DJ Woody Interview part 2, 2004 update...

Battle for battle Woody proved himself as the world's most successful scratch DJ of 2001 gaining more major titles than any of his contemporaries. After taking both the UK ITF and UK Vestax titles, Woody went on to make history by becoming the first ever Brit to take the coveted World ITF (International Turntablist Federation) Championship title over in the Mecca of turntablism, SanFrancisco. Following in the footsteps of legendary DJs such as Babu (Dilated Peoples) and A-Trak (The Allies, World DMC champion). Not content with one World title, 2002 saw Woody become 2 times World Champion when he stormed the Vestax Extravaganza World finals beating off competition from 14 countries.

That was the last time we spoke to him, here's what has happened since.....

What have you been up to since the last time we spoke? You mentioned plans for a battle record and productions with the Table Gimps crew...

Woody: Since then ive been hard at it just trying to come up with some new stuff on the tables, i did a bit more battling at the end of 2002 and ended up taking the World Vestax Extravaganza competition. After that i felt that i'd proved my point on the battle scene and wanted to get my head into other things so i've been concentrating on more recording, club gigs, tours etc. I've been doing a lot a judging and showcasing at DMC and ITF competitions around Europe which i really enjoy, a lot of club gigs as always, tourwise i did a UK tour with DJ Supreme from Hijack and with Mikey DON from Krispy hosting, which was excellent. I'm now part of DJ Vadim's Russian Percussion so i've been doing a lot of touring with him alongside Blu Rum 13 and Yarah Bravo, we've toured France, Spain, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, all over the place. Also been doing shows with the Manchester rap crew Broke N English so that's been alot of fun. In the studio I’ve been hooking up with various producers to do cuts for tracks, I worked on a track for Sirconical's LP on Twisted Nerve, a track with Evil Ed and the Microdisiacs for his LP, a track by DJ Glue from Belgium alongside DJ Grasshopper, I also did the cuts for DJ Vadim's latest 12" on Ninja Tunes and at the moment I'm working on cuts for his next LP as well as a breaks mix. I'm making beats myself and am currently working on a couple of scratch tool projects, I also did a mix CD called Bangers & Mash, it was a 70 track UK hip hop retrospective mash up.

How does it feel to have you mix Bangers and Mash so well received?

W: Yeah it was wicked, once I decided to give the battling a rest I was gagging to do a mix CD as i'd not had the time whilst I was competing. I'm a bit of a UK rap anorak and felt that a lot of these younger guys who where buying the new UK stuff didn't really know much about what had gone before, so I decided to do Bangers & Mash as a sort of overview and tribute to some of my favourite crews and tracks. Hopefully it opened a few people up to a few tracks and crews that were totally slept on.

How was your recent experience in Germany for the ITF World Finals?

W: I love those events as it’s always a bit like a class reunion cos you get to hook up with all these turntablists from all over the place, it's always a good laugh. I really respect what the ITF do and always feel privileged to be able to judge and showcase events like that, I have very strong opinions on what makes a good battle set and take the job of judging very seriously so it's an honour to do. I judged the whole event and did 2 showcases, one on each day; I got the chance to perform a few techniques and routines that I’ve not showcased anywhere else so that was cool. There were a lot of good sets by people like Tigerstyles, Pfel, Rafik and Micro Metz and some wicked showcases from D-Styles.

Can you describe your practice/rehearsal routine?

W: In all honesty I don't have one at the moment, I’ve been so busy touring/travelling about that it's been hard to get any kind of routine at all. I've never been a crazy 8 hours a day man anyway because up until 2 years ago I had always had a fulltime job, so rather than piling the hours in I would just think about it all a hell of a lot whilst I was away from the tables, trying my hardest to think laterally to work out what other DJs were missing or hadn't thought of, and so when I did practice I would try and make it productive rather than scratching aimlessly for hours on end, I had to make the time I had count. I've still been working on ideas and routines but the schedule’s been so mental it's a case of just having a cut as and when I can.

What are your best memories of recent tours?

W: Before Christmas I did a mini tour with DJ Supreme and Mikey DON that was a real good laugh, me and Mikey stuck in a car together is an explosive mixture, some comedy arguments. Also getting to perform and jam with Supreme, I'm a huge Hijack fan and listening to his records basically taught me to scratch so that was kind of an ambition realised. We had some really live shows around Europe with the Russian Percussion in the last few months and we visited some really dope places, despite an unfortunate incident in Poland involving some absinth and a bottle of Vodka but i'll not get into that. I also got out to South Africa for some solo gigs recently, it's my second time there but it always blows me away.

Have you heard of scratch notation systems, such as those developed by John Carluccio and A-Track? If so have you used them?

W: Yes, I've looked at them both though not in enough detail to be able to apply them fully. I used my own version of their system for a couple of scratch routines a few years ago, I had a couple of concepts for routines in my head so when I was at work and couldn't get on my tables I’d jot these combo's down using my own bastardised notation system. It was pretty useful really cos it meant I could work on ideas when I was at work.

How do you feel about scratch records and their use in competition routines?

W: It's all about what you do with them and how you flip them that counts, my only gripe is that often everybody buys the same battle weapons and comes up with virtually the same routine with them. Also a lot of the battle weapons that come out are shit and use the same samples as every other. I think it's cool to use them so long as not every single routine you have is using battle weapons. Often the way they are put together is very formulaic and so routines can tend to follow a certain formula, which can only be a bad thing. Also you gotta be careful because many routines end up sounding just like a battle weapon, like I say it’s all about how you flip it.

How do you feel about the evolution of scratching, where do you see turnatblism in 10 years?

W: It'll just keep evolving, hopefully its acceptance as a real instrument won't even be an issue, we'll have turntable players and bands exercising more control and discipline, the styles will become really refined, it's all heading that way now anyway. We'll have a lot more turntablists who haven’t come from a hip hop background taking it in different directions and exploring different musical avenues. Hopefully we'll see a lot more new styles and techniques develop, you just don't know what can happen.

Have you tried any of the scratch controllers such as Final Scratch or D-Vinyl?

W: I've not used D-Vinyl but I’ve had a mess with Final Scratch, I’ve heard there's still a few bugs with it but it seemed pretty cool to me. Hopefully soon they'll be 100% accurate, they've definitely got good applications for scratch music performances and they're wicked for the instant dubplate action. I haven't got a problem with them; I think the positives outweigh the negatives. I hate the fact that a kid can copy an mp3 collection in a day that would usually take someone a lifetime to collect, but I guess you can't download knowledge and skills so it's ok.

How would you describe what you do with records to someone who had no knowledge of the artform?

W: I use turntables and an audio mixer and manipulate the sounds on records in order to make music.

What other DJs and musicians are inspiring you right now?

W: With doing all the Russian percussion stuff it's pretty inspiring seeing how Vadim works, I think he's a dope producer so I’m trying to learn what I can from that experience. Turntablist wise I'm really into what D-styles is doing, every time he brings something out it's like 'damn I was gonna try something like that!', plus he's got really expressive cuts.

Any shouts or last words?

W: Shouts to all my mates and affiliates up and down. For anyone interested in my shit check out my website www.woodwurk.com, its got info about all the stuff I’m working on, DJ dates plus loads of videos of my routines and stuff. Also try and check the Bangers & Mash mix (if you can't find it anywhere you can probably download it on soulseek or something) (ed note: LOL). Last words - think! it aint illegal yet.

Thanks to Woody for his time. For more info etc check www.woodwurk.com. And be on the lookout for Woody or the Russian Percussion in a town near you, that is one show you don't wanna miss! Interview conducted by Yeshen Venema for Rawbeats.com, photos coutersy of woodwurk.com.