I draw from all the subgenres that make up house, techno, hip hop, jungle and drum & bass and mix them together! I guess you could say it's "club music" more than anything.
Jeremy "Sinistarr" Howard is an electronic music producer & DJ from Detroit, who has developed a unique reputation for innovation and influence in drum n bass / high tempo dance music. He's got a huge palette of musical influence and history to draw on in his production and his DJ sets, which carve their way through footwork, techno, electro, jungle, house etc.
We managed to get some time to chat while he's been on tour in Europe. Check out what's new!
Tell us about Detroit and how you feel connected to the city musically?
Detroit is a unique place, in the best way of saying it - as many have seen or read (and it's real, believe me), there is a LOT changing in the city, especially musically, for the better. I left Michigan for a little while (residing in Denver and San Diego), but what drew me back were the new connections that I made in music -- working with people in the city like Stingray, Oktored and Godfather have been a breath of fresh air creatively, and it's been really nice to have that type of diversity in how I work - it definitely starts to show in my DJ sets also.
Your music sits in that zone where it spans footwork, drum n bass, trap… etc. What do you say you make?
As of now, I can't really explain the genre in one word, so I tell everyone this: I draw from all the subgenres that make up house, techno, hip hop, jungle and drum & bass and mix them together! I guess you could say it's "club music" more than anything.
Are your DJ sets quite similarly eclectic?
I'd say more eclectic than the way I explained it! I tend to play a little bit of everything that the night calls for, plus more -- in short, I like to keep it as unpredictable as possible.
How are you finding the reaction is to higher tempos these days? Do you tend to sit at a general tempo in your sets or do you move around the place?
People are definitely responding more to it, whether it's dnb/jungle or footwork or techno; for me tempo-wise, I like to play anything from 130-180 bpm, so it's really fair (or unfair however you want to look at it) game to what you will hear in my sets.
What's on the horizon for you right now?
At the time of this interview I am in Europe (for the first time, believe it or not) playing some gigs... So far I've played Iceland and Germany, and have Poland and England next on the horizon. On the musical front, I am busy as usual!! I have some remixes coming out for Random Movement, 2nd Sun, and Maxo, all while working on new tunes with my vocalists Grimm (on our Civillion project), Ducky -- and some new joints for none60 and Sub:Lvl Audio. I have been busy working on some edits and such -- I might put that out for free, so be on the lookout for that. The Urban Tribe project (Stingray313, Moodymann, Carl Craig, Shake Shakir and myself) is still going strong, and we are steadily finishing things while our busy schedules call for it.