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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 article is originally published on Thursday May 1st 2015 on DJMag.nl.
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Photos: Luutse Brouwer