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Rave Reviews from the Revered Raver
Blakemore’s big leap into the dance music underground as a DJ started over 15 years ago under the byname DJ Trance. He later replaced his genre-specific DJ name opting for his own name, “Jason Blakemore”. The Blakemore name appears on just about every big rave roster these days. When he’s not scheduled for a large event, he fills his time producing tracks, operating his label “Life Music”, and supporting the scene with surprise performances at various clubs. Showing support for a rising emergence of electronic music into the Southern California scene, Blakemore was more than happy to sit down with us and give us the low down.

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PD: Jason, if I've ever heard of a staple in the house scene, it's got to be you. DJ, producer, owner of record label Life Music.

JB: THANK YOU!

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PD: As a creative person you must have hit writer’s block or had times when the ideas just stop flowing; what do you do to get past it? Is there a place or activity, book, or movie, or even person that gets your creativity flowing again?

JB: I'm just always doing something. I draw, paint, write, do photography, graphics, DJ, write music, play drums, piano, guitar, etc. So if I'm not motivated to write music, I'll DJ, or vice versa. I don't have any rules that I impose on myself to have to do anything.

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PD: Was there ever a time when it seemed like too much? When you thought maybe there’s something else, or were you always destined for music?

JB: All that stuff is in my head and I can control it. Right now I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing with my life.

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PD: What would you be doing if not music related?

JB: I'd probably be doing psychology or art, God willing.

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PD: You mentioned in a former interview that you saw the early rave scene as a utopia, how so?

JB: It’s hard to talk about without sounding over-dramatic. For me, coming from OC and from a private university, the rave scene was just so much freer and open minded. Dancing together, hugs, amazing e, youth, ritual, and especially the fact that the scene was new; I didn't quite understand what it was at the time, but it was so addicting and so liberating for me.

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PD: How does the scene now compare to ten years ago and where do you see it going in the next few years?

JB: I mean, besides the couple years where the scene kind of fizzled out (2002-2005), I honestly believe young people finding the scene for the first time today feel the same way I did. Over the last couple of years the rave scene has been amazing again. Underground, self expressed, free... I love the values of the rave scene and I especially love how much the raver’s embrace and love their own scene. They dress up for it, they are enthusiastic about it, and they love it!

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PD: When you began DJing what was your goal? Did you reach it?

JB: Well, I went to high school in Dana Point, I was the only DJ in my whole school. My goal was to move to L.A., go to college and get a job at a record store and try to DJ some clubs in L.A. I guess you could say I reached my goal (laughs).

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PD: Best party you have ever been to?

JB: I guess the same one everyone says, the first Jujubeats (1997).

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PD: You went from DJ Trance to Jason Blakemore and had a bit of an identity change with your music as well, what was the cause and what was the difference?

JB: Man, if I had a dollar for every time I've answered this question! (laughs). I didn't want to change my name, but I had the name "trance" before there was a genre of music out called “trance”. With the birth of the genre everyone started assuming I played trance, which I really didn't. If my name was DJ Sneak or DJ Icey or whatever, I never would have changed my name. It was really difficult to re-market my whole new name. As far as changing styles, I've always changed how I play over the years. If you look at my career from 92 until now, it was just a coincidence that I was getting into more of a house sound at the time. Right now I'm completely bored of house and playing more of a rave sound, but I'm certainly not changing my name again!

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PD: What projects are you working on?

JB: I just finished a big project, re-releasing a lot of my old "DJ Trance" mix tapes onto CDs. You can check them out on www.djtrance.org . Also, I just put out the first Blakemore mix CD in two years called, "Free Your Mind". It's a double CD, almost 3 hours long. I'm really proud of it! You can find that on my websites as well. Besides that I'm writing lots of music. I'm going to get a demo together of about 10-15 songs I'm happy with and send it out to some labels I like. Right now I have about 5 or 6 songs I finished that I really like. I've been out playing them and getting a good crowd response, which is cool because nobody knows they are my songs. So I finished Life Music, did the DJ trance site, now I'm writing new music and playing a lot of L.A. raves. We'll see what the future holds.

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