Caden Jester Premieres New Single “Fade” With Q&A [TMN Interview]

Caden Jester
Fade (feat. Butterjack)

This Sunday evening Caden Jester from California is taking over the dojo. From his home in San Diego he has cooked up some quality tunes, the latest of which you get to hear today for the first time. Not only do we have the premiere of “Fade” with Butterjack, but we got to ask Caden a few questions as well.

“Fade” is a poppy, dembow driven original that shows off Caden’s crisp, accessible style. A lot of dance producers are making a push for popular radio, but not all of them can do it right. Caden’s keen creative sense is something you don’t find in someone so young. Only time will tell just how far he will go. Enjoy the exclusive first listen to “Fade” now and get to know Caden Jester before everyone else does!

TMN: How did you originally get into music?

My dad was a music producer and a rapper growing up, and when I was about 9 or 10 years old he introduced me to Garageband and that spawned my love for making music. He showed me the ropes and got me on the right direction and I took everything he taught me and expanded over that over the years. I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today without my dad.

TMN: Who were some of your favorite acts growing up?

T-Pain, Akon, Pharrell, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, Ne-Yo, Timbaland… I had a very hip hop based childhood lol.

TMN: Has being from San Diego shaped your music in any way?

I’ve grown up surrounded by Latin culture. I love Latin food, music, countries, etc… It has definitely influenced my music. Not so much my released stuff, but you will definitely be able to hear the latin influences in my upcoming music.

TMN: What do you enjoy more, making originals or remixes?

Ohh definitely originals, 100%. I’m no longer doing any remixes. Nowadays I’m trying to brand myself less of a “producer” or a “dj” and more of an “artist”, if that makes sense… Cause at some point I will be releasing music with my own vocals, unlike anything I’ve previously released, and I feel like that’s the creative direction I should be taking for that to all make sense.

TMN: How has your sound developed over the past couple of years?

When I first started getting a couple hundred thousand plays on Soundcloud I was making a lot of bouncy deep house stuff, which at the time was pretty unique. My main inspiration at that time was Disclosure, but even then I think my sound was a bit different from theirs (although, almost every blog and Youtube channel would call me “the next Disclosure”, which I really didn’t care much for lol). My current released music is basically just a more poppy version of that. My unreleased stuff, however, is very R&B/pop and has a lot of latin and african influences. I’m actually working with both latin and african artists, and I’ve made some of my best music yet with those people.

TMN: If you could collaborate with one vocalist, who would it be?

That’s so hard because there are so many vocalists I absolutely love. One that I came across recently that absolutely blew me away was a guy named Will Heard. He released an acoustic EP which I listen to more than the “original” version because of how amazing he sounds on it.

TMN: What does the rest of the year look like for you?

I’ve produced a couple tracks for Butterjack, the vocalist on Fade, and at least one of those should be released sometime this year. Then after the release of Fade, there is this R&B track I’m featuring on with a guy named Bailey Graham and Christopher Blake called “Penthouse”, which will most likely be releasing sometime shortly after Fade… I also have a very latin-inspired track with a duo called SYON and a vocalist who lives in Kenya named WillX BOY. That track is in Spanish, English, and Swahili. I also have a million other projects going. I’m super excited to show everyone all this music I’ve been working on. I definitely think it will make up for the lack of releases I’ve had this year.

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[Moombahton] ShiShi – Look Me In The Eye (Feat. BAER)

ShiShi
Look Me In The Eye (Feat. BAER)

The producer ShiShi has been all around the world growing up. With that being known it should come as no surprise that his music has influences from all across continents. Just take his new song “Look Me In The Eye” featuring BAER as an example.

From the get-go you feel as though you’re not going to get the typical music experience. BAER’s infectious performance is beyond fantastic, leading the track forward from the start with grace. ShiShi already has the dembow going, but moves to full on moombah with the drop. He brings his own flash and flair to the song, establishing his own space within the genre. He doesn’t keep things quite so straightforward either, so have a listen and see where ShiShi takes you. Want a copy of the song? Grab it here today.

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[Get Crunk] Friday Party Playlist (Vol 260)

Friday is back. It comes back every week, but we appreciate it to the fullest degree when it returns. With every Friday comes the Party Playlist, a batch of free downloads taken over the past week from talented acts from all across the world. No genre limits, just good music that has been released with a charge of $0 for the download. Whether you’re just a streamer or you collect tracks like us, you’ll be able to enjoy what we have for you here. This week we’ve got records from Flapo, Kaptain, El Speaker, Prismo, Rad Cat, HEKLER and many more. Enjoy all twelve and have a fun, yet safe weekend!

’Flapo – Us Feat. Josh Rubin’
’Kaptain – Never Will (Revamp)’
’Krewella – Love Otta me (NextRO & El Speaker Remix)’
’Prismo – Bright *Your EDM Premiere*’
’a lie’
’Kendrick Lamar – LOVE. (Xie flip)’
’What So Not x Burns – Trust (Convex x Fransis Derelle Remix)’
’French Horn Rebellion – Presentation (prod. Champagne)’
’Los XL – Bring It Back’
’cardi b – bodak yellow (rad cat remix)’
’BARENHVRD – Everything To Lose ft. LVNKY’
’HEKLER – CYBORGASM’
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[Electronic] AT LAST – Summertime EP

It’s the Summer, so it would make sense for someone to come out with an EP called Summertime. The someone who did that is AT LAST out of New York City. This independently released EP was put out a couple weeks ago, so it is currently up for grabs on digital stores. Where it will end up is your digital library.

Summertime is complete with three original singles taking from synth pop and moombah. “This Low” kicks things off with a vibrant display of musicality that has a whole lot to offer your Summer festivities. Next comes the moombah inspired title track that brings 8-bit sounds together with a dembow beat. “G.M.A.C.” closes out the project with a heavenly vocal performance that will stick in your mind long after you’re done playing this EP. Throw it on repeat, grab a copy; most importantly, enjoy.

’This Low’
’Summertime’
’G.M.A.C’
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Donkong Join Us In The Dojo With New EP [TMN Interview]

DONKONG
No Boy ft. Agent Lexie & Zorro (PREVIEW)

Distance is meaningless if you’re willing to make things work. Despite distance, Donkong was born. The duo comes out of Germany with unique dance-hall style influenced tracks that aren’t what you would expect to be coming out of Europe.

Donkong’s most recent project shares this sound. The No Boy EP features two singles, each with their own distinct sounds that show off the duo’s ability to be diverse. Upon listening to the EP, we had Donkong come join us in the dojo so we could get to know them and their recent EP a little bit better. Now, you get to enjoy all of these goodies for yoruself, so stream the title track preview while you read through our questions with Thomas and Joe.

TMN: Thanks for joining us, guys! Congratulations on your “No Boy” EP. How did the idea for this one come about?

THOMAS: Thank you very much. No Boy started as collaboration with our friend Zorro. He did percussion and I built the main synth that sounds so much like a brass sample that we could have saved some time on by just picking a brass sound. Nevertheless it was our first attempt to do Breakbeat. Same with Ammunition – we tried to combine a more traditional dancehall vibe with bass sounds. We’re quite experimental and always try to do things we haven’t done before.

TMN: You’re known for your innovative, genre-inclusive sound which seems to span a wide variety of musical influences. How did you both work to hone the “Donkong” sound?

THOMAS: We’re constantly discussing it and over the time there seem to be certain sounds that reappear. We still think the variety of what we do is too big. So we recently decided to do no more DNB… we have a DNB song coming after No Boy. What a coincidence.

TMN: Can you tell us a little about how you started making music together?

JOE: We live 500km apart from each other. The first time we got together in the studio and wrote “Jawz”, Thomas got sick. So he ended up on my couch and we Skyped every other hour to talk about the song and new ideas. Even though our first session was kind of a mess, Jawz turned out to be one of our best and original tunes so far.

TMN: What’s the scene like in Germany? Does the music go down a treat?

The scene is very small and that is also why we had a hard time playing gigs over the last years. Electro and Dubstep went down hill and suddenly all the cool parties disappeared. Then Hip-hop DJs started playing Trap, so no need for extra Trap parties. Germany is Techno land and everything that’s electronic but not Techno seems to be „not cool“ enough on the big scale. This seems to be slightly changing right now. Hopefully we and our friends can help with that.

TMN: So tell us a bit about how you found the process of making this body of work. Did you find that the inspiration flowed as soon as you hit the studio? Or was it tricky to pinpoint the specific sound for this one?

THOMAS: I guess it’s more about what we avoided to do with these songs. We don’t wanted them to have a typical club arrangement. Hopefully it makes a big difference for normal listeners. The sound is a combination of elements we also use in other songs, but we tend to build new sounds that act similar instead of re-using the old ones. Very often you start with an idea to make something specific and end up with a completely different song. Luckily these two ended up like what we had in mind, but it was a very long journey which took us over a year.

TMN: You’ve teamed up with Feral Is Kinky, Agent Lexie and Zorro for the EP. How did you all end up working together?

THOMAS: Like I said, „No Boy“ started with being in the studio with Zorro and having the basic idea for it. Then I met Lexie on one of Marten Hørgers‘ legendary BBQs, played her some beats and later on, while being pregnant, she recorded the vocals for it.

JOE: We haven’t met Feral in person yet, but she was working with some friends of us (Symbiz). Her style and voice was very unique, so we contacted her and asked her if she likes to work with us – sometimes it’s that easy.

TMN: You’re known for your excellent remixing skills (reworking tracks for the likes of Major Lazer, Krafty Kuts, Hudson Mohawke and TNGHT). If you could pick any artist, who would be top of your remix list?

Normally you want to remix a song that you think lacks something- or at least doesn’t fit your set. So it’s hard to pick an artist, because the people we admire tend to do very good songs, so our job gets a lot harder. Most of the time a remix that just takes the original to another tempo is quite boring. It probably would be something very different from our style, something with vocals preferably.

TMN: Can you tell us a fun fact about the Donkong project that fans may not necessarily have guessed?

The biggest fun fact is that we’re actually two people. Most of the time people think Donkong is one person.

TMN: What’s next for Donkong? Do you have any more musical treats for us in store this year?

There’s a lot to come. There will be some more free treats in the next weeks. A VIP mix of our single „Brilliant“ and a song with Marten Hørger. And we will bring more own original stuff as soon as possible. Stay tuned!

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[Get Crunk] Friday Party Playlist (Vol 251)

It’s the Friday of EDC, so we’re going to turn up with some amazing tracks that may just be hotter than the Las Vegas desert. Everyone, no matter if you’re out in Nevada or not, stay hydrated as the heatwave rolls in. While you do that, enjoy some amazing tunes from some of our favorite producers. Tracks this week come to us from Oshi, Black Tiger Sex Machine, Yntendo, Tiesto x KSHMR, Brillz and a super hot one from Decadon to close things out. As usual, all twelve are available for free, so grab copies of the ones you love. Enjoy the weekend, stay safe and #danceirresponsibly.

’HtPkt & Ninski (ft. Daniel Landers) “Set It Free” (PRMD DSCVR)’
’Plvtinum – If You’re Gonna Leave’
’Oshi – heal you (ft. courtney bennett)’
’JEANIE – Doomsday’
’Black Tiger Sex Machine – Rezorecta VIP’
’Yntendo – Got Some’
’The Last Gunslinger –
Journeyman’

’Tiësto & KSHMR Feat. Talay Riley – Harder’
’Munchi – Bek Den Bo Block’
’Lil Uzi Vert – XO TOUR Llif3 (CYBRPNK HACKS IT)’
’21 Savage – Red Opps (Brillz & 2Scoops Remix)’
’Savoy and Bright Lights – The Wolf (Decadon Remix)’
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[Get Crunk] Friday Party Playlist (Vol 250)

Take a nice big deep breathe. We’re at our 250th volume of our Friday Party Playlist. Over the years it has been lead by various writers, each bring a host of free downloads each week to give you for the weekend. Now, I will admit, each week we’re paranoid we double counted a volume, or miscounted in some way, but regardless if that’s true or not, we’re celebrating 250 now with a bang! Usually we bring a dozen songs, but we’ve got a couple of extra goodies for you. This week works come from Ashdown, Phiilo, WHIPPED CREAM, CRAY, Varien, TWO OWLS, Apashe and more! Get them while they’re hot and have a great weekend.

’VNDL – Deserve It ft Kyle Goldstein’
’Ashdown – Looking Back’
’Phiilo – Keep On’
’Teknicolor – Tonga’
’TOBYNOH – Change (feat. Ovcoco With Steel)’
’Fabian Mazur – Sun Goes Down (ReauBeau Remix)’
’Rae Sremmurd – Swang (WHIPPED CREAM Re
Whip)’
’Tomboy (CRAY Remix)’
’Savoy x Bright Lights – The Wolf (Varien Remix)’
’DJ Susan – Sender (Original Mix)’
’ADTR – Have Faith In Me (TWO OWLS Remix)🦉🦉’
’Pierce – Ducati’
’Apashe – Day Dream Feat. Splitbreed (Krimer Remix)’
’Dodge & Fuski – Comeback (Apashe Remix)’
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