Люди знающие английский и русский, переведите плиз... много чего интересного заметил в интервью...

It was fate that led Wookie to start producing and subsequently go on to become one of the biggest influences to the sound that is UK Garage. The music he bought was a consistent amount of highly acclaimed remixes and original productions, with Battle reaching number 10 in the UK Singles’ Sale chart in August 2000. He has continued to develop his music as well as inspire current and emerging producers. His current material ranges from House to R’n’B and he remains a favourite choice for remixes, with mixes for artists such as Jill Scott, Sia, Jon B and Simon Webbe. For ukg-interviewed.com’s final and exclusive interview of 2005, I visited Wookie in his East London studio a few hours before his DJ set at Prolific to find out more about how his music has developed since UKG.


How did you become involved with making music?

I didn’t actually plan to be a producer; my dad was in the record industry doing Reggae and from being around him and musicians in the whole record making process turned me onto it. I left school to start an apprenticeship with an architecture firm, and bought a keyboard on credit. Then a few months later I got made redundant during the big recession and all building work stopped, so there was no point in going to uni to do a 7-year architecture course. I haven’t picked up a pencil since I picked up that keyboard, which is now in my attic!

How did you start as Wookie?

It was all R’n’B up until 1996/7, that’s when it started changing and I started working on a new sound and that’s when Garage came along. I was working for Jazzie B as a writer/producer in his Soul II Soul studios and when he was away on holiday, I was making tunes with a school friend of mine, Johnny J, in his studio, and that’s how Wookie started. Jazzie then he got wind of what I was doing and asked if I wanted to sort something out and I just carried on working with them but as Wookie.

What has been your highlight in all your years in music so far?

The year 2000 and the whole media thing. If I don’t do anything more I can look back and say my name is in the books of the millennium, a lot of people can’t say that.

Who were your early influences?

On the Garage stuff: MJ Cole, who had a sound which you could tell was him straight away, Grant Nelson, K-Warren, but TJ Cases more than anyone else – to me his music had this real soul groove. With me making R’n’B, my influences were Teddy Riley, Sly & Robbie, Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Al Green and Burning Spears.

Tell me a bit more about you and UK Garage…

The weird thing about me and Garage was that I fell into it; I wasn’t even raving to it and saying that I wanted to make it, I wasn’t in it at all. What was around when I came to doing it was more Speed Garage and I really wasn’t into 4/4 with speeded-up vocals. It wasn’t until I did the Whitney Houston record with Johnny J that I actually went to a club to hear it being played out at TwiceAsNice in Vauxhall. Karl ‘Tuff Enuff’ Brown and Matt Jam were the first guys to play me, contrary to what other people say.

What was it like hearing one of your tracks being played?

It was very weird actually. It was a little bit surreal seeing everyone dancing to something I’d made in my studio. I wasn’t even dancing or nodding myself, just looking at the reactions. And I still do that when I play somewhere.

You’re playing out at Prolific tonight, how did DJing come about?

I had never been involved DJing until recently, I was probably one of the only Garage producers at that time that never felt drawn to it because there were only a few producers who I liked. DJing came about to help keep me in tune with what’s going on, I found before I was a little bit tunnel-visioned. There was one time at TwiceAsNice and Karl Brown was playing a record and I rushed up to the box to see what it was and I’ve never heard the record since, not many tunes get my attention like that.

I’ve been around DJs for a long time, especially all the Drum n Bass lot and I used to go with Hype everywhere. I understand that a DJ is supposed to create a vibe but I‘ve noticed that a lot of DJs play records for playing it’s sake rather than making sure it actually gels with the one it’s coming out of and taking it to a different place. In the future, I’d like to make tunes live when I get more into DJing and make it seem like I’m in the studio but on stage, but it’ll be a lot of work doing it on my own.

What is the most important factor you consider when making a track?

First of all I have to like it, normally when I write something I go through 5 or 6 different ideas before I settle on one. With the 2-Step, I used to picture this person, a Rasta based on my uncle, just skanking. If I couldn’t see him dancing to the tune I wasn’t gonna finish it.

My R’n’B-type tracks are based around melody. I’m a little bit too smooth in the R’n’B because I’m from the New Jack Swing school where it was very upbeat grooves and chords, and now R’n’B isn’t like that anymore. It’s very strip down, it’s very hip-hop orientated and very little chords.

Which of your tunes would you say proved more important to you career wise - your original productions or remixes?

What should be more important are my own tracks because that’s what I get paid from, even ten years down the line. With remixes I only get a set fee, but that’s what’s been my biggest stuff.

What do you look for in a vocalist?

I probably work at 65% of my ability, I truly believe that and I try to get the other 35% when I get that talent on the other side. It’s not easy finding singers especially as I’m such a particular person, I want the almost best. In a singer I look for control, writing ability, and commitment in what they do. To me a singer is just playing another instrument, and some take it for granted that they can sing, even I do with playing because I was self-taught, and I should be practising everyday.

Who writes the lyrics in your tracks – you or the vocalist?

I normally have the track written first and then I paint the vocalist a story, and it’s for them to write that story. A lot of times I do write the melodies and the hooks. When I was making Do You Believe, for some reason “do you believe” just kept going round in my head like Byron Stingly in that high tone!

Do you sing yourself and have you been tempted to do a full production?

I have actually featured on some tracks, I did some R’n’B backing vocals. Lain thinks I really want to be a singer because he always hears me singing and doing the harmonies, but that’s just cos I like to know what I’m doing and explain it to who I’m working with. I am tempted to write my own production, one day I will layer up my own vocals, do the backing vocals and see if I can get some harmonies going, you never know it may be the other 35%!

Are there are vocalists you’d like to work with?

There are loads but I’d like to do a tune with Amy Winehouse, she would be more on the Little Man kinda sound.

How has your style of production changed since 2000?

After my album was released, I made a House record, After All, which was on Sticky’s Garage Nation compilation in 2002 and that was the start of a new sound for me. Then I stopped making up-tempo club music for a while and just concentrated on R’n’B but after about a year or so of that I started going back to making club records. I made a few Garage records but by then I was becoming out of touch with it, it was majorly changing between 2002 and 2003 and I could no longer identify with it.

I’m still making R’n’B, and I’m doing House remixes using the name Lovestar. You can’t put the name Wookie on everything because I think people expect a certain sound from me. I’m 33 now so I find myself quite alien to the darker stuff, and I spent a lot of years with that kinda sound. Nowadays I’m trying to stay musical in terms of more melodic-based songs and real grooves, at a much slower tempo. Before I was marrying R’n’B and Drum & Bass and came up with my sound, and now I’m combining R’n’B and House.

Some of your most recent material has been described as Soulful House, why do you think those particular tracks appeal to UK Garage fans?

To tell you the truth I have no idea! To me those tunes are House records and they’re not very fast, I don’t work at 130-132 anymore, those tempos are done for me. My remix of Jill Scott - Golden, it's very commercial, as opposed to John Legend - Ordinary People, that's more of a connoisseur’s record. People still talk to me about that one but John Legend didn’t actually like it! Apparently the matter even went up high levels at Sony who wanted the record for the European release, and it never came out so I unfortunately lost the DAT. His gig was actually one of the best live gigs I’ve been too, and I’ve seen Jill Scott live about 3 times, she’s mesmerising. It’s rare to find people with that presence on stage.

How do you feel about there being so many different subgenres in music?

That’s where our problems come from because people split things up too much and everything has to be pigeon-holed, it can’t just be under one banner as say ‘Garage’. Though I recently saw a documentary on U.S. Garage from America and I can see why the Americans hated us using the term 'Garage'; we should have come up with a better term. I think '2-Step' was good, it was a very good representation of what the music was, calling it UK Garage was a little bit of a p***take to them.

You released a CD album a few years back, are you considering releasing any CDs/MP3s in the near future and how do you feel about the decline of vinyl?

I want to do another album, either by myself or through a label. MP3s are definitely the way forward, I eventually want to be able to upload my tracks onto my own website so that people can buy them from me direct rather than go through a distributor.

The decline of vinyl is inevitable, it won't die, but I think it will turn into a little connoisseur’s thing for an elite crowd of people. It’s like cassettes, everybody had a cassette player and recorded albums for their friends, and where’s the cassette now? And if you go out and buy a blank cassette, how much is it compared to a CD-R?! It’s just technology going forward and we have to roll with it. But then CDs are gonna change to something else but I think they will be around for a little while.

You co-produced Wayne Marshall – G Spot early into your music career without receiving proper credit, what lessons did you learn about the music industry from that?

You need to get as much knowledge as you can about what you want and what you’re doing to safeguard yourself from things like this happening. I’m the too trusting person that leaves something to somebody else to do. I’d been working with Wayne Marshall for 3 years, and had done 8 tracks on his album. He’d done the drums, the bass and the vocals for G-Spot and I took that bit and did the rest – the guitar and all the melodies and knew it was gonna be a hit from the way it started - that was me being Teddy Riley. And it turned out that I was only noted as a session player there, and session players don’t have any publishing rights. So I left 6 months later to go to Soul II Soul.

Do you think you’ll ever co-produce again?

The funny thing was earlier today I wondered if I should phone Matt (MJ Cole) up and then me and him make a record together cos the closest we got to doing anything was me remixing Sincere and him remixing Battle and putting it on one vinyl. I’m not that easy to work with and I’m only gonna work with people who can add to me, I’d rather do collaborations with other musicians. I don’t like working with people for the sake of it, there’s usually a conflict of egos for a start. When I was working with Johnny J, I was the one making the music and he was bringing the vocals to me. I remember there was some bit in Angel which he said wasn’t right and I disagreed with him and kept it in and it turned out to be a big tune.

What happened with you and Johnny J?

We did 3 records as X-Men – Whitney Houston, Brandy and Yesterday. The Whitney Houston one was a favour because I worked for Soul II Soul and it was Jazzie’s studio time. I then found myself being talked about as a group so I pulled out of it, which Johnny hated me for cos we were getting a lot of props.

Yesterday is one of the most emotional UKG tracks ever made!

I actually cried when I made Yesterday! I remember being in the studio late one night - I was listening to it over and over really loud and at this one point in the breakdown it really attacked me emotionally. That’s one of the only times that’s happened to me. It’s strange cos not many people knew who Debelah Morgan was and it felt good to have transcended what was going on in the tune with my music. I wasn’t actually sure about the sound of it, especially as the drums sounds were new and not very Garage-y.

How do you feel about how UKG has evolved?

I haven’t really heard the current sound, from what I’ve heard on the radio it’s nothing like it was before. I don’t hear any singers but a lot more MCs doing things on record. The last vocal track I heard was Sadi Ama and I thought that was a good song. The music has just evolved, I think it's gonna become British Hip-Hop but it needs to let go of its violence, all I hear is violence towards someone else and to me that negative sound won’t last very long. That’s why I’m so into House – it’s about love, music and whatever. I go to a rave to get lost in music and not hear somebody cussing somebody else, that’s what killed the scene.

Do you feel part of a particular music scene?

Not at the moment, I’m a bit like a sleeping satellite floating about. I felt a part of the 1999/2000 thing and it was destined to be good until it took a sharp decline - that was cos majors got involved when the scene was healthy and signed up all the top people but didn’t really believe in the music, they just wanted to be a part of the money-making process. It all happened too early before Garage was properly established and then everyone lost their direction. D&B had the same problems, it went through all sorts but kept its roots and is still around today.

Are there any kinds of music which you dislike?

Not really, music is music – I like certain pop records, I like certain rock records, a bit of everything really. Except probably that 200bpm techno.

What has been your favourite production of your own?

I did really like the Faithless remix, it was faster than stuff I was doing at that time to be more like what they were doing. My mix of Sincere is also another favourite, giving the Wookie edge to MJ Cole.

There’s only one record I dislike which was my remix of Zinc’s tune, Kinda Funky, I really wasn’t into the original. Zinc’s a mate, I’ve known him for 11 years and I was in the video for Super Sharp Shooter but I wasn’t a fan of his sound when he came into the Garage scene but I liked what he did with Drum & Bass. Everyone was going on about 138 Trek and I couldn’t see why people liked it, I was probably jealous!

Storm was written in reply to 138 Trek, it’s also another one of my favourites even though I was very angry at the time of making it. The hard tunes came because there wasn’t that much hard-sounding Garage around when I came into it, it was all sine-wave like in Down On Me, that had a smooth deep bass. The modulating bass I adopted from Drum & Bass. Mind you, a lot of people don’t know that I did certain records because it was under as Exemen. They didn’t know I did Sunshine at the same time when I had Down On Me and Scrappy out, those were complete opposite records.

What kinda releases can we look forward to from you in the near future?

In terms of the instrumental side, I’m doing techy House - I released some darker tracks called Taboo and Solar which sold quite well, to me that’s like the early Chicago based House e.g. Fingers Inc. Then there’s the soulful stuff which is R’n’B based in terms of chords and live basses. I’ve done a few tunes with Lain which will be coming out around February. I’m also hoping to work with more musicians because I put too much pressure on myself to do everything.

What else do you do you like to do away from music?

Muay Thai kick-boxing, I’ve been training for 2 years and I’m probably going to have my first fight next month. Music and sport – that’s my life. Music has been full-time for me and it’s getting harder but I can’t see myself doing anything else now, especially a 9 to 5 job.

What are your all-time favourite tunes?

Donny Hathaway – Someday We’ll All be Free, Stevie Wonder’s Rocket Love and All in Love is Fair, that one makes me almost cry. I own around 700 albums, mostly R’n’B and Rap and I have a favourite song from each one!

What is your ultimate aim music-wise?

To be doing this for the next 20 - 30 years with my own label and with new acts coming through, and just to have a foundation basically. The time right now is me finding what my next sound is, I’m slowly getting there with every record I do. People say that the time you stop learning is when you die, so I’m always learning, but I’m trying not to pigeon hole myself, hence me doing R’n’B again because I can do it – you can do it all and play all the strings to your bow.

If you could endorse anything what would it be?

Wagamama’s! I used to eat in there every day and knew the names of everyone that worked there. I still know some of the managers.

What words of advice do you have for up-n-coming producers and who would you like to give final shouts to?

I’d like to give a special mention to all the new producers, stay focussed on what you are doing. It’s one thing to be influenced by somebody, but try not to copy anybody - one thing Jazzie said to me was that to be noticed you have to have your own sound, so just keep working at it, and it will come for you one day. And less is more, don’t just throw a load of instruments in cos you think it needs it; you need to know when to stop.

To all the people who keep mentioning mine and others’ names to try and make things like we used to: that was then and this is now, things don’t go backwards. I love Stevie Wonder but I can’t tell him to make tunes like he did in 1974. Things evolve and things change so shouts to everyone involved and stick at it!

I’d also like to shout Matt Jam and Karl Brown, the first DJs to have my records in their charts, as well as to everybody who’s continued to support me.

Нада к Промту наверно абрасчацца.. ха ха Повесилимся блин опять..

это к Супернове... она тут главный переводчик всего на свете

Оригинальное сообщение от ZLO
Нада к Промту наверно абрасчацца.. ха ха Повесилимся блин опять..

я уже забыл адресок промта, будет веселуха если узнаю

Оригинальное сообщение от Гость
это к Супернове... она тут главный переводчик всего на свете

сейчас SupeRnov'у не найти

Оригинальное сообщение от KzMz
[quote]Оригинальное сообщение от ZLO
Нада к Промту наверно абрасчацца.. ха ха Повесилимся блин опять..

я уже забыл адресок промта, будет веселуха если узнаю [/quote]
какой адресочек? C:\\Program Files\\Promt XT ? ха ха:lol2:

еле асилил...нагаварил фуфла каковата там! карочи он не наш этот Вуки!!! Он ахтунк негаражный, атвечаю!!!

да калготачник он :lol2:

во-во! Хот дело гаварит!

Оригинальное сообщение от сладкий мишка
еле асилил...нагаварил фуфла каковата там! карочи он не наш этот Вуки!!! Он ахтунк негаражный, атвечаю!!!

ну не серьёзно, там даже упоминается Karl ‘Tuff Enuff’ Brown and Matt Jam

хаусец он делает щас
и спортом занимается
прокинули его с гонораром за продюсирование
и он любит хипхоп/айронбрю