choices, I think that there’s a way to make almost any song work on a dancefloor.  Whether it’s through sequencing it in a certain way or throwing some hip hop drums on top of it or whatever.  But at the end of the day it’s not that serious, and I don’t think anyone should ever be afraid to take chances while DJing, it’s partying for godsake.  And yeah IMO, the ’80s were the greatest decade for pop music so those songs have aged very well.  But a lot of them are approaching 30 years old so I expect their popularity to eventually start to wane a bit.

What are some of your favorite songs or key tunes that you pull out to get the crowd going?

Waka Flocka – O Let’s Do It
Gucci Mane – Lemonade (Heroes & Villians Remix)
Cajmere – Percolator
Tony Toni Tone – It Feels Good

You are now living in Indianapolis and making quite the presence within the city? What made you transition from Bloomington to Indianapolis? And to note, you still have ties to Bloomington. Tell me what it is like bouncing back and forth between the two cities? What differences or similarities do you see between the two.

I’m from here originally, I went to IU for school.  After graduating, I was real hesitant to move back because I didn’t feel like there was a place for the kind of music I liked to play here.  But in the past year or two between what MOKB, ASquared, Slater, Heavy Gun, Rad Summer, etc… have been doing there’s so much opportunity, and it’s a really exciting time for music in Indy right now.  Also I feel like there’s not much more that I can do in Bloomington.  I still love it though and play there once or twice a week, so I haven’t given myself the chance to miss it.  The biggest difference is the University obviously, so there’s a much larger audience of young people, they also tend to be a bit more worldy/up on new stuff because a lot of them come from the coasts.  They also are usually more enthusiastic in Bloomington but Indy is catching up fast!

What is it about Indianapolis and Indiana do you admire? What would you like to see more of?

Well the best part is that all the people mentioned above are all friends, and we work together.  I guess I’d like to see the scene continue to grow and go in the direction its moving right now.  More national acts making stops here, people continuing to come out and support all the local cats doing there thing, and I’d love to see an artist put the city on his or her back and make it big out of here nationally.  And the low cost of living makes it a great place to be an artist full time.

What things would you like to try or experiment with? Do you find anything that is changing within your sets? Where do you feel like you shine the most?

I really love my Wednesday party OMG! at the Casba in BroadRipple, because it’s an open format night.  We’ve had all different kinds of DJs guest, national and local.  I try to break a lot of records there and try out new things that I’ll later incorporate more often into my sets.  I’d like to do more stuff with bands in the future,  I did a great show with Jip Jop a month ago that was challenging but fun as well.  I was running and looping Motown acapellas while they were playing the instrumentals.

What do you feel you are doing to push yourself as a DJ? What about pushing the genre and the scene forward?

Just surrounding myself with other good DJs is the biggest inspiration.   I also try to stay on top of music and know my history.  As far as pushing the scene here I’m going to continue to throw bigger and better parties and continue to share my love of music with others

What gives you the greatest satisfaction with being a DJ?

Just seeing people come out, forget their problems, and dance their asses off for a few hours.

Tell me about what you have coming up for the rest of 2010? What are some of your goals?

Definitely trying to focus on remix work and production, hopefully finish up an EP by the end of summer.  I’ll still do a lot of traveling this summer, as well: Philly, Denver, Minneapolis, Louisville, Chicago, etc..  And continue to be better at what I do and most importantly have fun doing it.

This band spotlight is part of a special ZapTown series in correlation with the 2009 Broad Ripple Music Fest: http://www.broadripplemusicfest.com/

WHO: Heavy Hometown
WHERE: Casba, sponsored by A Squared Industries
LINKS: http://heavyhometown.com/

SAMPLE MP3:

Heavy Hometown may still be young for a band, forming in early 2008, but immediately jumping into the Indianapolis’ live music scene, while recording and releasing their impressive debut Action Figures, the three piece acts like they have always belonged. Maybe its their diverse, sometimes noisy, sometimes soothing, and arrayed sound fits right in to the Midwestern palette of indie music that gives them that sense of “here” and “now.” You can purchase  Action Figures through their website.

Eric Parks (bass and synths) talks about Action Figures and their role in the Fest.

With “Action Figures” out, what do you think are the best elements as to how that turned out?

First and foremost, we got the record we wanted.  I don’t know if we knew exactly what we wanted when we started recording, but “action figures” was quite intentional.  We were less than a year old as a band when we started recording it and experienced some intense interpersonal growth while trying to articulate what we wanted to each other.  What came out was a solid chunk of mood.  We’re definitely pleased with the overall sound, performances and arrangements.

How has creating an album like this expanded way of thinking as a band and how does it relate to your environment being that you don’t stick to geographic or conceptual boundaries?

While all of us have recorded outside of Heavy Hometown, this was our first record together.  We had, at the time, about 40 songs to choose from, with several of those having been written within days of our first tracking session.  We went through two nights of euphoria trying to figure out what the hell we were going to record.  We went from a double disc debut to a 23 song LP, and whittled that down to 17 songs. We recorded those in a couple of weeks and then decided to eliminate five more songs to make the record that is now “action figures”.  But the final set of songs struck us as a balance between motivic diversity and thematic unity.  That was the biggest challenge for us, or expanding our way of thinking.  Before “action figures” it was, “Let’s play everything we have.” So in a way it more like creating boundaries than expanding beyond them.

For a band still young yet constantly filling up your schedules with live gigs and the completed studio work, how has that philosophy of immediacy helped pave the way for the future of the band? What are your plans now?

I don’t know if it’s a sense of immediacy that drives our schedule as much as it is a self-gratifying desire to play.  And by that, it’s not so much playing for audiences as it is being able to play in a different room, with a different PA, with different bands on the bill, and a different setlist.  Plus, we like to calendar.  Calendaring is where it’s at, man. We’ve got a few shows lined up to close out 2009, but we’re most excited to start recording an EP next month.

What importance do you feel something like the Broad Ripple Music Fest is to you as a band and to the local community?

BRMF is going to be a blast.  It’s vital to the community of Indianapolis to have events like BRMF and Oranje and MOKB sponsored performances and first Fridays at Big Car and the Harrison Center.  Cultures are formed by expression and action and participation.  That’s what these phenomena are.  That’s what proves to future anthropologists that our community was somewhat advanced.