Jodi Wisternoff DJs at Advent-Jah at the RNA Showgrounds on March 31.
From platitudes that compare them to the Yes of dance music as prog-trance kings to squealing teens begging for The Gift on Top Of The Pops, Bristol based duo Way Out West have run the gamut of electronic experience and still come back for more. As Jody Wisternoff, one half of WOW alongside travelling DJ extraodinaire partner Nick Warren, points out, there’s no real mystery as to how he and his partner in crime consistently churn out highly respected original work and re-mixes: “If it sounds good it works, if it sounds shit it doesn’t. At the end of the day, it’s only four minutes of music,” He chuckles in his best mock-ironic voice. And he’s only half kidding. As down to earth as they come, Wisternoff and Warren have a flexible approach to WOW. As a touring entity, audiences may see both or either of the producers. As their individual commitments as DJs and re-mixers gathered momentum since the release of their self titled hit in 1997, WOW have learnt how to scale back the show and hand the reins over to each other.
For example, only Wisternoff will be heading to Australia for the latest set of gigs, but Jody placates punters, insisting that the show doesn’t change just because one half aint in attendance.
“It sounds exactly the same, it’s just me and our singer,” He shrugs, “You get the same kind of experience with our lighting guy, I do 11 tracks or so, a few off the old album, some new things, a few things that no-ones ever heard before… its great, its cool. It’s energy fuelled, the singers great, she’s got a wonderful voice and I just jump around behind the keyboards and keep things together. He (Nick Warren) is really cheesed that he can’t come actually. But Nick travels a lot DJing, so I’m kind of used to doing shows on my own anyway. But it sounds the same and looks good.”
Refreshingly, Wisternoff appears to realise that while he and Warren (well known for his work with the Global Underground, as long time resident at Cream and as Massive Attack’s touring DJ) make beautiful sounds in the studio (latest album Intensify on the Distinctive Breaks label has pleased new and old audiences alike), it isn’t as easy to reinterpret the sound in a live context, unlike other act’s, WOW don’t consider their live shows when recording, it’s all in the moment.
“A lot of people do think like that. I think the Chemical Brothers, you can hear it in their music, they kind of write a track for the live scenario, but we’ve never done that which makes it tricky trying to translate it into a live situation. We’ve got to strip it all back again and change arrangements a little bit and break it down and stuff. But I think maybe for the next album we will, ‘cause then it will be less work when it comes to planning live shows.”
In fact, Wisternoff sounds so cruisey about his production work, it’s practically The Love Boat
“Whatever happens happens. There’s no real formula, there’s no game plan, if it sounds good then we roll with it. We just get on the vibe, and spend time, get deep, we don’t sort of rush things. We try to do all of them bit by bit.”
And contrary to popular misconceptions about what DJs get up to in the studio, unlike rock guys, DJs are real clean living folk, Wisternoff comes off sounding like a teetotaller.
“I can’t drink, ‘cause alcohol doesn’t help me. It’s different to DJing… when I’m in the studio I have to be completely straight, ‘cause it can sound good, but you’re highly tempted to keep piling noises on when you’re fucked. I’ve never taken any drugs in the studio or anything, which a lot of people might not understand. Maybe I’ll do it today!” he muses. “It could be a laugh…hmmmm?”
The newest album Intensify was created after much monkeying around and a few record company run-in's (WOW left their original home of Deconstruction to make the move to Distinctive Breaks recently) that left the duo a bit tired and emotional, although all efforts were made to allow the boy’s some creative space.
“We weren’t given a deadline for the album, they just said ‘Make it in your own time, and do what makes you happy’. So we did like 35 tracks and picked the best and some seemed to fit together.”
And how does one know that a piece will work?
“Well,” he muses in mock-art style, “There’s patience, then there’s art and the magic happens when things start to fall together.”
