What are your backgrounds, how did you find your love for house music?
My musical background goes all the way back to high school where I played bass/guitar in various bands, I played in our school brass band. Upto college where I started producing various styles of music. My college friend Tony got me into house music where he introduced me to a local club called Out In The Sticks, that’s where I met Adam who was resident at the time.
 
What came first for you, DJing or Producing?
I’ve been producing for about 10/11 years now, so it was defiantly producing that came first. Producing house music and djing come hand in hand though I think, so it was shortly after that I got into djing... Might I add though I’ve only been djing in clubs with Adam for the past 2 years! It was our manager Ben that persuaded us to both dj together. Looking back it was great that Ben pushed us to do this as I think its defiantly improved the way we both dj.
 
So how did you guys first meet?
Adam was the resident dj at a local club called Out In The Sticks, I was a regular punter there. We both got chatting about music and found we both had very similar tastes. At the time Adam wanted to get into producing house and I was already established in production, so shortly after we hooked up and started jamming away. 6 years on and we’re still going strong!
 
What the first track that got people talking about you?
It was probably our 1st track we actually got round to pressing up, which was a white label we pressed ourselves called Destiny, It was a massive anthem at Out In The Sticks, the resident Russ had great belief in the track and its him what spurred us on. But what probably brought us to the forefront is our 1st production/remix on Soulfuric, it was a part 2 release of JJK’s Find A Friend…. To be honest its probably not my favourite remix we’ve done but I still get emails to this day saying how much they love remix, and even some people think its better than JJK’s original mix?! – Its great to get such feedback though, so its all good!

Who have you been influenced by?
My influences stem from many different places, most of them probably sub-consciously. I make an effort to listen to all types of music, im also starting to get in the habit of going to different clubs in Manchester to listen to different types of music. Very music looking forward to checking out Manchesters Electric Chair night in a couple of weeks – they have Bugz In The Attic Live, Unabombers, Elektrons, Danny Krivit, Metro Area,  Pete Simpson and loads more im really looking forward to checking out!
 
Do you have a regular DJ gig?
We used to dj regularly at a club called Angeldeelite in Manchester, but at the moment they’re looking for a new venue. To be honest we prefer to be guest djs around UK/Europe, we’ve been offered residency in the past but we think being guests once/twice a year makes things a bit more special and we’ve kept to that policy so far, and I think its been a good thing to do!

What is your schedule like at the moment?
Yeah its been a great year so far! We got to play the main room at Gatecrasher in Sheffield which was amazing, to play on such a quality rig and mixer was a blessing, we got to play it quite chunky too which we’ve been gearing more towards recently. More recently we just did a gig in Oslo which was wicked too, such a soulful crowd over there it was unbelievable! Most European cities tend to like it fairly banging, but it was great that we could play it how we wanted
 
Have you always enjoyed the travelling that goes with the job?
Me personally, I love to travel. Even if it’s a gig in London, I very much look forward to going down there, I always have a great time in London. I wouldn’t change it for the world – ive got to see so many different countries over the past 6 years its un-real! I think ive only got a handful of European countries to tick off! Estonia is coming up too!

Do you have any particular gig that really went off?
One that instantly springs to mind is a gig we did November 2003. We were djing after Norman Jay at a venue in Liverpool (Masque I think the name is) The crowd there were mainly a student vibe, but honest to god I’ve never seen anything like it in my life! At the time I wasn’t djing with Adam so I spent most of the night in the crowd dancing away like a lune, but it has to be up there with the best gig AW have done, from start to finish they were going crazy.

Do you have your own studio?
Yeah, for the past 4 years we’ve had a studio in Manchester that we share with another producer called Colum. We’re in a building with another 6 studios in there, so it’s a great little nest. Its good because all the other guys down there all produce different stuff so we get to share musicians and vocalists. I heard this wicked singer the other month down our building, at the time she was in the live room singing for an indie band, but the power in her voice was amazing! A real nice husky style, so of course ive got her number and who knows maybe we will get to work together!

What has been your finest track?
That’s a good question! Hmmmm... On a personal level I would say “For Real” has got to be up there, “Nekoosa” came about really well. And the dub of “Subject Of My Affection”... Also musically I really love the Word Of Mouth remix of Park St – Language Of The Soul
 
Since you have become more established are you getting more remix offers?
Yeah remixes are a funny game, its very tempting to accept all the remixes we get offered, all the hard work with the song and vocal is already done, we just have to work new music around it. But these days we find its a lot better to be more careful with what we choose to remix, last year we did well I thought, out of the offers we remixes Sunburst Band – Fly Away and Connie Harvey – Thank You Lord… This year so far we’ve been quite busy remix wise, we just remixed Dutty Funk on mn2s and also have a remix on Knee Deeps label, Rhythm Slaves – Show Me.

Has there been any remixes offer to you that you just had to say no to!?
Hahaha, yes quite a lot, but being the nice chaps we are – its always done in a tactful manner.

Do you find yourselves re-editing tracks for your DJ sets?
We used to edit quite a few track to play out, but these days our time in the studio is quite limited, with Adam being a father now and me running our own label the time we spend In the studio is mainly concentrating on our own productions.

Why the decision to start up a label?
Well with the current climate of the house scene it made more scene for us to setup our own label and release our own music thru it. We had 3 or 4 diverse tracks ready to put out and felt the way forward would be to launch our own label, so “Tempogroove” was born. As well as putting our own material out we want to develop new artists too. We have signed up 2 guys from London called the Cookie Monsterz, who I have no doubt u will be hearing a lot more from these talented producers in the near future!

What is the style you plan to showcase, will it all be soulful and tracky stuff as well or will you do what a lot of labels are doing at the moment and have a ‘Trax’ subsidiary?
One thing for sure is – its gonna be all quality music regardless of the genre you wanna call it. Our 1st release is a soulful number by us called Not Going Back with Pete Simpson on vocals. The 2nd release is a bit more electro style but with a full vocal which should be promo-ing soon, which is Audiowhores Feat Alex Mills – A Better Place. We’ve got an EP forthcoming from the Cookie Monsterz which is a bit more funky, then we’ve got some more Audiowhores material lined up for later in the year which is a bit more deeper/tracky. So yeah its all across the board but keeping the quality regardless

Have you much material in place for the new label?
Well we’ve got 4 releases lined up on Tempogroove from ourselves and a further 3 releases lined up from the Cookie Monsterz. We’re currently in talks to sign up a further 2 tracks, but we’ll see what happens with those!

Are you going to be doing vinyl releases as well as MP3 download?
Yeah for sure, we are releasing vinyl as well as providing mp3 downloads simultaneously. But for the promo period, you can only download our promos thru www.traxsource.com

Graham – you were putting solo projects out under the guise of ‘Word Of Mouth’, will either of you still from time to time indulge in solo projects?  
I think once the label is properly established and running smoothly I’m gonna’ start to produce some more soulful tracks under the WOM name, but until then we got an AW mission to accomplish!

Do you keep an eye on new technology for the studio?
Yes of course, I always like to play around with new plugins or vst instruments, but one thing I make sure of doing is not to clog the studio with too much gear. I like to keep to a core of plugins and instruments that I use regularly so that I really get into the program and get to work them properly and get the best out of them   Do you have any tips for budding producers out there? Like anything in life, if u keep at it and have determination to reach your goals the sky is the limit. Research, ask favours, get feedback, and never be happy with what you produce, always strive to further your sound.  

What’s forthcoming from you guy’s.? any exclusives you can let on about!?
Hmmm well we have the tracks mentioned earlier forthcoming on Tempogroove. But one thing im really excited about at the moment is a track we’re producing with Shena on vocals, again its quite different to our usual sound, but think MOS/Data/Seamus Haji etc and you’re almost there. So touch wood this track should surface later this year!