The electrifying team, Jasmine Solano and Melo-X of Electric Punanny spoke with The Source about working at Webster Hall for House Party Thursdays.
House Party Thursdays will never be the same at Webster Hall. The once ladies night event has turned into a 1992 flashback with 4 floors of different music and Electric Punanny mobbing out in the reggae room. Electric Punanny is made up of Jasmine Solano host of MTV’s “Scratch The Surface” along with Melo-X a multimedia artist based in New York. Check out the interview with the duo:
How electrifying does the punanny have to be?
Melo-X: It’s more like feeding the right electrolytes to the punanny, keeping the nutritional value up, keeping it up to par; especially when your dealing with a party. You need all the punanny to be well fed electricity all night.
Where did the name ‘Electric Punanny’ come from?
Melo: The idea was using the words to represent different styles of music. Punanny is a Caribbean term, that’s more of the Caribbean style of what we play. Electric was more like the up tempo electronic, house and global music that we play. It was more like two words that represented these styles of music that we play and we came up with Electric Punanny, that would be something that rolled off the tongue, pun intended.
How has Webster Hall been so far?
Melo: We got to do the opening night. The good thing about the party is that me and Jas have such diverse careers, we both create music on our own. We get to put some of our favorite ill dancehall music and a great mix of music there. The reviews we’ve been getting every week has been amazing. The first night when we opened up at Webster Hall was probably about 20,00 people all just having a good time. It was a good experience. New York doesn’t really have a party like that right now so it’s kinda cool to be a part of that.
Jasmine Solano: What’s cool is that we know everybody else in the other rooms so it’s like a traditional rave almost where you can walk into any different room and hear different styles of music and party in there for 20 minutes then go hop into our reggae room and party for like an hour then go to the next. It’s definitely got its 90’s feel just in terms in how the party operates. We’re stoked to be running the reggae room.
If you weren’t working the event, which floor would you catch yourselves on?
Melo: Me and Jasmine have specifically worked with every other dj that’s a part of it. I’ve worked with Just Blaze. Me and Jasmine have done parties with Vashtie before. We’ve had some Mad Decent artists on our bill with Electric Punanny. We’re really able to vibe with each crowd and we play a bit of everything at our parties anyway so I think we could vibe with every single floor. Me I’d like to go to the basement to the Mad Decent room and get mad sweaty and go crazy in the basement.
Jasmine: I’d probably just move around. I would love to go in the basement like Melo said. You go into the grand ballroom it’s packed from the whole floor, all the balcony. Who is Just Blaze going to bring out right now? And A-Track is there. I think the party is meant for you to make the rounds.
What playlist have you created thus far that’s you in a nutshell?
Jasmine: Our mixtapes are kinda like our little compilation albums. We put one out a year, we take a lot of time to work on it, we put our own voices on it and it’s always a mix of the music that represents us and that we love for that year. Those mixtapes are the things that’s gotten us global notary with people hitting us up in all different countries going to book us. We went on a world tour last October, so I think the playlists that are a part of our mixtapes are an exact representation of who we are and what we’re in to and what we stand for.
How is touring?
Melo: The world tour was amazing. We did that last year October. That was amazing because we’ve toured around the world individually. Our Party that we started is a very New York based party. To be able to now 6 years later take it out to different states and different countries shows the growth of the party itself. The growth of us as artist and djs. Also the growth of the global community of people who share music. Everyone has a soundcloud now, it’s more about sharing than keeping it to yourself. It’s about showing all the different styles of music. The party definitely signifies that for a lot of people around the world who are into dancehall music and global music and soul music.
Tell me about weekend 2 at Coachella.
Jasmine: Coachella was cool because we dj’d the “Do Over Party” which is a legendary party at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs. It was cool because we were the only reggae dancehall act and it was 4/20 so that was a good coincidence and it was just nice. Anyone that lives or visit New York knows that we are dying for sun, so it was great.
Melo: We were definitely running away from this cold corny ass weather. Being in coachella was cool, fun definitely a good experience. The vibe was real good, I think we did a real dope set with an owe to the weed smokers and Jay Rock actually started his set with a real dope Rick James, “Mary Jane” mash up.
Why is it important we relive 1992?
Melo: Dealing with culture, music everything comes full circle. Usually like 10-20 years you’ll see the same thing reoccur where people have this feel of nostalgia comes to certain scenes, certain music. Definitely see the vibe that our party gives off is that party vibe. I come from East Flatbush where we had a lot of basement parties call the “Bashment” you turn the light on you see everybody blue jeans on the wall from everybody whining and dancing. We come from that vibe and around that time was a real good time for reggae music as well like “Shing a ling” with Shabba. Emergence of real dancehall dances like the butterfly and the bruck up. It’s always good to relive those moments. It’s cool to have that house party vibe in 2014 at such a big club too, it’s not like your mother’s basement.
In the upcoming months, the duo’s North American Tour will be a docu-series on Revolt TV. Until then come to Webster Hall on Thursday nights to find out how Electric the Punanny is!
Tiy Hampton, @_tiy_
