Video Podcast - March 2010

Audiowhores start the Year off.. as only they know how.. With a bang!!!

This video podcast takes you on the epic journey to date giving you Graham & Adam's finest moments of 2010 so far.. (and it's only March!! ;-)

Sundazed

How are you feeling today? Anything exciting happened so far?

Adam: I’m feeling great actually, it’s my birthday today! I went out for dinner last night to celebrate, I’ve been shopping this morning and I’m due in the pub in half an hour, so life’s good!

Graham: Well it’s Valentines day but we don’t really celebrate this day, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow when we’ll be having a Lanetta & Graham day, bless!

Adam: Oh right, so you don’t even celebrate my birthday?  I’ll remember that!

You’re about to release a new EP…….tell us about it?

A: Yeah, it’s our first production of 2010 and it will be the first release on our brand new label ‘Audiowhores Music’.  We always look forward to releasing new music - it's what it's all about!  Defected are promoting, distributing and publishing the label so we know it’ll be well looked after and will get good exposure too. The EP comprises of two techy tracks plus a remix, all with plenty of bite!  The EP represents the sort of stuff we play out these days; we’ve come along way over the last few years and our sound has evolved so it’s important to us that our productions reflect our DJ sets.  We’ve been playing demo versions of the tracks for quite a while and the reactions on the floor have been great.

G: Yeah we’ve had the pleasure of playing all 3 tracks out a few times now, it’s nice to test them out a few times as I like to tweak the mixdowns and arrangements etc.  I was particularly pleased when we played the club mix of ‘Rhythm Is Love’ in Croatia, sounded really fat indeed! Really pleased with the reaction it got too.

What kind of set up have you got in your studio?

G: We got a PC running Cubase 5, a lot of secret weapon plug-ins, a Virus TI Desktop, UAD1 card and a Korg Triton. The studio (aka Gongy’s room) is at the top room of Adam’s house, we’re hopefully gonna be moving into the cellar when we get the cash and time together!

A: Yeah, it terms of hardware we keep things pretty basic I suppose.  We use a PC which is weird because we both love our Apple MacBooks and Graham especially loves all things Apple! Graham is constantly on the hunt for new software and new sounds; that's important and helps to keep things fresh and interesting.



Between the two of you, are there areas of production that you each specialise in, or do you both do a bit of everything?

A: We both do a bit of everything, but Graham is definitely the main drive behind the engineering of our tracks.  I’m relatively proficient in Cubase, but Graham is far better and quicker so the work flows more with Graham at the helm and me sat on his shoulder making creative and directional suggestions!  That’s the way we’ve always worked. Things tend to go a lot slower when I’m in control of the mouse!  More recently, I’ve been taking a bit more responsibility for the DJ mixes we send out.  I’ve been using Ableton for a little while now (late I know!) and really enjoy putting mixes together.

G: Yeah I would say that I specialise more in production and Adam hears the track from a different perspective and works more on the arrangement and overall feel of our tracks. DJ wise I tend to do a bit more of the effects and accapellas of our live sets and Adam tends to program our sets and do most of the mixing.

What’s the toughest thing about making a track?

A: These days we find it pretty easy to put the main track down and our new ideas seem to come together pretty fluently.  The bit that we continually struggle with is vocals.  Obviously, neither of us can sing which is a problem!  It’s not that there is a shortage of talent out there, but it we’re extremely particular and it can take months or even years to nail the right vocal by which time we're bored of the demo track!

G: Yeah I think if we get that initial buzz when creating the track that’s all that matters, then yes sure after that we get a little lost in the mix. So the hard part is distancing yourself from the track and trying to hear it from a non-productive perspective. But yeah our main struggle at the moment is trying to find the right vocalists, we are quite particular with vocals, hence us doing a lot of tracky stuff at the moment.

What have you got planned for the rest of the year?

A: Believe it or not, it’s our 10th anniversary year this year!  We’re putting a party on in Manchester to celebrate late in the summer – that’ll be messy no doubt!  Right now, we’re off to Indonesia again in a couple of days.  We've got gigs lined up in Bandung, Jakarta and Bali!  We love it in Asia, so it’s nice to be out there so often. Also, We are currently in the planning stages of our first ever compilation mix CD.  It'll be coming on Audiowhores Music and will be selected from the vast Defected and Defected sub-label catalogues.  It's our first, so we intend to make it special.  Watch this space!

G: Yeah we’ve got the compilation which will be interesting, we’re planning on doing some special edits/unreleased productions for the comp’, other than that our main focus is on Defected and our label Audiowhores Music. We’re really happy where we are at the moment with Defected and it’s great working with Simon and the crew, so we’re quite focused on getting new music out this year!

The Sundaze EP is out February 24th - click to listen & pre-order

Travels in Taipei

OK, so it’s 7.35am on 1st January 2010 and I’m sat at Taipei airport waiting to board to Heathrow via Bangkok and then on to Manchester.  Definitely, the strangest New Years Day I’ve had in a while!  I’ve just been driven straight from the gig and I haven’t slept in……erm……a while.  I’ve had a ‘few’ beers and think I recently slipped into some kind of twilight zone.  I feel like one of the monsters from the Starwars Bar; quite frankly, I probably look like one too!  My body clock is all over the place…I’m not sure if I should be awake or asleep and it’s all bit of a blur!  Probably not the best time to write a blog but I’ve nothing more important on my hands (I’ve already purchased the obligatory duty free, so I should be in the goods books when I get home!).
Last night we welcomed in the New Year with Defected In The House at Club Luxy in Taipei.  Luxy is probably Taiwan’s biggest and most popular club.  The club scene out here focuses mainly around hip-hop and RnB, but there is a growing interest in ‘electronic music’ and we were headlining the electronic room (Onyx). 

It’s been a bit of a whistle stop tour.  I arrived in Taiwan late on the 30th after a punishing 24-hour journey and was welcomed into the hotel by Defected’s Asia crew Jonathan Yeo and his Korean friends Yoo and mates.  After a quick shower and change we nipped over the road to the club.  All I really needed after the travelling was a bit of local cuisine and a few quiet drinks but it was absolutely rammed and before I knew it, I was right in the middle of a full-on party zone!  I ate some rice, guzzled three or four beers and then headed off back to the hotel.  I was hoping to catch the Manchester United v Wigan game, but I totally cocked up the time difference and was two hours ahead so, I hit the sack in need of a good old snooze……..only to wake up a two hours later!  I honestly didn’t know where the hell I was and after looking out of the curtains and remembering I was in Taiwan, I then couldn’t work out if it was 4.30am or 4.30pm!  I looked at two different clocks but couldn’t figure it out at all.  In the end I had to switch my phone on to get the correct time.  I realised I’d only been asleep two hours, so snuggled back under the duvet!
I came around after a better sleep and luckily for me ESPN was showing a repeat of the United game…..5 – 0 was a pretty tasty result too!!  Jonathan picked me up and we took a quick tour of the area on foot before hitting Din Tai Fong (world famous dumpling restaurant) for some breakfast/lunch/dinner!  Thanks to Jonathan for looking after me…..top man!

You might wonder where Graham was at this point……well, unlike me, he did this properly and had been living it up with his fiancé Lanetta (congratulations you two!) on the beaches of Thailand for three days.  I keep promising myself that when the kids are a bit older we will make a family holiday of an Asia tour, but for now I will have to enjoy Graham’s photos and dream!
Graham and Lanetta arrived at 7.30pm and it was big hugs all around.  We headed straight over to the club for the sound check.  It started pretty badly as it goes…..first off, I banged my head on an over-hanging speaker whilst climbing on to the stage and a few minutes later Graham got his foot caught and fell off the same said stage in quite a heroic, stuntman-like fall!  It was a big drop and could have been really serious, but luckily he bounced up no problem.  I think the promoters thought they’d booked a comedy double act!  Fucking hilarious…..proper Mancunians, not like the bling and pizzazz that surrounded the headlining artist ‘Ja Rule’ and his entourage in the hip-hop room next door!

Once we were happy with the setup, we thought we’d better get back to the hotel before we did any more damage and following a another quick change into our disco clothes, we found ourselves back in the dumpling restaurant with the crew for more great food.  We play some amazing venues with great crowds in Asia, but often, some of the best memories are of the quality of food and the unbelievably warm hospitality – it’s quite overwhelming especially for a ‘foody’ like me!

Following the tucker, we quickly met with a friend of mine Chappy who has been teaching English in Taipei for three years (lucky sod) and then bowled over to the club.  The venue was already packed with a stylish, good-looking crowd and the main room was bouncing.  There was a real feeling of anticipation in the air!  Ja Rule welcomed in the New Year in typical ‘ganster stylee’ - “Fuck you 2009” was his choice phrase as the champagne popped and the handshakes commenced!
 
We were due on stage at 1am; the room was bubbling away nicely and the tunes were ‘up there’ to say the least!  We hit the decks and immediately found our groove which was great.  Considering the Taiwanese are not overly familiar with house music, they reacted incredibly well and the floor was jumping.  There were loads of peak moments, but if I had to pick one track it would be Tromba by Chris Lake which I was quite surprised about actually.  It was all well worth the journey and beers and good times were swilled by all.  So much so, we extended our set for an extra 30 minutes……we didn’t want it to end which is always the sign of a good gig!  The other tell tail sign that we’d enjoyed ourselves (apart from the number of empty beer bottles) was the state of our CD wallet; I’m meticulous in the order/position of each and every CD…..is it me or is everyone like that?!  On really good nights, it tends to get a bit messy…….needless to say, it was all over the place!!  Like I say, it was well worth the trip and will stay with me as one of the best NYE I’ve had. 
Gotta board now…….I’m paranoid about getting to the right gate at the right time, especially when I’m alone and drunk!   I’ll finish this blog in Bangkok if I have the energy!..........
…….It’s OK, flight BR0067 has been delayed so I can crack on!

So, I’ve been in the country for a little over 36 hours and I could stay for much longer given the chance…...but for now, I’m looking forward to seeing Liane and the kids after the epic 32 hour journey.  I just called to wish them Happy New Year and they’re all still up partying.  It’s just gone 12am UK time!

I’ve met some great people during my short time here – big thanks to Jonathan, Yoo, Howard, the Belgium Massive and Cookie.  Also a big thanks to Layla, Bex, Alex and Defected for making it happen.  Finally, Happy New Year to anyone who has taken the time to read this drivel!  May 2010 be a great year for everyone and bring Audiowhores more gigs like this one!!  Peace.

Adam

Now then…..where did I put those Nurofen?!!