Hungary for the Power

With one foot rooted in the earliest beginnings of house and techno and the other in the tougher, more highly polished sound of the modern era, Jay Lumen's productions typically bring a touch of old school class to the Beatport generation. Currently riding high on the release of 'Dark Rooms' for Octopus Records, his releases have landed on labels from Green Velvet's Relief Records to Suara, Saved and Tronic.

Headlining Egg presents on Saturday 26th March, where he'll be joined by Ramiro Lopez, Macromism and Emery Warman, we caught up with Lumen to talk influences, big breaks and stroking dolphins...

More info and tickets here.

Can you tell us about growing up in Budapest. What is the dance music scene like there? Has it grown in the time that your own career has?

Honestly I love to live here. The night life has been great since my childhood, so it wasn't for me to difficult to find a good party. Actually, we have many great festivals and club events here and in the whole country as well. You can find the best parties, it doesn't matter what your music taste is. The quality underground scene is so strong, so I think that if you wanna visit the city you will find a nice place for hanging at night.

How did you get into electronic music, both as a DJ and producer? Who were you looking up to at the start?

I went to music school for eight years, so this was the first push for me. At the start I was listening to lots of dusty old school techno and house music from the end of '80s and the early '90s.

You know, the golden ages of dance music when everybody just tried to find cool and quality sounds. I also started to check proper techno DJs like Jeff Mills, Steve Stoll, the early sounds of Richie Hawtin, Adam Beyer, Carl Cox, Sven Väth and many others as well. Of course, I was listening to proper house music as well, just like almost everything like breakbeat, drum and bass, ambient and symphonic orchestra music as well. I'm almost still the same nowadays. I think it's important for a DJ and producer. It keeps me and my ears fresh.

What was your first big break which helped you to break onto the international circuit and how did it happen?

Honestly, I can't tell you one break exactly. I just do what I really love and maybe that's what the people feel when I'm in the DJ booth or when they check my tunes. Maybe I can tell you some of my shows, recorded DJ sets or tunes what were my milestones, but who can be sure what the real break was? I think I was lucky as in the second year of my career I got my first international request, which is really fast as my agent said.

Stylistically, you're moved around quite a bit. One of favourite tracks of yours was 'Get Ready', which was old school hip-house meets speed garage! Have you settled on techno now? There are a lot of references to it now on your social media!

I always loved and played many techno tunes in my DJ sets, as well as tech-house. In the last few years I feel techno is a little bit more fresh and I get more ideas in this sound. It doesn't mean that I don't play tech-house tunes anymore. For example, when I play on the Space Miami Terrace I spin more groovy sound tech-house sets as that's what I feel there. But when I play at a darker warehouse party or festival you can be sure that I play a dark techno set. Everything depends on my actual feeling and the resonance of the venue and audience. But basically, you are right, I prefer to play techno oriented DJ sets. Thanks for the feedback for my 'Get Ready' tune. I always love to create something new from old school sounds. That's why electronic music is so fantastic. It's always renewing itself.

Your date at Egg LDN is at the end of your Dark Rooms tour. How has the rest of the tour been so far? What are you most looking forward to about coming here?

The whole tour is amazing. I've had great shows in Argentina, Panama and the USA, including WMC/Miami Music Week. All the parties were really great. I'm so excited to play at Egg London again, I've had many nice parties there. The crowd is always so crazy.

Open your iTunes and tell us what the first, fifth and tenth tracks are in Recently Added. Be honest.

Honestly, I actually really love physical formats for listening, CDs and vinyl. I'm much more a collector than a simple listener. So most recently I bought the 25th anniversary limited edition of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and 'Bad' albums. I bought also Hans Zimmer's 'Inception' and 'Interstellar' soundtrack albums.

We recently saw a picture of your stroking a dolphin. What else is on your bucket list to do before you die?

Yes, it was amazing. Dolphins are very smart and sensitive animals. Hah, I don't know. I don't have a real bucket list to be honest. When I was child I dreamt about the DJ life and luckily I've had the chance to realize it. But I always try to get many experiences when I'm touring, to see nice views and experience different cultures and different people. Maybe I have one thing, I'd like to meet with John Williams composer for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, etc. I'd love to to see how he creates his original motion picture scores. That man is a real composer genius.