Like other addictions, crate-diggers’ compulsion to track down and buy new records is sometimes a drive to fill a deeper need — or lack, depending on how you see it — beyond the music itself. Zero Freitas, now known as “The Brazilian Bus Magnate Who’s Buying Up All the World’s Vinyl Records“, submitted himself to forty years of therapy to try and explain his compulsion to buy records he wouldn’t even have the time to listen to. Freitas admitted it was only after an unforeseen break-up with his wife that his insatiable need to buy combusted.
In the case of Jeremy Underground, the Parisian DJ behind the My Love is Underground imprint, the epiphany happened listening to Radio Nova, an independent radio station that played a key role in the spreading of hip-hop and electronic music in France. Young Jeremy who was then 10, randomly stumbled upon a DJ Deep mix while he was playing with his radio dial. Stunned by his discovery, he would then start to buy house records like other kids of his age would have been collecting Panini stickers. The loss of his mother some years later led him to feeding his brain with as many house records he could find.
The difference with Freitas is that Jeremy’s compulsive hobby is associated with a genre — house music — rather than the vinyl object itself, which means he actually listens to the music he is digging for. And when a devotee is looking for something, it’s not surprising to see them cater for their insatiable appetite for new music by getting it directly from pioneer producers— tracks that have never come out before.
As with every collection, there is a point you get at asking yourself what to do with all that stuff that has accumulated. In the case of music, the few options available include hosting a radio show, DJing or putting together a label. That’s what Jeremy Underground eventually did, with no big master plans, just the desire of doing something out of his passion and share it with a growing audience. But since we’re speaking about a market based on rarity, digging remains a competition in which the music lover faces a tortuous double-bind; torn between the desire of share with the world his/her findings, or keeping close to their chest.
Our subject of the day is a good illustration of this: Jeremy Underground is responsible of last year’s most critically acclaimed compilation, bringing under the umbrella some rare house cuts; at the same time, the mixes he put on his Soundcloud don’t have any tracklisting and he will only partially answer to the track ID requests he received.
In anticipation of our session at Paris’ Tunnel [Dep Ed: the postcard of which bears striking resemblance to the above], we caught up with Jeremy Underground to try to know more about his way of finding uncharted records and his upcoming projects.
What is your methodology when it comes to digging for music?
I live in the suburbs of Paris and I’m often lazy going to town and visiting the record shops, so the truth is that most of my time spent looking for music happens to be behind the computer. Confessing this is surely not the best message I can spread to a young music lover reading about me here because the record shop will always be more interesting than the online-search. But I’m just being honest with how I’ve been proceeding lately.
And how do you proceed exactly?
Behind that computer, I spend a quite unhealthy amount of time on Discogs every day. That’s just one example. But anyway, both for physical and online search the main key is discipline. You gotta keep the curiosity in all occasions (not that easy), know how to be discrete sometimes and learn to be clever with your budget too.
Do you think things have changed nowadays with the Internet?
This question would fit older dudes since I’ve kinda always known the Internet. I’ve known the pre-Youtube and pre-‘Discogs Marketplace’ days yes, but that doesn’t make me ‘old school’!
Still, don’t you think the access to music is broader?
Sure, there is a better and larger access to music now. In the pre-Internet days you just had to be in the record shop everyday. And going to the source (to the US for example) could be the only way to get certain records sometimes. Game over if you were not living in a major city.
I have a lot of respect for those who were in this game in those days because I believe you needed much more implication in some ways. Today, you can build a nice collection as long as you have a good taste, an internet connection and some money, so as a curious music lover I’m definitely happy to live in 2015.
What were the reasons behind you deciding to do something out of your passion?
Things just came my way and I never really decided anything. Nothing of what’s going on now was much planned at all. See, even my de facto DJ name –’Jeremy Underground Paris’– is really bad because I never really took the time to think about these things. [NB: Gonna change it to “Jeremy Underground” now, might sound a little bit better.]
All I’ve had since I was a kid is a very strong passion and a lot of energy; nervous, wrong energy at times too. I’m collecting as many good records as I can, I made great friendships through these pieces of plastic, and here we are a few years later.
How did you feel after you’d been able to physically see and interact with the New York/New Jersey scenes you coveted back in the day?
I haven’t been interacting with that many people actually. Some of the older guys in Paris really did the connection with NY, Chicago and Detroit back then but as far as I’m concerned I’ve only been to NY once. One legend I did follow a lot in my youth was Kerri [Chandler] though. His music of course but also his attitude influenced me a lot. Generally speaking it can be quite disappointing connecting with your heroes sometimes. Age, culture and environmental differences can be hard to handle. (I’m not talking about Nathaniel X & Jerzzey Boy who are 2 great guys by the way!). But yeah over these past years I’ve mostly connected with fellow European record collectors and bedroom DJs — people that are unknown to the public.
Tell me more about the second volume of your compilation.
The tracklisting will speak for itself. Soon!
Do you have other MLIU releases scheduled in 2015?
There should be 3 or 4 releases this year with some surprises. Can’t tell too much yet neither!
Jeremy Underground may keep a lot of secret weapons in his bag, but there is something quite indicative of the era that My Love is Underground shone as one of last year’s most acclaimed compilations. In this age of access, where the availability of music is ever more unlimited, compilation should be long-dead. Yet every day we learn the value of curation and hand-crafted selection in our consumption of new music. It’s exactly the reason we’re welcoming the newly crowned Mr. Underground to showcase his wares on our next Boiler Room broadcast from Paris.
Track ID, Jeremy?
For more information on this broadcast, head here.
