This latest 1 More Mix comes courtesy of the melodic, funky sounds of Tassone. Hailing from the scene down under, Tassone’s soulful sounds have more than regularly been heard through sound systems at clubs, festivals and warehouses in both hemispheres.
From shelling out at your typical Australian bush doof, jazzy cocktail bars to iconic venues like Sydney’s Home Bar, the aura around Tassone is one of inspiration and determination as she overcame challenges like gender discrimination in her local scene and delivered a speech at a UN conference on what it’s like to be a female DJ.
Following a successful British summer schedule which included headlining Motion in Bristol, she’s showing no signs of slowing down any time soon as summer in Australia is well and truly underway. Fresh from the release of her most recent Our Time EP on Soul Deep, Jessica will play a sizzling season of shows in her homeland including sharing the stage with the likes of Basement Jaxx, Faithless, LTJ Bukem and Dillinja at Day One on New Years Day in Sydney.
This all comes before a move to the UK to pursue her dream further and continue to be fierce by aspiring to work closer with femme-forward families like Just Be, EQ50 and Full Spectrum. This mix delves into numerous sub genres and the varying sounds resonate with Jessica’s musical origins which include 80’s rock, Latino, theatre musicals and accordion players in her grandma’s living room. The journey continued by discovering UK bass music in her teens and being introduced to jazz by a Seattle taxi driver.
We recently spoke to Tassone all about her time as an artist, what’s in store for the future, her thoughts on the drum & bass scene and much more. It’s full of twists and turns just like this melodic mix, so fetch your flip-flops, fan yourselves down, listen in, prepare for summery vibes and read on below as we learn all about Tassone…
Well that took me back to the summertime, wow! How did your journey into music begin?
Music has always been extremely important to me and everyone around me. I was exposed to a very diverse range of music as a child. My mother’s obsession with all things electronic and 80’s hair rock, met with my dad’s love for Latino music and The Beatles. Grandma’s theatre musicals followed by big parties with accordion players and drummers in her living room served as my introduction. In high school I made mixtapes on Audacity that circulated around my school via Bluetooth.
It’s really when I was shown Caspa everything changed – that ripped open the doors to UK bass music for me, starting with dubstep. I would trawl UKF and YouTube for hours – eventually discovering jungle. Music has always been a central element in my life but I was always a visual artist, I remember listening to music and rhythmically making strokes. I hadn’t taken a huge interest in jazz by that point in my life, that changed when I visited Seattle in 2017. I was in a yellow taxi cab and there was this Gregory Porter track on the radio. When I told the driver that I was totally in love with it, he turned around to me and said “This is jazz, baby.” Legend.
When it came around – DJing became my obsession very quickly. The first day I had my decks I literally took a sick day and didn’t stop playing for fifteen hours. After about two months, I threw my first party at Sydney’s iconic Hibernian House in Surry Hills. Production finally started for me in lockdown when the gigs halted. I was living illegally in this big warehouse, so when I wasn’t playing the most epic hide and seek with my roomies in this massive industrial building, I focused all my time on producing, mixing and live streaming.
Go on! Can you tell us about your sound production wise?
I love to create ethereal, sexy, exciting melodies primarily through instrument sampling, layered drums and synths. Guided by influences like Paul SG, Decon, Carter, Madcap, Bukem, Furney, Al Pack, Marky, Zero T, and Atlantic Connection, I am emotive and love storytelling in my writing. Ableton has been my hyper-fixation for years now. I work extra hard within the local gig circuit on weekends to ensure I get all my weekdays in the studio. This has granted me time to experiment and develop as an artist, the most rewarding journey of my life so far.
Rewarding indeed! You come across as a really chipper, happy, soulful spirit and if I may say so, this really resonates in your tunes! Would you agree with this?
The person people see at music events is the best version of me. I am in my element! I am always seeing photos after events where I don’t even understand how I could be pulling such weird faces and throwing shapes like that in the middle of a mix. For me, music is an escape, and I truly lose all inhibition when playing. I will always have a story behind a mix, and people who know this will come up and try and guess what it was afterwards. There is really only a few key objectives I set as a DJ, I want my music to evoke joy and excitement, I want people to dance and I want them to feel sexy. Nothing makes me happier than looking into the crowd and seeing people dancing around, being all silly, blissing out, or kissing. In my productions, I think you see a full spectrum of emotion because music writing is a little more personal and secular. As my producing skills develop, I can share more complex feelings and my storytelling ability is improving from track to track. As time goes on and more of my own productions are entering my live performances, I feel that my sets are becoming more authentic and personal. I can’t wait until the day where I can play a full two hours of my own productions.
With the rate you’re going at, I shouldn’t think that’ll take too long! I understand there’s a significant move happening in your career soon, can you talk to us about what inspired this?
Australia has been a wild ride, I’ve played at many ‘bush doofs’, clubs, protests, warehouses, and festivals over the last five years. I’ve promoted and thrown all different types of events myself, I put on thirty-four parties last year. It taught me so much about how things work and gave me the opportunity to not only provide LBTGI+ friendly spaces to party, but also provide many new DJs their first sets, and introduce harm minimisation organizations such as the epic Dancewize NSW into drum & bass parties locally. When I got to the UK over summer, I felt like I was able to plan things with people, collaborate and finish projects in real time. Emails and DM’s became real human connections. Sometimes when I listen to my favourite artists I wonder how they would play that song or what they would have to say about it. In the UK/EU there’s a lot of opportunities to see and hear those stories. These are just some of the reasons I have made the decision to relocate to the UK, it really feels like the right step for me! I feel completely dedicated to this sound and where else would be better than the UK for me right now? Australia isn’t going anywhere, and my friends know I’ll always throw the most epic secret warehouse party every visit home for doof season.
Loving this! Have you faced many challenges on your journey so far?
I actually suffered a significant back injury which affected my mobility, and that stopped me from playing or dancing for quite some time. My circle shrunk when that happened, I shed those that I could only ‘stand in a kitchen with’ friendships and formed lots of new friendships based on actual shared music interest. A load of the Just Be crew were some of the first people to hear and support my developing productions over the internet during that time. Their encouragement went a long way on me.
I think being a super motivated woman ready to take action where it was needed definitely ruffled feathers at the start for me in my local scene. I’ve been targeted over my personal relationships or weight/appearance. I think the reason these issues happen so much to people in the public eye as a performer honestly just stems from competitiveness, jealousy, or even just a fear of change. Each of the challenges I’ve faced have just helped me be a better person and artist, more mindful around accessibility requirements, personal safety while partying, triggers, and even how to how to handle dealing with toxic people in the scene. If you don’t learn and grow, what’s the point of going through anything at all?
Inspiring to hear how you overcame these challenges! Let’s talk about the mix you’re providing us! What have you got in store?
This mix really captures everything I love about D&B and jungle, uplifting, happy, moody, sultry, epic, grooving. There’s loads of old and new liquid in the first half, then classic jungle, and a touch of footwork to finish. I’ve added the title track off my recent EP in full to the start of the mix. I’m really proud of it and would love everyone to hear it!
Is this mix something along the lines of what we could expect at a Tassone show?
It depends on where I’m playing, everything I do is different! I would say this is what you’d perhaps hear me playing on a beach in the afternoon, outdoor venue vibes, sunset at a cocktail bar, heading into night time. This is definitely a collection of my favourite styles and what I tend to produce. Locally in Sydney I play disco, jazz, and funk quite often! I feel it keeps my ears fresh and inspires me. Playing so many styles of music has taught me so much about the structure of music, how it ranges from genre to genre. Variety is the key and there is a time and place for everything! I also enjoy playing minimal, halftime, neuro and sometimes even jump up.
Loving the variation! The UK summer festival season was notable! How has your summer been?
This year was my first ever UK summer! Headlining Motion Bristol, playing for Overview at Volks Nightclub in Brighton and playing after Etherwood for Intrigue are definitely my highlights out of the twelve shows of my tour. I also headed to Austria, and that was an absolute blast. Headlining Drumworks and Wavy was ridiculously fun, and the people behind those crews are just total legends. I managed to also get to a Jazzsticks event – the label that has put out most of my favourite music on this planet. I did my last club show of the tour in Thailand. It was run by the guys that started up the Full Moon Parties. They’ve invited me to play at one, and I hope to return there to do that ASAP. It was surreal to look back on everything when I got home. It literally changed my life. The tour took roughly four months of work to arrange. I didn’t have a booking agent so I was working till early hours of the morning every day leading up to my trip. My return to Australia has been super busy.
Life is going full throttle for you! What are your thoughts on the drum & bass scene at the moment?
The scene is exploding with new talent and opportunities! We’re witnessing the emergence of new sounds, and a resurgence of that classic hardcore vibe. I go out of my way to introduce non-D&B audiences to liquid, and it’s successful every time. I really see liquid becoming the most popular subgenre someday. I really like 4×4 because I enjoy that type of music when it’s not drum & bass anyway. I say mash it all up if it sounds good! Tracks are becoming shorter overall, and that’s perhaps my biggest complaint, but I see it as a consequence of social media rather than specifically drum n bass. Beyond that, the slow but steady rise in lineup diversity and the growth of EQ50, Full Spectrum, Just Be and other femme-forward collectives instils so much hope in me for the future. Drum & bass is always evolving and growing, with bigger social impact and positive movement. I’m just so happy to be part of it!
What advice would you give to an up and comer following a similar route to yourself?
If you have decided that this is your career and not a hobby, act like it. Limit or cut out the sesh, invest in your craft, use earbuds when you’re out, act ethically, maintain healthy boundaries, and cut loose from people who don’t believe in you/cause unnecessary drama. Who you work for and with represents what you are, and vice versa. Start producing as soon as possible and stick to building something every single day! Lacking inspiration? Make an EP cover. Draw. Paint. Listen to and study a random album. Go see a string quartet or a jazz band. Write a list of song names, even if they sound weird, weird music ideas are good too. Get involved with your local community and support other musicians. Go out and see all kinds of live music as much as possible. Take notice of what’s on the radio in your taxi, in the grocery store – even if it’s trash! How did they make it? Why did they make it? Get used to being alone, sun-deprived and tired, because some of your best ideas when writing music will come at ungodly hours and you will spend at a good portion of your life locked in a studio. Success takes time. Be patient, seize the right opportunities, and lastly, carry two or more USBs at all times.
Very wise words there. Lastly, do you have anything special planned for the future that you can tell us about?
I’ll be supporting LTJ Bukem, Dillinja, Basement Jaxx and Faithless on January 1st which I am literally over the moon about! Got a few awesome bush doofs coming up, Freerange in Canberra and then Zenith where I am supporting Opiou on one of the biggest stages and systems in Australia. I’ll also be travelling down to Melbourne to headline at Rubix Warehouse. Absolute gems Ben and Collette will be here in January too – that show is going to be a lot of fun. I’ve just found out that I’ll be supporting A-Sides and travelling down to Tasmania to play two sets at a big doof called Multiverse, all in one weekend! I will be opening my books to the UK and EU again in a few months, and am always happy to discuss opportunities. I have a six track EP coming out December 15 with Fantastic Voyage, which is run by the legend Justin Jay. About two years ago I remixed one of Dani Life’s tracks called 90 Times, which is finally set to be released February 21st. I have forthcoming music on AK Sports label, Club Madhouse. I can’t say too much but it’s totally different to what you’d expect from me. I am working on a lot of music and exciting collaborations.
