SPOTLIGHT: SLUMJUICE
Published July 13, 2023
Slumjuice has caught our attention. Friday 14 July they unite with Gabriella Vergilov, djGEM and Riesenfeld in Black Box for a fun and groovy night. We had a small chat before their night.
Hometown: Næstved
Can you give a little bit of a background story to the two of you?
We met back in 2010 when Rasmus was about to record an album with his former band. At the time, Per worked as a sound technician in a recording studio at the local youth school. We were both into hip-hop and Rasmus had just started Dj’ing. At the time, Rasmus was 16 and Per 19. We were both moving from Næstved to Copenhagen and Per invited Rasmus over to his place for a cup of coffee and a scratch session, and so the friendship began.
How did you become involved with electronic music?
In 2012 we build our first studio at Islands Brygge. Back then we were producing Hip-hop, reggae and soul. Rasmus’ main instruments were a Mpc2000 and guitar and Per had the knowledge of recording and producing. Together we formed a creative partnership that got involved in many different projects. We quickly fell in love with working on drum machines, synthesizer and samplers and grew our collection.
Slumjuice started out as electronic hip-hop act, with our focus on performing live on machines. Meanwhile Rasmus got involved in throwing parties in Copenhagen. Quickly it evolved into something more electronic oriented. We grew a love for working on machines and leaving the computer behind, the whole adventure of learning these new technics and only using machines to produce music became our passion. For the last 10 years we perfected our craft which led us to the way we produce music today, with a hybrid setup – It’s the best of both worlds.
What’s your relation to your hometown? Has it influenced where you are today in terms of working with electronic music?
Both yes and no. The hip-hop culture in Næstved is strongly rooted. We both started our music journey in hip-hop with a lot of support and love that helped grow the confidence and the ability to create something out of nothing. Back in 2018 we met the guys behind frogacult (an early 2000 trance duo). They overlooked our projects and helped us to connect with a mastering engineer and a label, which later led to our first release KRFTCNTRLN (2019) and later on to a collaboration with Calum & Aeromatik which was release on Iboga Tech back in June this year.
Do you see yourself more as producers or as DJs?
We are 100% dedicated to both. We keep adapting our focus on what’s the most important, to keep our deadlines and goals in check.
What are in your opinion essential qualities that make a good musician?
For us working on our craft is essential. Curiosity is a must if you want to keep evolving and keep things fun and interesting. For us, a good dj is someone who can mix two tracks together in a musical way. Someone that can combine two rhythms, grooves, or harmonies together into something new and exciting.
Do you have any dream destinations to play your music?
We talk a lot about the dream of traveling together, we want to go out and see the world and experience rave culture. For us, the destination isn’t that important but the experience and the people we meet on the way.
How do you seek inspiration? What’s your work routine?
We manifest some goals every year and plan how to achieve them. We have met at least once a week for the last 3 years and we joggle between different tasks, so we always stay focused on our goals and prioritize what is most important from week to week. Every time we meet up, we use 30 min for “office” time, to schedule what we should finish on our own, before we meet again. In that way we can stay focused on the music when are together. We probably have the longest ongoing messenger conversation of all time. We send each other stuff at least once a day, everything from prices on used gear to new music. When it comes to DJ’ing, we try to release a mixtape every other month to push ourselves and find new music to keep us inspired. It’s equally important that we keep getting better at dj’ing.
Any exciting projects in the pipeline for you? Something we should look forward to?
Yes, since you ask, we will premiere a new track exclusively for this Spotlight interview. The track is only accessible via this link.
We are also working on an album. Last month we booked a vacation home, packed most of our studio and brought it with us, and spent 3 days working on creating soundscapes, grooves and experimenting purely with sound. We didn’t make any tracks but only focused on creating a sample pack that is going to be the foundation for our new EP that we will release in 2024
How do you see the Danish electronic music scene at the moment, and do you have any wishes for the future?
It seems to us that if you want to go out, there will always be a rave to attend, with some music that you will enjoy dancing to. It’s nice to see that more than once a month, there is a bigger international name in Copenhagen from various sub genres. We would love to see some more “colorful” venues, when it comes to decoration, art installations and so on. We think that there is definitely room for improvement, and it could be nice to see some more personalized events that reflected the experiences the event-makers want to create. So, in general more freedom and higher budgets to the party crews. We also want to contribute with parties to the Copenhagen rave scene in the near future. Which is something we are working on.
You play alongside Gabriella Vergilov, djGEM, Riesenfeld, Ida Aya and Teison at Culture Box on Friday 14 July. What can we look forward to?
Last time we played Black Box we had so much fun! We expect this time that it will be even crazier. The selection of tracks is groovy as fuck, and we will keep the energy high throughout our set. You can expect groovy techno with minimal vibes, cheeky vocals and overall, music that will make your body move. A good mix of Techno – Minimal and Hardgroove.
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