The Rust: After a few years of playing at the other stages, how does it feel to return to the Fractal Forest

Jason: I've always known I would come back to the funky Fractal. My sound has a range of styles and I like applying them in different places. However, the classic JPOD sound evolved in the Fractal Forest and will always have a place there. I'm excited to start Friday night off the way that so many Fractal friends want!

The Rust: Did you attend your first Shambhala as a patron or as a volunteer?

Jason: My first year was 2004 and it is the only year I attended as a punter. It was good to experience the line fiasco and general camping rush but of course back then it was probably half the size as now, so a little bit less stressful. I attended and camped with some Whistler friends (the Cook brothers) and I was definitely THAT guy - bare feet all weekend, sleeping all day, partying all night, crying for no reason by Sunday (ok maybe because 3rd Eye Tribe really hit me with the feels at the Living Room), repeatedly forgetting what I was just talking about, mind blown by Bassnectar and generally dancing my legs right off. Recovery that year was brutal and I learned to take some time off before going back to work.

The Rust: The funky, glitched-out breakbeat sound has become a signature of Western Canadian electronic music. You credit much of this to the Fractal Forest. Can you elaborate on how this stage has influenced the region’s electronic music and yourself?

Jason: Shambhala clearly has the reputation for being the region's first and probably most influential event for cutting edge dance music. All the local aspiring DJs and producers were attending or performing as well as getting heavily influenced by all the music. The Fractal Forest may have been one of the first stages to really establish its sound and has since been the home for funky breakbeats. Those of us who were being influenced by this music were naturally going to try to make our own flavor of it back home. I have always tried to differentiate myself. Since there was almost no one doing mid-tempo funky breakbeats back then, I took the chunky funk I was hearing in the Fractal and combined it with the hip-hop and trip-hop roots I established through DJing for over four years prior. What began to emerge was that funky bassline remix and at the time it was very fresh and inspiring.

The Rust: We read that when you met Rich-e-Rich, stage manager at the Fractal Forest, you were spinning hip-hop on vinyl in your hometown of Kelowna. Can you take us back and describe that moment in time?