With an early love for Drum & Bass music and settling into a different environment, Chemynne set out on a mission to provide great quality event nights in her new home. With the help of some local venue owners, she took a leap of faith and JUICE was born in 2005, creating these enjoyable music gatherings for the local community. Like many smaller event nights, JUICE has had their share of struggles, but has remained vigilant and consistent which is why they are still here today pumping out the positive vibrations.
Hello Chemynne, thank you for making some time to chat, how have you been lately?
Thanks for the opportunity. Doing ok! Crazy historic times we’re living through right now. I’m hunkered down safe with the family doing my part to flatten the curve.
So we know that Juice Drum & Bass event nights have been a highlight in the Portland area for many years now. Can you give our readers that might not be aware, some background history on how Juice got it's start and how long you have officially hosted events?
JUICE started in 2005 in Bend, Oregon. I’d moved to OR in ’99 to escape the ‘dot com’ madness in San Francisco. Going from a big urban place to a small town was tough on this city kid, and after a few years there I was really missing the SF club and drum and bass scene. At the time, big DnB artists rarely came to the Pacific Northwest at all, and mostly only to Seattle, on rare occasion to Portland. What struck me the most though was the majority of people I met didn’t even know what DnB was. I had some friends who were running a club in Bend at the time called The Grove, which was really the only funky place to be with a great sound system and great food. One of the owners was open though and went to Chicago with me so we could attend a DnB event so I could share with her the experience of the vibes in person. It took some convincing, but they trusted me and allowed me to start a monthly on Saturdays. I’m still grateful to Erica Reilly and Chris Lohrey to this day for that opportunity, as it literally set in motion the next 15 years of my involvement with DnB.
I’d been a listener of dnb already over 10 years at that point and had made some connections through saturating myself in the scene. Doing a monthly was a bit of a jump not knowing if people would even like the music or if I could convince artists to come all the way out to such a remote little city like Bend. I was SO passionate about the music and just wanted to make it happen. I was running a design business full time, so I used my personal funds, and marketing/graphic design skills to give the night the best shot I could at making it work. We had some pretty amazing artists out back then, and every show was a big leap of faith.
I still feel like every show is a leap of faith! I’ve only paused shows twice in 15 years, once to have my daughter and when my mom passed.
How much has your resident dj roster and event venues changed over the years?
Somewhat. Like every other small night, we’ve struggled a lot and at times didn’t get the love we needed from the venues we were at. It was really The Grove in the first few years who were most supportive of my passion for the music. I think we have been at...let’s see...6 venues over the 15 years. Only one in Bend (the Grove) for about 4 years and a few places around Portland. Early on, I didn’t really *have* residents. I just featured local and Pacific Northwest talent and national talent with a few international folks starting to come through. We had Kubiks and Lomax out, Big Bud, Will Miles, Noah D, Atlantic Connection, Bachelors of Science, ASC….some great people gave us a chance. These days, we feature international artists each month with local and regional support.
JUICE has since developed a small group of great residents over the last number of years, Definition Positive (DnBRadio/Salem/PDX) is our longest of about 8 years. We also have Revival (Soul Deep Recs/Fokuz/PDX), Praderz (UK/PDX), Subfugitive (PDX), and MC Questionmark (LA/UK/PDX) now. I’ve been known to play out as well, though I prefer to curate the events, bookings and graphics rather than DJ.
This might be hard to answer, but what are some of the most memorable nights for the Juice crew, that really stand out when looking back?
Gosh this is tough. There are so many. Well we were the first in Oregon to host Big Bud in 2006. He’d been a crucial gateway artist for me in the 90s to get to know DnB so I was pretty honored. We’re still friends. We were scheduled to have him back out for our 15th Anniversary until the pandemic hit.
We had the most people ever at our ASC show in Bend (over 400) in 2006 and that was bonkers!
In 2016 we had World of Drum and Bass crew out for the first time and maxed out the club. In 2016 we also got to host DJ Marky which was extremely special. He did crazy things to my turntables!
2017 we had Om Unit out with Calculon and that was really unique. Of recent years I’d have to say the LSB and DRS show in Feb of 2019 was one of our best shows ever...omg DRS live is really something to behold. He came to Portland for two extra days and we put him up in this dope AirBnb. Was great that the crew really got to know him during that time.
We’ve had many “first-ever visits to Oregon” with Utah Jazz, Artificial Intelligence, Lenzman, Doc Scott, dBridge, Atlantic Connection, Command Strange, Redeyes, Bladerunner, LSB and DRS, Dub Phizix & Strategy, A Sides, Marcus Visionary, MC Tali, Random Movement, T.R.A.C...and many more who had never visited this region. Over time this earned us the nickname #biglittlenight Check our bio.
At the airport with DRS & LSB, Feb. 2019
Having hosted so many great nights of music over a very long period of time, what artists would you still like to bring in for an event that you haven't been able to yet?
That’s a shorter list after 15 years at it, but there are still many. We’ve never had Calibre for instance, but he doesn’t really travel anymore. We’ve not had Bryan Gee out, Ray Keith, Fabio or Alix Perez. I was actually incredibly close to having Alix out for our 15th Anniversary in March, but unfortunately the show was given to a (nonDnB) bigger promoter at the last minute which was sort of a blow. Regardless, their show got canceled too, due to the pandemic. We almost had Grooverider out in 2016, but he wasn’t allowed into the states. We’ve not had Jumpin’ Jack Frost, BluMarTen, Peshay, Roni Size or Bcee…I’m sure I could probably keep going. Still plenty of holy grail to keep at it!
Along with JUICE, I’ve been putting in a ton of work to a small agency called BassRoutes, LLC (started early 2019), which facilitates artist visas and their tours for the US and Canada—so there are some great opportunities coming up to have some more great artists out to the US who had not previously been able to play here. Currently the roster holds Command Strange (V Recordings/Russia), Redeyes (The North Quarter/France), Digital (Function Recs/UK), and MC Questionmark (US/UK). We had Command Strange and Redeyes touring actively until the EU travel ban was in place, and unfortunately have had to cancel several tours due to that. We were slated to have Peshay (UK) and Patife (Brazil/Portugal/UK) to join the roster and tour as well in 2020, but obviously that is on hold while Covid-19 rules. Still, I look forward to getting back to visa work and helping to represent artists on a deeper level when times change and it’s safe for them to travel again.
What can you tell our readers about some of the local or upcoming talent, whether it's dj's or artists making music?
There’s quite a bit of talent in the Pacific Northwest. Quadrant & Iris, Spiralus, Homemade Weapons, the Onset crew and DnB Tuesdays crew out of Seattle. We’ve got some solid producers here too, like Parallel, Revival, Ronin & Elementry, and MC Questionmark. There are some other awesome crews alongside JUICE in PDX like Subduction Audio, Sublimate, Wake the Town and Gnosis. Everyone has a slightly different focus: ours is slanted toward the deep soulful sounds of DnB. I know there’s a lot of new music development continuing here, despite the pandemic. DnB is still smaller in the spectrum though, and still small in Oregon. DnB is STILL underground music.
The current lockdown around the world has definately put a hold on many things especially events of all types. Do you have plans to hold events again when things are in a better and safer state?
Originally we’d planned to start back up in the summer and had rescheduled our March 15th Anniversary show with an exclusive appearance from Big Bud (UK) for the 31st of July. Unfortunately with the state of things, JUICE, (along with every other night in the US) may be offline for in-person, live shows for the rest of the year it seems. Right now we’re not even sure what venues will still be open after things calm down. Pretty crushing way to spend our 15th year! We’re continuing on though with merchandise and online music.
We’ve just upgraded our home system set up to do livestreams which we’ll likely continue to do on what used to be our “normal night” (the last Fridays of the Month). We’ll have some guests and live mixes happening slowly starting late June/early July on twitch.tv/juicedrumandbass. We also have a new podcast out (mixed by me) on Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/juicedrumandbass/juice-sessions-podcast-8
Things are in such an unknown place right now. Likely the music industry will be forever changed after this. Lots remains to be seen, but likely our next event will be outdoors until it’s safe to be in enclosed spaces again. It’s a really trying time for the music industry all around, but I believe we’ll pull though with patience and continued dedication.
Photo of brand new Portland Junglist merch by Chemynne Perlingieri
Any closing thoughts or shout outs?
I want to give a special shout to my husband Thijs Boonstra, who has totally had my back growing JUICE in recent years. We met through DnB in Amsterdam in 2012 and the rest is history. I’m beyond grateful for his loving support and technical expertise with everything from video editing to the livestream set up. I’m also really grateful to Maria Chaparro and the full JUICE crew, who have given a lot of time in the past toward these shows and helping on the actual nights of the events.
In closing, it’s been a real blessing to be a woman in this male dominated industry pushing to keep the music alive and coming to Oregon. DnB owns me and I’m driven to keep at it here in the US. I’m looking forward to a fresh re-start when it’s safe to come out of lockdown and start shows again. In the meantime, we’ll be doing livestreams, podcasts, and are working on a new website at juicedrumandbass.com where we’ll have a store for our merch, music, blog, gallery and much more with which to interact. Thanks for holding good thoughts for us and all of the other nights around the world working tirelessly to keep this music relevant! Keep in touch and much love from JUICE Drum and Bass!
JUICE over the years in a few images, from shows to merch.
Immeasurable hours go into producing nights, merch and the JUICE brand. Sharing this amazing style of deep, soulful drum and bass and promoting the music through live and online forums drives this tireless effort. Each session is a unique experience, best shared together. We’re proud to be a cornerstone in Portland’s electronic music scene into our 15th year running. Thanks to our crew, sponsors, local community, and the international drum and bass scene which continues to support this genre and culture in the Pacific Northwest and worldwide.
Keep updated with JUICE DNB Portland at any of the following links.