Max HeyraudNatMac sat down with jungle contemporary maverick Tim Reaper before his two-date run in Cork and Galway this weekend.
This weekend brings one of the most exciting link-ups in Ireland’s underground scene as Tim Reaper arrives for a two-leg weekender. He plays Cork on Friday with RiseUp and Outlaw’d, and Galway on Saturday with Ar Ais Aris.
The Cork date is a special reunion. RiseUp and Outlaw’d spent a large part of the early Outlaw’d series working closely together before Outlaw’d moved to a new venue. This show brings both collectives back under the same roof again. It also marks fifteen years of RiseUp, with Jonesy celebrating the milestone by bringing the RiseUp sound system into the PAV for the very first time. NatMac from Outlaw’d says she is buzzing to see this collaboration return and feels the timing could not be better.
Friday reflects the spirit of Cork’s scene, which thrives on collaboration and shared community. The night features a stacked Cork lineup with Jonesy back-to-back with NatMac followed by 2hats1USB. To champion new talent, the collectives also opened a community competition inviting DJs to submit mixes for the opening slot. The winner, Ultrapollen, will open the show on Friday.
The Galway leg takes place on Saturday at the Commercial Boat Club, where Tim Reaper joins the Ar Ais Aris crew. The night features Ambit and Poppy, and the event is already completely sold out, which guarantees an intimate and high-energy session by the water.
That seven-and-a-half-hour Resident Advisor mix was incredible, especially hearing some deeper cuts from your collection. What was your creative process in putting together such a long-form journey, and what mindset were you in when selecting tracks people might not usually associate with “Tim Reaper”?
I wanted to dedicate like an hour or so each to a different style of music that I felt like I could do some justice in trying to represent, so I sort of split it into sections like bass/club music, 140/dubstep/grime, techno, hard drum, atmospheric jungle, 100 bpm slower stuff, and minimal d&b, and just went into it thinking that somehow it’ll all come together in a seamless way!
Long sets give a different kind of storytelling. How do you sustain energy and narrative across something that is extended? Was there a particular direction or feeling you wanted listeners to move through?
I was initially thinking that the most obvious/logical way to do it would be to go from slowest to fastest, but then thought that it might be more interesting to work my way up to faster stuff and then switch back down, which is when it went from atmospheric jungle into 100 bpm tracks, using a Boymerang track that changes tempo during the track.
You’ve always blended genres in a really fluid way. How important is genre-bending to your identity as an artist, and how do you decide when to push the boundaries versus stay rooted in classic jungle energy?
I guess for me, now more so than ever, I’m quite keen on not necessarily leaning too heavily on the pre-existing tropes in jungle wholeheartedly in everything I do, mainly because having done it for so long, I feel like it might be a bit more exciting for me (& maybe others!) to try and bring in other influences/sounds into what I’m doing.
Your latest EP explored a slower, more spacious tempo than what many people might expect from you. What drew you to that creative shift, and what were you trying to express through that different pace?
I think with the slower tempo stuff I make, the approach to musicality is a lot different; melodies feel like they can roll a lot smoother, and the fact that I’m not mainly a DJ of those slower styles means I can more easily approach production of that music without a DJ mindset that would influence me to potentially be a bit more conventional in track structure/arrangement.
Sound system culture is at the heart of so much jungle. How important is the sound system to you when you’re planning a set, and do you think it deserves the same level of recognition that people usually reserve for the “headliner”?
I think it can usually influence me in what I play if I feel like certain bassier tracks may resonate a bit better in the setting. Like when Sully and I got to play on the Valve sound system in October, I went in knowing that I could play stuff with much more focus on bass because the space would accommodate that better than a regular setting/sound system.
You’ve played all over the world, but Ireland connects deeply with UK-influenced sounds. Do you find yourself approaching Irish crowds differently, or is there something specific about the Irish scene that you enjoy or tap into?
Tbh, I’ve not been able to play Ireland that often! I play to a fair amount of Irish people in the rest of the UK, though, and I do notice they have a much more upfront and unashamed energy in the way they party, to put it politely, haha.
When it comes to crate digging and finding those deeper cuts, what does “digging” mean for you now—is it online, vinyl, unreleased bits, or just intuition?
Digging at the moment is very much online and has been for most of my music career, because when buying vinyl I’m very specific in scope of what I want to get on vinyl (mainly oldskool jungle), so it’s less about stumbling upon “happy accident” finds in shops and more so about keeping track of what becomes available out of the wants list I’d built up over years. When it comes to digital, a lot of it is through Bandcamp, digging through whole back catalogues of artists/labels and keeping on top of new things coming from people I already enjoy.
Jungle’s global momentum feels massive right now. What do you think is driving this moment, and how do you see your role within that wider movement?
Somehow, it’s managed to gain a real connection with a younger generation of ravers, which was something that did not really exist when I was first starting out in jungle, but I think acts like 4AM Kru & Nia Archives are able to make and perform jungle in a way that makes it much more accessible and appealing to a wider range of people, which has captivated such a huge amount of new fans for jungle. I think my role in that has mainly been through running Future Retro London for 5 years, where I gave people an access point to easily discover a large amount of the talent in the newskool jungle scene, as well as being able to do jungle sets in festivals and clubs that would not usually have jungle DJs booked.
For emerging producers and DJs in scenes like Ireland who are influenced by your sound, what advice would you give for carving out their own identity while still honouring the roots?
Make sure that the focus on community and connecting with peers is always present in whatever you do, and it should hopefully foster a level of connection & fulfilment that keeps you going regardless of how successful you become in what you do. Also, never lose sight of the reasons why you started doing what you do!
