Interview w Joe Tambo

Chicago has always been renowned for it’s music scene and has in part been held responsible for distinctive forms of blues and the emergence of house music. Chicago’s EDM scene is one of the biggest in the world right now but speaking to Illinois-based producer Joe Tambo it seems that it may have become a parody of itself “In a desperate attempt to be new and exciting it has worn itself out to be a cliche faster than I've seen any genre go. I mean the absurd amount of people who take on the uniform neon hats, sleeveless tanks, and cargo shorts. The majority of this attendance doesn't come for the artists set to perform, but to find the female counterpart of the "superdancebro"” Sounding almost defeated he adds “Honestly I feel bad about the whole scene because there are so many up and coming artists that it'll be nearly impossible for anyone to stand out pretty soon. Myself included.”

In an era where many artists feel disenfranchised and establishing your own talent and individuality can become a battle it’s hard to constantly feel inspired and to locate a source of motivation “I would consider my main source of inspiration the fear of not living up to my potential otherwise. Alternatively, my inspiration comes from my brothers lyrical ability”. Working alongside his brother is where Joe’s talent shines, despite the lack of releases stemming from this project I was given a sneak preview of what is to come over Skype, separately as artists they may seem to be an amalgamation of many different styles together they just work and you can clearly see the creative energy that bounces between them even through a screen. “This summer I plan to release my brothers first album, it’s going to feature original content with a tone to ‘wake’ society. The featured song on the album is called ‘ANTS’. It samples a speech from the movie A Bugs Life, where the main point is about “keeping those ants in line””. The relationship between music and politics has always been an area of intrigue, artists have often used their position to promote socially-conscious beliefs from The Specials to The King Blues but within this genre, often seen as the most hedonistic of styles it makes the message that much more impactful. “What it means to be awake is being aware of what’s going on behind the scenes of our political agendas, sometimes hidden, instead of being forcefully fed what you should be afraid and concerned about from various news outlets.” The culture that has arisen around the idea of “staying woke” is one that means not being placated although the term has been robbed of it’s value as it grew in popularity and MTV removed it’s political connotations branding it as a trendy piece of slang. Critics use it against those who speak it, suggesting it implies more of a lack of self-awareness. “That was always the meme, when people first started saying "woke" it was the most popular and dumbest of hippies because smart hippies are not popular”

When it comes to the production of music everybody has their own ideas about how it “should” be done and what is the correct way to create but rarely is the process that simple “Between vinyl and electronic DJ, I personally don’t see one superior to the other. Purists will continue to cling to vinyl because beat matching is done by ear, however new and upcoming artists will ignore this stigma and rightfully so, because we should be working with the tools available to us. It wouldn’t make sense to not utilize the technology if we have it”. Speaking on the issue of the varying genres within the electronic scene Joe said “I think the vapor sub genre doesn’t get much needed attention, but then again the attention it doesn’t have is what makes the sub genre so unique”. Vaporwave is characterized by a nostalgic fascination revolving around retro cultural aesthetics from the 80s up to the 2000s featuring a satirical preoccupation with consumer capitalism, it originated within certain niche yet passionate areas of the Internet in the early 2010s. On future enterprises, he states “I’d really love to play ultra in Japan, mainly so I could bounce back in America and take it from there.” Ultra is marketed as “the worlds top EDM festival” and takes place in Tokyo in September. To hear more from Joe visit

https://soundcloud.com/tambosound