When you've worked hard to get yourself out there as a touring DJ, you can't help but be constantly on the go. Beni G, formerly of Mixologists fame and currently kicking it as one half of UK electro outfit Jackbeats, showed he was no stranger to the road as we began our interview. Just two minutes in he was already leaving his apartment to catch a flight to yet another gig. This is just one of many Jackbeats will put on for the people in the leadup to the Parklife festival in Australia for 2010.

Jackbeats was born from the combined forces of Beni G and Plus One. The duo proved themselves a worthy act at Field Day when they dominated the stage earlier this year. Since then they've pushed their latest two tracks The Revolution and Out of Body which form the entirety of their latest EP. The two tracks have graced the airwaves of various nightclubs throughout the Uk where Jackbeats hold residency and are pushing the two turntablists to the eye of the world - next stop Parklife 2010. With big name acts Missy Elliot and The Dandy Warhols to live up to, Beni has a quick but insightful chat with On The Barrier about their latest EP and the struggle to stand out from the crowd with the new wave of electronic acts on the music scene.

After a quick raincheck to allow Beni time to get his handsfree working while driving...

OTB: Is it always like this?
Beni G: Fortunately yes! We really want to keep ourselves in the public eye and we have a few places where Jackbeats is a resident so most nights I'll end up behind a turntable.

OTB: So how long til you head to Australia?
Beni G: At the end of September for the Parklife festival... so about two months time?

OTB: Do you plan to get out and see the sights during your trip over here or will you be holing yourself up in some dark apartment for the whole trip?
Beni G: You know what I dont think we have that many days off between shows so we'll have to find some time to get back and do some sight-seeing.

OTB: So you've done Field Day already and you're heading to Parklife next month, how do you think Australian festivals compare to the big festivals in Europe? Do we size up at all?
Beni G: I've never done it before but Neil - the other half of Jack Beats - said it was amazing. And you guys have some pretty big acts coming to Parklife so I'd say it's well equal.

OTB: Which act would you say you're most looking forward to on the day?
Beni G: I've only really heard bits and peices of the line-up but there are a bunch of sort of friends I know that we'll probably catch up with while we're there. You know what though, one I am looking forward to is Missy Elliot.

OTB: Me too! She's been on hiatus for a bit lately so it's going to be awesome to see her kickin it on stage again! So you'll be getting out there to see the acts then? Or will you be hanging backstage most of the time?
Beni G: Yeah! I can't remember what the play time for us is but it'd definitely be an absolute shame if we didn't. I mean you do that normally, you want to go out there and support your friends and other people.

OTB: With dance music at the top of the music food chain this year, do you ever feel it's a mission to stand out from the crowd? Especially on a global scale...
Beni G: In terms of our style of music not really. It's one of those things you know, when you're out on your own you take on anything that's around you but you'll always stand out, and we'll always be people that will just do our own thing. You're always being creative in some shape or form, even if it isn't in the top ten music list.

OTB: So what then made you decide this was your calling in life?
Beni G: Specifically Jack Beats wasn't planned or anything. Music-wise it's something I've been doing all my life. I always used to play musical instruments and then started getting involved in the more technical side of things. When I was 15 years old I started working turntables at friends of mine then I spent a few years learning the technical side of things. But yeah in more recent years we started the Jack Beats project. We really started writing music to put out there for the hell of it, we didn't think anyone would actually listen to it.

OTB: Well it seems you've definitely given people something to dance to. Speaking of, whose music do you dance around your bedroom to?
Beni G: These days when I'm at home I dont really listen to stuff that you can dance around to. Because we're on the road playing at clubs every weekend, the stuff I want to dance around to is the stuff we play around at the clubs. So when I get home I like to chill out to something a bit different, something I've had no foot in.

OTB: So this EP that's ruling the dancefloors, how long did it take you to pull together the EP?
Beni G: It wasn't too long actually. We do take a long time to pull together music, I mean this one was meant to come out in April but the time got a little bit delayed so it ended up being released six weeks later. 

OTB: So unusually there are a lot of publications describing the EP as having "edgy acapellas" and "wobbly basslines"...would you describe your music this way?
Beni G: We do tend to chop up acapellas quite weird. And I guess we do a lot of LFO-style basslines but we don't do wobble bass - we make dance music. We definitely don't aim to make wobble music or anything any magazine people have coined us with. If it sounds wobbly it's just our interpretation of the music.

OTB: Would you say you have a signature sound?
Beni G: I'd like to think so yeah. We've definitely done our own thing. People hear our tracks and I hope they can associate a certain sound with us. I guess it's all mellow stuff but we play all different styles.

OTB: What's your favourite track on the album?
Beni G: I mean they're both really different. We play both in the clubs... I guess Out Of Body is a bit more of a ravy one and then The Revolution is totally different and got a totally different feel. It's a weird track but it works in the clubs.

OTB: You've done a fair few remixes in the past, whos music do you like to remix the most?
Beni G: Of the ones we've done so far I'd say the Florence and the Machine remix. The parts we were given to remix were just like wow! They were just so well recorded so we knew we had to do a good job. It was daunting but then we got into it and really created something special. As for music we'd like to remix, we're big fans of the Chemical Brothers. Their music is something we'd like to get our hands on.

OTB: What does a song need to have for it to make a successful remix?
Beni G: To be honest we remix stuff that is often in quite a terrible state. We can remix anything really, we can remix things even without vocals. Every song pretty much has melodies and generally you can disect anything and put your own stamp on it. Sometimes our remixs have haldly any of original parts. You really toe the line between completely making your own music sometimes.

OTB: So what can we expect from you next?
Beni G: We are just working on the album now. The album will hopefully be finished by the end of summer or at least in the last part of the year. We did one for Big Boy. That's basically it though on the remix side of things. It's going to be like alot of what you know us for and hopefully will have alot of real core elements you weren't expecting. We also plan to go into a different sort of style, whatever we do is going to be forward thinking. We just need to buckle down and cement a few ideas.

OTB: Cool well before we finish up, do you have any advice for all of the aspiring DJs out there?
Beni G: Practice, practice, pracite. It's hard work. We locked ourselves away for years to be able to do what we do now.

Jackbeats will be heading to the Parklife Festival in September. The Parklife Festival 2010 will hit up the following venues:

September 25 - Parklands, Gold Coast.
September 26 - Wellington Square, East Perth
October 2 - Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne
October 3 - Kippax Lake, Moore Park, Sydney
October 4 - Botanic Park, Adelaide

Full lineup includes:

AC SLATER, AJAX, BAG RAIDERS, BRODINSKI, BUSY P, CHIDDY BANG, CLASSIXX, CUT COPY, DAN BLACK, DARWIN DEEZ, DELOREAN, GROOVE ARMADA, GRUM, GYPSY & THE CAT, HOLY GHOST!, JACK BEATS, JESSE ROSE, KELE, MEHDI, MEMORY TAPES, MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS, MISSY ELLIOTT, MIX MASTER MIKE, NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB, OU EST LE SWIMMING POOL, SINDEN, SOULWAX, THE DANDY WARHOLS, THE GLITCH MOB, THE SWISS, THE WOMBATS, UFFIE, WASHINGTON, WOLF GANG, YOLANDA BE COOL VS DCUP

By Nikkita Dixon