An interview with Wooly for http://www.4clubbers.net/ below:
After your many years as resident at Basics how does it feel to be going back to your old stomping ground, the Mint Club after all this time? Leeds is a city that is renowned for its excellent music and hard partying... Will there be an element of nostalgia there for you on your return?
Hello Aby, first of all thanks for the quality of your questions which is always welcome. In one sense yes, there`s definitely an element of nostalgia, but the thing which outweighs any nostalgia is the desire to play in the venue as it is today. I was fortunate enough to find some time to make a proper visit when Raresh played recently, as I had a rare saturday night close to Leeds. The changes that have been made to the room, from the system to the layout mean that for me, it`s now the perfect space for it`s purpose. The perfect balance of intimacy & that slightly illicit feeling. People have always loved that venue and this just comes down to that certain something which is hard to actually define, beyond the obvious. Some clubs can be incredible architectural spaces and just not FEEL right. Mint always had that feeling of home for me. You would find people going to various other places in Leeds but often ending up at Mint by 5am because they knew that by that point it was all on the menu. I`m very much looking forward to playing again and especially on that system which is rather outrageous.
You have now moved down to London, how is living in the capital city, and how do you find the clubs in London compared to up north?
I hear Fabric & Matter are very good... You may be surprised to know that I actually live in Leeds, which is where I`ll be certainly for the next few years. I had a hectic time when I lived in the city centre, way too many late nights and it became obvious that if I was to achieve what I wanted to achieve then I needed to leave that lifestyle behind and find the equilibrium that quiet surroundings brings. As much as I love London, it`s because I have a slightly romantic view of the place formed from gigs that have turned into long weekends, trips to galleries, and all of the social side of the music business that occurs there when I visit. I prefer to be out of the way when I`ve finished travelling at the end of each weekend, so the quiet side of Leeds is perfect. I wouldn`t want to be going home to Brick Lane after 6 flights and hardly any sleep...
I understand that you take a lot of influence from the groundbreaking giants of techno: Kevin Saunderson, Stacey Pullen, Derrick May etc, and will be joining one of the ultimate pioneers; Jeff Mills at System. Is there anyone in the non techno world whom you draw inspiration from? Who did you listen to before you got into DJing?
I`d say more than anyone, it`s Steve Reich. He is a composer who has, in my eyes, perfected the balance of harmony and steady rhythmic pulses and distilled all this into these beautiful surging, slowly evolving pieces of music which occasionally bring a tear to my eye. His experiments with things moving in and out of phase pushed me into the place where `erotic discourse` came from, yet he has notated his music. It is played by orchestras, not machines. He has written down every note, bar and intonation of how each piece should be played. The man is a genius. You will have heard some of his work already as it has been scored countless times on adverts, soundtracks and so on. Aside from him, the other people who hold huge amounts of inspiration to me are producers of music in wider capacities such as Rick Rubin, Brian Eno, Nigel Godrich, Pharrell Williams, Mark Bell, Phil Spector for his innovation, Trevor Horn & so on. This kind of producing is as much about psychologically influencing conditions to provoke the absolute best out of your client, rather than sitting behind a computer pushing blocks around which is really more engineering. That`s where I aspire to be ultimately, although I think I`ll always produce bass-driven mutations of dance music, even when I`m in my 50s probably...or should I say alarmingly. But inspiration comes from all corners, from outside of music, Francis Bacon, Warhol, Jeff Koons, Marlena Dumas, Doris Salcedo, Zaha Hadid, Frank Lloyd-Wright and many more artists of all descriptions push my buttons. Every week I`m inspired by something new and I`m lucky to be able to soak it all up and use it as fuel. The people who`s work has resonated with me the most in dance music, more often than not turn out to be people who look outside of it for inspiration.
It seems that `minimal` is now fading and house music with a groove is du jour once again. As a producer that has been in the industry for quite a few years now, how do you move along with these trends? Do you find it easy to stick to what you like or do you find it a challenge not to get swept along or influenced by what other people are making at the time?
For me personally, the groove has always been the most important thing, and whether that comes from an old Prescription or Gherkin 12" or an abrasive Fumiya Tanaka WAV file, it`s irrelevent. Things come & go and you pick and choose the records that you connect with and bin off the generic fodder. Trends move things along and create temporary hotbeds of creativity,usually for a very short time, before what nearly always happens - a wave of people follow in the wake of the trailblazers, leading to a vast avalanche of sub-standard productions. This is something that has always happened though, and as a DJ it`s your job to filter out the nonsense and find the best examples of the artform. It`s always interesting to see how general opinion forms on these trends. This morning I was reading a web forum where people were discussing their favourite records of the last 10 years, which rapidly turned into a revisionist-history re-writing of events. Nearly everyone contributing was coating off anything remotely "minimal" which is funny considering many of them were espousing it`s virtues at the moment it was at it`s most "coolest" or whatever term you want to use. Proper minimal techno always had a groove anyway - it`s just that the sheer volume of bullshit productions by people without the understanding created the swell of bad records. Trends are sometimes things worth kicking against as well, which is another good thing about them. The people that have made a serious impact in this very fickle world of dance music are more often the people that are reacting against the unwritten rules, these are the moments when more interesting sounds can emerge. As long as you play from the heart and you genuinely love each record you play, that comes across when you are actually in the booth.
Are there any new producers or DJ`s that you have been impressed by in 2009? Anyone that you think we should look out for in 2010?
Yes there`s a guy called Oni Ayhun who has only released 3 EPs so far, but he is making this beautiful, occasionally raw and very emotional techno that by-passes all the bullshit and sounds very fresh. His 3rd EP has blown me away and I`m looking forward to hearing more from him. You can feel his way with sound is very different to most. It`s not peak-time dancefloor stuff, more esoteric, and you can clearly tell he`s not in it to be trendy, travel the world and sleep with girls. Real spirit, of the kind that can not be mistaken, flows through these tracks. I guess I get a similar feeling to the one I had the first time I connected with Moodymann`s stuff, although this is far more electronic. He`s a breathe of fresh air.
You spent another summer as resident for `We Love...` at Space in Ibiza. How did you find the season this year with the current economic climate and people jetting off to different places like Croatia and Berlin... has the island still got its mojo? Is it still as hedonistic as ever?
It`s definitely still as hedonistic, I can testify to that. If you didn`t visit there this year and went solely from what was being said online, it could have seemed as if the island was deserted - I read people saying things like "oh everyone`s going to Croatia now, it`s finished" as if the people that only went there for DC10 were propping up the entire island`s tourist economy! If you went to Space on Sunday or Cocoon on mondays you`d see an average of 4000 people every week at either event. The Space closing had 22,000 over the time the event was running, unbelievably. I guess if you go to ibiza solely to party for a week constantly there were the lesser events suffering, but this is true of clubs globally anyway. Having said that, if you go over there just to visit clubs then you are kind of missing the point, it`s an incredible island, there`s far more to it than being out of your mind with your head in a bassbin... Overall, the economy now means people pick & choose events more carefully, rather then go out for the sake of it, so this means the bigger events benefit and the smaller ones find it tougher.
Do you have any stories from summer 2009 to regale us with on this cold November morning?!
My lips are sealed!
You also have a residency at Matter, another enormous club. How do you feel the vibe at Matter and the vibe at Space differs and how does playing at each place affect what you play?
They are both very different, mainly due to the location and also at Matter I warm-up and close the club whereas at Space I mainly close or play towards the latter part of the night. Space has it`s own vibe which is quite high-energy, moreso than many other clubs, so playing late on means that you need to really lay it down, and if you experiment with things then you must have a way of weaving this into the fabric of the set without sacrificing the energy. Also the people in the club are in a different headspace to anywhere else, because nearly everyone is on holiday, so this brings with it a markedly different atmosphere. There are certain types of records that work perfectly in Space that I would never play elsewhere and I realised a few years ago that making re-edits of these records that emphasise the way they work the floor would be the key to making a larger impact. Over the last 3 years this has become the central focus of my sets at Space on monday mornings, so this year there were about 12 new edits spanning older classics (such as Fuse vs LFO`s "Loop") and then moving right up to today with a take on one of Shed`s "EQ`D" tracks. These are interspersed with various samples and snippets that are more recognisable to people who have maybe been in clubs over the last 20 years, so what you are doing is representing the history of the music along with the best parts of today`s house & techno and weaving it all together. At Matter, it`s a different method. The crowd is younger and it`s a different approach, and less pressure. Playing every week at Space on a monday morning means that you are forced to keep it fresh, it`s a high-pressure environment. Although, after this season, it`s the residency that I have actually played the most gigs at - Basics included, so I`m more comfortable in there than anywhere else. The team who look after me every week make things so much easier as well, and in fact, at Matter too - if you know that everything is taken care of before you walk into the venue, all you focus on is the music and feeling the natural ebb & flow of the night.
You recently remixed Amy Winehouse`s `Love is a Losing Game`... is there anything else in the charts you have your eye on or anyone in particular you would like to work with from the pop world? Do you have any guilty pleasures? Would we catch you in your car nodding your head to Lady Gaga or Girls Aloud?!
It`s a good question. Yes the Amy Winehouse remix came about purely as a spur of the moment thing, but there was so much going on with her in the media that the record company had too much on their plate so it`s unreleased. But yeah, good pop music is something I enjoy as much as the next man - I`m not one of those purists that will tell you I only listen to Basic Channel! There`s two sides to what I do in the studio, and working on remixes of artists from outside of dance music is equally as important to me as the more underground stuff. I`ve been working on Depeche Mode with some remixes of the next single `HoleTo Feed`. These will be released on December 7th on double vinyl and the download stores. This process actually began in June when we got the offer for the remix, and the security on it has been fort-knox like. There was a confidentiallity agreement & heavy contractual stuff as they have been bootlegged so much. I submitted the first versions at the end of July and then Martin Gore from the band requested an edit and some sharpening up, then I waited... and waited... and then bizarrely he came to my gig at Pacha in Buenos Aires recently after the band played a show there. By coincidence we were there the same night. They had approved the remix, and it ended up being of my favourite gigs this year. It was a really lovely moment. In a similar capacity this year, there`s been remixes for Delphic, the Ewan Pearson-produced band who were recently featured on Jools Holland`s BBC tv show, some production and remixes for Maps (again for Mute, home of DM), a couple of versions of Skunk Anansie`s "Weak" - one of which made it onto their Greatest Hits album which just came out. It`s been a really hectic year, my best so far, so I think finding the balance in my life has facilitated all of this. In the pipeline is some more work with Delphic on a marketing project, and 3 remixes of Simian Mobile Disco "Off The Map" which has the genius of Jamie Lidell on vocals who has always been someone who has impressed me, right from his days as part of Super Collider with Cristian Vogel. There`s many more people from other genres that I would consider working with, the door is open basically, I never rule anything out until I hear the track. The thing that conquers all is the track. If it interests me and I can add something fresh to it or present it in a new way, then I`m open to it.
Things have changed in the electronic music production arena, you have seen it from its invention to now the fact that a producer can not really survive in this download era. Free music everywhere, sharing and mass production, where do you see things going? How do you see a producer surviving in the future?
It has become very difficult but I think one of the things that is bullshit is this idea that giving away music is a good idea. By all means, people sharing between themselves, this is a great thing that helps music spread. But artists giving away music has devalued it. In tandem with the rise of P2P networks, social networking and things like Myspace which have become of haven for spam, some sections of the music industry rolled over and almost gave up, as many artists did, and kind of said "oh nobody will pay for it anyway so I may as well give it away" - this is all well and good, except that the next time you have a new piece of music, everyone that you gave the previous one away to expects it for free again. Could you imagine if the film industry did this? If the new Martin Scorsese movie was free? The blood, sweat and tears that goes into it is wasted. Similarly, if you produce music from the heart, that you put your soul into, that is NOT made as fodder to get gigs or flannel to spam people with on myspace - then it should come with a price. People who work in offices do not go there for nothing, for no pay, so why should artists? It`s good for the consumer that Radiohead put their album for sale at whatever you want to pay for it on their website - but that fucks things up for all the new bands that want to get signed, who have a 1-abum shot at success because A&R departments are up shit creek because of lack of funding. I`ve heard some really silly arguments about this. People saying things like "music should be free" "everyone has the right to music" - by that absurd logic, cars should be free, fridges should be free - somebody has had to spend money making them. Finally it seems that people are waking up to this and I was really glad to see Lily Allen taking a stand for the industry in the media lately over this issue. As far as how producers survive, well I think you can`t knock out 12"s for a few years and then live of the back of it as maybe you could have a few years ago. But this might possibly mean that the fly-by-nighters and the people who are only in it for the wrong reasons will lose interest, so there are upsides as well. It basically means that you have to work far, far harder. If you are genuinely giving your all, and what you are doing is up to the standard, then you will break through.
Do you have anything coming up, release wise?
Right now I`m working on a double CD mix for Renaissance which I`m very excited about. It runs the whole gamut from more earthy mid-tempo depth to the house & techno that I`m known for. This should be released late feb/early March and the touring on it will be quite full on next year. Aside from this I`m finalising new 12" releases currently so I don`t want to mention the labels until they are 100% but there`s a couple in the pipeline. There are plans for a new artist album which will be a the next major undertaking, this time for a german label who have the budget and weight to open up the possibilties creatively. Imminently are: Depeche Mode `Hole To Feed` Remix (Mute) December 7th Double 12" & Downloads. Simain Mobile Disco feat Jamie Lidell "Off The Map" Remixes (Wichita) Forthcoming.
It seems that everything you touch turns to gold at the moment; residencies at two of the world`s biggest clubs, running a successful record label, DJing all over the world... where do you want to go from here? Can you still see yourself making music and traveling internationally in 10 or 20 years time?
Production. Definitely producing artists in the wider capacity, that`s where I aspire to be. Preferably in some warm surroundings too. I can`t see myself stopping touring for a long time as it`s so close to my heart, and there`s so much more that I want to do with it. Although there`s so much going on now it`s hard to think beyond next week.
It must be pretty exhausting, what do you do to relax and do you get much `down time` to not think about music? You almost have all bases covered with regards to producing, DJing and have been very successful... is there anything else you would like to try in the industry?
It`s very exhausting, and sometimes you don`t really give yourself the brainspace to switch off properly, but this is very important. I`m spending far less time partying these days so inevitably you have more energy, so the temptation is to never switch off, especially with things like Blackberries and so on. It`s easy to overdo it. But you know, the usual things, family time, films, exercise, it`s all very regular. As far as anything else in the industry is concerned, I never say never. There are some compositional performance-based things I`d like to get involved with for sure. Not so much in a club-environment though. I`ve found my interest in this area really grow of late so that`s something for the future for definite.
Finally, you must be knackered after a very hectic 2009, and 2010 looks to be equally busy.... do you have any plans for the small window of time you have off from DJing for Christmas? What will you be up to?
Trying not to balloon into St Nicholas-proportions mainly! Thank you for your time, see you at System. Thanks for the great questions & see you on the dancefloor.
You can see Paul Woolford return to the Mint club this weekend on Saturday the 6th December alongside Jeff Mills for System. All the info is here: System December with Jeff Mills and Paul Woolford.For more on Paul Woolford, visit his MySpace page: www.myspace.com/paulwoolfordCopyright © 4clubbers.net - All rights reserved.
After your many years as resident at Basics how does it feel to be going back to your old stomping ground, the Mint Club after all this time? Leeds is a city that is renowned for its excellent music and hard partying... Will there be an element of nostalgia there for you on your return?
Hello Aby, first of all thanks for the quality of your questions which is always welcome. In one sense yes, there`s definitely an element of nostalgia, but the thing which outweighs any nostalgia is the desire to play in the venue as it is today. I was fortunate enough to find some time to make a proper visit when Raresh played recently, as I had a rare saturday night close to Leeds. The changes that have been made to the room, from the system to the layout mean that for me, it`s now the perfect space for it`s purpose. The perfect balance of intimacy & that slightly illicit feeling. People have always loved that venue and this just comes down to that certain something which is hard to actually define, beyond the obvious. Some clubs can be incredible architectural spaces and just not FEEL right. Mint always had that feeling of home for me. You would find people going to various other places in Leeds but often ending up at Mint by 5am because they knew that by that point it was all on the menu. I`m very much looking forward to playing again and especially on that system which is rather outrageous.
You have now moved down to London, how is living in the capital city, and how do you find the clubs in London compared to up north?
I hear Fabric & Matter are very good... You may be surprised to know that I actually live in Leeds, which is where I`ll be certainly for the next few years. I had a hectic time when I lived in the city centre, way too many late nights and it became obvious that if I was to achieve what I wanted to achieve then I needed to leave that lifestyle behind and find the equilibrium that quiet surroundings brings. As much as I love London, it`s because I have a slightly romantic view of the place formed from gigs that have turned into long weekends, trips to galleries, and all of the social side of the music business that occurs there when I visit. I prefer to be out of the way when I`ve finished travelling at the end of each weekend, so the quiet side of Leeds is perfect. I wouldn`t want to be going home to Brick Lane after 6 flights and hardly any sleep...
I understand that you take a lot of influence from the groundbreaking giants of techno: Kevin Saunderson, Stacey Pullen, Derrick May etc, and will be joining one of the ultimate pioneers; Jeff Mills at System. Is there anyone in the non techno world whom you draw inspiration from? Who did you listen to before you got into DJing?
I`d say more than anyone, it`s Steve Reich. He is a composer who has, in my eyes, perfected the balance of harmony and steady rhythmic pulses and distilled all this into these beautiful surging, slowly evolving pieces of music which occasionally bring a tear to my eye. His experiments with things moving in and out of phase pushed me into the place where `erotic discourse` came from, yet he has notated his music. It is played by orchestras, not machines. He has written down every note, bar and intonation of how each piece should be played. The man is a genius. You will have heard some of his work already as it has been scored countless times on adverts, soundtracks and so on. Aside from him, the other people who hold huge amounts of inspiration to me are producers of music in wider capacities such as Rick Rubin, Brian Eno, Nigel Godrich, Pharrell Williams, Mark Bell, Phil Spector for his innovation, Trevor Horn & so on. This kind of producing is as much about psychologically influencing conditions to provoke the absolute best out of your client, rather than sitting behind a computer pushing blocks around which is really more engineering. That`s where I aspire to be ultimately, although I think I`ll always produce bass-driven mutations of dance music, even when I`m in my 50s probably...or should I say alarmingly. But inspiration comes from all corners, from outside of music, Francis Bacon, Warhol, Jeff Koons, Marlena Dumas, Doris Salcedo, Zaha Hadid, Frank Lloyd-Wright and many more artists of all descriptions push my buttons. Every week I`m inspired by something new and I`m lucky to be able to soak it all up and use it as fuel. The people who`s work has resonated with me the most in dance music, more often than not turn out to be people who look outside of it for inspiration.
It seems that `minimal` is now fading and house music with a groove is du jour once again. As a producer that has been in the industry for quite a few years now, how do you move along with these trends? Do you find it easy to stick to what you like or do you find it a challenge not to get swept along or influenced by what other people are making at the time?
For me personally, the groove has always been the most important thing, and whether that comes from an old Prescription or Gherkin 12" or an abrasive Fumiya Tanaka WAV file, it`s irrelevent. Things come & go and you pick and choose the records that you connect with and bin off the generic fodder. Trends move things along and create temporary hotbeds of creativity,usually for a very short time, before what nearly always happens - a wave of people follow in the wake of the trailblazers, leading to a vast avalanche of sub-standard productions. This is something that has always happened though, and as a DJ it`s your job to filter out the nonsense and find the best examples of the artform. It`s always interesting to see how general opinion forms on these trends. This morning I was reading a web forum where people were discussing their favourite records of the last 10 years, which rapidly turned into a revisionist-history re-writing of events. Nearly everyone contributing was coating off anything remotely "minimal" which is funny considering many of them were espousing it`s virtues at the moment it was at it`s most "coolest" or whatever term you want to use. Proper minimal techno always had a groove anyway - it`s just that the sheer volume of bullshit productions by people without the understanding created the swell of bad records. Trends are sometimes things worth kicking against as well, which is another good thing about them. The people that have made a serious impact in this very fickle world of dance music are more often the people that are reacting against the unwritten rules, these are the moments when more interesting sounds can emerge. As long as you play from the heart and you genuinely love each record you play, that comes across when you are actually in the booth.
Are there any new producers or DJ`s that you have been impressed by in 2009? Anyone that you think we should look out for in 2010?
Yes there`s a guy called Oni Ayhun who has only released 3 EPs so far, but he is making this beautiful, occasionally raw and very emotional techno that by-passes all the bullshit and sounds very fresh. His 3rd EP has blown me away and I`m looking forward to hearing more from him. You can feel his way with sound is very different to most. It`s not peak-time dancefloor stuff, more esoteric, and you can clearly tell he`s not in it to be trendy, travel the world and sleep with girls. Real spirit, of the kind that can not be mistaken, flows through these tracks. I guess I get a similar feeling to the one I had the first time I connected with Moodymann`s stuff, although this is far more electronic. He`s a breathe of fresh air.
You spent another summer as resident for `We Love...` at Space in Ibiza. How did you find the season this year with the current economic climate and people jetting off to different places like Croatia and Berlin... has the island still got its mojo? Is it still as hedonistic as ever?
It`s definitely still as hedonistic, I can testify to that. If you didn`t visit there this year and went solely from what was being said online, it could have seemed as if the island was deserted - I read people saying things like "oh everyone`s going to Croatia now, it`s finished" as if the people that only went there for DC10 were propping up the entire island`s tourist economy! If you went to Space on Sunday or Cocoon on mondays you`d see an average of 4000 people every week at either event. The Space closing had 22,000 over the time the event was running, unbelievably. I guess if you go to ibiza solely to party for a week constantly there were the lesser events suffering, but this is true of clubs globally anyway. Having said that, if you go over there just to visit clubs then you are kind of missing the point, it`s an incredible island, there`s far more to it than being out of your mind with your head in a bassbin... Overall, the economy now means people pick & choose events more carefully, rather then go out for the sake of it, so this means the bigger events benefit and the smaller ones find it tougher.
Do you have any stories from summer 2009 to regale us with on this cold November morning?!
My lips are sealed!
You also have a residency at Matter, another enormous club. How do you feel the vibe at Matter and the vibe at Space differs and how does playing at each place affect what you play?
They are both very different, mainly due to the location and also at Matter I warm-up and close the club whereas at Space I mainly close or play towards the latter part of the night. Space has it`s own vibe which is quite high-energy, moreso than many other clubs, so playing late on means that you need to really lay it down, and if you experiment with things then you must have a way of weaving this into the fabric of the set without sacrificing the energy. Also the people in the club are in a different headspace to anywhere else, because nearly everyone is on holiday, so this brings with it a markedly different atmosphere. There are certain types of records that work perfectly in Space that I would never play elsewhere and I realised a few years ago that making re-edits of these records that emphasise the way they work the floor would be the key to making a larger impact. Over the last 3 years this has become the central focus of my sets at Space on monday mornings, so this year there were about 12 new edits spanning older classics (such as Fuse vs LFO`s "Loop") and then moving right up to today with a take on one of Shed`s "EQ`D" tracks. These are interspersed with various samples and snippets that are more recognisable to people who have maybe been in clubs over the last 20 years, so what you are doing is representing the history of the music along with the best parts of today`s house & techno and weaving it all together. At Matter, it`s a different method. The crowd is younger and it`s a different approach, and less pressure. Playing every week at Space on a monday morning means that you are forced to keep it fresh, it`s a high-pressure environment. Although, after this season, it`s the residency that I have actually played the most gigs at - Basics included, so I`m more comfortable in there than anywhere else. The team who look after me every week make things so much easier as well, and in fact, at Matter too - if you know that everything is taken care of before you walk into the venue, all you focus on is the music and feeling the natural ebb & flow of the night.
You recently remixed Amy Winehouse`s `Love is a Losing Game`... is there anything else in the charts you have your eye on or anyone in particular you would like to work with from the pop world? Do you have any guilty pleasures? Would we catch you in your car nodding your head to Lady Gaga or Girls Aloud?!
It`s a good question. Yes the Amy Winehouse remix came about purely as a spur of the moment thing, but there was so much going on with her in the media that the record company had too much on their plate so it`s unreleased. But yeah, good pop music is something I enjoy as much as the next man - I`m not one of those purists that will tell you I only listen to Basic Channel! There`s two sides to what I do in the studio, and working on remixes of artists from outside of dance music is equally as important to me as the more underground stuff. I`ve been working on Depeche Mode with some remixes of the next single `HoleTo Feed`. These will be released on December 7th on double vinyl and the download stores. This process actually began in June when we got the offer for the remix, and the security on it has been fort-knox like. There was a confidentiallity agreement & heavy contractual stuff as they have been bootlegged so much. I submitted the first versions at the end of July and then Martin Gore from the band requested an edit and some sharpening up, then I waited... and waited... and then bizarrely he came to my gig at Pacha in Buenos Aires recently after the band played a show there. By coincidence we were there the same night. They had approved the remix, and it ended up being of my favourite gigs this year. It was a really lovely moment. In a similar capacity this year, there`s been remixes for Delphic, the Ewan Pearson-produced band who were recently featured on Jools Holland`s BBC tv show, some production and remixes for Maps (again for Mute, home of DM), a couple of versions of Skunk Anansie`s "Weak" - one of which made it onto their Greatest Hits album which just came out. It`s been a really hectic year, my best so far, so I think finding the balance in my life has facilitated all of this. In the pipeline is some more work with Delphic on a marketing project, and 3 remixes of Simian Mobile Disco "Off The Map" which has the genius of Jamie Lidell on vocals who has always been someone who has impressed me, right from his days as part of Super Collider with Cristian Vogel. There`s many more people from other genres that I would consider working with, the door is open basically, I never rule anything out until I hear the track. The thing that conquers all is the track. If it interests me and I can add something fresh to it or present it in a new way, then I`m open to it.
Things have changed in the electronic music production arena, you have seen it from its invention to now the fact that a producer can not really survive in this download era. Free music everywhere, sharing and mass production, where do you see things going? How do you see a producer surviving in the future?
It has become very difficult but I think one of the things that is bullshit is this idea that giving away music is a good idea. By all means, people sharing between themselves, this is a great thing that helps music spread. But artists giving away music has devalued it. In tandem with the rise of P2P networks, social networking and things like Myspace which have become of haven for spam, some sections of the music industry rolled over and almost gave up, as many artists did, and kind of said "oh nobody will pay for it anyway so I may as well give it away" - this is all well and good, except that the next time you have a new piece of music, everyone that you gave the previous one away to expects it for free again. Could you imagine if the film industry did this? If the new Martin Scorsese movie was free? The blood, sweat and tears that goes into it is wasted. Similarly, if you produce music from the heart, that you put your soul into, that is NOT made as fodder to get gigs or flannel to spam people with on myspace - then it should come with a price. People who work in offices do not go there for nothing, for no pay, so why should artists? It`s good for the consumer that Radiohead put their album for sale at whatever you want to pay for it on their website - but that fucks things up for all the new bands that want to get signed, who have a 1-abum shot at success because A&R departments are up shit creek because of lack of funding. I`ve heard some really silly arguments about this. People saying things like "music should be free" "everyone has the right to music" - by that absurd logic, cars should be free, fridges should be free - somebody has had to spend money making them. Finally it seems that people are waking up to this and I was really glad to see Lily Allen taking a stand for the industry in the media lately over this issue. As far as how producers survive, well I think you can`t knock out 12"s for a few years and then live of the back of it as maybe you could have a few years ago. But this might possibly mean that the fly-by-nighters and the people who are only in it for the wrong reasons will lose interest, so there are upsides as well. It basically means that you have to work far, far harder. If you are genuinely giving your all, and what you are doing is up to the standard, then you will break through.
Do you have anything coming up, release wise?
Right now I`m working on a double CD mix for Renaissance which I`m very excited about. It runs the whole gamut from more earthy mid-tempo depth to the house & techno that I`m known for. This should be released late feb/early March and the touring on it will be quite full on next year. Aside from this I`m finalising new 12" releases currently so I don`t want to mention the labels until they are 100% but there`s a couple in the pipeline. There are plans for a new artist album which will be a the next major undertaking, this time for a german label who have the budget and weight to open up the possibilties creatively. Imminently are: Depeche Mode `Hole To Feed` Remix (Mute) December 7th Double 12" & Downloads. Simain Mobile Disco feat Jamie Lidell "Off The Map" Remixes (Wichita) Forthcoming.
It seems that everything you touch turns to gold at the moment; residencies at two of the world`s biggest clubs, running a successful record label, DJing all over the world... where do you want to go from here? Can you still see yourself making music and traveling internationally in 10 or 20 years time?
Production. Definitely producing artists in the wider capacity, that`s where I aspire to be. Preferably in some warm surroundings too. I can`t see myself stopping touring for a long time as it`s so close to my heart, and there`s so much more that I want to do with it. Although there`s so much going on now it`s hard to think beyond next week.
It must be pretty exhausting, what do you do to relax and do you get much `down time` to not think about music? You almost have all bases covered with regards to producing, DJing and have been very successful... is there anything else you would like to try in the industry?
It`s very exhausting, and sometimes you don`t really give yourself the brainspace to switch off properly, but this is very important. I`m spending far less time partying these days so inevitably you have more energy, so the temptation is to never switch off, especially with things like Blackberries and so on. It`s easy to overdo it. But you know, the usual things, family time, films, exercise, it`s all very regular. As far as anything else in the industry is concerned, I never say never. There are some compositional performance-based things I`d like to get involved with for sure. Not so much in a club-environment though. I`ve found my interest in this area really grow of late so that`s something for the future for definite.
Finally, you must be knackered after a very hectic 2009, and 2010 looks to be equally busy.... do you have any plans for the small window of time you have off from DJing for Christmas? What will you be up to?
Trying not to balloon into St Nicholas-proportions mainly! Thank you for your time, see you at System. Thanks for the great questions & see you on the dancefloor.
You can see Paul Woolford return to the Mint club this weekend on Saturday the 6th December alongside Jeff Mills for System. All the info is here: System December with Jeff Mills and Paul Woolford.For more on Paul Woolford, visit his MySpace page: www.myspace.com/paulwoolfordCopyright © 4clubbers.net - All rights reserved.
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