Over the last 6 years, Joel’s name has become associated with quality electronic music. Having established a strong following with his creative productions, he moves clubbers with his signature loopy organic house sounds. Vancouver is where Joel currently calls home, keeping a busy schedule in the studio and the clubs, most notably at his residency, the infamous Gorg-O-Mish Afterhours where he has shared the decks with great DJs and producers like Damian Lazarus and Manuel De Le Mare. On the 3rd Tuesday of each month, his label Dot Dot runs a show on Proton Radio with the sweet sweet sounds of house music and on the 1st Tuesday of each month he co-hosts the decade spanning show Oslo Nights on DI.fm.

For our readers who aren’t as familiar with your music, how would you describe your sound?!

I would call it deep groovy house :)

Growing up in Vancouver, where did you get your inspiration from? Did you always know that you wanted to be involved in the music industry?

I actually grew up in Indonesia, I’ve only been living in Vancouver for the last 4 years. Things that inspire me range from changes in the weather to coffee on a rainy day to music or design by my favourite artists. Inspiration is what got me started but at some point it just became part of my workflow, however inspiration is not a reliable thing. My passion for music is intrinsic I think, so if I wait for inspiration before I work on music my productivity would be really low. I had to train myself a bit to get past that. I first fell in love with electronic music in 1994 when I first heard music by Dr Alban and Ace of Base music during basketball game intermissions while I was in highschool in Indonesia. But it wasn’t until I was first introduced to house music about 10 years ago that I really decided that’s what I wanted to focus on.

Tell us about your current setup? What hardware and software do you use?

I think some people would laugh at my setup. I’m not really much of a gear junky, I write most of my music on my laptop in Logic with headphones. Once a track is close to completion I bring it into my studio and do the mixing. In my studio I have a simple 2 channel amp and Tannoy Reveal passive nearfield monitors.

You’re very well known in the Vancouver music scene! What up-and-comers do you admire in Vancouver?

Vancouver has several up and coming producers, I’ve heard (and signed to my label) some quality music from SKLA, Ben Colmen, Tree Elves (Landon Sarver & Nathaniel Suter). Other artists I think have potential would include Right Hand Barber and Those Twins.

How do you see the Vancouver music scene changing in the next couple years?

Hard to say. I would hope that the music considered “underground” here (which is not underground at all in most other places I’ve travelled), would develop more of a following. I think its slowly getting there, but as we all know, music comes and goes in cycles so if I could predict the future I’d be preparing accordingly haha.

Ginger62 is hosting a Dot Dot Records Release Party and 30th Birthday Bash this month (January 19th, 2010). The big 3-0, how do you feel your music has grown since you first started?

 I think my music has matured a lot since I first started. I was an ideas man at first but lacked the experience to execute my ideas properly. Then I went through a phase where I hit a plateau, my ideas weren’t fresh but I had the technical skill to make my music sound professional. Recently within the last year however, I’ve started to find the ideas again and its really boosted the overall quality of what I work on.

In honor of your birthday this month, what was the one thing you always wished for growing up when you blew out your candles? What are you wishing for this year?

Haha, I think my wishes changed every year and very rarely ever came true. This year I’ll be wishing for a nice long holiday!

What do we have to look forward to from Joel Armstrong?

Well, my label Dot Dot is growing steadily and the last few releases have done really well internationally with support from artists like Claude VonStroke, AFFKT, Wally Lopez, Ritchie Hawtin, and Joris Voorn. Its very exciting really. I also have a lot of unreleased material that will be coming out this next year on some well known house labels, so things are looking up!

Lightning round...



What's your favorite club to play?
There’s a small club in New Zealand called 55, one of the best nights I’ve ever had playing.

Who is the craziest artist to play a show with?
My buddy Tim Richards is a DJ machine.

You're on the road a lot. What's your favorite time of year to be at home?
Summer.

Track you're most proud of?
A forthcoming remix on label Perceptive, track called Miriam Vega – Superglue (Joel Armstrong Remix) is probably some of my best work yet.

Favorite DJ?
Ooh, tough honestly some of my favourite DJs are locals like my friend PK (Gorgomish), I also love listening to my buddy Skai (Cocoon Club).

Favorite Band?
Empire of the Sun live is an unreal experience.

Do you have any superstitions or lucky charms?
Not really, I do have a lucky gold plastic cat with a motorized arm that waves at me when I write music, I call him party cat.

What's on your rider?
Minimum, CDJ 1000s + DJM 800 + Flight/Hotel + Free drinks, nothing too complicated :)

DOWNLOAD JOEL ARMSTRONGS BEAST IN THE FOREST HERE!