Big Shot Magazine

14 Questions For Josh Wink

Darren Ressler Leave a Comment

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Philadelphia’s Josh Wink helms the mighty Ovum label, regularly rocks dance floors at festivals and clubs all over the world, and has a plethora of amazing albums, singles and remixes to his credit. On the eve of the release of his latest singles collection, When A Banana Was Just A Banana, Wink fields questions submitted by Big Shot’s readers.

Image: Chris Soltis

1. I’ve heard some buzz about your upcoming album. What can fans can expect to hear?
Igor
Warsaw, Poland

Josh Wink: The album [When A Banana Was Just A Banana] is a collection of singles. I will be working on a different LP next year with more of a concept. This album is solely a collection of tracks that I’ve been playing out in clubs/festivals that need to be released. The [tracks] blur the lines of house and techno.

2. How is your year so far?
Candice Tompkins
Latham, MA

All has been great! I’ve been blessed with being busy DJing, traveling to great locations, and having great crowds to perform for! Ovum Recordings is still going strong, and we look forward to the new releases and doing more Ovum nights around the world.

3. What is your involvement these days with Ovum Recordings? How do you go about signing music, and can I send you a demo?!
DJ Silver
Miami, FL

It’s hard to keep up with all that technology presents us with. We’ve been bombarded with demos in all formats. And it’s hard to make the time to listen to all the CDs, USB drives and links. But Matt Brookman (who runs the office and the ship) listens to a lot [of the submissions]. I get a lot [of music] on the road and sift through the ones that will be released and the ones that get passed on. Time and patience is a virtue! We sometimes take our time, but that’s what happens when we get over 20 demos a week! Once we get something we like, I tend to play it out and get a crowd reaction—that’s a good judge of [a track] being something we’d like to release.

4. I heard a world famous DJ recently play nearly the same identical set in a different city during the same DJ tour. Can you believe the nerve of this guy? I was annoyed. I’ve heard you play many times over the years, and I’m always impressed how you mix it up and always bring something special to each DJ gig. How do you manage to keep things fresh while you’re on the road?
Stephen
via the Internet

There’s too much good music being released for me to always play the same sets! But we as DJs definitely have our favorites and support them whenever we get the chance. I’m happy that you have been able to catch a show when I’m in your area, and I’m also happy that you are continually impressed. I still have a passion for performing as a DJ, and with this passion, it makes it easy to want to keep doing what I’m doing. I always spend time before tours/trips getting new music together; burning my vinyl to CD, getting new releases categorized, etc. But when it comes to the performance, it’s always a spontaneous process. I really feed off of the club or festival’s vibes and moods, which helps me decide when to go artistically. But it’s always different, hence having different sounding sets.

5. You’ve had a lot of hit records like “Higher State of Consciouness” and have done extremely well for yourself since you started releasing records back in the day. What else do you want to do with your life beyond DJing and making music?
Kim
Munich, Germany

Well, it’s a good question. A lot of my friends and colleagues in the music industry are asking themselves the same question, as it’s a difficult time to make a living with Internet file piracy and the recession. I would think I’d be involved the music industry and doing something music-related. If not, maybe [I’d become] a doctor or a cook.

6. I’d like to know when was the last time you made a decision based upon principle?
Owen
New York City

A lot. I feel it’s important for one to keep their integrity and do things that work with your beliefs. I don’t do any work with cigarette companies and everything at Ovum is approved and worked on by our teams with our vision. I try and make logical, educated decisions about which events to participate in. Principle is important, when one has control. The problem is nowadays so many things get twisted and are out of the control of an individual.

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It’s The Right Time For Late of the Pier

Darren Ressler Leave a Comment

Late of the Pier

A young band of working-class kids from Castle Donington, England take the dance-rock world by storm.

You always remember your first time. In a few hours, English band-of-the-moment Late of the Pier, a four-piece composed of lanky twentysomethings who’ve set dance floors and concert halls ablaze across the UK courtesy of their energetic sonic pastiche, will make their US debut at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The band’s members— Sam “Jack Paradise” Potter, Samuel “Samuel Dust” Eastgate, Andrew “Francis Dudley Dance” Faley, and Ross “Red Dog Consuela” Dawson—are sitting in their dressing room, casually nursing bottles of Budweiser.

They’ve already played over 200 shows and graced the cover of NME, but they’re excited and confident about tonight’s gig. And well they should be. The band’s first album, Black Fantasy Channel (which was finally released in the US in January), is one of 2008’s most compelling releases, namely because it answers many of the questions the nu rave revival asked and failed to answer.

Aside from Potter’s childhood vacation to Florida, America is an unknown entity to these whippersnappers. They have a lot of questions about the US, and they ask Big Shot to explain things like the difference between red and blue states. Paging Keith Olbermann!

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The Whip: No More Day Jobs

Darren Ressler

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After a series of false starts in other bands, the members of Manchester’s The Whip finally realize their dance-rock dreams.

Since The Whip formed three years ago in Manchester, England, they’ve been on a nonstop touring schedule, bringing their dirty, sexy, sweaty, and infectious dance-rock to all corners of the world. While they’ve rocked clubs and festivals from Tokyo to Austin, two boiling hot outdoor gigs last summer stand out for them. The first is opening for The Breeders at McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “I still can’t believe how enormous the pool was. I kept trying to imagine how it would look filled with water and people,” remembers drummer Lil Fee, sitting with her bandmates backstage before a gig at New York’s The Fillmore at Irving Plaza. The other gig was in September at Norman “Fatboy Slim” Cook’s yearly Big Beach Boutique held annually at Cook’s native Brighton, England. (The band is signed to Cook’s Southern Fried imprint in the UK.)

“That was the loudest gig ever! The [power of the] PA’s they even surprised our tech, and she always turns everything way up to 11,” gushes Fee. “[Norman Cook] must’ve given the local council thousands ‘cause it was so loud you could hear it in neighboring towns. By the end of the night, when Fatboy Slim went on, the Salvation Army were going around giving out earplugs!”

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In The Studio with Satoshi Tomiie

Darren Ressler

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Satoshi Tomiie is among a growing legion of globetrotting DJs who are blurring the lines between dance floor genres.

Revered DJ/producer Satoshi Tomiie hails from Japan and calls New York City home. However, he hasn’t spent much time in either place during the past year. “My summer tour kicked off in May, and I was on the road nonstop until September,” explains Tomiie, talking from a hotel room in Buenos Aires. “I didn’t go back to New York at all. After the tour was over, I left two weeks later for another couple of months. I don’t spend time in one particular place; I keep moving. It’s difficult for me to stay in one place because I love what I’m doing.”

Since making a name for himself in 1989 by co-creating Frankie Knuckles’ epic house anthem, “Tears,” Tomiie has steadily worked himself up the house music ladder. Where he was once the low man on the totem Def Mix pole (the management company helmed by Knuckles and David Morales), he’s now top dog and has earned a legion of new young fans. Tomiie’s popularity due to his technical prowess on the decks and rich, buoyant production style, which as of late has blurred the lines between house and techno. Constantly exposed to music from his world travels, he’s excited by the convergence between the two styles he’s been straddling for over a decade.

“House and techno are getting a lot closer,” he observes, “and that’s making for some interesting music.“

Tomiie says his years of experience—and the advent of mixing software which allows him to spin without having to lug boxes of vinyl around the world—has allowed him to lead the type of virtual life many only read about in Wired magazine.  “I used to get sick a lot when I first started to travel,” he recalls, “but now I’m way more mentally and physically prepared for traveling and touring, even when I do back-to-back festival dates. Having friends in other cities really helps, and my focus allows me to bring something special to every gig.”

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