Hello Jamie it is great to talk with you, have you been doing well recently?

Hi, thanks for the chat and yes, all good here!

If we could take a small step backward briefly for some readers who may not be aware, you started releasing music early on as JLM Productions via Reinforced Records and soon after signed music with Josh Wink's Ovum Recordings under your name Jamie Myerson. For several decades now you have been doing a wide variety of work while still self releasing a large amount of music as Jamie Myerson. Over the past two years you have signed a lot of new music on ASC's fantastic Spatial label as well. How old were you when you first started to sign music to Reinforced and what made you want to bring the JLM Productions alias back?

As the story goes, I met Dego in the fall of 1993. Early in 1994 is when I had “Find Yourself” on the Enforcers 6&7 collection. A lifetime ago, more years than I care to count!

Bringing back the JLM Productions alias was the result of trying to figure out a way to have a focused outlet for the 90's atmospheric Jungle/Drum & Bass sound that was so much a part of my early inspiration. I had a lot of frustration within myself about wanting to make this music again, but I didn’t want to simply do a paint-by-numbers copy of what had already been done. When ASC launched Spatial, I started to see where I might be able to refine what I was working on - referencing the legacy sounds that were influential to me in the early days with Reinforced, but still wanting to incorporate new ideas and techniques. Eventually, things aligned and we released the “Superluminal Perspective” EP in September of 2023. We’ve since followed that with four additional EPs and an eight track album.

Shortly after your records came out on Reinforced, you had "The Listen Project" album come out which included the song "Rescue Me" that ended up having excellent remixes. This song is a beauty and still provides the good vibes all these years later. Is there a particular time or release that you personally consider as a big turning point for you early on?

"Rescue Me” was definitely a turning point. I have so many different influences and I find it impossible to just work only on one sound. That album allowed me to stretch out and express all my varied musical influences. Although “Rescue Me” probably had more of a “commercial” impact, it was likely “Music For The Lonely” on Sm:)e Communications that opened the doors to a wider audience. That came out in 1997, prior to the "Listen Project". It most certainly helped pave the way for what was soon to follow.

I know you are actively busy with music in various ways. Do you have a full time job outside of music, or have you been able to make music work for you as a main source of income? Years back when you moved to Los Angeles and then back to New Jersey, were those some of the more difficult times or transitions for you while trying to stay on track with projects?

I have been very fortunate to be able to sustain myself working in music full time. It is a difficult path, no doubt. But over the years I’ve managed to balance working on projects for others while I continue developing my “artist” output.

Regarding moving: uprooting and moving anywhere is always difficult, but you make choices in life and have to find ways of rolling with things as they come. It’s a bit easier to bounce back from those ups and downs when you’re younger though! Having to set up gear in a new space is always challenging, but it’s also an opportunity to perhaps reconsider equipment priorities, your physical workflow in that space, literally and figuratively getting the cobwebs out!

With a lot of your Jungle/Drum & Bass productions, I've noticed that you like to stay around that 160 bpm area. Can you share why you enjoy to work around this tempo?

There are two points with the tempo choice: Using 160 bpm is a bit of a throwback to the tempo zone common around the early to mid 90s. Of course there were lots of variations in tempo around that time, but the point was to lock in on a good tempo standard that works well with breaks. And that's the second point - this tempo allows for some breathing room when working with breaks and atmospheric sounds. Some breaks lose their feel when you start pushing the tempo, the rhythms can get jumbled, especially when layering breaks and other sounds. There are further conversations to be had regarding adopting standards and conventions in any kind of creative work, but I felt like having these specific boundaries for JLM Productions tracks works best.

After creating music for so many years now, do you still have struggles at times with anything, iike motivation, mixdowns, etc.? Do you offer any one on one production help through your Patreon or other methods?

Yes, absolutely, those struggles have persisted for years. I had a number of years not creating for myself, mainly because of my day to day workload, but also a lack of inspiration and a general feeling of “what’s the point”. I’ve found over time there is no good reason for feeling this way. You can assign all kinds of blame or reasoning for arriving at such a place, but I’ve found those conditions are almost always entirely self-imposed. I have done a lot of work in the last few years to get past those feelings. It requires a daily effort. It’s not easy and there is no singular solution for dealing with it. Some of it is an adjustment of my mindset regarding big picture concerns (like the problem of “what’s the point” , or things that are simply out of my control), and some has to do with putting forth the effort in finding and capturing moments of inspiration - and then applying those moments to tangible ideas that I can work from in the studio.

I don’t have any one-on-one services at the moment. Most of my time is either spent dealing with freelance work projects or my own material. I might revisit this idea in the future, but no concrete plans.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you prefer to use for making music. Do you have a lot of hardware, or a specific DAW and plugins you like to use? How different is your current process or setup compared to when you first started?

I have been fully “in the box” for years. In ancient times, I had the full hardware setup - synths, Akai and E-mu samplers, racks of fx, 24 channel mixer… I don’t even want to get into all the stuff I’ve bought and sold over the years. You will cry. I will cry. But I find that for managing the amount of stuff I have going at any one time, it’s necessary to be able to fully save and recall projects without any kind of fuss. I do have a bit of nostalgia for my old setup and workflow, but I just don’t have the time any more to do menu diving or incur the expense of maintaining old gear. That said, I still have a nice little arsenal of hardware synths. I still have my trusty Roland MKS-50 and Oberheim Matrix 1000 rack synths. I also have a really nice Roland Alpha Juno 1. Years ago I had one of these (used extensively on The Listen Project) and then let my brother take it on a tour. It came back in several pieces, I still to this day, do not know how it was destroyed in such magnificent fashion. Miraculously, a few years ago, he found one for $100! It’s now safely with me, never to leave my studio again!

I work primarily in Ableton Live. But I also use Reason for coming up with phrases, quick sketches or just for sound design work. I also use Logic for recording and editing audio. Each DAW has its strengths, and after years of trying different things, these are the ones that work best for me. I use a lot of the same plugins everyone else has. I try to limit what I use these days because it just gets to be a problem of endless choice, lots of preset scrolling and then getting nothing done! I’ve taken a few stabs at Bitwig but haven’t really given it a full try yet. TAL Software is doing some great stuff with his Roland emulations and samplers.

In terms of process, it hasn’t changed much for me. I tend to start with either a chord progression or a melody of some kind. Sometimes a sound or texture will give me a foundation, but I have always focused on the chords/melody first and then build out from there.

Something that I’ve tried to keep in my workflow from the early days is having some general guidelines for just how much “stuff” is going to get used, especially with the JLM Productions tracks. When first starting out, I really had to think creatively about how I’m using available resources. My first sampler, an Ensoniq EPS 16+ had a maxed out 2 Megabytes of memory! Endless layering of every last little sound just wasn’t possible so you had to take what you had and make it count. I try my best to keep this in mind when today I have in front of me unlimited tracks, unlimited sound choices, unlimited capacity to process. Having some basic limitations in place helps with getting ideas committed and tracks finished. It’s very easy to get carried away with excessive tinkering, stacking endless plugins, and massive track counts.

You have a new release due to be released that features a song collaborating with your brother Steve for the first time and it sounds great from the bit I heard you post on your Instagream. Can you tell us more about this release and any other music that may be on the way soon? Is there a specific release from your discography that means a bit more than others or is special to you?

Yes, I’m really excited about the stuff I’m working on with my brother, Steve! He is an immensely talented and accomplished jazz pianist. I’ll post more detailed info about all this soon on my Patreon!

Steve and I started music lessons around the same time (I took up drums, he studied piano). We immersed ourselves in as much music as we could get our hands on. He went the traditional jazz route, studied extensively, completed a master’s degree, and has since gone on to do amazing work performing with some legendary artists and musicians. We both have pretty varied music tastes, but there’s also a lot of crossover, so we’re eager to put our different sensibilities together. The upcoming track is only a taster of some of the stuff we have in the works!

Do you plan or hope to release more music by the JLM Productions name outside of the Spatial imprint?

I don't have any plans of releasing JLM Productions tracks outside of Spatial (unless Reinforced asked). It's better for me to keep things focused and working with Spatial specifically for the JLM stuff keeps everything running smoothly! So outside of that, I just release under my own name.

Do you have a list of things that you would still like to achieve music wise such as releasing on a particular label, collaborating with a specific artist or anything else?

Although I’ve been very fortunate to have accomplished a lot off my checklist, I still hope to work on a film project someday. A documentary, short story, tv show. I’ve had tracks placed in a few shows and have done some commercials, but being part of developing a full sonic story-telling environment for film is still very much on my to-do list!

Any closing thoughts or shout outs?

Thanks again for the opportunity to chat! I’m grateful for the community of artists, labels, DJ’s and listeners that invest heavily in keeping this all going. It’s humbling to know that people still want to listen, collect vinyl, and reminisce about moments in their lives connected to this music. I’m very much looking forward to getting some of my upcoming projects out there throughout the rest of the year! Patreon and Bandcamp are the best places to stay on top of what I’m doing!

Keep tabs on Jamie Myerson / JLM Productions at the following links