Joker Vision

 A series of 12” and single releases pumped straight into the clubs around the world. His first release was on the Terrorhythm Recordings label run by Plastician, who's also heading to Australia for the upcoming Big Ape Birthday tour.It was those early releases, and DJ nights, that cemented Joker's style in the dubstep and grime circles and began building his acclaim.

“I think having your own sound is a very big thing,” Joker says. “In a way no one has a 100 per cent original sound because everyone is influenced from some other music. But instead of copying music you like, take ideas, be influenced by it and turn it into your own thing.”

When it came to releasing his debut longplayer, The Vision, he delivered a record that lived up to the expectation in surprising ways. The change in direction for the dubstepper was as notable as the quality of the record.

“It's hard to say,” says Joker. “With my album, I was just being me and that was it. I think everyone thought I was going to make a full album full of purple cities and trons, but I didn't really wanna do that.”

The record featured a whole lot more vocalists than his previous releases. “I think the second I start making a track I know if it's gonna need a vocal or not,” Joke explains. “I Can't explain how, I just know.”

Whether that was intentional remains unclear. It wasn't part of any concept going into the studio.

“Yeah, I did have a idea in my head when I started it,” he says, “and then a few tracks in I lost my whole direction of where I was going and I just ending going completely somewhere else.”

The many positive reviews for The Vision also noted his growth and development as a producer. Joker doesn't see it that way.

“To be honest, I don't think I have developed a lot until right now until after my album came out. It's hard to explain why I feel like that, but that's what I think.”

As a working DJ, he had club and festival commitments around the globe. That can get in the way of serious stretches in the studio. While many of his contemporaries can work on planes or in airports and hotel rooms, Joker's modus operandi is different.

“To be honest, it was quite hard being everywhere then trying to make tracks at the same time,” he says. “I know a lot of my friends can make tracks on their laptop while they are on the road. but I feel like I need my whole studio, a full-sized keyboard. So there was times when I would take off three to four weeks off just to stay in the studio.”

There are few bigger places to launch your album than Glastonbury. That festival booked and an album to drop on the world, even if it was a few months away, Joker decided to make a few phone calls and get the vocalists on The Vision to the Worthy Farm and perform the whole thing live. That's quite the way to reveal your work to the world, but Joker remains humble about that show.

“I think it may have come across as a bigger thing than it was,” he says. “But because my album just come out I thought I might as well get everyone to just do it live instead of me just playing the tracks. So I gave everyone a phone call, booked a flight for Silas, and everyone came down. As simple as that.”

The rest of 2012 sees Joker working on the next record and exploring the ways he can expand his show.

“Yeah, I'm starting my second album already. Sounds soon, I know, but these things take time so it could take a year or two. I'm trying to do a lot of work for other people's albums and maybe work on a live show.”

Surely, there's no time to joke around.