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Wolf + Lamb Interview
House | Wednesday 16th May 2012 | Osh
We got on the dog and bone to Zavone one half of New York's favourite DJs and purveyers of their own brand and sound.
Zav, so you must be Wolf right?
I am indeed!
Haha, ok man, it’s a pleasure to be catching up man! Wolf + Lamb, you know, the name of you two; the name of the label. They started calling your club that. I’ve heard you describe Wolf + Lamb as being a feeling, representing a feeling.
Yeah.
Would you be able to describe that feeling for me?
Well, it’s that feeling of success maybe; a feeling of, you know, when you go out to a club and the DJs building up and building up taking everything along. It’s not very unpredictable ‘cause you don’t know what beat is gonna come next. I think all of our label and the artists are very unpredictable. It’s for people who really like their music regimented, more for people that are looking for the vibe and looking to get deep.
So as well as being unpredictable, its also a kind of comfortable feeling?
It’s comfortable. It sounds like what you’re familiar with, what your mum used to listen to that’s really soulful and ‘homey’ and reminds you of home cooking.
Nice. So your movement, you’ve been doing this for a while now. How is life for you right now?
It’s pretty fucked up!
Haha.
I’ve just jetted back from Miami, we’re about to start to develop everything, going really ahead of the schedule. You know, we’ve got very low expectations of everything.
Nice.
So no one’s surprised by how much it’s accepted and the more we travel the more comfortable we’re getting. We’re getting closer than expected to people at the front who are down with this shit, hopefully. So that’s really exciting.
Excellent, did you have a good time at Ultra this year?
Yeah, had a great time there. But I have to admit that I blanked parts out and slept through all accept for our parties; you’ve got to have plenty of sleep! But it was really phenomenal. It was a little bit like a culmination of many years, of us going out and doing parties, we really kept it together, especially this year.
So does that mean your parties go on for about 24 hours over there, right?
Well, some of them do, I mean some of them do go on for about 10 or 15 hours, and that’s enough!
So it’s also gonna be 11 years or something of Burning Man for you. Is that always a special part of your year?
Well, actually, we’re not going this year; we’re taking a break this year after 10 years. So maybe we won’t do anything this year. We’ve been going for 10 years straight.
Right, you’re gonna be coming over to the Parklife Festival in Manchester, is that right?
Yeah, its gonna be crazy!
It’ll be crazy. What about the vibe in London, how do you find that for you and for your vibe?
London has been a really interesting kind of place for us! The work we do can change us, and the places we’ve been to internationally, they’ve really got what we were doing. So a lot of the sound that we love is something that a lot of people like. So, one of the first places we went to, everyone loved it. You know, we’ve got a small base going but…T Bar. I think that was the best place we’ve played in the UK. It was just went off. It was really exciting for us; it gave us a lot of confidence to go to loads of other countries and have the expectations we have that other countries will be ready for it. It really gave us confidence ‘cause the reception was just incredible.
T Bar, wow! Generally, a lot of time we go out now, music is more musical. Do you feel you played a big part in that?
Well, I’m sure we played a part in it; I don’t know how big a part because there was a lot of it before we even showed up. It gives us a lot more material to work with if you have really melodic music, we’re glad people like it.
You’re very humble. Now you guys say that partying at the Marcy is about being part of a family. How’s that family going?
It’s going very well at this point. It’s all about coming to a party, it’s like, you might not know anybody but you get to know them. I think Burning Man had a lot to do with this, but somehow our group of friends are extremely open and welcoming and we’re the same to anyone that comes in with a good attitude and as more people have joined our family at Marcy the older generation kind of train the younger generation. They teach them how to act and how to really make it a special place and be polite to everybody. I think that at certain times people have been tricked away which we don’t want. It’s special, we had a party there the other night.
So you had a party the other night, how was that?
It was phenomenal. Really phenomenal.
Wow, I mean it sounds like a very Guestlist Network type of vibe, I would love to come and explore or experience that one one day!
Oh certainly, we go into big parties now, but I think next year we’re gonna open up a lot more.
Now you guys are always fusing together different types of music, is there a latest evolution of the music that you could describe?
Erm, yeah. I mean there’s been a fusion of old school freestyle, kind of like New York ghetto freestyle which is awesome. It’s a massive infusion of that. We’ve been working for two months of the second album, and it’s really leading the way with that. It’s because everyone works off each other’s music. There’s really no way for any style of music to stay with one artist because what you do could end up working off someone else’s track, and then that track’s gonna spread like an STD, in a good way.
‘Cause you guys all remix your own stuff so you maintain that vibe throughout all the remixes, like ‘Something Close’.
Yeah, and it keeps going past remixes. Remixing is not even such a big thing. But everyone just works with each other on each other’s tracks. So, we’re just sitting around in Miami and people working on a track will just show up and then for the next five in five hours we’re using recording keys or something like that. So everyone is just kind of like, kind of a little bit crazy, but it’s amazing.
Now I know you guys are working on some albums to increase your production to your show, with more live instrumentation and crazy vibes. Have you managed to bring any of that together yet in your live shows?
Actually yeah, the show, the Thursday night doing Ultra was just two weeks ago, we had Slow Hands, which was really amazing. Some of the other artists did amazing live shows and kind of premiered our new showcase. But basically it was three shows and three DJs, so it was actually pretty great. We’ve never done that before and it was really interesting to have the swell of one live show, which made us fill with ideas of how to expand to maybe more of a chilled show as opposed to a label night.
Wow!
We’re working on that next year.
Man, that sounds amazing. I can’t wait ‘till you have your small tents in festivals, you’ll be doing big festivals with your massive shows soon I’m sure.
Absolutely!
Haha, OK so I’m looking forward to you guys coming over to London. Do you ever come over here for working in the studio?
Not really, ‘cause most of it’s done in Miami or New York.
It’s too cold for the Wolf + Lamb vibe here, right?
No, it’s not that cold. You guys know how to stay warm over there.
Yeah?
But it’s like, when we’re in London, even for a couple of days, it’s too fucking expensive, that’s the problem.
Yeah, that’s right. But I mean Miami’s not far off, you know!
No Miami’s cheap, it’s not expensive at all.
As long as you’re not in a hotel on South Beach, you’ll be OK.
Exactly, we try to avoid that at all costs and get the fuck out of that side of town.
Nice one, thank you!
It’s been nice talking to you.
Catch Wolf + Lamb at Parklife Festival in Manchester this summer on 9th & 10th June. For more information check out www.parklife.uk.com and wolflambmusic.com
Oshi
oshi@guestlist.net
