Basic Info: Real Name: Jordan Leppert, AKA Jordi Born / Lives: Bournemouth, UK Date of Birth: 24th November 1983 Types of Music Produced: Freeform / Hardtrance, Psytrance Aliases: Lost Soul, Xenos (Psytrance)

Article by Sarah Wiles, November 2004

Jordan Leppert aka. Lost Soul or ‘Jordi’ to his friends, is a 21-year-old computing student, who has lived nearby Bournemouth all his life and happens to be one of the freshest talents coming through the hardcore scene at the moment. When Jordan’s not furiously blowing his horn in Club Destiny he is tucked up in his studio creating the next offerings that Nu Energy has to blast the dance floor with.

Jordan has had an interest in computers from a young age and started messing around with odd bits of software at the sprightly age of 12. At school he started getting into trance music and he bought some decks. He always had an interest in hardcore but because he couldn’t get hold of any tapes he started to get into melodic dance music and producers like ‘Sash’. This is where the love of his favourite tune came from and what a wicked track it is, ‘Angel’ by Ralph Fridge. This passion ignited the sparks that lit the musical bonfire.

At 16 he started putting tunes together using ‘Fruity Loops’. After a successful year making tunes with FL he had his first track signed up Nu Energy records. His sound is fast paced with an energetic, upfront freeform feel; he splices together dark elements with trancey breakdowns. The way he describes his sound is: “Combining the complexity of freeform with the euphoric elements of trance.” He takes on average around 20 hours to get a tune together and feels that his most accomplished tracks are ‘Bad Influence’ and ‘Strength Is Irrelevant’. After a year on FL he moved onto ‘Cubase’ another music making programme. His love for production just kept growing and growing: “The problem with DJing is that you can only play what tunes you’ve got. When you make your own tunes you’ve got the freedom to do what you want. I get more satisfaction from making a tune than playing a set.”

In the sleepy little town of Tuckton where Jordi lives, he has a bedroom come studio where he makes his euphoric Nu Energy tracks. A year ago Jordan started to set up his own studio buying a Virus C Synth, Mackie mixing desk and Valve Compressor, it now dominates a good half of his bedroom. He spent a whopping five grand on the set up and this explains why he is still living at home as he spent his entire student loan on the equipment.

When Kevin Energy heard his tune 'Dark Side Of The Moon' he was quick to sign it up to Nu Energy and from that Sharkey signed it to his Bonkers compilation. Off the back of Sharkey signing up his tune he mentored him for a few weeks. Although he didn’t finish any tracks, Sharkey taught him tips on working with a pro engineer, tricks of the trade, attitude to working on tracks and getting beats polished, adding detail to tracks.

To date he has had 18 of his own tracks signed up, three collaborations and one remix. This is an awesome achievement for someone at the very start of their music career. A couple of months ago he also got his tune 'Dark Side Of The Moon' played on the John Peel show. The fact that John himself chose Jordan’s tune to play was a huge compliment to him and the merits of his music.

Although Jordi has been making tunes for over five years he only got into clubbing in February 2003: “My first rave was Raindance at SeOne. I was really impressed and loved it!” His favourite event is Elation where he is a regular, as for clubs he is a big fan of the Electroworkz and Club Destiny in Bournemouth comes a very close second! His inspiration DJ wise comes from Sharkey, The CLSM and all the forward thinking producers like Stargazer and the Next Generation crew. His tune of the moment is 'Transmission To Mars' by The CLSM.

He is a very forward thinking DJ and although he can mix with vinyl he much prefers CD’s: “I’m really clumsy so I find mixing with CD’s much easier. It only took me a couple of hours to pick up mixing with them. I think that CD’s will take over from vinyl. It’s easier from a DJ and a label point of view. Vinyl’s old technology now and the progression means there is more music around.”

The future for Jordan is bright. In two years time he will graduate and can either take on a more conservative career in computing or continue forging a name for himself in the music industry. He has every intention to carry on making music and has plans to experiment with trance, techno, gabba and drum and bass. Freeform fans, however, would be well advised to get on it and check out Jordan's blistering E.P. on Innervision, including the twisting acid-charged 'Lemme Hear Ya' and the equally energetic 'Genocide' on the flip.

Every week, a steady stream of demo CDs land through the letterbox of Nu Energy HQ before ending up on the office stereo. Many are way off the mark, others show potential but lack that special something while a chosen few stand out head and shoulders from the rest and demand a second listen. When it arrived in early 2003, Lost Soul's 'Euphoric Energy' was one such demo. Listening to it carefully, as he does every demo, Kevin Energy was instantly captivated by its intense racing energy, sizzling synth rhythms and epic breakdowns. Amazingly, he found out that it was one of the first finished works of an 18 year old raver named Jordan Leppert. Since these impressive beginnings, Jordan Lost Soul has matured impressively, graduating from his stint as the young apprentice to become one of Nu Energy's most accomplished music makers. Still only 21 years old, Jordan has already had no less than six appearances on Nu Energy. His latest effort, 'Too Strong' has already featured on Resist's Hardcore Heaven and like his recent bombs on Raw Elements and Innervision is both innovative and explosively instant, pulsing witb raw energy. September, meanwhile, will bring the long awaited DJ debut of the Lost Soul.

With all these exciting developments in the offing, we caught up with Jordan to get inside the mind of the Lost Soul and uncover his opinions on everything from the allure of the freeform template to the future of UK Hardcore and the MP3 revolution. Interested? Read on....

Jordan, ever since early tracks like 'Payback Time' and ‘Euphoric Energy’ your name has been attached to an intense and energetic freeform sound but what first opened your mind to the sound?
To be honest I wasn’t instantly drawn to freeform at all. Around 1996, I was mostly listening to eurodance and psy-trance before I heard happy hardcore for the first time. I love with the general insanity of it all.

Then around 1997-1998 I really got into melodic trance in a big, big way. When I first heard freeform around 1999, I thought it was alright, but still preferred the happy stuff. I had made 'Euphoric Energy' without even realising it was freeform, but when it got picked up by Kevin I started to listening to a lot more of label's like Nu Energy. And really appreciating it too.

What is it that you love about the sound?
Definitely the freedom. As artist, you can really draw on as much complexity and diversity as you want. While a lot of my tracks use a trance lead, and / or an acid line, I try to compliment them with unique and unusual sounds. The sort you won’t find anywhere else. The aim being to make the tracks danceable, but also pushing forward new sounds and ideas.

I also love the intense energy, especially in some of the Finnish stuff. Nothing else comes close to me, not even speedcore, even though it might be twice the speed. To me the energy comes not just from the speed, but from the frantic riffs, accompanying sounds (acids, b-lines, pads), and assorted effects which really add complexity to a track.

Do you still see yourself as a young apprentice or do you feel like one of the old hands on the circuit these days?
Well 'Euphoric Energy' was engineered around February 2002, and released a few months later, so I’ve only had my name out there for a little over three years. I’ve learnt a lot about music and production over the last few years, and I’ve had quite a few successes and things to be proud of, but I still consider myself an up and coming. I’m not sure where the line is drawn to be honest, but I think it will be a couple more years till I feel completely established.

Out of all the tracks you’ve made which are you most proud of and what is it about them that really sticks out?
'Dark Side of the Moon' is the first to come to mind, not only did it get onto Bonkers 12, but John Peel played it on Radio One. I was really pleased that something I’d done the vast majority of the work on (K-Complex did the mix down and redid the percussion and bass line, and added a few effects) had got onto such a big selling album, and even on the radio.

The second track to come to mind would be Bad Influence (Raw Elements 14). It was one of those tracks that wrote itself, the dirty hoover, incoherently distorted sample, and most of all, the warping, almost psytrance main riff. It was very danceable but certainly very different from other stuff coming out.

Of course, 'Too Strong' is another track I’m proud of. I wrote it at the time Kevin was putting together his track list for his Hardcore Heaven album, Kevin really liked it and gave me continual feedback on it while I tweaked it until we were both completely happy with it, and so it ended up getting onto the album. It was the first track I’d done entirely by myself to get onto an album.

How long does it usually take you to put a track together? Do you spend hours scrutinising and tweaking a synth pattern or is it a much more free flowing pattern?
I’ve made entire tracks in a day pretty much, but recently I’ve learnt the value of slowing myself down, instead spending a lot of time on each part before moving on. Over the years I’ve built up a knack of being able to do the music part quite easily, and that part comes naturally now. I’m trying to get my production really up to scratch now, and so I’m taking my time to get the basics as perfect as possible before moving on. I’ve discovered that if you spend about a day getting the kick drum, bass line and percussion completely knuckled, regularly comparing it to finished tracks, then the rest of the track is really easy to mix down.

Can you tell us a bit about what tracks you’ve been cooking up lately? What labels are they forthcoming on?
Well obviously 'Too Strong' (NuEnergy 49) is about to hit out, with the fantastically euphoric K-Complex remix on the flip. Both mixes have been rinsed by Kevin Energy, so if you’ve been to a rave where he’s played, you’ve probably heard it! My next release for Relentless Vinyl is being put together and will be out soon. It’s not confirmed but will most likely be 'Mindscape' on the A side, featuring Dark Angel (Sarah Wiles), and 'Mission Control' on the flip. I’m also doing an EP for Lee UHF’s label Bedlam, and have finished one track for it, 'Outer Space', which is a stompy hardtrance / hardstyle influenced freeform track with a ravey d&b section. Finally, I've just finished another track which will possibly end up on Relentless Vinyl, it’s a hugely melodic and atmospheric tune with a slightly Finnish feel to it. All it needs is a name…!

With your history raving to the more cheesey side of the scene, have you got any plans to embark on a full-on Raverbaby styled vocal anthem as a producer or will you keep hard, fast and intense??
I was thinking of doing some vocal stuff at one point, but I’m not really that interested in it now. Which is odd because I used to love it. My tastes have gone more techno, and I’ve really gone back to my psy-trance roots as well. I’m even trying to make stuff with less huge melodic trance leads, so I guess I’m really heading in the totally opposite direction of Raverbaby.

And given the intense uplifting nature of your hardcore it seems strange that you’ve never had a dabble at producing hard trance… are you just too much of an ultra-hard bastard to drop the bpms or is it something you’re keen to do?
It’s something I’ve always been meaning to do, I’ve frequently made trance tracks, but never pushed them to get signed. But you could say all my tracks are hardtrance, just fast hardtrance. It’s still something I’d like to do, just to test the water in a slightly different scene.

You’ve not exactly been known for your collaborations? Is this because you’ve got a pungent body odour problem or do you just prefer twiddling your own knobs rather than someone else’s?
I do mostly prefer working solo. I have done collaborations, I made a few tracks with DOK a couple of years ago (some of which saw release I think!), and more recently made DJs are Dogs with Grob LeFrog, which Kutski played on his Radio One show

Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Definitely, Jon Doe (CLSM) and Kevin Energy. Both seem on my wavelength, and I think the results would be great.

You’re primarily known as a producer but do you also DJ?
I do DJ, just not out and about. Until now, that is. I’m playing at Bedlam in September, which will be my first booking, and there there’s also talk of me getting bookings around the South Coast, but I want to see how Bedlam goes first really.

What can we expect from the Lost Soul DJ debut?
I’m planning to make my sets as diverse as possible, with little bits of d&b and gabba sneaking in, but without it being disjointed. I’m not planning to do a straight hour of beat-matching either, I’d rather make it more interesting than that. I don’t totally agree with the current method of DJing, because I think it limits what the musician can do with the track as they have to make it DJ friendly. It’s a vicious circle too, because the more boring a track intro and structure is the less a DJ can do with it. I think there is potentially so much more DJs could do, especially with new CD/MP3 mixing technology which automatically beat-matches for you, freeing the DJ to do more complex and imaginative things.

What is your opinion on the state of the hardcore scene in general? Is it suffering from a lack of musical diversity at events or is their generally something for everyone?
This is a subject where I choose my words carefully…

I think within the actual scene, there is a wide range of sounds and styles within hardcore. However, I don’t feel enough diversity is actually showcased at big events. The nearest you come to diversity at a large event is maybe one or two freeform sets. The people who are booked to do something a little different naturally feel compelled to play quite a safe, happy set, lest they completely kill the dancefloor. Because they will kill the dancefloor, because most ravers who only go to big events very rarely hear anything other than happy.

If we compare this to the hardcore scene in Holland things are very different. Even the “cheesy” DJs play the odd terror tune, or something a bit different. You get speedcore sets chucked in, and yes half the people stop dancing, but the thing is people very rarely get to like something like speedcore straight away. I didn’t even like nu-style the first time I heard it, but now I love it. A lot of people might stop dancing when something different to what they like comes on, but these events still often pull over 20,000 people.

What I think the big events need to realise is that while booking an obvious line up of all anthem-playing DJs might be the safest thing to do in the short term, it won’t be long before people get bored again and leave as quickly as they came. People aren’t going to forfeit an event just because a couple more sets are handed to people who play different stuff, and people aren’t going to hate a DJ because he played a couple of tunes that are different from what he normally plays. But ultimately some people will like what they hear, and stay in hardcore for longer.

And how long do you see yourself being involved with the hardcore scene?
I’ve no plans to leave hardcore at all. Hopefully the music will mutate slightly into something more diverse, and, well, “freeform”. If not I’ll just have to annoy everyone with ridiculously experimental tracks until it does.

What other genres are you keen to experiment with? Have you made any more experimental tracks of late?
I’m hoping to start doing some stuff I haven’t done before once I’ve finished my next batch of releases, either really experimental freeform, hardtrance, gabba, maybe even techno or psy-trance. Everything I’ve done lately has been with a label in mind which I think has limited me a bit.

What others styles are currently doing it for you? Are you a fan of Pendulum’s madcap d’n’b bass aerobics or do you just get down to some Sean Paul down your local Litten Tree?
I’ve always loved trance, I’m getting back into psy-trance in a big way too. Techno is something that took me quite a while to appreciate, but if there’s a techno room at an event now you can bet I’ll be in it for a few hours at least. I’ve always liked d&b to an extent, not too keen on a whole night of it but some tracks have really done it for me. I like some chill out and alternative electronic music too stuff like Orbital, Autechre, Royksopp.

Outside of dance music I like quite a lot of rock music, especially either the heavy stuff or the quite experimental trippy stuff. I’ve been going to quite a lot of gigs and liked what I’ve heard, even ventured into the occasional mosh pit and got violent with the rest of them (memory of these events are hazy due to excessive drinking and the odd blow to the head).

With vinyl sales falling and Digital only labels sprouting up by the day, it seems the MP3 revolution is slowly starting to change the face of the global dance movement for good. What are your opinions on the changing tides?
Do you think they are opening up the music to fresh audiences and breaking exciting music quicker or will they slowly strangle the market and make it harder to finance music production?
I don’t particularly like MP3 as a format, it’s very much long in the tooth and there are much better compression schemes out there, some actually lossless. But I do like the concept of selling music across the Internet as files, which a lot of people don’t seem to like.

The thing about starting a digital only label is there is no money on the line apart from the money spent making the actual tune. There’s no pressing costs. There’s also no chance of selling out. This makes life a LOT easier for the label owner, as they only have to think about the music. For the customer, the tunes are much, much cheaper, and they don’t need decks to listen to them, which means you’ve got much more potential customers.

Have you got any pressing plans to step out in to the MP3 market with your own Digital only label(s)?
Not yet. We’ll see what the future holds once I finish uni around 2007.

Finally, what are your main ambitions for the rest of the year?
I hope to get another track onto Bonkers. Other than that, nothing in particular, I don’t really make long-term plans. I hope to get my driving license, that’s about it!

Quick-fire Questions:

Do you like jam?
No but I like jams.

What are your favourite crisps?
Pringles, but only because of the MSG.

How much is a pound of fresh haddock?
I live near the sea so nothing.

If you had to choose one tune to play on repeat to your worst enemy what would it be?
Probably Discoland, the girl singing sounds like she’s on Ket.

Do you believe in God?
I don’t believe it does exist, but I can’t rule out the possibility of the universe originating from a conscious being. However I feel it would ask more questions than it answers, which in itself isn’t an argument that would rule out God, but makes it an unlikely theory in my estimation.

So, no.

Ha ha, not so quick-fire Jordan... to end then, what's your favourite tune of all time?
Argh, painfully difficult question. Possibly Ralph Fridge – Angel. I don’t really have one though.