Chicago OG Jana Rush creates unconventional footwork that's making an Impact

How old were you when your record on Dance Mania came out?

My first release was when I was 15. Houz' Mon put out a track of mine on Dance Mania and when I met Deeon, I went through my usual process: I bugged and bugged and bugged him, I kept calling him. First he agreed to a mixtape, he financed that and then he also agreed to do a split record with me and we put that out in 1996. I was like 17 years old at that time.

Were you making ghetto house?

I was going for a ghetto house / techno sound, I was never straight-up ghetto house. I had an affinity for techno. That affinity brought me into contact with Lester Fitzpatrick. I like ghetto music but I have a stronger affinity for techno. Tracks that may have came out on Cajmere’s label. I was making tracks that sound like that.

Lester would also periodically lend me his drum machine and that’s how I’d get things done. I didn’t own machines or anything. He’d come to my house and drop it off. He tried to get me out there back then. It was pretty hard. I don’t want to put a box on it and say that it was a female thing, but it did feel a lot harder for me because I was female and I can’t say if that was true or not, but it was definitely a challenge.

Would people dismiss you?

Yeah. I tried for years to get on Dance Mania and people would dismiss me. They’d say things about my tracks, like they weren’t good enough, but no one would show me how things should be done. It was very difficult. The elephant in the room was, for me, being female. No one would show me. It was frustrating. It still frustrates me today. I don’t know how to ask for help. As an artist, the sky is the limit and I love growing, but it’s hard to grow when no one is willing to show you what’s wrong or how things should be done.

What do you think is holding women artists in Chicago from breaking into the kind of music you’re making?

Number one, which is one of my biggest issues too, is the commitment it entails. Committing to learning about the scene, how to make tracks, drum sounds, the equipment you have. Two, not taking responsibility for your craft or the skill that you’re trying to attain. Yes you need a mentor, I’d strongly suggest that, but if that’s not what’s going on with you, you have to keep going. You have to be accountable. You can’t say, “Well if I can’t hook up with certain people, I can’t make tracks.” You’re supposed to find a way. With today’s technology it’s so much easier. There’s no excuse. You need help, but you need to be independent - you need to be enough of a bitch to go and get it.

You were on 'Gyal Fyah' Vol 2, a compilation of women footwork producers.

We had females from all around [on the compilation]. But what I seem to notice is there’s no consistency. We make one or two tracks here and there but the guys put out tracks like they going out of style. You have to drop more than one track every other month. You have to be serious about it. Getting a fanbase is not that easy in the first place. Rashad used to tell me, “No one listens to your tracks because you don’t come around”. Lately I’ve been going to parties and a lot of these girls ain’t around. Rashad said, “You’re not around for the footworkers to meet you, for other people to meet you, to see what’s going on at the party. You need to come around more.”

What is it that draws you to techno?

Techno is a lot more forgiving. Ghetto house, footwork, you have to follow a recipe or else nobody likes your tracks. Techno, you have a basic recipe, but it seems like the fanbase and crowd is more open minded. They’ll give it a try. With footwork, that’s not true.

So if you’re experimental, you’re shunned?

Pretty much. If you experiment, yes, you’re shunned. I understand there has to be rules but we need fresh updates to those rules if the genre wants to go anywhere. We want this genre to work out, it’s time to grow, to be more flexible. Whatever music you make has to be dancable, but it has to work both ways.

So this idea of your music being a little bit different, is that why you called your album ‘Pariah’?

Pretty much, that’s where it came from. I am a pariah. I got most of my support from Rashad, Boylan and DJ Hank. They been my cheerleaders for years, no matter what. They’ll be real with me sometimes and be like, “that’s not a footwork track” and we all agree on that, but all in all they still feel like, “Hey, you make good music, you should not stop making good music. So what if it’s not footwork, you should still put it out.” That’s another issue with females: we need encouragement, even when we may not be doing what the guys feel like we should be doing. There still needs to be encouragement. Just because you’re not fitting in, doesn’t mean it’s completely wrong, it just means you’re different. That’s where ‘Pariah’ came from. I’m gonna go ahead and own that title, own that name for myself. For sure I don’t make songs in the conventional way and I guess I’m pretty proud of that – I’m not gonna feel bad about that.

Where does the vibe you create come from?

I wasn’t aware I had too much of a vibe. Basically what I’m attracted to in music is stuff like Venetian Snares, glitchy, off-metre type music. I like 4x4 beats but I like to experiment with metre and tempo. I like to play around with time and space, with the samples and the sounds. That really excites me about music. It’s what excites me about Ableton, because it enables me to do so much more with time – time stretching and stuff. It’s all math, if you understand the implications of the metre and you use a little bit of math, you can do some crazy shit.

'Pariah' is out on July 14 via Objects LTD. Buy it here

Seb Wheeler is Mixmag's Head Of Digital. Follow him on Twitter