by: Nina Khachatourian
Happy New Year, everyone! This month we are showcasing a dj and producer that needs no introduction so we'll get straight to the point.
Jason Mundo has been pushing notably bass-heavy genres of music for nearly 10 years. He got hooked on electronic music by listening to guys like Jeff K and Red Eye on Edge Club 94. Soon after he started djing and became an advocate for the sounds of drum and bass in Dallas around 1996. He immersed himself in the music and became a hometown hero, constantly buying the freshest vinyl and playing it to anyone that would listen at his weekly "Wikid", one of the first drum and bass weeklys in the metroplex. But his focus changed a few years later when Jason was introduced to 2-step garage by another local promoter, Wes Stubblefield. Mundo instantly gravitated towards this new genre and worked tirelessly to bring new meaning to the word "2-step" in Texas. His vision as an artist caught the attention of the underground and he first gained the attention of the media in 2000 when he was featured in URB Magazines "Next 100" list. From there the positive press seemed to snowball. The bookings started rolling in on a more consistent basis and just last year Mundo was cited as "The #1 UK Garage DJ in the USA" by DJ Cameo on BBC Radio 1xtra.
As a promoter, Mundo has co-produced several successful club nights since 1997 including Underground X with Maetrik and the continuation of his "Wikid" nights at the Lizard Lounge. He is also a dj at Dallasıs longest running garage night, Groovology. Today Mundo is busy with promoting his own dubstep night, Dub Assembly, and also continuing production work for the Wideboys label out of the UK.
How did you discover djing? What is your musical background before that?
I discovered djing through Edge Club 94 with Jeff K & Redeye, and soon there after Jeff K and Merritt. I'm another Edge Club baby. I learned a lot watching Jeff, Merritt, Redeye, Robert Taylor and Mike Constantino spin. Britton & Michael Todd of the Groov-e-Company gave me my first shot at spinning at parties and clubs. I want to thank those 7 guys for the early inspiration. Musical background? Only 6 months of lousy piano as a kid (I wish I had continued with piano lessons haha).
What was your first piece of gear?
I bought an old sampler through the newspaper classifieds. It was a Roland W-30 sampler workstation with built-in keyboard and sequencers and sample memory time limit was 14 seconds! It was NOT user friendly at all. The Prodigy had 4 of them so I thought it would be solid. I slowly upgraded my gear from there.
You have your hands all over the place as far as music goes. What is your main focus right now? production? djing?
Definitely production, I'm always thinking about tunes I want to make or some sound I want to experiment with. I have to write the ideas down on paper or a text file during the day so that I can remember it later that night when I'm in the studio. I love djng though. It's so much fun. And I've been craving to get my Live PA set up again so I could do a live show like back in the Subtronic Theatre days. I've been setting aside the old pile of gizmos and cables to get the live performance running again.
You have pushed a lot of different sounds over the years as a dj. Tell us about them and how you transitioned from one to another.
I think I slowly transitioned as UK Bass kept evolving. I was spinning drum and bass for a few years and then a promoter by the name of Wes Stubblefield introduced Dallas to 2-step. A lot of us in Dallas were instantly hooked on the syncopated beats and bass of 2-step garage and we continue to celebrate that music every Sunday night at Groovology. Dubstep, which was created by people with a drum and bass background, slowly evolved out of the darker end of garage into its own separate scene. But in the last year and a half it really exploded with not only heavy bass but lush detailed melodies as well.
