Brazilian D&B Duo Jam Thieves and Their Minimalist Bass-Bombs

The Brazilian duo known as Jam Thieves have been on an absolute tear this past year. Having earned their stripes with a series of heavy minimal drum & bass burners, brothers Guilherme and Neto struck gold with a pair of massive EPs on the Serial Killaz and New Playaz imprints that seemed to solidify their hold. Pair that with an exclusive signing to Playaz, as well as a jaw-dropping session at EDC Brasil earlier this month, and 2015 was definitely a banner year for the crew.

Calling the north side of São Paulo home, Guilherme and Neto started out as DJs before focusing their efforts on the production side of things in 2007. With the struggles of coming up in a country where making a living as a DJ and producer in the drum & bass scene is rare, the duo were obsessed with spending every free moment of their week refining their sound and studio prowess. Working all day on non-music-related jobs—and then coming home and working in the studio all night and on the weekends—eventually began to pay off for the pair, as their releases began finding homes on UK imprints like Radius, Proximity, Mac 2, Syndrome Audio, Animated, Hangar Records, Broken Audio, V Recordings and Chronic.

Still, the duo is the first to admit they’ve come into their own this past year, as their signature minimalist bass-bomb sound has caught the ear of serious heavy-hitters including DJ Hype, TC, Sub Zero, Hazard, Annix and Marky. Their noir-flavored City on Fire EP for New Playaz was jammed with some proper rollers and was quickly followed by the seven-track Dangerous Games EP for Serial Killaz Recordings, featuring some of their best work to date.

With close to 15 songs already locked for the New Year, the “thieving” duo offer a glimpse of where they’re coming from and what we can expect next.

“The production didn’t come until a lot later—after we realized that, in Brazil, drum & bass DJs die starving. So, we started to produce our own music.”

Introduce yourselves to the Insomniac masses, and describe what has become your signature sound, for those who don’t know.
We’re Jam Thieves, a producer project made of myself, Guilherme, and my brother João Neto. I’m 24 years old, and he is 28. We’re from São Paulo, Brazil, and we represent drum & bass and jungle. Our music is “thief’s music”—minimal beats, a few vocal elements, and a lot of bassline.

What kind of music were you guys listening to growing up?
We’re from Brazil, but we grew up listening to international artists like Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Zapp, Barry White, the Isley Brothers, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, the O’Jays, 2Pac, Notorious B.I.G., J Dilla, and so many others that we could stay hours talking about. There have been a few influential artists from our country as well, including Jorge Ben, Racionais MCs, Tim Maia, Cassiano and a few others.

At what point did you become aware of electronic music, and drum & bass specifically?
Around 1998, we started listening to drum & bass. I remember DJ Hype, Pascal, Zinc (the True Playaz crew, at the time), and we already knew a little jungle that came from hip-hop, as we love hip-hop. First, we fell in love with the art of being a DJ and learned to play. The production didn’t come until a lot later—after we realized that, in Brazil, drum & bass DJs die starving. So, we started to produce our own music.

Was Jam Thieves the first project you started?
Before Jam Thieves, we actually had a project named Decks Groove; but it wasn’t a producer project—it was DJ project. We used to play on four decks at a time, but as we mentioned earlier, it doesn’t mean a thing in Brazil if you don’t produce as well. So in 2007, we decided to stop Decks Groove and start a new project based around music production. Back then, we were in awe of artists like Skeptical and Jubei, who in our minds were two guys making “thief” music.

I imagine that’s where your name comes from. What’s “thief” music? Is it music for thieves or thieving?
In our conception, minimal, deep D&B rollers are a “thief” style, kind of like Notorious B.I.G. and KRS-One, among others in hip-hop. We grew up in a really poor neighborhood in São Paulo, and the word “thief” was always following us. For everything in our lives, we had to make our own way; if we wanted to have expensive tennis shoes or clothes, we had to improvise. From there on, we put together those two things and created the Jam Thieves. The name was done strategically as a way to make a statement and protest the conditions we were in. Music doesn’t pay our bills, because we live in Brazil. During the week, we work with nothing related to music, but at the end of the week, Saturday is our sacred day to do it.

Take us back to when you were first starting to make beats. At what point did you feel like your music was good enough to send out, and when did you link up with the Playaz crew?
We always sent our music to UK record labels, even when it was shit (laughs). I felt we were close when DJ Hype played our song “Black Faces” on KISS FM for the first time. DJ Hype had always been our big idol inside of drum & bass, and from the beginning we dreamed about signing with him. Once we got his support on “Black Faces,” I got his email, and from there we were sending him music every single Sunday for two years.

After playing many of our songs on KISS FM and clubs over the course of those two years, this past May, he said he wanted an EP from us for the New Playaz imprint. The interest to be exclusive Playaz artists has always been one of our goals, and after the excellent results of our EP for New Playaz—in addition to some other great songs we had sent to him—we received an email from Hype and Pascal, saying they wanted Jam Thieves exclusively for Playaz. Since then, we’ve signed about 12 songs to Playaz but don’t know how the boss will split it.

If you had to choose one song or release that really captured what Jam Thieves is all about, which one would it be, and why?
If we’re talking about a new tune, it would have to be “Minimal Funk,” which Hype has been playing out a lot. This song has Jam Thieves’ blood: dry beats, a very high line of bass, and samples of James Brown. If it’s a song that is already out, it would be “’Smoke Weed”—an old song, but it was very important in our history and is also all about Jam Thieves.

You guys killed it at EDC Brasil. How was the experience from your end?
It was awesome. From the treatment in the dressing room until our presentation, it was just a great vibe all around. We hope to play in other editions of EDC in other countries, as we are sure they are amazing as well.

I imagine a big gig like that has you guys inspired and already back in the studio.
We have actually been out of the studio for almost a month, due to work and the festival! This has never happened before. But this Saturday we are getting back in the studio with recharged batteries. Next year is already looking big, as we have a lot of work and some big collabs in the works. We have many songs due out on Playaz, as well as two songs lined up with the Bass Brothers. It will be fucking awesome.

Before we go, if we’re able to make our way down to Brazil, where would you take us to show us a good time?
We would take you to our neighborhood (Vila Brasilandia) for you to see our vision from the climb out here. Definitely would take you to have some wonderful feijoada while we drink some caipirinhas and watch our favorite futebol [soccer] team, the Corinthians, Gaviões da Fiel.

Any final shout-outs before we go?
Big shout to: DJ Hype Hype Hype, Pascal, Tobie (Serial Killaz), Chris Muniz, Tony Merino, Amanda Mandarin, and all the Bassrush crew. Of course, we have to send a shout to all our followers, as well. 2016 will be the best year for Jam Thieves, guys, so stay tuned. Peace, and God bless you all.

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