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

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