8 minute read
Have You Ever Ridden A Horse?
from Disco Pogo Issue 2
by Disco Pogo
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PAUL WOOLFORD
Do you wake up, go into the studio and feel like it’s a Paul Woolford day or a Special Request day?
“These days it’s rare that I go in aimlessly as time is restricted, though sometimes I just go in and turn knobs to see what happens. You have to be in a certain frame of mind and protect yourself from the bullshit in the world but I’m pretty good at zoning it all out.”
Do your outfits differ when performing as Paul Woolford and Special Request?
“A lot of people have said that. ‘Oh you’re wearing a baseball cap because you’re doing all this jungle.’”
You must be the only act that’s gone to Mad Mike from UR and Beyoncé to get permission to clear tracks?
“That might be true. Bizarre isn’t it? All of Destiny’s Child had to sign off ‘Can You Pay’ (Paul Woolford and Pessto). Beyoncé was the first to OK it and Michelle took a bit of convincing. They get all the publishing though and rightly so.”
What did you think of Beyoncé’s house album?
“I thought parts of it were wicked, there are four tracks I love. I love that she brought in Luke Solomon and Honey (Dijon), two people who have been working at it since day one and the most authentic in that sound. So I was buzzing for them. I was less impressed by the Drake one, it felt a bit proggy, it needed some swing to it. It would be interesting if Kanye did one because of his Chicago background. He’s such a disruptor he could bring in the right people then add something weird to it.”
He’s got more alter egos than Beyoncé, no wonder he’s permanently sidetracked…
What was it like working with Diplo?
“We’re on something like our eighth track. I was with him again last week in Malibu. Years ago around 2005 he played an old tune of mine which raised an eyebrow so I kept an eye on him. But then he was everywhere, do you remember the Blackberry billboard advert he did around 2008? He started playing a load of my remixes about four years ago so we started talking and I joined him on a seven-date tour. There was a point where I said: ‘Let’s make some hits!’. He sent me a demo on an acoustic guitar which became the basis of ‘Looking for Me’ which has sold over a million.”
We lost Stu Allen recently, did you get hold of his radio show tapes in Leeds?
“Yeah. I had people sending me stuff. We could very faintly catch it in Leeds but the signal was so bad. But I had loads of tapes. What a trailblazer for the North, he
Photo: Steve Gullick
didn’t get the recognition he deserved. Last week, a dear friend of mine passed away and I was in the middle of some hardcore grief when I heard the news about Stu. They say these things come in threes and then Pharaoh Sanders passed.”
We were/are big fans of Erotic Discourse - why didn’t that come out under your own name?
“I needed convincing to put it out. Justin Long from Smart Bar in Chicago was staying at my house and he was listening to a track on a CD of my new productions and he heard Erotic Discourse by accident. He said: ‘You’ve got to give me a copy of this.’ He made me burn it on to CD and he was playing it out and he said it was driving places mental. He played it to Ralph Lawson at 20/20 and they wanted to do some white labels and I wasn’t convinced. A few weeks later they told me it was going mental so I agreed to the white labels. Phonica sold about 4,000 copies. It blew up. It worked in the minimal scene and all sorts of clubs. Even Axwell from Swedish House Mafia played it but put a bad indie vocal over it. I had to email him to tell him to leave it alone! When we put out the proper release it was as ‘Paul Woolford presents…’ which had a knock-on effect for me. Bizarrely we have a new version of it ready. Peggy Gou played it recently and she had about a million views on her Instagram. About 12 years ago, Joy Orbison and Ben UFO played it and it had a revival then too, so it seems I can’t get rid of it!”
How did you come to work with Virgil Abloh on the R&S release ‘Spectral Frequency’?
“I saw him at Gatwick on a Sunday morning and I knew I needed to speak to him. We had a chat and had a laugh. Then I got to an event that night and the promoter said: ‘I’ve got someone you need to meet’ and he brought Virgil over. Later on I did a gig with Benji B and he came by and stayed in the booth with us all night. We kept in touch. Years later when I did the R&S track ‘Spectral Frequency’ Raj who A&Red it said: ‘Wouldn’t it be good if someone like Virgil did the sleeve?’ So I asked him and he bit my hand off to do it. The process was simple and he just asked for a nominal amount. When he did his own single, ‘Delicate Limbs’, he asked me to do the remix. When I handed the mix in he gave the most enthusiastic response I’ve ever had, he replied with about 30 emojis. We were going to interview each other for Interview magazine but he sadly passed. I think about him every week. He had such a large grip on culture in every way.”
Can you see the irony in putting out four albums in 2019, including clearing the decks of your old recordings with ‘Bedroom Tapes’, and then going into lockdown?
“Completely. December 2018 I was in Denver bored in a hotel room and someone asked what I was going to do next year. So I thought: ‘Fuck it.’ I tweeted I’m going to put out four albums. Then I’ll have to do it. The last one ‘Zero Fucks’ I put out on December 30. I’ve let the dust settle on Special Request, but I’m ready to come back into it.”
Your self-released ‘Zero Fucks’ album was a pay-what-you-want LP. What was the most someone paid?
“Oh, it was £500. When you say pay-what-you-want it seems to work the other way, people give you more. It’s so strange. I don’t usually have notifications on my phone but I put them on for that release and all over New Year it was just going off: ding! ding! And it was fivers, fifteen quid, twenty quid… £200. Crazy.”
Bookend your album collection?
“First was Wham!’s ‘Fantastic’. I got it when I was eight, my auntie gave me a record token and our local newsagent sold records. The last I had delivered yesterday: Tresor repressed Jeff Mills’ ‘Waveforms Transmissions Vol. 3’.”
What nicknames have you answered to in your life?
“I’ve been called everything under the sun but everybody calls me Woolly.”
Who would play you in Paul Woolford – The Movie?
“I know who I’d like, someone good and respectable – Paddy Considine.”
If your entrance to a room was heralded by a sound what would it be?
“It depends who’s in the room so it could be a really bad fart noise or a fanfare.”
If you could curate a three-room club of DJs living or dead who would play?
“I’d need six! First room would be psychedelic disco with Harvey, Hifi Sean, who has been making great disco tunes so let’s have him, and Cosmo. Another room I’d have UR full band and Jeff Mills after them with Ash Lauryn opening. In the third room I’d have Benji B and Gilles Peterson playing what they want. Fourth room a garage room with the new school like Interplanetary Criminal and Main Phase alongside Skream who can fit in with all of that and Matt ‘Jam’ Lamont and EZ. There’d be a room dedicated to Chez Damier, François K, Danny Krivit and Masters at Work, and then finally Aphex Twin, with Tim Reaper back-to-back with me as Special Request.”
What film would you most like to re-soundtrack?
“‘The Shining’. I know it inside out. I’m obsessed with it.”
What’s your most overused phrase?
“Fucking mental.”
Which word would your partner choose to describe you?
“Sidetracked. I’m permanently putting stuff off: in a bit!”
Have you ever ridden a horse?
“I haven’t. I’d love to but I’m terrified that if I broke my hands it would fuck with everything. I don’t ski or snowboard either for the same reason.”
JOHN BURGESS
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