Artist Spotlight || Jreams

Get to know rising star Jreams in this week’s Artist Spotlight!

Earlier this summer, fresh artist Jreams blew our minds with the trippy, distorted video for track “(im)mortal”. The track itself is fantastic in its own right, but when paired with the video it created an awesome musical experience. The track will be featured alongside other tunes like “Gravity” on the upcoming EP Letters To Jupiter, which will really show off the true skills of this producer coming straight to your ears from Texas.

With a passion for all things Japanese, Jreams blends his own cultural influences and trippy beats together to create some music that you’ll want to keep on repeat. As part of the experimental side of electronic music, specifically in the realm of bass, he is a stand-out among the growing number of artists pushing boundaries with their sounds and styles.

Knowing that Letters To Jupiter is due out in October, we sat down to chat with Jreams ahead of the release to chat about his journey through music, visual inspirations, and more. Stream his exclusive guest mix below and read on for our interview with Jreams!

Stream EDMID Guest Mix 084 || Jreams on Mixcloud:

What was your inspiration to become a DJ, and which artist was your introduction to electronic music?

What inspired me to become a producer was when I was 14 years old and went to my first rave—“Spring Love.” I got a CD that night by Reid Speed and it was the first time I ever heard a mix. I thought it was so cool how all the songs blended into one another and I was inspired to learn how to do exactly that.

Last month you released a video for “(im)mortal” that was inspired by your journey to Japan. What was your favorite moment from that trip?

My favorite moment of my trip to Japan had to be when I snuck into this abandoned theme park in Nara; which is like 20 minutes from Kyoto. It was so surreal walking around this park that looked like the world had ended. It was very creepy and amazing at the same time. It’s where I got a lot of the footage for the “(im)mortal” music video.

Whether it’s the video for “(im)mortal”, “Autonomy”, or most recently, “Gravity”, the videos paired with your music have always featured distorted, trippy visuals. How did you fall in love with this style?

My whole “trippy glitch“ aesthetic that I use for my videos definitely was inspired by the whole vaporwave culture online. A lot of the chillwave music I was listening to at the time always had those kinds of glitchy videos paired with some anime clip. I already love anime, so it just felt right mixing that video style with my music.

**The release of your upcoming EP, Letters To Jupiter, is on the horizon. Have you put the final touches on the remaining unreleased tracks?**

Yeah! Everything is done and ready for Letters from Jupiter. I actually got this all done about 6 months ago and have just been planning on how to release this project with the help of the Wysido team!

You are an artist that represents more of the experimental side of the bass music scene, do you feel that side is growing in popularity more now than ever before?

There is definitely a bigger presence of that style of music now more than ever because of SoundCloud and Spotify. I feel like it still not as popular as the music that gets played at bigger festivals and events but it’s getting there. It’s always so cool to see people who I listen to SoundCloud who aren’t that big and come play shows in my city or start begin to play at bigger events.

If you could pick three artists to listen to for the rest of your life, who would they be and why?

Bassnectar, Nujabes, and At The Drive-In.

I have to have something bass heavy to listen to and Bassnectar has always been my favorite since I was in high school. I can listen to his mixtapes on loop forever. And I think Nujabes is the perfect chill music for doing work too. I love the homework edits people make of his tracks. At The Drive-In is more of a nostalgia thing for me–my sister showed me their music in middle school and I still listen to it today, They remind me of my emo days.

Is there a “dream venue” that you’d like to play in the future?

I would love to play at Red Rocks in Colorado or at The Moody Theatre back home in Austin, TX.

As we move closer to the end of the year, what have been some of your top memories or moments so far?

The best moments were by far spending New Year’s in Tokyo and getting to VJ for Novelist at Sankeys. None of it was planned and it all just kind of happened, thanks to the Tokyo Vitamin crew; who put me on simply because they liked my video and music.

Other best moments was going on tour with Bass Physics and Blunt Force as their videographer, which was really cool because I got to see what life on the road is like and how it all works. I had never done that before. I’ve made my own music videos, but never for a whole tour.

And lastly moving out to Atlanta for grad school has been very inspiring and amazing. I’m looking forward to just creating in every direction possible with any medium.