jayteehazard reminisces on his favourite DJ sets of all time

10 July 2019 | 6:02 pm | Caitlin Medcalf

jayteehazard is a veteran on the scene, with years of experience DJing around town under his belt. We put it to him to narrow down 5 of his favourite shows.

Newcastle's JAYTEEHAZARD has absolutely blessed us with a new instrumental out via his long-time fam at Elefant Traks. Titled 'Ahh.200', the track sees him traverse through time and space to create a constantly-evolving revolver door of moods.

What starts as a hazy, low-key hip-hop smorgasbord eventuates into this highly-technical haven of RnB moods and complex instrumentals. A vocal sample takes the lead in the second half of the track, serving up a humanoid feel to it.

His years of working hard behind the decks shine through every inch of this track, his ability to read the room serving a huge benefit to his creative ear, and 'Ahh.200' is the perfect example of this. Where the track is mystifyingly genre-defying, it also works neatly within certain parameters, but that's the magic of jayteehazard's ear; he knows how to stretch his sounds out to be both familiar and boundary-pushing.

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He's a veteran on the scene, with years of experience DJing around the country under his belt. We put it to him to narrow down five of his favourite shows. Have a read below.

 

Number #5

SUNDAY MARCH 31ST, 2013

LANEWAY PARTY

King Street, Newcastle

By 2013, the Laneway parties at King Street had already been going for a while – but I’d only been playing them for a few months at that point.

They’re a staple of any long weekend in Newcastle: the laneway right next to King Street gets absolutely jam-packed with punters and the DJ booth is smack-bang in the middle of the action. It was a long set that night – 5pm til midnight – and every minute of it was awesome. I went into a bunch of

different genres, mixing up new and old tracks. Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid M.A.A.D City was only a couple of months old at that point, so everyone was on that record. Lorde’s 'Royals' had only just come out too, and it would always get an insane reaction from crowds.The King Street Laneway Parties

are still going strong today – if you ever happen to be in Newcastle for a long weekend I highly suggest coming along.

Notable Tracks

Lorde - Royals

Kendrick Lamar - Backseat Freestyle

Ray Charles - Shake a Tail Feather

Hermitude - Hyperparadise (Flume Remix)

TNGHT - Bugg’n

Number #4

SUNDAY JANUARY 25TH, 2015

ONEDAY SUNDAY

Factory Theatre, Sydney

If I’m being completely honest, this whole top five could be back-to-back One Day parties, but I have to mix things up.

If I had to pick just one, though, it would be January 25, 2015. One Day had just moved their party from the Vic on the Park to the Factory Theatre and had upped the events from once every three months to one a month. Nina Las Vegas was the headline DJ that day, so I had a mid-afternoon set right before her on the courtyard stage. One Day Sundays have had – and continue to have – some of the most live crowds I’ve ever had the chance to play to.

Things got especially out of hand when I played Waka Flocka’s 'Hard In The Paint' – I felt obligated to calm things down with K-Ci & JOJO 'All My Life'. It was also the best crowd response I’ve ever seen for my favourite T.I song, 'What You Know About That'. I’ve been lucky enough to play One Day parties in almost every state in the country, and if you ever get the chance to get to a party thrown by these guys, I can’t recommend them enough.

Notable Tracks

K-Ci & JOJO - All My Life

Waka Flocka Flame - Hard in The Paint

T.I - What You Know About That

Kanye West - So Appalled

One Day - S.D.R.O

Number #3

FRIDAY JUNE 26TH 2015

Hermitude 'Dark Night, Sweet Light Tour'

Enmore Theatre, Sydney

This set was crazy! The whole tour was awesome, but the majority of sets I played were ones I’d planned and were mostly made up of my own original tunes.

At the Enmore Theatre show in Sydney, though, they had to buy a little bit of time because of a technical problem that needed sorting out after Basenji's set, so they asked if I could fill in. I thought I was done for the night, so I was pretty drunk by this point, which resulted in me being way more vocal on the mic than usual. The crowd was so hyped at this show, I got to play a stack of big trap tunes I was loving around that time. The highlight of that set would have to be when I accidentally dropped the a cappella of Scribe’s 'Not Many' instead of the original and the entire crowd starting singing along to it. I managed to mix a Mr Carmack track in under it, so it maybe looked like I knew what I was doing… I had no idea if it was actually going to work, but from what I remember it sounded amazing. There’s a chance some people who were more sober than I was on the night would’ve thought differently though.

Also, given we were in the Inner West, my remix of One Days’ 'Mainline' went down really well. Was awesome to hear it on that system in front of that crowd.

Notable Tracks

Scribe - Not Many Remix [Acapella]

Mr Carmack - Solutions

Kaytranada - Killa Cats

Party Theives & Quix - House Party

One Day - Mainline (jayteehazard remix)

Number #2

SATURDAY AUGUST 4TH 2012

Hilltop Hoods 'Drinking From The Sun Tour'

The Hordern Pavilion, Sydney

I was lucky enough to come along for this entire tour, as I was DJing for Briggs and playing between all the supports (Briggs and Horrorshow).

Adit (of Horrorshow) and I were both using my laptop; I was playing when doors opened then DJed for Briggs, then Adit would come out and drop Kendrick Lamar 'Swimming Pools' (every single show).

GKMC wasn’t going to be out for another month while we were on this tour, and only that first single was out. I actually wasn’t super into that track at the time but after hearing it so much on that tour it

quickly became one of my faves. (Thanks Adit!) My favourite part of every night was getting to DJ right after Horrorshow finished, just before The Hoods would come on stage. The crowds were always so amped by this point.

All the shows on this tour were crazy but the Hordern Pavilion one was especially insane because, at the time, it was the biggest crowd I had ever played my own set in front of. Dropping 'Seven Nation Army' to a packed-out Hordern was a pretty incredible experience.

Notable Tracks

Dead Prez - Hip Hip

Jay Z & Kanye West - Otis

M.O.P - Ante Up

White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

A$AP Rocky - Goldie

Number #1

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 11TH, 2012

Elefant Traks x Dr Suess

Sydney Opera House - Vivid Festival

One of the most basic rules of being a support-slot DJ is: Don’t play songs by the artist that is headlining. It’s not even a rule, really – it’s just common sense. So imagine a scenario where you get to play all the hits by the headliners on the night – meanwhile, the crowd have been explicitly told at the start of the show that they won’t be hearing those tracks because tonight every act on the bill will be performing new original music specially written for this evening’s show. Also it’s not an opening slot; it’s right smack-bang in the middle of the evening.

That’s exactly what the ET x Dr Suess concert was for me. I got to play a medley/trick set of all the label’s artists’ hit songs to a crowd that didn’t think they were going to hear any of the songs they knew and loved.

The whole set lasted all of about seven mins, I was completely out of my comfort zone and it really payed off. This will probably always be my number one because I can’t see a rare set of circumstances happening like that again. Shouts to Dale for setting that whole thing up.

Notable Tracks

Hermitude - Speak Of The Devil

The Herd - 77%

Urthboy (feat. Jane Tyrell) - Shruggin’

Last Kinection - Black & Deadly

Uncle Ho - Grace the Guru

Honourable Mentions

Halfway Crooks

Good God Small Club - Got to play a handful of these and the crowds were always unto speed on the latest shit.

AA BAR

The Argyle House - I’ve held a residence here for years and every Wednesday I get to try new shit out with a very open minded crowd.

Groove In The Moo - Maitland 2016

Elefant Tracks 15 Years Afterparty - 2013

This x That Festival - 2015

Jack Rabbit Slims - 2016

Listen to jayteehazard's 'Ahh.200' via your streaming service of choice here.

Photo by Kira Puru

Intro by CAITLIN MEDCALF

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