JOOP JUNIOR'S MINIMAL TECH

How many young DJ/producers would give their right arm to have Richie Hawtin AND ex-Deep Dish dude Dubfire queuing up to put out their tracks? Well, that’s exactly what’s happening with Joop Junior — only just out of his teens — right now. He’s about to drop releases on both M_nus and Sci+Tec, meaning that things are hotting up nicely for him come 2014.

But who would win in a fight between Richie and Dubfire, DJ Mag mischievously asks JJ. 
“I would like to keep working with both, if you don’t mind,” responds Joop, diplomatically.

Joop says that he’s always fiddled around with music software ever since he can remember. “I never necessarily made a decision to ‘start’ a production career,” he says. “Finishing tracks, on the other hand, is something I’ve only been doing for the last three years.”

The Dutchman started off in the commercial house scene, playing alongside the likes of fellow countrymen Laidback Luke, Hardwell and Afrojack. “Before house music mutated into this current 'EDM', I packed my bags and left,” he explains. “I'm happy I know both sides of the industry, maybe that's the reason I dislike purism.”

“Why didn’t I want to make EDM? 'EDM' just sounds like a nasty STD to me,” he scoffs. “Techno, minimal, house, electro and so on are all 'Electronic Dance Music', but if you're referring to the Tomorrowland main stage 'EDM', I'd have to say no.”
Leaving the commercial side behind, he was drawn inexorably towards techno. “The things which attracted me to techno were the energy, space for improvisation and sound design,” Joop declares.
Joop Junior makes what you’d call minimal techno — but definitely not the boring by-numbers Dullsville variety. The title track from his ‘Itanimulli EP’ for Sci+Tec twinkles distantly while retaining enough muscularity to keep a floor bubbling, while ‘100% CPU’ chugs like a loose-limbed steam train. ‘Saw’ for M_nus builds an atmosphere through bubbling-to-the-surface globules and eerie vocal samples, while ‘Triangle’ is geometric maths-tech par excellence.

Both Dubfire and Richie have been playing Joop’s tracks out, but Joop hasn’t been returning the favour. That’s because he doesn’t DJ — he plays live. “I think I wouldn't bring that 'extra'  thing on stage when playing other people’s records, so I'd rather play my own,” he says. “There are only a few DJs which still blow my mind with 'old fashioned' DJing, and grabbing for vinyl to be 'unique' is something too nostalgic for me.”
He played one of Hawtin’s ENTER. parties in Ibiza in the summer, and is about to head out on tour. So what does he do live? “Arrangement, drum sequencing, FX and improvisation using Live,” he says, matter-of-factly.