Break’s over: ?A conversation with Jalin Roze

“I feel like the culture as a whole has grown to be so united. I feel like talent recognizes and appreciates other talent, so I think good art and music — whatever genre — people are going to gravitate towards it,” says Jalin Roze about the current state of Louisville’s music scene, which has recently seen a lot of interesting collaborations and unique projects. And Roze aims to continue that trend with #FreeFunction, which will take place as part of Do502’s Free Week on Saturday, Jan. 30 at Headliners. The idea is to bring together four different DJs, all with (at least slightly) different influences, styles, fan-bases. During the evening, each DJ gets a time slot and can bring out whatever artists they want for live collaborations.

“I thought it would be cool for the artist to be part of the DJ’s set, instead of the DJ always backing the artist,” Roze says of the concept, which was kick-started by his interest in creating something different from the norm and increasing artist visibility in Louisville.

“I was getting kind of sick of the same shows — I didn’t want to do a repeat show,” he continues. “So, they came to me with the idea of me and my band headlining, and I said let’s just throw a big party. There’s always so many shows in town, but there’s not enough parties, where you can come and enjoy music from a DJ’s perspective. Also, I was thinking, we have so many talented artists in this city … and we need light shined on the DJs. And, the DJs, I kind of feel like they are the glue that keeps everybody together. Some people might not particularly enjoy each other’s genre of music, but they might all be cool with the same DJ.”

#FreeFunction will include Sam Sneed, DJ OutHere, Vane and DJ Znyce.

In terms of what’s new with him, Roze just recently released a video called Break’s Over, announcing new music is on the horizon.

“I’ve been writing like crazy — I’ve been hitting a stride when it come to writing music. I’m actually doing an EP, which will be dropping in the summer. I have a lot of things in the works.”

For the full Free Week schedule, visit do502.com/freeweek

This article appears in January 27, 2016.