Persona: Jay-You

May 15, 2008 8:35 PM
by chipi [email]

Steeped in years of under-aged clubbing and a love of good music, Jonathan Lledo stands as a conscientious example of the DJ. Promoting as a Kendall git with late clique The Firm, Lledo met and later partnered with fellow entrepreneur, promoter and DJ Diego Martinelli with Futuremob productions. Over the years they've been responsible for some of your favorite local parties like Alter Ego and Scene Wolf, as well as a slew of landmark Miami DJ events.

What began as a hobby for a young, hip-hop devoted Lledo, has now evolved into a more versatile passion, extending his abilities into the electronic music realm. Launching him into opening slots with artists such as Lee Burridge, James Zabiela and Dirtybirds Christian Martin and Worthy, Jonathan Lledo's profile is on the rise. Reflecting on past pleasures and future potential, Jay-You gives CoolJunkie a peek into his plans and revels in the good old days, when 20 bucks was better than a fake ID and a great burger was just a walk across the dance floor away.

Name: Jonathan Lledo aka Jay-You aka Johnny Utah

Age: 25.

Occupation: I'm a DJ, event producer and good boyfriend.

Where do you come from? Born and raised in the county of Dade.

What's your favorite place in Miami? Favorite place to hang out? Favorite place to just be? On my couch, probably.

What do you wish Miami had more of? I wish Miami had more creative parties. Parties where you can go and be open-minded about the music they're playing. In the 90s, when I was growing up here, we didn't necessarily know the music that was being played but we could still dig it for what it was.

Less of? Less fi-fi-ness. Less open-format. Less Bob Sinclar (laughs).

Where do you run away to? LA...which I guess isn't much better in terms of fi-fi-ness.

What's your favorite party or night in Miami? For a long time it was Takeout Tuesday's at Buck15. As far as weekly parties, I haven't really been feeling anything on a consistent basis.

What party do you miss? The Alter Ego party we used to do was definitely one of the most fun parties ever. It was every Friday at Cafeteria, every week was incredible. It managed to not be serious but still have integrity. It was a sloppy, good time. Also back in the day, Home Cookin at Groove Jet was definitely a great one. It was one of my favorite parties to go to. It was just great hip-hop, you could grab a burger and you'd see celebrities there. It was a very cool vibe, a good locals party.

What is musically exciting to you right now? Hip-hop will always be where my heart is, but the state it's in right now is not what it used to be, obviously. With this techy, house movement, this minimal movement - what's exciting to me is a good deep groove. No cheap thrills. No crazy build up, however you want to word that. The thrill should be the song, not the build up to this one peak and then having to rebuild to that peak again with the next song. Just a good, solid, thick vibe throughout that just blows your fucking mind, thats what I think a good DJ is. Someone who doesn't need the cheap thrill to have the crowd going.

What was the first club you ever snuck into? Well, back in the day it wasn't so strict on the beach. When I was 15 or 16 years old the whole ID thing was a little more slack, so mostly I would pay 20 bucks and get in - no problem. I was in The Firm, we would throw these parties, but I was only 16. I remember I would go to parties at Amnesia with my older brother Jorge, sometimes Liquid - things were just a lot looser then.

What was your first DJ gig? It was the Cafeteria party, Alter Ego. That was the first real weekly gig I got. I couldn't tell you the first time I DJed though. Probably someones birthday party or something.

What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you while you were DJing? Oh man, probably something that's happened to every starting DJ out there - hitting eject on a CD that's playing. It's the drunken move from hell, the whole room just goes quiet. I think that's something that everyone goes through. One of the worst feelings in the world.

Is there a safe record that you go to in every set? There isn't really one record that I go to. I try to keep things unique in every set. What I've noticed is that what's safe is what's fun, people always want to have fun. The Dirty Bird crew puts out a lot of really fun records, things that people enjoy dancing to. It's not too much, it's deep enough to where it's not cheesy and it's a really healthy balance. It depends on every situation and what the room looks like though, I really wouldn't say there is ever one record to go to as a DJ. It's situation based.

Who are some of your favorite producers? Paul Rich is probably one of my favorites. Marcin Czubala, Claude VonStroke. I think Stryke's new album is a masterpiece. I think he's an amazing producer and talent, he's just a great musician.

Who are some of the local musicians that you think should get huge? Well, I would like to see guys that are already big, but not big in Miami yet for whatever reason come up. For example, Greg (Chinn), I feel he should play proper gigs in Miami. It's good to see that Laz (Lazaro Casanova) is playing proper gigs in Miami. Outside of that, Michael Louis is great, I'd like to see him get some due credit as well.

Name a goal of yours you've achieved recently. I just graduated from College. First one in my family, Mom is pretty proud.

What's new and exciting for Jay-You? Well Diego (Martinelli) and I are starting that Safe project which is definitely exciting. I think it's gonna build a lot of community in Miami. We've done a few projects in the past that we feel have definitely helped open peoples eyes in this city to something new, like our Richie Hawtin show last December for example. Things can get pretty stagnant here so we're doing our best to bring some more versatility to this town. We have Luca Bacchetti next Friday, a Dirty Bird show next Saturday, Matthew Dear in August...we've got a few big things coming up.

Safe? With that project we're hoping to build a tight nit community of people who are in it for the music and for the artist, none of this fi-fi bullshit we all have to deal with. Just something purely organic and purely for the music and nothing but the music. No tables with bottles, all about what it should be about it. It's basically a community service, I see it in the same way you'd view anything you do for the community without expecting compensation.

Click here to read more about Jay-You and download his mix.To see him in action, catch him in the main room at the Vagabond this Saturday, May 17th.