Artist Interview – K Jah (UK)
Repping the Midlands (UK) to the fullest, Junglist K Jah recently released his first ever full length LP on Natty Dub Records, as well as growing his own imprint South Central Recordings, and offering up a slew of releases on well respected labels like Ruffneck Ting, Hocus Pocus, Co Lab, Serial Killaz and Born on Road to name but a few.
Hailed as one of the true propagators of the “true roller” by Diligent Fingers, this fella never shoots below target, and to say he’s busy is an understatement. Also streaming on Twitch with nothing less than 110% bangers in the box, we felt like it was time to see what this dude is all about!
K Jah! Welcome INSIDE. So good to have you here. You’ve been nominated 4 times at the We Love Jungle Awards, and done well too! You must be proud of that!
Yes, I am very proud of the fact I was nominated for that award. It was / is a great achievement just to get the recognition from my peers.
You started off like many in the scene, listening to pirates and tape packs. Tell us a bit about what those days mean to you now.
It’s a cliché, but they were the good old days, full of optimism and innocence with promises of a better tomorrow, and they reflected the optimism of the early 90’s society in general.
You’re a Birmingham boy. The Birmingham Institute was a big influence on your early journey into DNB?
A massive influence! I went to my first rave there when I was 15 and have also been lucky enough to play there on several occasions.
Talk us through your very early studio set up, like it was when you were learning the ropes?
It was pretty much the same as now except I’m using a more powerful PC and have 30x the samples and virtual instruments as I did back then. A lot of what I do is self taught, although I did have a lot of help from DJ Rayden (Kool FM Midlands – R.I.P) and Sappo to get me started.
Your first release was on DJ Sappo’s label. That must have been a huge turning point for you?
It was massive for me, especially because I used to listen to Sappo on 1Xtra back in the day. The track was called Inception and was an amen rinse out.
You cite everything from reggae to rave to RNB as your influences. Where did such an eclectic taste come from?
The reggae influences came from growing up in inner city Birmingham and rave music was what I was drawn to over all other genres of music. The thing about rave is, it contains elements of other genres such as hip hop, soul, techno and reggae, which I grew to love when seeking out the samples I’d heard in the rave tracks from the past.
The main thing I notice about your productions is that there is no escape from that snapping snare right out in the front of the mix. Call it steppin’, rollin’ whatever you want really, but I could listen to it all day long. How would you describe it?
Well the snare is the most important aspect of a track I feel, it drives the track forward and is what you mix off and what people dance too. You gotta make sure it stands out!
So, tell us a bit about your recent LP. How did that particular project come into being?
I had built up a batch of tracks that Sam (Natty Dub Recordings) was going to release, and by the time it came to releasing them we realised we had enough for an LP. I tried to make the LP a collection of influences, so there’s rolling DNB, 90’s jungle, a nod to the 1992 rave sound of Wax Doctor / Basement records and also two colabs with two of my favourite MC’s – Diligent Fingers and Natty D.
You’re involved with Bristol based Ruffneck Ting. Fill us in!
Back in 2012 my good mate Jinx had a release with them and recommended me to Dazee who liked what I was making. Its really cool because I loved Dazee from back in the day and got a shout out from Jakes on her set for my 18th birthday at Dreamscape 25!
You’ve been running and operating South Central Recordings since 2019. How are you finding that side of the music business?
It’s a labour of love to be honest. I love the A+R side of it but I find the admin and promotion side of it quite difficult because im running it on my own and haven’t got a team of people around me to take over the stuff that I struggle with.
You’re 3 years and 7 releases deep now. You’ve built a solid enough reputation to sustain the label. Can you elaborate on the artists you’ve released on the imprint?
It’s mainly vocalists that I rate and are good friends of mine. They are all super talented and very professional.
What’s scheduled in for the next 12 months then?
To try and put at least two releases out ASAP. The label took a bit of a hiatus during Covid, mainly because I didn’t have the correct headspace to run it properly in terms of sitting in the studio to build tracks for it.
You’re just starting to get back on the road after CV19. Where you going to be playing over the next few months?
I’ve got shows lined up in Bristol, London, Birmingham, Preston, Liverpool and Luton. I would love to get back overseas again soon!
You’ve joined the Twitch DNB family. How you finding that? I for one am glad you’re a part of it!
Thanks! I’m really enjoying the community vibe of it, it reminds me of pirate radio days full of friendly people. I’m slowly building my profile up. I do find some of it confusing, especially all the different widgets and points rewards. I know that’s a big part of Twitch tough, so I need to fix up ASAP!
If there was one other artists you’d like to colab with, who would it be and why?
Hazard. All day long.
To part with then, what would you say to anybody out there who is thinking of starting up a career in DNB?
Make sure you are good at social media and have a good team around you!
Shouts going out to: Vytol, Jinx, Cheshire Cat, Kella, Natty D, Frenetic, Trafic Mc, Club PST in Birmingham, Dazee, MC Megatron, Golden Child NYC, Etown Junglist, Sappo, S Man, Sam Cabin Fever, Saxxon, T>I, Suv, all the Kool FM Midlands crew, all the Twitch family and the lovely Gumfingers. And apologies to any one I’ve missed out.
Stream K JAH DNB music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud
Stream K JAH DNB music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud
K Jah (@kjah_dnb) • Instagram photos and videos
ONE LAST THING: IF YOU WANT A FULL ON RAVE IN YOUR FRONT ROOM, CHECK OUT K JAH’S MONTHLY TWITCH STREAM WITH GUEST DJ’S AND MC’S FROM 8PM TILL LATE (GMT). THIS IS A MUST! YOU AIN’T GONNA GET A BETTER MONDAY NIGHT IN ON TWITCH THAN THIS! FIRST MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH!! POP IN AND GIVE HIM A FOLLOW TO GET YOUR “GOING LIVE” NOTIFICATION!
