Jake Slazenger

Interviewed summer 1996 on the telephone

Let me start by taking away a bit of confusion. Jake Slazenger is no-one but Michael Paradinas, who is better known as µ-ziq, Kid Spatula, Gary Moscheles and Mike from Mike and Rich. Jake is a pseudoniem Michael uses for his most funk oriented creations. Like his girlfriend said in my first interview with him: "Jake is a funky bloke!".

Last time I talked to Michael was in winter 1995, and since lots has changed. The list of releases he showed me then is almost completely released, he has just had a succesfull tour with Orbital, moved to Worcester and his girlfriend Jessica became pregnant. Michael: "In about ten days the child will be born, juli the thirteenth or fourteenth I think. Jessica just had a bit of a flu, but she's doing well. She's a bit afraid about delivering the baby, but I'm sure she'll manage. Jessica wants to have a girl, because boys are always a lot more active. But I don't have a preference. If it's a boy we're going to call it Taylor. For a girl we have a list of options." Will the next record be one the kid can sleep to? Mike: "Erm.. No, although I could easily make one from the ambient tracks I made years ago." The kid is one of the reasons Michael and Jessica decided to move to Worcester. Mike: "That and the fact the houses are a lot cheaper here, we now have a beautiful big garden. And we have everything we would ever need here. Well, it is quite a long way away from London, you do miss out on some things, but it's nice here. Moving was hell, we had to drive four times and we're still busy getting things in order. That's what I'm busy with now, not making music, but fixing the place up."

Every other artist wouldn't be heard of during a period of change like this. But Michael has the luxury he can depend on a stack of unreleased works. In the last few months there was finally a release of 'Bluff Limbo' and 'Expert know twiddlers' (together with Aphex Twin) on Rephlex and the new Jake Slazenger record 'Das ist ein groovy beat ya!' on Warp. But why all of a sudden on Warp, while the debut 'Makesaracket' was released on Clear? Michael: "After the release of that record things went seriously wrong. Clear fuckd up the release of the 'Megaphonk' single, bad pressing and a wrong cut without asking my permission. Since I hadn't a contract with Clear I went to Warp. Since then Clear doesn't want to talk to me. Clair of Clear is a bit of a weird one." And what does Warp think? Michael: "At Warp they are quite pleased with the record. They hope that it will sell as good as the Nightmares on Wax', but I'm not sure. I think this one is better than the last one, because it's more consistent and funkier. Although the music is from the same time. It's completely different from what I'm making now."

Michael is busy making Jungle at the moment, just like all those other electronic gods of this moment, I just mention some: Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Cylob, Plug and Photek... Michael: "I want to release a jungle record very soon, that's because I just bought a new sampler with which it's a lot easier to make. It all sound very strong, louder than Photek or Lemon D, about as freaky as Plug and Squarepusher. A lot less melody compared to my old work. But Jungle doesn't need a melody, because the rhythm itself functions like one." In between working around the house he finds time to do a remix. Michael: "I have just finished remixing a track for Speedy J in which I used plenty of Jungle rhythms and for the first time I have used sample of Jessica's voice (starts singing: "lalalalaa") and added it to the mix. That's the only melody in there, I'm quite content with it. Along with that I've got to do Moonshake and Baader Meinhof the new project of The Auteurs. That last one I like a lot better, it all sound quite okay to me and that strange because I really hated The Auteurs."

Michael has had a busy and succesfull year, the record sold quite will in the indepent circuit, especially thanks to the tour with Orbital. Michael: "It was great, lot's people were dancing and the Orbital entourage was very happy with me. I think that's why a lot of the 'Bluff Limbo' records got sold. Which remembers me, I still haven't seen any money from Rephlex, but I think they're going to pay me soon." Michael also visited Holland regulary, at every show he seemed to be a completely different act, it varied so much musically. Michael: "That's probably because the records that are out now are so old. The last time, when I played Eindhoven and during the Orbital tour I played a lot more Jungle." Jungle has captivated Michael, he has even got plans to start a supergroup with Luke Vibert (alias Wagon Christ and Plug) and Graham Sutton (alias Boymerang, former guitarist and singer of Bark Psychosis) with which he's going to play live onstage.

But until then mister µ-ziq, Jake the funky bloke isn't going near a stage. Michael: "I'm not going to tour for a while, this summer when the child is born I'm going to be just a father, work a bit in the house, maybe record some records. But it will be until 1997 before I'll be anywhere near a stage and I'm glad about that, because it started to get really boring." Two weeks after this conversation the happy news came Jessica gave birth to a boy. Scanner has said that the kid is called Caleb, and Michael already started to worry about the musical taste of his first child, because he only falls asleep when he's hearing Chris Rea on the radio.