In just a few years, UK duo WHYT NOYZ seem to have starting hitting their stride. With EPs on Minus, SCI+TEC, Octopus and Terminal M, and attention from Richie Hawtin, Dubfire and more, their drum heavy, funk fueled brand of techno is striking all the right chords.
Their most recent release on MInus, has been getting love from the likes of Dubfire, Adam Beyer, Nicole Moudaber and Pete Tong, and for good reason. So we reached out and asked if the guys could give us a mix, which they delivered on fully. Check it out below, and read on for our interview.
For those who don't know you, please tell us a little bit about yourself. Duncan: I used to be a resident DJ for Godskitchen in the UK and curated one of the rooms there for a while. I heard a demo mix of David’s, which really impressed me, so I invited him to play at the club. We hit it off and have been close friends together ever since! We both had a passion for the more underground side of electronic music and started to send track ideas back and forth for fun, we had great reactions from our friends and so we decided to take it a step further - and WHYT NOYZ was born! On a personal level, I love many different genres of music and have been lucky enough to work full time in music on an artistic and business level for around 4 years now. Outside of music, I love great food, great wine, spending time with my loved ones and exploring this crazy planet that we live on!
David: I grew up around music from a little kid. My Dad has played in bands since he was young and so growing up the house was filled with music. It would be mainly Rock n' Roll, Funk, and Soul. He bought me my first set of drums when I was 6 and up until I was 16 I would play them everyday, not just to Bands though, I would play to hip-hop, pop, and anything I could put a twist on. I began learning to DJ around the time I started to get bored with all of the live stuff. It's the same story as you hear from a lot of people where a friend had some decks and I mixed (terribly I might add) two records together and I was like "wow, this shit's for me." Meeting up with Dunc and sharing ideas about everything musical really sculpted us both as artists. It is a great partnership as we keep each other grounded, we both know where we want to go and we both know where we have come from so it is hard for one of us to grow an ego without the other one poking fun at it, which is very cool in my eyes. Outside of that I am a CrossFit coach, another thing that brings balance into my life around that craziness that music brings.
How did you get into electronic music? Duncan: I have been into electronic music since I was a really young kid. I will never forget listening to rave tapes on my old hi-fi and being obsessed with all of the dance music in the late '80s and early '90s. I loved The Prodigy, the music was so great around that time. It stuck with me and it all really started when I was around 16, a friend of mine bought some turntables. I had one mix and I was hooked, within months I had my own DJ set up, was spending all of my spare cash on vinyl and going out to raves. Fortunately I started to get some great DJ gigs and residencies in my home city Birmingham. I started to produce and spent a lot of time learning that side of things. It takes time but it really paid off and now me and David are getting to experience things that we once dreamt about!
David: Electronic music specifically happened a little later for me. I wish I had a cool story about being into Depeche Mode or Kraftwerk as a kid but I don't. For me it was either funk, soul, or hip-hop. I then found artists like Joey Negro and Master At Work. It was these cats that bridged the gap from all of the funk and soul I would listen to as a kid to real House music and I was hooked forever. Like Carl Cox says, it's either house or techno.
Every other derivative genre will fall by the wayside and it has taken me until now to realise this. As soon as I started playing House records out I realised that it was more than just a beat to dance to, it connected people. This sold it for me. I wanted to make the stuff I heard. So I did just that! As my ear evolved with electronic music so did the sound. I am making the best music I have ever made now and it is great for it to be recognised by so many people!
You have received strong support from Richie Hawtin – can you tell us how this came about and the relationship you have with Richie?Duncan: We sent the early demos in to Richie’s dropbox on the Minus Soundcloud page and really didn’t expect to hear anything back, then a couple of months later, I got an e-mail from Richie saying he really liked the tracks. That is how it all started, and one of those early demos was “Meh Meh,” which ended up being the bonus track on our first Minus E.P. Our relationship with Richie is great. Obviously to be working with an artist that you have looked up to for such a long time is a massive privilege and one that we don’t take for granted!
What was it like to score a release on Minus? David: Crazy! We were initially released a couple of years back on a compilation called New Horizons that Rich had been asked to compile by Mixmag. Richie used this as a platform to tip his hat to new, up and coming producers that he had his eye on. Fast forward to the end of 2013 and now in 2014 and we are sitting proud on top of two full releases. It is such a humbling feeling to have a pioneer like Rich support us. The hundreds of hours spent fine tuning everything in the studio to the nth degree did pay off! Not only that but having people in our techno community reach out to us with such good feedback re-energises us to hit it even harder moving forward!
When producing your music was Minus a label you always had in mind? Duncan: It was always one of our favourite labels and I think when you listen to the early demos you can already hear those influences in the tracks. I think it's so important to have a unique and identifiable sound and this is something that we have worked hard on to create. I think a lot of it comes down to attention to detail and the drum tracks which I have to give David full credit for. With David being a percussionist and drummer he has been able to really make the drums stand out and this is so important in techno. As our relationship grows with Minus I think it is natural for the tracks to feel more and more suited to the label as we go to the Minus parties and become inspired by the music that we hear!
What's your studio setup like at the moment? Are you an analogue fan? David: When I was learning about production I did what every first fan boy does and made up this imaginary world in my head that all the best producers knew the secrets! Like there was a special unit Carlo Lio would use to get that bottom end in his tracks, or there was a preset on an FX unit that I didn't have that Stimming would use to create his crazy atmospheres.
Unfortunately for all the new producers reading this, I was completely wrong. It comes from countless hours of messing up, retracing your steps and making the thing that didn't work in the first place work! Production is like 50 percent being a creative musician and 50 percent being a scientist to make every sound work sonically. Don't beat yourself up though, remember the process is supposed to be fun. Take my advice, if it sounds good then it's probably good! Our setup for WHYT NOYZ is Ableton Live and Maschine. That is it. Sure I have some synths, which collect dust and make me feel really bad when I look at them, but I don't need too much stuff. I work in the box and I work quick, there is too much good music going on inside producers' brains for them not to work quick. Maybe I will go down the analogue route someday but no one is complaining yet!
What do you have coming up in terms of releases? Duncan: Well, our latest Minus EP titled 'It Grows' was released this week so we are really excited about that, it's 5 tracks that Richie has been supporting over the last 6 months and it feels great to see the positive reaction to them from our fans. We are already working hard on our next Minus EP but nothing confirmed yet. We also have an exciting album concept in the works which we think will be released early in 2015 so keep your eyes and ears out for that!
What else is on your horizon for 2014? Duncan: Hopefully another EP before the year is out! We are looking forward to some great gigs coming up in Ibiza, Belgium, ADE and Bulgaria along with our first India tour in October. We are also going to be working hard on the album that I mentioned before.
Can you tell us about the Fresh Blood mix you provided for us? David: Sure, the Fresh Blood mix we provided for you guys contains a lot of new music from us and involves some live elements with Maschine throughout. It starts smooth and then ramps up into the type of peak-time techno synonymous with our sets. Hope you enjoy it!
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