Let's Bounce

Uberjak’d, aka Ben Grzywacz, is sharing the love. The Aussie superstar DJ/producer has signed on to the Budweiser Made For Music Mentors initiative along with The Aston Shuffle – and he’s “super-excited”. “Even from early days, I’ve always had a bit of a passion for helping other people get that step up,” Grzywacz says of his role. He himself recalls how such acknowledgment “just gives you that motivation when you’re starting up”.

Indeed, Budweiser’s new platform (go to budweisermadeformusic.com.au) is orientated to those unsigned electronic dance music acts keen for professional feedback. What’s more, it’s launching with a competition that will see four contenders support The Aston Shuffle in Sydney this December – and, in 2015, participate in an extended studio workshop with both the Canberrans and Grzywacz. The ultimate winner will secure a private session with Universal Music Australia’s A&R team. “For anyone who’s an upcoming artist, that’s like ‘money can’t buy’ stuff!” Grzywacz enthuses. The Melbourne bounce stalwart hopes to hear a “variety” of EDM. And he urges female producers to “jump in”.

Grzywacz may be identified with the Melbourne bounce movement, his signature tune the cheeky rave Whistle Bounce, but he’s originally from Adelaide – and now resides in Sydney. Not that he’s home often, being in-demand internationally. Grzywacz has just returned from a European tour that wrapped in Ibiza.

Grzywacz wasn’t always into EDM. “I didn’t even listen to electronic music ‘til I was probably about 20-years-old!” he confesses. Grzywacz preferred “anything but house music.” (It wasn’t “hard enough”.) He dug West Coast hip hop – and then drum‘n’bass… When, at his Melbourne premiere, the fledgling DJ heard Joel Fletcher drop Orkestrated’s bounce anthem Donald Trumpet, he was “hooked”. Grzywacz has since disseminated his own ‘Uber bounce’ via Ministry Of Sound Australia (he’s also mixed The Annual 2014), Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak Records and Laidback Luke’s Mixmash Records.

Melbourne bounce continues to mutate. “It’s all about innovation,” Grzywacz says. “With any genre, there’s a lot of copycats, and there’s a lot of the same ideas regurgitated. But every day I still hear new tracks and new ideas and people doing new, different stuff… There’s a lot of people who are so excited about the sound and trying to push the boundaries.”

"With any genre, there’s a lot of copycats"

Grzywacz is really “pumped” about a collab with Laidback Luke, the Dutch electro-houser a longtime champion of bounce (and new talent), forthcoming on Bingo Players’ Hysteria imprint. “I was one of the guys on his [internet] forum back a few years ago – I used to go on there to try to learn as much as I could. The fact that I got to jump in and do a track with him is crazy.”

Grzywacz was fascinated by Luke’s discipline – and precision. “He’s so focused. He’s got a schedule and it’s down to the hour of what he does during the day – he’s crazy. I remember it was actually when we were making the tune – we met in his hotel room just before a gig at Pacha. He comes in, he’s like, ‘Alright, we’ve got three hours to make this tune’. Dead to the minute at the end of three hours, we finished it. He’s got it down.”

Next year Grzywacz intends to spend more time in the studio, possibly cutting an album – possibly. “Whenever I write a piece of music, I never think about the end game.”