andy whitby... the saviour of hard house

Interview Copyright of Nyce1 Promotions 26/11/2007

We Interview Andy Whitby ahead of his Nyce1 return on the 8th December @ Lakota, Bristol!!

 

Well this guy needs no introduction, he has come, saw and kicked some serious ass all over the Hard House scene, and is making a steady mark in the Hardcore world too!! We take time out to catch up with Andy for our first interview ahead of the next Unleashed night in December....

Andy thanks to agreeing to be interviewed by Nyce1 Unleashed – you are our first interviewee so bear with the questions…. Before we get into the usual questions, lets find out a bit more about you…

N1 - First off as way of introduction could you please give us a quick rundown of the following: Your age, location, star sign, Clean driving License and favourite TV program from your youth oh and one more for good measure boxers or Y Fronts…;0)

AW - Ha-ha ok then! Well, in that order…

I’m 25 years old. I live in Peterborough at Whitby towers. My driving license has 6 points on it, which is bad but I swear I wasn’t speeding Officer!

I rarely have time to watch T.V nowadays but it used to be Jase and the Wheeled Warriors, damn those pesky plant machines trying to rule our universe, who do they think they are?!

And I’m a nice underwear-wearer all day long, I only rock Calvin’s, nothing else is good enough for my little Whitby.

N1 - Apart from DJing what other interests do you have I have read you were into Basketball, tell us more about this…

AW – Before DJing I used to have many interests. Now it takes up all of my time and I just live music. 24/7, 365…hard-dance rules the Whitby kingdom.

As for the basketball, it was my dream to make it as a professional. I used to play for hours every day. As I got into DJing however, I started playing less and less and then finally, whilst at a special All-Star camp in the Lake District I decided I didn’t want to be a basketball player anymore, so left the camp and I’ve never played since!

N1 - Who is the most famous person you've ever met and how, and is there someone you haven't met yet that you would like to?

AW - I’ve never met anyone famous really; things like that don’t interest me. Half the ‘famous’ people we read about in the press have no talent and no purpose in life.

N1 - How did you get into the hard house scene in the first place?

AW - The first time I heard hard house was Fergie’s ‘Let There Be Hard house’ mix on the front of Mixmag. I’d never heard anything like it; like hardcore but slower and with a groove. I was instantly hooked and started buying a few hard house records here and there.

It wasn’t until Lisa Lashes’ ‘Lashed’ C.D however, about 6 months later, that I really got into it. That mix was bouncier, faster and better than Fergie’s and it was then I decided I wanted to start mixing it all the time, as at that time I was still mixing a lot of hardcore with my friends.

N1 - What was the first record you ever bought? Mine was Anna lee two times. Is yours just as embarrassing?

AW - Not at all, being the super-cool dude I am the first record I bought was DJ Dan – Needle Damage, which to this day is a badass track!

N1 - You’re also very well known for your creative trickery on the decks. How much preparation goes into one of your gigs, what do you have instore for Nyce1 Unleashed on the 8th December!

AW - I like to muck about on the decks a lot, and most of my ideas just come from mixing for long periods of time and things just happen. Nowadays, as I spend a lot of time travelling I also think up mixes in my head. As I know records so well I can now actually piece mixes together long before I try them on the decks; sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but my heads always trying to think up new ideas and ways to fit tracks together.

For Nyce1 on Dec 8th, as it’s a Bounce night, I’ll be rolling out lots of new material I’ve been working on with Klubfiller, as the stuff he’s capable of making is unreal, he’s a new-breed hard-dance producer with a bounce background, which is perfect for me as the biggest tunes I play are usually bouncy ones!

N1 - Speaking of records, do you have a top five of favourite tracks? They don't have to be hard house?

AW - I do have a top 5, but I get asked this so much I’m not going to answer!

Everyone knows my favourite hard-dance tune of all time is ‘Til Tears Do Us Part’, and other favourite include ‘Faith’, ‘Kick It’ and Tom’s Project ‘Mindblowing’.

N1 - What about you’re spare time? Do you get much time to chill out when not producing music and DJing?

AW - I don’t, but that’s how I’ve decided I want it to be. I have a sign next to my desk that says ‘nothing is ever gained without a great deal of hard work’ and I truly believe that. If you want to try and be the best you have to be willing to work your arse off. Sitting there playing video games isn’t going to further you’re career, just like spending the day watching You tube videos won’t get things done (I hope your reading this Gammer!!!).

N1 - How did you and Cally meet… do you ever play back 2 back? If not yet asked would you.

AW - Cally and I met whilst I was DJing at a friend’s engagement party. He hired out a club and booked some friends to play hard-dance sets and asked if I could end the night with a special set. Whilst playing I noticed some hot blonde dancing like a loon to my set and half way through she came up to me and asked me; ‘What remix of ‘Reactor’ by Ingo and Maddox is this?’…Now, as far as first words to your future partner go, that’s a good one to impress me!

At the time we were both with other people, so we ditched them (sorry Laura!) and arranged our first date on Valentine’s Day, which went well and we’re been rocking ever since.

We do play back2back now and then, usually for special Frantic events, the last being Frantic 10 @ Koko which I really enjoyed! You’d think, as my girlfriend, she’d be the first one in line to ‘clone’ what I’m doing, but she’s got her own style and sound, and rarely plays bounce, as she prefers more trance-based material.

N1 - What was your highlight so far in 2007?

AW - Winning Best DJ & Best Resident @ The Hard Dance Awards in February was amazing, that really started the year off nicely for me. Since then, playing at all the major festivals was good; Global Gathering, Creamfields, Colours fest, Planet love and Escape into the Park (which I was very late to! Sorry everyone!).

Each weekend is an adventure right now and I’m in the middle of a string of really good gigs, with this weekend’s looking to be top banana as well! The fun never ends in Whitby world!

N1 - You have your first night coming up in December the week before ours, tell us more about Awsum (plug –plug – plug)

AW - AWsum is the name of my new brand, which consists of 2 labels; AWsum & AWsum Bounce and an event; One AWsum Night. Instead of deciding to just launch one label, I wanted to throw myself full on so decided to take on three things at once!

One AWsum Night is taking place at a secret location in London and I’ll be playing a special 3hr set. Matt Lee (also known as Gammer) will be making his hard-dance debut, alongside Lisa Pin-Up, Technikal (playing a special production showcase set), Cally Gage, The Tidy DJs (playing a special hard end-of-night set), Frisky (hardstyle classics set), Kym Aryes (Tidy classics set), and many many more spread across 2 rooms.

I felt it was time to take the progression from DJ to label manager and promoter and I’m really excited about seeing the outcome and pushing our scene forwards.

N1 - You seem to playing out all the time. Do you ever get the chance to go out clubbing yourselves, if so where do you go?

A lot of people ask me this! I rarely have time to go clubbing, but when I do have a Friday or Saturday off I don’t spend it in a club, its like someone who works for McDonalds going there for a meal when they’re not at work!

If I’m free on a Friday or Saturday night I like to go to nice restaurants or bars and relax with close friends and spend a bit of time being Andy, and not Andy Whitby.

N1 - Finally, what’s coming up for you at the moment? Any releases or forthcoming news that Nyce1 Unleashed should know about?

AW - Lots of new and exciting stuff going on right now, both my labels launch on 19th November, AWsum will be all about original euphoric material produced by Matt Lee, Klubfiller and myself. AWsum Bounce will be for new bounce material and will showcase the newest and most exciting bouncy hard-dance available on the market today.

As mentioned earlier, the first event takes place on December 1st and you can read all about that on it’s special microsite www.awsumnight.com 

For more info on all things AWsum, including events, releases and DJs, just join the discussion group on DSI www.awsumdsi.com

N1 - Well thanks for taking the time out with us; we shall look forward to the 8th December at Lakota!!