DOMAIN at F8 featuring Jay Denham | August 17, 2024
Pictured Left to Right: Oso Feo, Pulse Finder, Jay Denham, Zero Idea
BY BENJI FALES AKA ZERO IDEA – FOR·MA·TIVE CONTRIBUTING WRITER.
It’s August 17, 2024—in just a few hours, Jay Denham will be headlining F8 Nightclub for DOMAIN, an SF-based event series founded by Morgan Law (Pulse Finder) and myself. The last time Jay played in San Francisco was in 1999—right next door to F8 at Cat Club, before it became a goth bar—back when South of Market was dominated by house and techno clubs.
Jay, a second-generation Detroit techno artist, was a key figure on our booking bucket list for DOMAIN since its inception. Our goal was simple—we just wanted to showcase artists who influenced us and informed that “hardgroove / tribal / early 2000s” underground techno sound making a resurgence today. We were concerned that much of the post-COVID crowd going to techno parties in San Francisco’s underground scene didn’t understand or care where this style of techno originated—and they were missing out—we wanted to show them where it came from: Detroit and, on a larger scale, the United States. We weren’t certain if Jay was still playing, but lo and behold, in early 2024, we clocked two recent mixes that he had posted on his SoundCloud page and immediately began looking for ways to get in touch with him.
Born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Jay’s music is an amalgamation of influences from Kalamazoo’s closest musical neighbors: Chicago, 147 miles to the west, and Detroit, 140 miles to the east. Heavy jacking drum loops (notoriously Chicagoan) over futuristic synthesizer sequences (Detroit!). Musically, the second generation of Detroit artists built on the techno of their forefathers, the Belleville Three (Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May). BPMs and distortion increased, and the tracks being produced became tools to layer when playing on 3+ turntables (à la Jeff Mills). This era became particularly important to me—it was the blueprint for my own production and DJing.
And so here we were—two 20-something-year-olds trying to bring the origins of techno to San Francisco on a razor-thin budget, and the legend Jay Denham, towering over 6 feet tall, sleeping on an air mattress in the office of Morgan’s apartment. He didn’t care—he just wanted to play. I cannot underscore enough how special that is: 40 years in the industry and still feeling that way about your craft. 40 years in, and still hungry.
This was my biggest takeaway from getting to spend time with Jay: if you want longevity in the industry, you better love what you do. And I truly mean love. If there were no one left to listen to, or play your tunes—no one to spin for—would you still do it? If the answer is no, get the fuck out of here. Seriously. The people who love this shit need this shit. These are the people we’ll still see in the game 10, 20, 30 years from now—a little grayer, a little deafer, but hungry.
And I won’t air out what isn’t mine to air, but some of the stories Jay told us about the late ’80s and early ’90s—about rooms that weren’t safe, money that disappeared, politics that chewed people up—really stuck with me. Jay stayed; he’s still in it, and that really leveled me. The man had every right to be bitter, but instead, he was focused. When he stepped behind the decks at F8, there was no martyrdom—just pure craft and a deep love for what he does.
People say don’t meet your heroes. Maybe what they mean is don’t meet the ones who mistook access and convenience for talent. Don’t meet the ones who built a career out of being adjacent to something real. Eventually, the lights come on and you’re standing there with a guy who can’t mix without a sync button.
But every so often, you meet someone like Jay—someone who has been doing it longer than you’ve been alive—who still just wants to play good music, nothing to prove. So yeah, meet your heroes. Just make sure they’re the kind who’d still be doing it if nobody showed up to watch. And in the words of the great Jay Denham: “BNR for Life”!
