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More than most DJs, Jackmaster contains multitudes. I first became aware of Jack Revill through a glut of blend-heavy mixes ten years ago, repping labels Dress 2 Sweat and Wireblock, which would later fuse along with Stuff to become Numbers. Just before his FabricLive 57 CD landed, he was still playing at free midweek student nights (he opened a party in Nottingham around this time with Drake’s “Headlines”). In the summer of 2014, I caught him play Alden Tyrell’s “Hills Of Honolulu” at an Ibiza villa party one week and rinse DJ Zinc to a heaving festival crowd of thousands the next. Earlier this year, he brought a dozen-strong invasion of Glaswegian talent, from Eclair Fifi to Optimo, down to Bristol’s cavernous Motion under his Mastermix club brand. Everyone was gifted their own personalized bottle of Buckfast upon arrival.
The often dour demeanor of big-ticket DJs seems a world away from everything that orbits Jackmaster. Few embody the raw joy of loving music as visibly. Behind the decks, he’s a whirlwind of glee, as eager to share the fun with the bouncing bodies in front of him as whoever is lingering behind him. It’s not uncommon to see Saltire flags or Celtic F.C. shirts waving in the front rows of his shows, a sign of his status as a people’s champion. Not only this, but an emergent breed of party-starters like Denis Sulta and Peggy Gou have come up under Revill’s tutelage.
Revill’s mutual thrill-seeking with the audience guides his selections and technique. He appears drawn to the inner energy of a tune as much as the melody or the drop, his next moves guided by what will create surges of excitement in the room. This passionate approach has boosted Revill’s reputation as a quintessential party DJ, even as his style has evolved. No matter what hat he’s wearing at any given gig in any given country, his magnetism makes the experience feel like a celebration.
More goes on in the headspace of a headliner than meets the eye, though. Revill didn’t have an easy upbringing, leaving him pockmarked with self-doubt in spite of his status. Clocking hundreds of high-velocity gigs per year for the best part of a decade has begun to exert a toll. So as well as his understanding of what makes for an electric night out, he wanted to talk about the other art that comes with DJing at the highest level: that of keeping your mind intact, while trying to make everyone else around you lose theirs.