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Waifs & Strays Interview
House | Wednesday 17th August 2011 | Osh
Heidi called their song 'Yeah Yeah' "the dirtiest house track she has heard in a very long time." We caught up with Bristol house duo Waifs + Strays.Tell us a bit about Waifs & Strays for those who don’t know...We are Amos Nelson and Rich BeanlandYou both met in Bristol, it’s a very happening scene, how was it starting off there?A: I have been living in Bristol for the last twleve years and working within the club scene, either DJing or promoting for eleven of those years. So I had already had a lot of friends and had worked with a good number of people within the city's dance music scene. But like anywhere, I had to cut my teeth and so have done my fair share of handing out flyers etc over the years! The scene in Bristol is really vibrant right now, but that also means more competition so sometimes its harder when a city is really growing fast!Rich, you started with dubstep is there any link with what your doing now?R: The production in dubstep is very technical and so it gave me a really good grounding in production skills. Also making bass driven music has definitely given me a bias towards big basslines, and so i guess that comes through in some of our productionsYour debut release ‘3am’ was massive, did you ever anticipate such success?R: It was a bit of a surprise, but a very welcome one! There is so much music being made today, and so for us to get success was amazing. We were very fortunate that a great label like Leftroom picked it up, and we are really grateful to all the support they gave us.You have had acclaim from huge names like Heidi and Matt Tolfrey, and now Body Shiver features on Jamie Jones’s fabric59, how does this feel?A: Again, amazing. I have been to collecting the fabric mixes for years now, and so to finally be a part of one of the most important CD series in dance music is a huge honour. When Jamie Jones said he was including it, I was literally jumping around the room!What is it like working with established artists Deepgroove?A: Lee and Grayson are old friends of mine, so have known their productions for years. The fact that we have started working with them has been great and a lot of fun so far.Eats Everything’s 'Entrance Song' is a massive hit, what’s your connection with him?A: Dan is one of my best friends and have known him for my whole time in Bristol. We actually used to DJ together. We are working with him on a few projects right now, and are looking to bring them out later in the year. His productions are so amazing right now and its brilliant that after all these years we are both having some form of success. He is definitely one to watch in the next year.This type of music is so popular now, tell us what makes you different?R: I guess that maybe the fact we come from different backgrounds, me being from Dubstep and Amos from House, maybe gives us a different edge. At the end of the day though, we just try to make music that we like and hope that people will be into it as well.What can we expect from Waifs & Strays in the future?We have releases coming over the next couple of months on Futureboogie and Hot Creations. Apart from that, we are working hard on more productions and playing out as much as we can!
If you could have a swimming pool full of anything what would it be?R: Analogue Synthesizers - that would probably hurt a bit though.A: Fizzy water - i reckon it would feel really weird!
Are you a waifer or a a strayer?Both!Find out more about Waifs + Strays at:www.waifsandstraysmusic.commyspace.com/waifsstraysmusic
