Acid Jacks

Onelove compilations have been the ‘table-of-contents’ for clubbers looking for the perfect party mix for almost ten years and this summer’s three disc Sonic Boom Box is no exception. Disc 1 is mixed by Andy Murphy and features such tracks as Ten Snake’s Coma Cat, the Herve remix of Mark Ronson’s Somebody To Love and Swedish House Mafia’s Miami To Ibiza. The international contributor to the compilation, Scotman Calvin Harris, mixes Disc 2 and features songs from his own Flashback (Axwell remix) to Tiga’s You Gonna Want Me (Hey Today Remix) and Deadmau5’s Arguru (Robbie Rivera Remix). Finally, on Disc 3 you have Acid Jacks doing a classic party set that opens with Rusko’s Dubstep monster Kumon Kumon and then other party-massive tunes like Nelly’s Hot In Here and Acid Jacks’ own Acid Hits (All Night Long).

Acid Jacks’ Antonio Celestino caught up with 100% to discuss his contribution to the new One Love compilation. However, the first cab off the conversation rank has nothing to do with the CD but is as to why the Acid Jacks is only Celestino and no longer long time member and co-founder of the group David Haberfeld who retired from the group four months ago. “It was not a schism; it was David retiring from doing this side of life for lots of reasons. I knew that people would still associate me with the Acid Jacks’ name so I thought ‘I’ll just keep going with this!’ and that’s why I kind of wanted to mix this CD to put the new Acid Jacks out there to a new market,” explains the typically up beat Celestino.

However, his tone darkens slightly when he recounts a recent gig where it was just him performing as Acid Jacks. “The other night I had some fuckhead at a gig who was all like ‘It says Acid Jacks and your just like one guy, it’s plural so I thought there was like two of you. Ministry Of Sound shouldn’t do this.’ To which I said ‘I have never done anything for Ministry Of Sound, now fuck off,’” states Celestino wryly before adding, “Anyway, I’ve done a lot of productions as Acid Jacks that were just me over the years because some stuff David just wasn’t interested in.”

One track of note from early on in Acid Jacks’ career was their punked up club version of Pharaoh Monch’s Simon Says. Celestino discusses this track, “That’s my thing, that sort of cheeky anti-hegemonic take on popular music. I think that’s why I got along with Dave so well because he is of exactly the same attitude I had. So if I came to him with remix or edit I had done like that we’d play it out as Acid Jacks because more people were going to hear it that way.”

He now discusses which track off the Sonic Boom Box that most represents the new, Ant Celestino, Acid Jacks, “Well, obviously my originals that are on there like Gangster Script which is a very eclectic thing,” says a softly recoiling Celestino. But then he jumps back with, “But here’s the thing! As far as DJing goes, every track on there represents Acid Jacks because it is all stuff I genuinely play when I’m out, whether it’s Nelly or something else, this is all stuff I genuinely play at Acid Jacks’ shows.

He now qualifies his stance on putting together a compilation CD, “Not to be a wanker, but I hope when DJs compile these mix CDs they actually put on tracks that they want to or would play not feel like ‘Aw, the record company wants me to push this artist’s tracks or whatever,” explains a passionate Celestino. “That’s part of my deal when I do these things, I’m like ‘Hey, you hired me to tell you what’s cool so my disc is going to be for those people that are fucking actually interested in what’s cool.”

Acid Jacks (AUS) are playing with Calvin Harris (SCO) and Andy Murphy (AUS) at The Prince of Wales on Saturday February 26. The Onelove Sonic Boom Box is out now!