Uptown Magazine - Pezzner
Although Seattle producer/DJ/ digital composer Dave Pezzner has been making electronic music since 1992 with partner Bob Hansen under the moniker Jacob London, it wasn’t until he branched out on his own that he was able to craft his unique brand of forward-thinking house music.
Working exclusively together until a few years ago, both producers have now developed their own solo material. While that doesn’t mean they haven’t been collaborating as Jacob London - they have a new release coming out before the end of the year - it does give them freedom to work on tracks that don’t fit within the Jacob London sound. It also provides them with more room to explore their own ideas.
“For all those years, we never really collaborated with anyone else,” explains Pezzner over the phone from his home on the West Coast. “I didn’t even write any music on my own. It has only been the last four or five years that I have done music on my own.”
While Jacob London generated more attention than either member could have predicted, it did have its limitations.
“Doing music outside of the Jacob London project opens a lot of doors,” Pezzner says. “Jacob London is about a specific thing. It had its own niche, bringing all this glitch influence into house music and putting a funny twist on the whole thing. It’s sort of making fun of house at the same time. Now the door is pretty wide open and I can do a lot more.”
With releases on respected labels such as Om, Freerange Records, Physical Graffiti, Ghostly and Plastic City, along with an increasingly in-demand live show that will make its local debut at Symptom Technologies’ 13th anniversary party, Pezzner is part of the next wave of North American house producers, despite the fact he has been releasing music for decades.
Anchored from his home base in Seattle, he has quietly been releasing critically acclaimed records that have helped define the next phase of house music coming out of North America. Europe may set the tone for trends in electronic music, but it’s hard not to notice the impact that producers on this side of the pond have been making the last couple years. After feeling stagnant, redundant and derivative for a few years, house music is finally feeling thrilling again, thanks in part to producers like Pezzner pushing the envelope.
“I feel like it is an exciting time for house music. There was a long period where I felt there was a lull and there was nothing I was into,” Pezzner says. “For a while now though, I have been finding so much amazing music. I have really been liking the way things have been going in house music.”
Web Extras
Live set, tracks and mixes: www.soundcloud.com/pezzner
Jacob London: www.jacoblondon.com
PEZZNER
Nov. 13, 9:30 p.m., The Academy
As part of Symptom Technologies’ 13th anniversary bash w/ Nathan Zahn, Disco Kitty
