INTERVIEW: JIM RIDER presents The Final Straw

All Day I Dream has pioneered an imaginative blend of melodic house music that explores a spectrum of emotion and energy. On their latest release of 2022, The Final Straw EP by UK-based Jim Rider, the label showcases the heavier, more upbeat side of their sonic spectrum.

We have had the pleasure of interviewing him and this has been the result.

Can you tell us a little about your experience? Where are you from / how did you get into music? Was it all internet based? I’m an English DJ and producer originally from Birmingham but i’ve lived in London for the last 10+ years. My mum is a folk musician so she encouraged me to play drums as a child and I dabbled with various other instruments (not to much avail). I started DJing around the age of 17 just before going to university. When I moved to London I worked as a promoter at various clubs and festivals throughout most of my twenties and would DJ most weekends (the beauty of throwing the parties meant I got to support all the biggest names!). It wasn’t until my mid-twenties that i started to learn how to make music. In my spare time I studied at The School of Sound Recording (SSR) in Camden which is sadly no longer there. My course was focused around using Logic with a bit of composition stuff thrown in but i was soaking up a lot of the composition side by being constantly surrounded by all kinds of electronic music. That course and the fact I had a great tutor in the room with me was definitely a turning point. Who have been your main inspirations (both musical and in "life")? And how have they affected your sound? My mum was obviously my first musical influence but in terms of me moving from listening to bands to electronic music it was probably Soulwax/2manyDJs that opened my eyes to it around the age of 16/17. I listen to all sorts but i’d say the artists that have remained a constant for me over the last 10 or so years are people like Bonobo, James Blake and Moderat alongside more traditional DJ/Producers like Lee Burridge and Dixon. How would you define your sound? Well according to Beatport it’s “Organic House” which makes me sound like a preachy vegan but if people ask i just say it’s “house music with real instruments” or just “melodic house music”. Genres change and evolve all the time so there’s no point labelling it.

How has your sound evolved so far? Over the last year or so it’s definitely become a bit heavier and a lot more percussive (i’m a big fan of latin music which i think you can hear through a lot of my tracks) but overall i’d say it’s remained true to me. What inspired you on this release? A lot of the music coming out this year i made during the first lockdown. I was really proactive, especially during those first 6-9 months and I felt like i honed in on “my sound” which then acted as the groundwork for experimentation. So i think now you can tell it’s me by the groove of my tracks but the melodies and sounds i use are different enough to each other to keep them diverse/interesting. What can you tell us about each song that makes up your latest work? What is hidden behind? Final Straw is a collaboration with Namibian singer “Black Soda”. I absolutely love the husky tone of Annely’s voice and what she sent back fit the vibe of the track perfectly. The name originally came from a time when i was fed up with my day job and seriously considering sacking it off and making music full time but she moved it into a more romantic space with her lyrics. Los Que Caen is a latin inspired track and the name comes from a Spanish film called The Platform (El Hoyo). Without giving too much away it explores the class system within a prison where the inmates are fed by a floating platform which descends the floors of the prison only leaving leftovers for the people at the bottom. It really stuck with me! The Cypriot is named after my Greek-Cypriot friend Lambros who i’d been hanging out with one night then i got home that night and wrote it really quickly so that ones for him! Rascals is a bit of a follow up to “Fools” on Lee’s other Label TRYBESof last year in that it’s quite playful and fun melody wise. The sample comes from 1950s American TV show “Little Rascals”, i already had the name before the sample but i think it adds to the playfulness of the track. So yeh, a mixed bag but my inspiration comes from all sorts of weird places. How are you living the current situation because of COVID? Has your work affected you a lot? Do you think there is hope? I feel like the underground scene will continue to persist. It’s been good for me. I used the lockdowns to make and release a lot of music and now as the world is opening up again the bookings are starting to follow so I’m feeling really positive. What projects are you working on right now? I’ve got three collab EP’s coming this year so i’m finishing off the last one at the moment plus making a load of originals. I’ve just finished a tour and i’m in Mexico City at the moment so it’s a simple set up of a laptop, HD25’s and a little midi keyboard. They’ll get mixed when i get home next week.

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