Bio
JaBig is a House Music DJ from Montreal, Canada and co-owner of Gotsoul Recordings, a record label that releases original deep soulful sounds.
In 1998, JaBig started his DJ career, a professional journey that has seen him perform in front of thousands of music lovers worldwide from Johanessburg, South Africa to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and appearing at some of the most prestigious events and venues in the process such as Cielo in New York City, the Red Bull Montreal Formula 1 Grand Prix Week-End Party, the Miami Winter Music Conference and the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
JaBig was raised in and traveled on all four corners of the Globe and thus was completely immersed in diverse cultures. This has greatly influenced his DJ journey as he has developed a signature sound that fuses electronic dance music with folkloric sounds of the various regions and countries of his upbringing and travels.
Unlike most DJs who achieve international fame and notoriety by releasing formulaic music that is guaranteed to sell to be used as a promotional vehicle, JaBig is a bona fide DJ who lets his music and his live DJ mix sets establish his credentials:
“It seems that the secret to international DJ stardom is to release a bunch of rehashed tracks, get them to the top of the charts then capitalize on the 15seconds of fame to book high profile gigs. Basically nowadays, a DJ is booked on the basis of his or her name instead of his or her talent in the DJ booth”, says the Montrealer who is quick to admit with quick laugh: “But I do not set the rules. In this competitive profession, DJs have to pull out all the punches!”
So how come that an artist who has such a rich musical background and is flooded with great ideas, has not yet released a single original record of his own?
“Yes, I have crazy ideas that I jot down but I have never really had a chance to find the time to sit down and bring them to life. And, given my perfectionism, which actually is a very bad habit”, he explains. “I would never be happy enough with a production to release it to the world. But in all honesty, I don’t have the patience to sit down and learn to make music and master the technology behind it.”
The real reason behind JaBig’s sole focus on spinning records and not getting into a studio to produce music is not entirely due to the lack of ability or lack of patience as he quips but simply due to a simple lack of time.
Beside a fulltime professional DJ career, JaBig runs several music related businesses and projects that require his full attention thus limiting the amount of time he would set aside to create music. His travel bug is probably the biggest culprit. JaBig is constantly on the move whether touring as DJ or traveling as a perpetual tourist.
But, JaBig’s biggest journey yet will kickoff in July 2009 when he sets of the first ever round-the-world DJ tour by car, a historic first in the music and DJ world.
Given his love for playing music to the masses, his endless need to always meet and mingle with people in foreign cultures and countries and to visit and see different places and his mission to make a difference in the world, this “Big Journey” as JaBig calls it is a project whose time has just come and at the right time.
The Big Journey will be the first vehicle-based expedition around the world by a DJ, an artist of any kind for that matter, and it will travel as many of the 196 recognized sovereign states as possible as long as it’s safe to do so.
It’s probably the world’s ultimate road-trip and to make it a success and as exciting as possible, JaBig is currently putting it together with a team of dedicated friends and volunteers who collectively want to help JaBig achieve his lifelong dream to see the world and make a big difference in it.
As someone who has seen extreme poverty first hand in the regions he grew in and has visited, JaBig has dedicated his personal and professional life to fighting worldwide hunger by raising awareness to the one billion people who go to bed hungry at night because they do not have enough to get by on.
His mission to fight hunger has led him to become a fulltime supporter of the United Nations World Food Programme, the world’s largest hunger relief agency that feeds millions of at-risk people globally and develops long-term projects to help the hungry fend for themselves. By raising awareness and funds for the World Food Programme to help them fight hunger worldwide, JaBig is actively taking a step in making extreme poverty history.
So it could be said that JaBig’s Big Journey not only refers on one DJ’s attempt to tour the globe by car, driving from dancefloor to dancefloor, city to city, country to country and continent to continent all in the name of adventure but also an attempt by a human being to bring hope in the lives of millions who desperately need some.
