Home News What's On Annual Poll Photos Forums DJs Features Music Venues Reviews Links

Features Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna

Interview with Wez Wonder Reported by tom / Submitted 24-03-02 21:59 Wez Wonder is one of the two engineers resident at the Kinetec Records studio and also an increasingly sought after producer and remixer with a whole string of new tracks imminently set for release. If you were at Fevah's last event held at Mass on February 1st and were in the main room for the duration of Matt Clarke's set, you'll have heard one of Wes's new tracks being aired as Matt's final tune (before the encore) - believe me the place went mental I took a stroll down to Kinetec's shop near Oxford Street and had a chat with Wes about how he's got to where he is now and what his plans are for the future: Tom: So, to kick things off Wes - how did you get into studio engineering ? Wes: Well I sort of fell into engineering, because I used to play in an indie guitar band since the age of 12, I made a living out of that until I was 21 basically, got sick of that, we all came to London, had this big fight and then everyone else left and I stayed. I absolutely hated dance music, and just started going out clubbing and found myself sitting on a speaker, the music was completely new to me - the music in Ireland is just shit. I remember sitting in Grays, about two months after I got here, just sitting on a speaker trying to figure out what everything was doing and how it was doing it and I did that for about 2 or 3 months. Then I just got hooked on the music. Seriously, I used to sit there for 5 or 6 hours just with my head in a speaker, actually trying to find out what the drums were doing, what the bass was doing and then going home and trying to reproduce it on my keyboard, an old Atari. I met this guy called Rick, DJ Amethyst, he's just done a track called 'See No Evil' with Phil Reynolds, and he just taught me everything. I used to come to him with just a couple of melodies from home and we'd just transcribe it in his studio which was wicked, because I really hadn't got a clue about anything. I never had a computer before I bought the Atari and that was like, 2, 3 1/2 years ago. T: The kind of stuff you were doing with the Atari, was that similar to the kind of thing you'd been doing with the band before ? W: No, nothing like it. And for musicians playing indie stuff, dance music was the devil, solely because you had raves taking over from live bands and stealing all their gigs, just like karaoke was when that came out first. Because that (karaoke) just absolutely zapped live bands for ages, because all you had to do was rock up with a box and two speakers and you were there, the same thing with raves as well, they took the arse out of all the gigs. T: So how did you end up meeting DJ Amethyst ? W: That was here in London, just by accident, I was minding a friend's house and he stopped by to pick up his mail and saw my keyboard in the corner, we got talking and he brought me back to his house. So, he was responsible for getting me into it, and for where I am now, definitely. I'd stress that actually. Annie B, his wife, was a resident for Omnipotence and so was he, and between them were definitely resposible for me getting into it, the two of them were the biggest inspiration for me. Afterward he moved to Scotland and he now runs Hinotori Sound, I've had two releases with him towards the end. One of them was called the Boundless EP, and the other 'Infinity and Beyond' which Paul van Dyk played, it was number 4 in his top 10 for a while so that was pretty good. T: And Kinetec ? How did you wind up here ? W: I was doing a bit of productions, I'd write the tune, write the riffs, then bring them to Rick and he'd engineer it. Then he moved away and I gradually started buying more and more equipment and learning how to use that, and worked away for weeks on end - when I got that sampler for instance, I locked myself away for 2 weeks, solid, learning how to use it. It was since he moved away that I tuned myself into it. I'd always had an idea about sound, where things had to go. So I'd locked myself away for a couple of months, stopped DJing completely, because I was going out three nights a week and wasn't getting anything done, and saved up every penny (I hadn't bought clothes for over 2 years), got my studio at home and started sending tracks to Mark (who runs Kinetec) with the idea of having a home label with Greg Ferguson. I'd sent a couple of tracks to Mark, including Toast 9 (the final track that Matt played at Fevah) so he called me in for a meeting, said he wanted to talk to me about something, so I rocked up and he just offered me this job at Kinetec, which was unbelievable ! I'm particularly grateful to Mark for giving me the job, it was unbelievable to be offered it straight out like that. Rick moved away about a year ago, and really I've just thrown myself in at the deep end. For me, if I really really want to do something I'll give it everything, and I won't give up till it really beats me. And a couple of times it did, but you just have to brush yourself off and get back into it again. There's Ant who works in the studio here during the day, but he's away in Japan at the moment so I've got use of it during the day. Usually I start at 7pm and work till about 11:30am the next day which is pretty tough going. Last weekend, DJ Amethyst came down and we were in here from 12 o'clock saturday right through till 10 o'clock Sunday night. The reason for that was he was heading back down to Glasgow. It's hard when you get stuck into a track because you just want to finish it. You come back the next day and your mood is different. No matter how good it sounded the night before your mood is different so it'll change the track or it mightn't sound as good as it did yesterday so you have to nail it while the iron's hot. More and more though I want to go out and actually hear the tracks I've done so I'm generally going out a lot more. There was a time last year where I didn't go out for 8 months, solely because I wanted to get this stuff sorted in my head. And I knew if I was going out every weekend, one I wouldn't have the money to buy equipment and two I wouldn't have had the energy to do the work. T: How do you divide your time between your engineering and production work ? W: I speak to Mark, and I know what labels will need tracks, so I veer in that direction, but there's no like 'I want this kind of track and I want that kind of track'. It's up to me who I want to work with at the end of the day, but Mark will say 'this guy wants to work with you'. T: So how have things changed since you've been working at Kinetec ? There's tons of people coming up now though but 6 months ago I hadn't been noticed at all I would have been actually almost begging people to play my tracks. Before, I would have actually killed to have people play my tracks, whereas last week I had 7 DJs ring me up for CDs which is hard to get your head around when 6 months ago you would have been trying to blag them to play your tracks. 6 months ago I would never have dreamed it would have been to that extent so quick, I can remember trying to blag DJs 'play this track, play this track' and they wouldn't take me seriously, If I go out in a club now and I hand a DJ a CD, they might listen to it once before they play just on their headphones, but generally now they just play it, which is cool. T: Is that what Matt did at Fevah ? W: Yeah, it was his last song and then he played an encore. Which in his position is, you know what I mean, if he'd played a crap track last, then... T: ... yep say no more OK, moving onto what you're doing now, what are you working on at the moment ? W: At the moment, I'm doing a remix with Matt Clarke for Fevah House, Baby Jammer the track's called, from Todd Tobias and I'm working on a tune with Eamonn, that's for Toast, a co-production. T: Say I wanted to produce a track, could I come in here with a tune in my head and ask you to engineer a track for me ? W: Well, if you came in here with a tune in your head and you can actually play it on a keyboard, then I will sit back and let you play and we could build a track around your melody. They'd probably come in with a couple of samples, like some vocal samples or ideas of lead synths. A lot of them do, but then a lot of other people come in and expect you to work the track as well, it's much better if someone comes in with the ideas themselves because then you tend to go in different directions to the ones you'd normally go in yourself. For me, it's much better if someone comes in with lots of ideas, first of all there's all these fresh samples which you want to get your teeth into which you're not familiar with, it's like a record, when you're playing someone else's records at someone else's house, it's brilliant in that sense. I have to work a lot harder if I have to use my own samples and my own riffs and stuff like that. T: Where do you get your samples from, is it sample CDs and stuff like that ? W: I spend hours and hours on the internet, theres loads of ones for loops and hits and stabs and stuff like that, but for one good sample you have to listen to 20 bad ones so it's very time consuming, but then I use a lot of CDs as well. But I only use that for loops and stabs, I always rely on my own melodies. I generally don't sample records. Anyone that does sample records, it's the records from 4 or 5 years ago, so they have a good library of records to sample from. But there's people who sample records, where you wouldn't even know they'd sampled that record, it's done so well. T: What's your favourite pieces of kit, taking it from drumkit to synth etc ? W: I tend to use a lot of analogue synths, the drums I generally sample a lot of the drums. It's harder and harder these days, 4 years ago people used to make it very, well, not go out of their way to make it hard to sample whereas now once people get a sound or a drum they like they make it harder to sample it. Whereas before, like you had a kick to start with on it's own which you could sample, now you very rarely get a kick or a high hat there on it's own to sample. I usually use samples for bass or a Virus and I use the JP8000 and sample that for basslines. T: OK, moving on to a few final easy ones.. what tracks would you most like to remix ? W: 'rez' by Underworld and 'Little Fluffy Clouds' by The Orb. T: Top 3 tracks of all time ? W: 'Lucky Bastard' by domfrom, 'Before the Break' by Jon Sebastion and 'Falling' by Big Tom. T: Favourite producer to work with ? W: Definitely DJ Amethyst. I'd like to stress again, if I hadn't met him, him and his wife Annie B, without them I would never be where I am today. I think he's the best producer in the UK, without a doubt, definitely. T: Up and coming producer who you think will be a star of the future ? W: There's a guy called Snake, a DJ called Snake who's very talented as a DJ and a producer, also Greg Ferguson, he's wicked, absolutely wicked. Him and Greg, definitely. I do a lot of my stuff with Greg Ferguson, nearly every track that's coming out I've done with him so he's a big part of what I do. T: On the DJing side, what's happening there ? W: I was playing a lot about a year ago, the DJing thing never really, it appeals to me but it's hard to be a producer and a DJ, when guys are at home practicing for 6 or 7 hours on the decks you're in the studio and the last thing you want to do when you come home is start mixing after being in the studio for 16 hours. I definitely want to get back into DJing but the biggest thing for me is a live PA, I've been thinking about that for 4 years now and I've got some really good ideas plus I play guitar and I've played drums for 10 years so I'll incorporate that into it and keyboards as well. T: Wasn't it Ian Mac who used to play guitar over his sets ? W: No he used to play keyboards. Ah that's DJ Amethyst he used to play guitar... T: Was he on the Impact boat cruise ? W: Yeah, that was him T: Ah because that was absolutely awesome W: Yeah he's wicked. He's incredible isn't he ? What he does, he mixes while he's playing guitar, but as he's putting new tracks on and pitching them up to match the speed of the other track he's having to retune his guitar because the pitch changes when you change the speed of the record. So he's constantly retuning his guitar and mixing as well at the same time so that as the next tune comes in his guitars in tune as well. T: Wow, OK, I've got a new level of respect for him now ! W: It's not just the guitar stays in tune the whole time, he's retuning it practically the whole time. So you have to come along and listen to the record and listen to the guitar in your headphones and tune it at the same time. T: So you're planning to do something like that ? W: No, I'm planning to do a proper live PA. And put the emphasis on live and not just turn up with a sequencer because I think that's just a cheat. I know it is hard to recreate stuff at 150, 155 bpm but I'm definitely gonna give it my best shot. It's going to be myself and Greg Ferguson. T: Do you have a name for yourselves yet ? W: No, we don't have a name yet. T: Well, London needs more live PA's so that's got to be a good thing. Have you ever seen one of Weirdo's live sets ? W: No, I haven't but I'd love to. It's just at a completely different level isn't it ? First of all you've got the guy's actually written the tunes so you've got that much respect for him as well, plus he's up there playing them. It's just a hell of a lot more effective when you actually see the guy that's made the tunes up there. I've been thinking about it for long enough, that's what I wanted to do, I've been writing tracks before I even got record decks, writing them and bringing them to Rick so a live PA is always the thing I've wanted to do. T: Great, look forward to it. Thanks for your time Wes. We have a couple of samples taken from two of Wes's upcoming tracks here: Global Killer Awake Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By tom: Interview with Guffy Interview with Energy Dai Interview with Tara Reynolds Interview with Anne Savage Interview with James Lawson The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable. Comments: From: Tonez on 25th Mar 2002 16:35.33 Wez and DJ Amethyst will be playing at "Enter The Dungeon" on May 25th. Bondi Bar, Acton midday to midnight.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. All other content is (c) 2001-2024 HarderFaster.

Terms and Conditions | Privacy Statement | Text Mode