Interview with Chaos Maths' DJ Jodes

When a mate told me that another Sydney cat was putting together a mix of Australian music, I simply had to find out more. At a local jam earlier this year I finally got introduced to DJ Jodes, a straight-up aussie bloke who digs in the crates and makes music with his crew, Chaos Maths. After chatting to Jodes a few times and visiting the lab where the records and music happen, I thought people should have a chance to hear his mix and get to know a bit more about the man behind it.



I should add, before we get to the interview, that the mix will be uploaded to a temporary site and after the link expires, that's it. So if you're reading this, I suggest you download the mix asap because it won't be around for long, and it won't be available for sale. Jodes only made a handful of hard copies that have been given out to friends, DJs and musis fans in Sydney.


























DJ Kinetic: Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into DJing?

DJ Jodes: Our hometown of Bathurst has got a bit of history as a breeding ground for Funk and Jazz exponents. Ash (who is better known these days as Katalyst) used to go to university in Bathurst and one of the dudes that he hung out with lived next door. We’d hear them playing records and recognise the breaks from the hip hop music my brothers and I were listening to at the time, so that piqued our curiosity. It became a puzzle we needed to find all the pieces to, so the record collecting began from that.

Being from a small town there weren’t too many guys DJing and the ones who were would only spin techno and other assorted wackness. So me and my friend Drew (who was an original member of Chaos Maths) started DJing at the local pub that catered to the student/alternative element in town. Another dude, Stu, who was Katalyst’s friend, stepped in to help with his supremely deep crates and it just grew from there.

DJ K: Your crew ‘Chaos Maths’ is a bit of a family affair. How did you guys get into making music?

DJ J: It’s a family affair ‘cause Banga is my older brother and Dave has been hanging out with us for ages. At the time only a handful of people in town listened to Hip-Hop/Soul/Jazz etc, so we all used to bond over that. ‘Chaos Maths’ actually started one night after Drew and I DJ’d at the pub. Dave and Banga were there and they’d been writing rhymes and Banga and Drew messed with some production, so someone said we should start a crew. I don’t know who said it… Drew maybe? Anyway, that was our first step.

DJ K: I know we’ve talked about this a few times, but can you tell us the story about your neighbour back in Bathurst and how he turned you on to a lot of Australian music?

DJ J: Shannon (aka Grandmaster Fadopolis) our next door neighbour introduced us to his circle of friends who were all into this music. Between the [members of Chaos] Maths we had a healthy collection of Hip-Hop material and all these guys who were a few years older than us had rare groove stuff that sired that 90’s Hip Hop sound. Around this time Shannon was doing a jazz show on the local community station and could access their collection which included the heroes of that genre like Col Nolan, Galapagos Duck, Don Burrows and so on… I didn’t know what to expect before listening to it. The concept of Aussie funk was such an unknown quantity. Then we found out it kicks ass. To make the circle even more complete, Bathurst was the hometown of a label called ‘Bat Jazz’ which blew my mind. Who knew this staff was coming from our own backyard?

DJ K: So why an Aussie breaks mix? What led to you deciding to make this kind of mix?

DJ J: Q Bert’s first few mixes were a big influence, particularly after becoming more familiar with all of the little pieces of music that went into making those mixes. I just thought I’d do an all-Aussie mix because no one else had done it and the idea was really appealing. I had all the building blocks in my collection and it was a way of re-packaging music for people who otherwise might not ever have heard all these great tunes. Although it was a pain to put together, it ended up being a huge amount of fun.

DJ K: I know you have quite a bit of Australian music in your collection: what’s your favourite Aussie record and why?

DJ J: Evolution by Tamun Shud or Big Red Rock by Ayers Rock are probably my favourite. You couldn’t even classify either of those records as Jazz or Funk. It’s more psyched out surf rock with big funk influences and dusty drum breaks all over the place.

DJ K: Word.

Thanks for the chat Jodes.
Keep digging!

And here's the link to download the mix, for a very, very limited time.