One on One with Vibelicious
"House and techno music are not the same." Richmond DJ Jared Jones stresses.
"House is more melodic and soulful. Techno is fast beats that hit you upside the head," he laughs.
Jones, who operates under the name Vibelicious, classifies his music as house dance pop. Taking tracks apart and putting them back together with a club floor spin, Jones creates music that makes you want to get up and dance.
"When I tell people what I do, they say 'Oh, so you do techno.' I think the general public really doesn't understand the difference between techno and dance."
Jones started mixing tracks when he was in high school and quickly got into the production aspect of making music. In a short amount of time, Jones remixed for a wide variety of artists including RuPaul, Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, La Toya Jackson and many others.
His latest single is a cover of the 80s Johnny Hates Jazz classic "Shattered Dreams," featuring up and coming artist Dean Boudreau on vocals.
"That song worked out right from the start," he says. "We planned on a few other songs to cover, but after we did a short demo of 'Shattered Dreams,' both Dean and I knew it was the right song to do."
Jones explains that the process of mixing a song is somewhat of an elaborate process.
"When I work on a song, I try to pick out what really made the song originally connect with people. I make sure to keep that piece there and then add my style to make it current. I always have ideas of how the song should sound -- a bass line should be changed here or a melody changed there. I get a little OCD about it because I'm always listening and asking how I can make it better."
While Jones finds much of his inspiration from legendary dance figures like David Morales and Frankie Knuckles, whatever he is listening to at the time will influence his music.
"I've been listening to Jamiroquai lately. I would love to do anything with Lady Gaga. I'm really loving her right now. But my all time favorite is Michael Jackson. I don't care what anyone says."
Jones has a few projects coming up including collaborations with Adam Joseph and a remix on RuPaul's next single, 'Jealous of My Boogie.'
"That one's a departure from my usual style. It's very much a freestyle booty mix." he laughs.
As for the long term future of Vibelicious, Jones plans on promoting 'Shattered Dreams' to the masses and continue working on new material.
"I've had some awesome experiences because of doing this. I'd love for it to take off and be what I do for a living," he explains. "If it happens, it happens. I'm doing everything I can. But even if it's doesn't take off, I'll still do it because it's what I love to do."
Andrew Cothern is an avid music fan and will admit to not knowing the difference between house and techno music.
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