Intelligent Design: Jimmy Edgar in interview

Berlin-based producer Jimmy Edgar on his new label Ultramajic, graphic design and his Detroit homecoming gig

Feature by John Thorp | 06 Jun 2014

In the endless cycle of hyperbole and placemaking that constitutes dance music press, readers and writers alike regularly come across ‘one of the biggest characters in dance music’. In a still relatively anonymous enterprise, this usually constitutes anything from an antagonistic social media habit, perhaps some sort of on-brand and elaborate mask, or even just a reputation for various excesses while touring Europe’s muddy fields.

Jimmy Edgar – a Detroit native now loosely based in Berlin – has been releasing music for nearly 15 years, both under his own name and a plethora of pseudonyms. He was originally associated with Warp, but creative differences took the partnership separate ways. In the time since he’s gravitated towards other European electronic labels such as K7! and Scuba’s Hotflush, releasing music for both in and out of clubs, most of which is precariously high and gutter minded at once. Now, Edgar has plied his resources into Ultramajic, a visceral playground for releases by himself and others. The label takes so-far-so-sweaty house, techno and funk, and releases them with an accompanying visual element inspired by, among other things, Egyptian symbolism, ancient belief systems and The Holographic Universe. So yes, Edgar can be described as ‘a character’.

“I think graphic design is one of the most fundamental principles that you can use for any kind of artwork,” explains Edgar via Skype, straight off the plane from Tokyo. “Ideas of composition, to learn how to create motion and continuity in 2D and 3D design – I feel that’s lacking in a lot of artwork.” All of Ultramajic’s artwork is designed by Edgar himself – a much coveted photographer, having exhibited in LA, Paris and Rome – along with Pilar Zeta, with whom he collaborated with on the visuals for 2012 release Majenta. The two have proved to be a solid creative team that has, less than a year after the label’s inception, resulted in some incredibly individual and occasionally beguiling work.

“We’ve known each other a few years now and we have an interesting way of working. In a lot of artwork, it’s either overly masculine or overly feminine, and we approach the ideas as if we’re writing a book or a film,” explains Edgar. “We come up with the ideas and essentially do tonnes of research, putting together simple stuff, looking at other artwork, and from there we arrange it and retouch it. We use a lot of techniques; 3D software, Photoshop, Illustrator. She does the feminine stuff, which is making it look balanced and pretty, and I do the more masculine end – the symbolism. After we create something, we just stare at it for hours, and that’s how we know we’ve done something we’re proud of.”

At the musical end of the spectrum, Edgar’s relentless touring schedule of late offers a more direct approach to success; having seen releases from the likes of L-Vis 1990 under his booty house inspired Dance System alias, as well as newer names like Matrixxman and Aden, Ultramajic has been an outlet for his own hard-hitting but detailed club records. Last summer’s Hot Inside EP launched the label with three contemporary electro bombs that threatened to rip the roof off big tops worldwide. What connects the more whimsical and curious aesthetic of Ultramajic to the gratifying but more straight-forward records it’s intertwined with?

“Pilar is really into Storm Thorgerson, who created much of Pink Floyd’s artwork, and I really love Peter Saville,” reveals Edgar when asked about his influences where art meets music. “When we step back and look at ourselves as a label, I look at New Order, who took their music and branded it into something powerful.” Edgar cites the Gestalt principle, a theory of mind involving the dual principle of memory and reasoning, as a reference point in the development of the label.

“I really like it when people tell us that the artwork fits with the music, because we just brought two worlds together, which work together as people suspend their disbelief and make the association.”

Edgar has recently converted to veganism, and also has an interest in more experimental forms, such as experience in hypnosis (“The real frontier breakthrough for me”, he adds), as well as crystal healing. Given the level of control exerted in his own life, does he ever appreciate the pleasant irony in spending much of his time attempting to drive people completely crazy; to make them completely lose their shit?

“I would say I used to be really into control. But now, my philosophy is to take creativity and let it flow through yourself. Just the connotation of being in control suggests that at some stage you weren’t in control at all. So I think if you can think of it as flowing through you, that it has more of a connotation that you won’t lose control in the future.”

But does Edgar see DJing itself as a meditative experience?

“The DJ’s job in a really raw format is to get people into some type of state through dancing, so that they can experience some form of meditation themselves,” observes Edgar, acknowledging the Transatlantic differences in this process. “In the States, people see a DJ as if they’re seeing a live band, and there’s not this culture like at Berghain, where people get into this state for eight hours at a time. When people dance, they release lots of fear and negative energy, but I think you’re also manifesting your future, and you’re creating that state when you get into that dance.”


“I would say I used to be really into control. But now, my philosophy is to take creativity and let it flow through yourself” – Jimmy Edgar


Despite the sheer breadth of his work and talent without yet reaching 30, Edgar has previously spoken about a recent troubled period career, in which he felt more akin with negative energy than positive inspiration to benefit his art. With hindsight, Edgar is very clear on how these feelings manifested themselves, and our collective ability to avoid them.

“I put myself through a lot of weird situations,” Edgar observes, perhaps underselling the bleakness of his former situation. “I was basically living in a gutter addicted to heroin for like, six years. So that was definitely a big wake up call. There are so many things I did to damage myself, or to teach myself a lesson. But there comes a point where I maybe did those things to myself because I knew I would learn something. And I think unfortunately a lot of people in society feel like this, because society is set up that way. That they haven’t put in the hours, or the hard work; that you’re weak if you don’t have these experiences. But all you can do is use better thoughts and better language to get out of that cycle, but that’s the hardest part.”

As we speak, Edgar is preparing for a gig and the reveal of new visuals at Movement Festival, the yearly electronic soiree in his home town of Detroit – an event that aims to celebrate the city’s well known, pioneering dance heritage as well as looking to the future. Despite huge issues with poverty and infrastructure, its image is almost fabled by young producers on an international scale. Nonetheless, Edgar is keen not to make any proclamation in its regard either way.

“In terms of Detroit, I haven’t been there in ten years, but it is my home and is interesting in some ways. I feel part of it, the culture that came out of there. Plus I’m still connected with Derrick May and so on, and my recent Essential Mix for Radio 1 was very much influenced by Detroit’s public radio.”

Now, with Ultramajic, Edgar has wittingly developed a platform to launch ideas and inspiration at his own pace, and in his own unique style. Have the days of his more high concept – not to mention sleazier – LPs passed? “DJing has been a tremendous influence on me making club music, and I'm really enjoying it,” Edgar admits. “I still write a lot of songs, but it’s how to present them.” Accompanying his clarity of vision and personal experience is a refreshing honesty that undoubtedly serves his vision well.

“I sometimes think much of my work before Ultramajic was put out somewhat haphazardly,” he readily admits without prompt. “And I have a lot more integrity these days. It’s also put things on hold; I have other people that I work with who have an eye on what I’m doing.”

Jimmy Edgar performs at Parklife on the Bugged Out! stage, 8 Jun

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