One of Hungary’s most decorated club music acts launches a brand new record label with his latest release, as Jay Lumen kicks off his PLAYGROUND imprint.
The release features two new tracks, with his ‘My Beat’ title track being paired with a remix of ‘Alive’ – with the remix coming from himself via a new alias.
We got to ask him all about the new label, the new alias, and the new release – get the interview in full below!
How are things in the life of Jay Lumen right now?
Well, thank you, I’m happy. My life is going in a great way. I’m touring a lot in Asia, USA, South America, and Europe, plus new releases are coming as always, so I’m super busy and I like it.
As you may know I joined Eli Brown’s Arcane for more releases and it seems to be a good collaboration for both of us. My first release ‘Bang To The Beat’ was very succesful on the label and the second ‘X’, is luckily on the same level.
My own Footwork imprint is also going very well too. Actually I have two tracks in the techno top 10 on Beatport as ‘X’ has been there for three months and my new track ‘Energy’ just landed there a few weeks ago.
Plus I release hardgroove, groovy techno sounds too, which is very important to me because I mostly play that sound. The 70-80% of my sets are hardgroove groovy, and dynamic raw techno in the last 4-5 years, so I try to show that side of me as well to the people who like my sound. I’m happy that my crowd is open enough to feel those beats.
You just returned to your Avalon Child project for a new two-track EP titled ‘My Beat’, what can people expect to hear from you on the original?
As maybe you know I played house, deep tech, and tech house around 13 years ago. I released on Nic Fanciulli’s Saved records, Luciano’s Cadenza, the classic 100% Pure (from NL house wave), I played house music for elrow, Space Ibiza, Space Miami, Pacha, Privilege, EGG London, Ministry Of Sound, and many more.
It was a nice period of my life and I still really love playing house sets at the right time and place. You know… sunshine and happiness. It’s a good sound for beach parties, daytime shows, whatever.
So it’s actually a bit of “back to the roots” time for me. I have so many unreleased tracks from the past years and I don’t really want to hold them back anymore. That’s why I made the choice to create Avalon Child as my house alias.
And you also remixed your own original track with the alias, that must give you a fresh perspective to making music?
Yes, the original version was a raw hardgroove techno track and I was thinking it would be good to hear it in a bit of a more deep tech / UK garage form. So you’re right that it was a bit of a fresh perspective for the same original vibe. It seems it was a good idea as I luckily got great feedback from Jamie Jones, Marco Carola, Lee Foss, Stacey Pullen, Nicole Moudaber, and many others for this release. I’m happy as it seems the older and the newer generation both love the EP and it’s a good sign. So thanks for all of the support you guys.
The release is out on your own label, PLAYGROUND, what are your plans for that going forward?
To be honest it was a logical choice to create my own label for this alias. The first Avalon Child EP was released on Darius Syrossian’s MOXY Muzik and I was happy with that. But I was thinking it would be cool to start my own label to keep my artistic freedom, if you know what I mean. We just want to release good, quality sounds and make some unique events. Nothing serious, I just love to go with the flow.
Are you still planning to release as much techno music, or will house be taking more of your focus?
Well, the main focus is always on the sound that I actually feel is fresh and inspiring. Jay Lumen is techno and hardgroove now and yes, I release four, maybe five, times per year and that’s the plan for the future as well. My techno sound is changing day by day. It’s a natural change and formation for all real artists I guess, just like me as I’m always searching for something fresh and different.
I also feel that the housey elements are infiltrated into my techno sounds too, because hardgroove techno was born from house basics as you know, plus I sometimes play some power house / hard house tracks as well. But Jay Lumen is techno now, even if I don’t really like the boxes. If you are a real DJ, the genre borders are your enemy for sure, and I feel the same. Especially now, when so many good productions are coming out from so many different producers, and I love playing them, regardless of genre.
For Avalon Child I do have a lot of plans too. New releases are coming soon, back to deep tech, tech house, and garage sounds. House music is so colourful now, far beyond what it was like when I stepped away in 2011. Back then, it started to feel too plastic after a while. In the last few years it feels fresh again.
And which other labels could we see you on in the near future?
Actually, I don’t want to give any concrete plans about it, as I keep my focus on PLAYGROUND, but we do have many plans and I hope we can release them soon.
Anything else you want to mention before we go?
New releases are coming soon and I do have some special edits, mashups, and remixes as well that you can hear from me in the near future, including some surprises.
I will also see you soon on the next stops of my tour in France, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Bulgaria, Switzerland, South America, etc.
Jay Lumen – My Beat EP is out now on PLAYGROUND.