Taking a welcome departure from our bass-heavy banger mixes to sprinkle a little sonic healing into your life, we’ve tapped Tom Rose, also known as Jives, as the 142nd installment of our guest mix + interview series. Hailing from Melbourne in the land down under, he firmly captured our team’s collective attention with his immensely soothing style and relaxing quality to his sound. In the past 2 years, we’ve had the pleasure of premiering both of his sensational tracks ‘Dopamine Thumb‘ and ‘Canada,‘ released through the ever-progressive More Creativity Records. With as much potential we saw in this youthful vibe adjuster, we just had to take a deep dive into his story and project as a whole, and give him a platform to showcase all the magic he’s been cooking up. He blessed us with an entirely original guest mix, with 90% being unreleased. Turn down the lights, grab a cold drink to sip on, and settle into the warm caress of these healing frequencies. Check out the full interview and guest mix for yourself below!
I see you’re from Melbourne! Can you tell us a little about your musical upbringing, and if the musical landscape there played any part in helping you develop your current sound and style?
Melbourne is obviously great for live music so it’s been going out and seeing lot of local and international acts and DJs. But to be honest, a lot of my inspiration has always come from the online international scene. I used to spend a lot of time listening to, and I guess trying to replicate, the styles of independent artists in the future house, low-fi and instrumental hip-hop genres on SoundCloud.
You were one of the first artists to release on More Creativity Records way back in 2015 on their debut compilation. What about the organization and its members has kept you invested this long?
Oh, was I one of the first? Dope! So much love for MCR. They’re super progressive in their promotion, which is shown by the massive variety of genres they support and work with. Zack, who has become a great mentor and a friend, works insanely hard for the label and clearly has a great love for electronic music as a whole.
You got a major shoutout from Holly in his Diplo & Friends mix recently! How validating and exhilarating did that feel?
That was so rad! Unbelievable to think that experienced artists such as Holly have gotten around the music. So sweet to have that kind of exposure at that level, and yes very validating!
You have a strikingly distinct style and overall relaxing nature to your tracks. Can you tell us a little about where it stems from and what you aim to promote through your music?
Well, thank you! J. I suppose my biggest influences over the years have been Herzeloyde, Kaytranada, Lxury and Flamingosis among others. I also listen to a lot of classical music on the radio (lol), and really love messing around with orchestral samples because of this which has probably pushed me in a certain direction. I don’t really aim to promote anything in particular. I suppose If I’m feeling a particular emotion from a sound, I try to explore further it and hope it comes across to others listening.
music is an incredible way to escape the moment and get lost in something.
Why is music special to you? What does it represent from your perspective?
For me, music is an incredible way to escape the moment and get lost in something. When I find something I like, which is mostly by accident through experimenting with things, I feel a sense of absorption which I don’t get with anything else. I also feel that music, and making music, represents a part of me that I get to work on individually and hopefully see myself get better at over time, which can be a very satisfying!
What were your goals for 2020, and did you reach them? And what’re some of your goals for the rest of 2021?
Throughout lockdown I decided I wanted to make a collection of songs that I felt could be good enough for release. I’m very lucky to have MCR who seemed to like the demos I sent which made me want to work more on developing them over the year. This year I’d love to work more on my mixing and developing more of a live show.
I often felt I should be doing more musically but found that pushing myself too hard turns it into a chore and takes all the fun out of it!
What were some of your biggest takeaways from the past 12 months?
One of my biggest takeaways from the last year is learning the importance of not putting too much pressure on myself to be creative in general. The lockdown did free up a lot of hobby time and I often felt I should be doing more musically but found that pushing myself too hard turns it into a chore and takes all the fun out of it!
With a veritable arsenal of unreleased music at your disposal, when can fans expect to see some of these gems released into the wild?
They should be coming out intermittently over the next few months through MCR! I’m very excited to have them out in the world.
How can fans best support you during these exceptionally difficult times for artists globally?
If people feel as though they’d like to give extra support, I do have Bandcamp page with the Monstera EP on it currently. I’ll be releasing all the new songs on it over the coming months.
You’ve blessed us with an entirely original mix today! Can you walk us through what went into putting it together, and what you wanted to convey to our listeners?
Again, big shout out to MCR who helped me heaps with the mix! To be honest, it was a bit tricky for us to fit the songs together as the tracks range in tempo quite a bit. I ended up making more mixable versions for a lot of the songs to help us out. The meditation guide at the beginning and halfway through hopefully conveys some sort of relaxed feel for the mix. Hope you enjoy!
Tracklist:
1. jives – Intro
2. jives – ID
3. jives – ID
4. jives – ID
5. jives – Canada
6. jives – ID
7. jives – ID
8. jives – ID
9. jives – Monstera
10. jives – ID
11. jives – ID
12. jives – ID
