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Legendary Dutch dance pioneer Robin Albers a.k.a. Jaydee had to give it some thought before he decided to share the story of his debut with me. “That’s where I got punched in the nose for the first time.”
“My first DJ gig. That’s not interesting or important at all? And such a long time ago. I’m not even sure I remember. I believe that gig was in Katwijk, in gymnasium Cleyn Duin. That’s where I got punched in the nose for the first time by one of the doormen. The blood poured out! Still, I wanted to play there: soul and funk without making concessions, no weak soul tracks, but Parliament and Bootsy Collins, Maceo and the Meters.”
Silly
“My first soul and funk memories go back to Boule 7, the infamous club in Noordwijk, situated on the boulevard. Of course, I also was a regular at Het Zeepaardje, where less good, more commercial music was played but where also the more beautiful chicks hung out. My first gig didn’t add up to anything: I was just being silly behind the decks, playing some records and just waiting to see if people danced and if they even understood.”
Jungle sounds
“Mostly they didn’t understand my choice of records at all, so often the dance floor was empty.” (laughs) “People looked at me as if jungle sounds came from the speakers: “Suck it to me, get uppah’”, and this in an extremely religious village with the white church on the same boulevard.”
Balls
“The main reason why I became a DJ was because I heard terrible music in clubs. The exceptions were De Boule in Noordwijk, Van Duyn in Rijnsburg, Tamberlain in Haarlem and a DJ in the former Bristol Rotterdam. The last one really had balls! He played Donny Hathaway in the live version of The Ghetto. Wow!”
No jukebox
“I had a mission: have people listen to unknown music that I thought and still think is excellent. And this is still my mission. When I play a deep or techhouse set, I play what I like. I don’t make concessions. I hate requests, I’m not a jukebox! Especcially at 80s and 90s parties everyone thinks they’re a DJ and a night like that ressembles De Muzikale Fruitmand of De Arbeidsvitaminen (radio request shows in the 80s and 90s, red): you ask, we play. Not going to happen! I play and you dance, otherwise fuck off. Do I have a sign written ‘jukebox’ on the front of my head?!”
Crooks
“I mix every single track. DJs with an hour of music on their USBs aren’t DJs but crooks. Nor are they entertainers, because the all DJ monkeys know the trick by now: on the booth, behind the booth, in front of the booth, in Jezus mode, put your fucking hands in the air, come on! Piss off!” You should mix motherfucker instead of just playing your stick or laptop, because then you wouldn’t have time for weird stuff like going into the audience in a rubber boat! If I would be in that venue, I would stick a joint in the bottom of your little boat, or better, just cut the bottom out, plop.”
Siberia
“One of my gigs stuck to my mind. In Moskow weed is out of the question. If you smoke in public, you easily get sent to Siberia for a couple of months. During my set the atmosphere rocked. Still, I insisted on smoking a joint. Through some kind of tunnel system, the club owner arranged one for me. I was allowed to smoke it in a closed room. Get out of here! I jumped behind the turntables with that sucker in my mouth and continued playing. In those days, that was a gimmick that was much more daring than throwing cakes in the audience, like that rejected sushi DJ Steve Karaoke!”
“Because of my naïve behavior, I was a hero! I could have been arrested by the KGB and then I would have experienced Siberian prison firsthand.”
This interview with Jaydee is originally published on Thursday May 1st 2015 on DJMag.nl.
Who is Jaydee?
Robin Albers (Jaydee) is a Dutch presenter, DJ, and producer. He also produced records for various projects. As Jaydee, he made the house hit ‘Plastic Dreams‘ and was involved in hits by The Sunclub and Jody Bernal.
Jaydee started his career as a DJ in 1978 in a discotheque in Rhenen. In 1984, he got a job at AVRO on Radio 3 as a radio DJ. He presented Toppop-radio until mid-1992. He also organized the national championships for DJ mixing several times from 1984.
When house music emerged in the late 1980s, he became captivated by this music style. In 1990, Jaydee became the presenter of the radio program ‘For Those Who Like To Groove’ for AVRO. It was the first Dutch house program on the radio. The program ended in 1992.
He then decided to start as a house producer himself. In 1993, Albers had his first hit with the song ‘Plastic Dreams’ under his alter ego Jaydee. The song, notable for its Hammond organ, became an international house hit. It was subsequently released several times in special remixes. Eventually, it sold over 2 million copies. In 1994, he had another hit with ‘Music Is So Special’. He also released house records under many other names.
In 1996, Jaydee, together with producers Michel Rozenbroek and Dieter Kranenburg, started the project The Sunclub. In 1997, they had a major hit with ‘Fiesta’ (de los Tambolireros). This was followed by an album and another smaller hit with ‘Singleminded People’ (originally a B-side of ‘Plastic Dreams’). In the summer of 2000, Jaydee and his fellow producers from The Sunclub were involved in Jody Bernal’s song ‘Que Si, Que No,’ which reached number 1 in the Netherlands.
In 2000, Jaydee was involved in the founding of the dance station ID&T Radio, and in 2001, he became its director. His show ‘For Those Who Like To Groove’ returned there. However, he left his position as director in the summer of 2001 due to a disagreement with ID&T. Since 2015, Robin ‘Jaydee’ Albers has been the A&R manager at Dutch DJ Booking for various labels such as Streamin Music & First Impression. In early 2016, First Impression, Jaydee’s original label, was relaunched.
