Photo: Press (Ejeca)
As myth would have it, Garry McCartney chose his Ejeca moniker because it did not yield any search engine results and whether or not that is true, one thing is for certain: The Belfast-born DJ certainly aspires to be one of a kind. Hailing from the same stomping ground as the duo Bicep, McCartney showcases a versatility in both his DJ sets and productions that ranges from classic UK house to the sought-after Trance Wax records, edits of iconic tunes that are barely ever played on a regular techno night. Having just paid homage to the soundtrack of the second summer of love, his contribution to our Groove podcast comes as another surprise: this is a densely packed hour of oldschool electro from Egyptian Lover to Drexciya and back.
You’ve always spoken very positively about growing up in Belfast and taking your first steps in the local scene. What made this city an ideal breeding ground for you?
It’s a small city, and when I grew up electronic music was very underground, I guess indie bands where the “in thing”. I was in the small proportion in school that listened to dance music, nowadays I would say most young ones would know at least a few DJs, commercial or otherwise. I was a bedroom DJ really until I was 25 and didn’t really play any of the clubs in Belfast – i tried to focus on production, mainly because I’m a computer nerd.
Your new EP The Crystal Maze for Richy Ahmed’s Four Thirty Two label draws on the sound of the British Acid House wave, one track is cheekily titled “Standard Acid House Track”. Which themes informed the EP?
I’ve always found it funny that for the past 30 years there’s always a new track out weekly with a 303 bassline and American voice saying “acid”. This is my contribution! I’ve been working with Richy for about 18 months on this EP, I think we’ve been through around 12 tracks, and settled on these four as they seem to fit. Special Request has also done a remix, so I’m looking forward to the reaction when it comes out in October.
After remixing Inner City’s “Good Life”, you’ve recently taken on Awesome 3 and Julie McDermott’s “Don’t Go”. How do you approach classics like these?
I think sometimes I get inspired to make remixes of big tunes because there are so many bad updates out there. The “Good Life” one was a mess about in the studio that I started playing and sent to B Traits, she played it on BBC Radio 1 and then the next thing was that KMS got in touch wanting a full release. I think it was more popular than the original for a few months on Beatport. (laughs)
Besides your work as Ejeca, you have also released a slew of edit records under the Trance Wax moniker. Speaking after four successful releases, what is the concept of Trance Wax?
It started (and still is) a fun project. I have all my trance vinyl from the 2000 era and if you look past some of the cheesy pop hits, there are some great productions with great melodies. The issue is trying to fit them into sets. Some are 8 minutes long at 140 bpm and this doesn’t really fit into my sets, so I’ve dropped the tempo and edited or re-created the synths so they still hold the energy but are more playable. Most of the tracks I’ve made quite quickly as I’ve been listening to them for so many years. The most interesting thing to me is how worldwide the love for it is. I thought it was only a thing in the UK and the Netherlands, but I’ve ended up playing in Portugal, Poland, and have gigs coming in Asia and Australia. The one thing has given me a great sense of pride is when the original producers get in touch to say how much they like the updates, there’s a lot of passion for Trance.
Last but not least: Where can we see you live or behind the decks in the near future, and what are your plans as a producer?
I’ve another vinyl project in the making, concentrating on another area of electronic music, so I’ve another plate spinning! I’ve tried the live show and found it very stressful, I will probably work on that after I eventually do an album. At the moment I’m happy with my two projects and making varied music to keep things interesting. Thanks for having me on board and I hope everyone enjoys the mix!
Stream: Ejeca – Groove Podcast 177
01. Computor Rockers – Computor Interface (RS232)
02. Creta Kano – Skyway Motel
03. The Egyptian Lover – Picturesque
04. Blackploid – Photographic Photogenic
05. Computor – Rockers The B-Boys
06. Brenecki – Motivate Me
07. Lake Haze – Under Sea Scout
08. Dexter – No More
09. Blackploid – Mystery Speaker
10. Aux 88 – Electronic Robots (Dynamik Bass System)
11. F – Full Throttle
12. Fastgraph – Bar Code
13. Aux 88 – Alien Life Form
14. Dynarec – Pentagon Deflector
15. DJ Di’jital – Final Frontier Of Electro
16. Fastgraph – IO
17. Cyborg 95 – Tour De France ’16
18. Ectomorph – Bizarre
19. Instra:mental – When I Dip
20. Aux 88 – Time Portal (N-ter (Crobot Crew Remix))
21. Drexciya – Aquabahn
22. Duplex – Escape Velocity
23. Urban Tribe – Her
