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Last mix of the year 2021 comes from long time friend of the label Alex Ho (@j0-j0armani) out of Los Angeles who has just released his debut album 'Move Through It' with us. Interview (excerpt) down below.
www.musicfrommemory.com
MFM: Hi Alex, you're known for being deeply involved in LA's party scene through your Moony Habits events for quite some years now. How did you roll into the music scene?
AH: Some friends of mine in college were doing parties at this smaller, 200 capacity club in Glendale. I was hanging around these nights, sort of helping out, and eventually decided to do some events of my own at this spot. Eventually I was doing parties at this other place 333Live in DTLA - Prince used to own the spot but then it ended up in the hands of ex-Chinese mafia guys. My last event there, we got shut down because the owners of the venue didn’t have a valid alcohol license and were missing a number of other permits. From there, I just started doing warehouse parties like a lot of other promoter friends were doing, and it became a regular thing.
MFM: So you've been a promotor and DJ at first, yeah? When came the first steps into producing music?
AH: In college, I learned how to DJ first, yeah. At the time, I had the software for production but didn’t really know what I was doing - still don’t. But I started making some tunes that I actually liked in maybe 2017/2018, and that’s around the time I passed some stuff over to Jamie.
MFM: Did the Covid situation affect your productivity?
AH: I had my ups and downs with Covid for sure. Isolation didn’t necessarily increase my productivity, it gave me a lot of time to think about my life and I think I just came to the conclusion that I need to be doing more. When Jamie brought up the idea of doing a 7 inch or an album, I didn’t want to just settle for the two songs so I went for the album.
MFM: On a few songs you've collaborated with other artists too. Those guitar and percussion parts for example. How did that process go?
AH: On those ones I was actually feeling a bit stuck - I knew I had some good ideas but didn’t know where to take them. I passed the sketches to some friends and thankfully they were supportive enough to send back some nice elements that I wouldn’t have been able to produce on my own.
MFM: What's the story behind the album cover?
AH: For the cover, Jamie had the idea of using a photo of the city at dusk. I reached out to my friend Kaleb who’s an incredible photographer and he was able to make it happen. We originally had the idea to use a nice, vintage car along with a number of other props in the shot. We got a bunch of different shots on 2 shoots, but ended up narrowing it down to the simpler ones.
MFM: Is there a masterplan now that you've got your debut LP out?
AH: No real plan. I just know that I want to make more music. I’ve had a lot of help on this record - from additional instrumentation to extra mixdowns from friends. I want to be able to do it all on my own but still have similar results - I guess that’s a goal, to be a better producer. This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to collaborate with homies - I’ll likely be doing that more as it’s more real and rewarding, and it’s not just one big fantasy in my brain.
MFM: Let's talk about the mix. It actually took a while for you to, as you put it, “get in the DJ mood” and record it. How come?
AH: It’s not that I need to get in the mood necessarily, I just haven’t been digging or thinking about DJing as much lately. I think a lot of people spent the pandemic/quarantine getting dope records and working on their DJ skills in preparation for this big reopening. And for me, despite being a party promoter, I think I got really comfortable being together with only close people in the last couple of years - being in the party feels a little foreign and crazy to me now. Hoping to catch the party bug again, but I’m trying not to force it!