Hi!, Who are you?
Most people reading this know me as Jauz, but my real name is Sam. I’ve been making all kinds of electronic music as Jauz for over ten years now, and have run my label Bite This! Since 2018.
What’s your ethos?
The goal and “tagline” for the Jauz project has always been “Music Has No Boundaries.” I grew up listening to so many different styles of music and always would bounce between polar opposite styles and sounds based on my mood or the situation. Early on, I spent much time as a producer hyper-focused on making just one genre, Dubstep, and ended up frustrated and unhappy. When I was finally able to remind myself of who I was at my core and allowed myself to explore all of the different possibilities that there were in the dance music world- that’s when things began to click. My goal has always been to help broaden the horizons of people who are listening to my music, experiencing my shows, or seeing me at a festival.
Tell us your origin story…
As I started to say above, my musical palette growing up was all over the place. In my early years, I listened to everything from Bay Area hip-hop and rap, bands such as Linkin Park, and all the way to artists like Basshunter and DJ Scooter. When I was eleven or twelve though, I found Metallica. I ended up picking up a guitar and throwing myself into the metal and hardcore world. I was convinced that I would end up playing guitar in a band. I tried starting multiple bands, but it never really panned out. One day, one of my buddies showed me a video of someone making hip-hop beats on their computer, all by themself- that was the lightbulb moment for me. It just so happened that right around that time, many of my friends and peers were getting into dubstep and electronic music as a whole- so the transition from metal to dubstep seemed like a no-brainer to me. From that point on, I kind of knew exactly what I wanted to do.
Where are you based? Tell us about your local scene.
I live in Los Angeles, and so does my team, so we consider the LA-area home base. The scene here is extremely vibrant and has a long history of being one of the best places for electronic music in the United States. Not only do you have the legends Brownies & Lemonade playing a foundational role in building the scene, but Night Bass, OWSLA, and so many other labels who are instrumental in holding it down with various monthly events.
Do you have a specific sound or vibe?
You could ask 20 different fans of mine, and they would probably have 20 different answers. That was always the goal with the Jauz project anyway- to always keep the kids guessing, and never feel like I’m “pigeonholed” into one specific sound or the other. I treat my record label the same way, as well. We have a lot of intention behind finding artists that fit the ethos of our label, not by their sound or style, but by how they carry themselves as artists and people. Part of running a label is being a fan of music, and I’m a fan of so many different styles of dance music it wouldn’t be fair to just choose one or two styles.
Do you have a regular artist roster – who can we see releasing with you?
Short answer – no. When I first started Bite This!, my goal was to kind of be the opposite of most of the labels I saw at the time; that meant putting out as many songs, by as many different artists, as fast as possible. We did an incredible job with that, putting out hundreds of records from artists all over the globe. But as time went on and the label grew, I realised that we had hit a point of diminishing returns and I didn’t feel as if we were providing enough value to the artists who were trusting us with their music. I always look at the label as if I’m an artist who’s signed to the label, not the guy running it. From that perspective, I knew that we had to make some big changes. That being said, I still don’t believe in trying to “lockdown” artists or anything like that.
The main change is you’ll be seeing a lot fewer releases from the label, with much more intention behind each one. I hope that means that artists will want to continue releasing with us and become “part of the label”, but it’s not a prerequisite at all. Again, as an artist, I want to be able to do whatever it is I want with my music. So as a label owner, all I want to do is empower that freedom.
We just put out our inaugural “we’re back” EP, from Italian producer Albert Breaker. It’s a super sick 3-track of bass-heavy tech house with a lot of South American flavour. Albert has released on the label multiple times and it was important to me to start things back up with someone who had been part of the family before. Up next, we have an insane EP from one of my favourite new American bass acts named Edison Cole. His style of heavy bass music is right up my alley, and I think the kid is insanely talented. I have a feeling you’ll be hearing his name quite a bit around UKF in the near future.
Tell us about your A&R process.
For the longest time, and still quite a bit now, we’ve had so many insane demos flood into our demo email account and submission website via Label Radar. I know as an up-and-comer how many of those damn emails you have to send, so it always feels cool when we strike gold and can tell some kid, “Hey man, all of that effort was worth it.”
Also, I love being able to give spotlights to kids who people have probably never heard of before – I feel like that’s one of the main responsibilities you have as a record label. That said, times have changed a lot since I started Bite This!. I’ve started finding tons of insane talent just by scrolling through Instagram Reels – something I used to hate doing, but I’ve kind of programmed my algorithm to consistently show me relatively unknown, crazy talented up-and-comers. Posting your WIPs on IG reels/TikTok is kind of the new version of how we used to post WIPs on SoundCloud back in the day, and part of kind of restarting the label was also understanding that the way we should be “digging through the crates” should reflect the new landscape of music.
What makes you different from other labels?
I feel like I’ve touched on a lot of the things that I feel make us stand out as a dance label, but the one thing I haven’t mentioned yet is our partnership with OneRPM.
They’re the largest independent music distribution company on the planet, and when we met with them we realised that our goals and visions aligned very naturally. It’s been so awesome to have the resources and firepower of what could be considered a major label but with the freedom to operate exactly as we see fit & I’m so appreciative of them and their belief in us as a label.
What does it take to run a bass music label in 2024?
A whole lot more than it used to! Things have changed so much since 2018- I would argue mostly for the better. I think there’s never been a better time to be discovered as a new artist, and truly be able to “blow up overnight”. So the main thing, as I mentioned above, is not sticking to our old ways just because they worked in the past – but trying to understand and embrace the world in which we live now. We can’t just put out a record on the label, send it around a bit, post it on socials, and call it a day. There’s a lot more that goes into every single, EP, etc. which is why I’m so grateful to have a team like OneRPM behind us to help give every artist we work with the absolute greatest chance for success.
What have you got coming up that we should look out for?
I just released a new song, ‘Higher For Your Love’, that I’m absolutely obsessed with at the moment. It’s a super melodic drum-and-bass tune, and the vocals on it are just unreal man. I’m putting out a new song every month this year, so there’s plenty more to look out for as well!
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