Tijdens ADE liepen we MAKJ tegen het lijf. Helaas was er op dat moment geen ruimte om direct een imterview af te nemen, maar de belofte dat hij asap van zich zou laten horen is hij zeker nagekomen. Laten we Mackenzie Johnson een klein beetje beter leren kennen. We spraken hem onder meer over het label, KENZ, dat hij onlangs startte.
Hi MAKJ, thanks for talking to us. Where in the world are you at the moment?
I'm in Nuremberg, Germany! I love this place!
You were at ADE last week to play a few shows, tell us about it? How do you find ADE, have you been here before?
Yes I played a few shows last week, it was my first time at ADE, I was excited to see what all the talk is about. I played at PRJT Saturday and Bingo Players & Friends at Van Dyck Bar.
For the people who might not know that much about you, tell us a little bit about yourself...
I like long romantic walks on the beach and dinners by candlelight! Not really, but I do like to travel, DJ, and I'm currently working on my pilots license.
We heard you're a big hip hop fan? Where does that influence come from?
It came from my youth to be honest, I always loved hip hop, and I really liked the idea of blending genres, which is what I try to do in my DJ sets. I try to span many different forms of music when I play. I've already worked with Lil Jon, I love the idea of mixing hip hop and dance music, you will probably be seeing more of this from me down the line.
You've recently announced your new label, KENZ, why did you decide to start your own label?
I really wanted to give a voice to some young producers I've been impressed with and I really want a home for releasing music you may not expect from me. For example I just released a Spotify exclusive with a new artist 'Kenze,' and myself called On & On. It's a bit outside the box from what people are accustomed to hearing from MAKJ so I felt releasing it myself would cut thru the barriers of trying to get another label to sign it, this way I can release whatever I'm working on or into at the moment.
What sort of music can we expect to hear from it?
Reverting to the last question, I think it's going to be a mixture of a bunch of different genres, no one thing, I want to keep people on their toes when it comes to KENZ.
If there was anyone in the world you could collaborate with, who would it be?
This one is really tough, I once said Tom Petty since he has been an inspiration to me since I was a kid but I've heard he hates electronic music, still I'm hoping he changes his mind, a collab with him would be a dream come true.
Before you worked in music what was your worst job?
Probably making sandwiches at this little sandwich shop, there wasn't anything really wrong with the job, I just screwed around the entire time, I knew it wasn't what I really wanted to do, so I didn't put much effort into it.
What can we expect from you musically in the near future?
I'm actually working on an album, it's very different for me so I'm somewhat curious/intrigued to see what my fans will think. It's not what you have come to expect from MAKJ.
Any last words for the Partyflock community?
I hope you are going to be flocking to see my upcoming shows. Much love!