Submitted by Carlee Mallard — Correspondent
Afterhours' Jose Jose creates an electronic dance music scene worth remembering.
Joseph Brookes, a junior at North Carolina State University, known as Jose Jose on the WKNC 88.1 airwaves and behind the deck at parties around Raleigh recently took over as the WKNC Afterhours program director earlier this year. He's already made waves in the electronic music scene in Raleigh. As if improving the quality and selection of the 16 hours of Afterhours weekly programming wasn't enough (Monday through Thrusday, 8 p.m. - midnight), Jose Jose organized the first-ever official Afterhours electronic music dance party in July at Jibarra. He's scheduled to have this event every First Friday through December.
We recently caught up with Jose Jose to get the inside scoop on his plans to "build up the presence of heavy electronic music in Raleigh and make it a big deal."
Q. Did you know that you wanted to DJ when you started hanging out at WKNC last year?
Yeah, well it didn't start as that, but it quickly became that. The more time I spent there I was learning how to run stuff and learning what to do. But I didn't know what I wanted to DJ, so I started as an underground DJ playing hip-hop. I was still an underground DJ a little bit while I was Afterhours Director so I was mixing underground a little bit and then I just slowly started transitioning more & more into electronic dance music.
I was hired as Director of Afterhours in February for a short time until the end of the semester. When the short-term position was up I reapplied and I'd done well enough that they were really pleased with me and I was rehired. So that's how I made my entrance on the Afterhours scene at WKNC. I enjoy it, I think I've had a lot of fun & the program is definitely doing much better now. We're getting ridiculous amounts of music now, which we've not had in years.
Q. Where did you come up with the idea for the Afterhours monthly parties at Jibarra?
Apparently it's been a minor thought on a lot of people's minds for years because in Raleigh you can't DJ anywhere unless it's a club, but nobody ever got it together. If two people complain about a house party, the cops have to shut it down so all they get busted soon after midnight. I said we needed to get something done because we have a lot of people who want to DJ but don't have a way to go about it without getting arrested. Everyone was really excited when I announced we were going to start doing this because no one ever expected it to actually happen.
There was no clear leadership around until I came in — Afterhours slipped for a while. I really want to help my DJs get their names out, showcase what we have and have a fun place for all of our listeners to dance.
Hopefully it will get to the point where we have to stop letting people in--that's what I'm really aiming for. I want it to be established as the First Friday ending that everyone wants. You can go to all the art galleries, bike around, and when that's all done you go to Jibarra for the WKNC Afterhours dance parties.
Q. What makes the Afterhours parties different from some of the other dance parties at bars & clubs throughout Raleigh?
First of all, we're WKNC so supporting what we're doing is supporting the college & lot of the students. We have an 18+ party where a lot of other places you can't get into if you're under 21. Plus, I'd like to say that we have a unique brand of electronic music. We're playing typically loud, really heavy music, and some other places don't do quite that, they play more ambient & chill mode music. Another big thing that separates us from other places is that we have so many DJs. We have a lot of diversity around the music that we play because we're four DJs every night selecting different songs instead of just one person all night.
Q. How do you deal with song requests?
Well, all of the Afterhours DJs have a very eclectic and strange collection of music. For me, I actually experiment more on the radio. I spend all weekend finding new music for my mixes on Monday. There's some songs that I'll play multiple times, but I really try to play stuff that I've not played before.
But at a live event, requests are difficult if the DJs don't know the songs because they're not trying to wreck their set just to make one person happy. If they're playing something real loud & heavy then all of the sudden they're playing Junior Boys or something it's a train crash right there. Nobody wants that, not even the person requesting that song. It's not so much being snobby, it's just well, not worth the potential disaster.
Q. Do you think that makes them better DJs [to not take requests at live events]?
That is a very subjective term, so I don't want to necessarily say yes, but I think it does make for a better overall experience if DJs aren't trying to throw in songs they don't know just to make one person happy.
Q. Do you show up to your shows with a set or a playlist ready to go?
I show up with a general idea, but I don't have the order set. That's the fun part: deciding which order you're going to play all these songs in! I don't think that having a set order of songs with a set playlist is the way to go because at that point you're not there for the crowd and you're not there for necessarily a good time, you're just there to blare music at people if you're not trying to interact with the environment at all.
Q. How do you see yourself fitting into the music scene?
Maybe eventually after I do this for long enough and have enough going on, I can actually impact the industry. You know, music is about having fun, it's not about making money. I mean, yeah, making some dollars would be awesome, but it's not about making your millions of dollars. If I could just work with the music world and be able to pay my rent and everything, then man I'm happy, I'm stoked. But just look at the big labels & the trends in the music industry: they don't care about our listeners or about putting out good music, they just want to make ridiculous loads of money. So I'm just trying to impact the world around me and tell people we're just trying to have fun.
I would really love to move to New York or LA eventually and work with event & music promotions, so that's really why I'm trying so hard to do this Afterhours thing because I'm getting experience for what I really want to do.
Q. On a more personal note, whats your favorite genre of electronic music?
Dubstep. Real nasty, heavy, dubstep. Nasty bass. But I'm also still an avid listener of hip-hop and underground stuff. My favorite is a mixture between real nasty bass dance music and dirty south gangsta rap, but I do listen to some chill stuff like a little guitar music, I love Beck, I do love Of Montreal a ton, they're awesome.
Catch Jose Jose live spinning on WKNC 88.1 every Monday at 8 p.m. and make sure to check out the Afterhours dance parties every First Friday from 10 p.m. - 2 a.m. at Jibarra through December.
