Spirit of House is proud to bring you an exclusive interview with the Audiowhores, one of todays hottest production and DJ teams that just started their own label Tempogroove.
Question: Would you mind having a few words as an introduction to who Audiowhores are, and where you’re from?
Answer: Audiowhores are Graham Lord and Adam Unsworth, hailing from the rainy city of Manchester UK. We have been producing house music under the AW name for 6 years now. You might know us from such labels as Soulfuric, Look At You or Peppermint Jam (Sorry I went into Troy McClure mode then! Haha)
Question: How did you get into music, and what are your influences and heroes (DJ/producer/artist…)?
Answer: I got into music production when was about 15 years old (im 26 now) Me and a couple of other mates would get together and start messing about with an old program on the ST called Fast Tracker, thing evolved from there, I got my first PC then started to use Cubase. My influences stem from many different places, most of them probably sub-consciously! My heroes are quite varied too I suppose, John Lennon, my parents, Louie Vega and Matt Groening
Question: What other music styles beside house music you listen to, and at what occasions?
Answer: Yeah of course! I think I would go mad if I was listening to house music 24/7. I like listening to smooth FM on my way to the studio, on my ipod Im currently listening to Jack Johnson, Damien Rice, Bob Marley and KT Tunstell
Question: Are you still tight with your local club scene, and if so what is your involvement?
Answer: The club scene in Manchester at the moment is a bit weird, but yeah we’re still quite tightly linked with the Slammin Boys who have a weekly event at Label on Deansgate and we’re still involved with Angeldeelite in some shape or form, I think they’re in the process of finding a new venue.
Question: How did you get into remixing and producing?
Answer: As I mentioned earlier I’ve been producing music for the past 11+ years. I’ve been producing house music for the past 6 years with my partner in crime Adam Unsworth – it was the Audiowhores stuff that got me into commissioned remixes, we’ve been fortunate enough remix some of (in my opinion) the greatest vocalists around… Connie Harvey, Ce Ce Peniston, Cheryl Lynn, Barbara Tucker and Shawn Christopher
Question: How would you define a good piece of music:
Answer: Well that’s easy to me, a good piece of house music should always have the groove and that killer hook. But to define a classic/masterpiece would be impossible!
Question: Where do you find inspiration for your projects?
Answer: I think most of our inspiration comes sub-contentiously when we’re in the studio, we start jamming away and thing just start to groove away! But I think it really helps to listen to a broad range of music with an open mind wether that be house, jazz, pop, indie, rock, funk etc. I also like to draw inspiration from other djs too, dj’s from other fields of house music which we’re not closely related to, my favorite dj at the moment is Osunlade – I’ve drawn so much inspiration from this guy its unbelievable!
Question: With all the negative press about the WMC/M3 Summit in Miami this year, I wonder how you think about it:
Answer: Hmmmm well me personally I had a great time! I’ve only been going for the past 3 years and I can safely say that was my best time out there! But I can understand the frustration for the people who have been going for years, there are way too many partys and not much business being done out there at the moment, But from a personal point of view, I still think its fucking great! I will be defiantly out there again next year.
Question: Your perception of the current situation of the music scene and the things which need to evolve:
Answer: I think a couple of years ago the whole scene was stuck in a rut, a lot of producers sounding the same and the whole thing about illegal mp3 downloads damaging the scene. In my opinion now I think we’re out of that rut, things are moving on, people are starting to understand they need to pay for their music and the legal download sites have defiantly helped this.
Question: What where the motives for launching your own record label?
Answer: 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!
Question: What are you feelings about the movement away from vinyl to CD/MP3?
Answer: From a label point of view I think its great (costs of manufacturing vinyl, promotion of vinyl etc) From the consumers point of view its good, cost of the end product, but I cant help feel that even with all these plus points the cd/mp3 is turning the scene into an even bigger "throw away music" thing. It feels less of a collectors scene. Maybe im wrong, who knows
Question: Some say, CD/MP3 sound not as good as vinyl in a club – your thoughts and experiences?
Answer: I think that is absolute bullshit! Cds/mp3s sound great in clubs, you obvisouly get a different warmer sound with vinyl but you are missing the clarity on the top end of the spectrum…. And for people who think 320k sounds better than a 192k mp3 in a club, I’d like to hear them actually tell the difference, I bet they cant!
Question: What can we expect from you in the near future?
Answer: We’ve got a busy year coming up for sure! At the moment our first release on Tempogroove is out on promo (Audiowhores Feat Pete Simpson – Not Going Back) We have remixes coming out on Knee Deep USA and mn2s. Then in June we have our 2nd release on Tempogroove (Audiowhores Feat Alex Mills – A Better Place) as well as that im sure you will be seeing plenty of other material from us on Tempogroove soon!
Question: What artists would you like to work with if you would be given the opportunity?
Answer: Ohhh well I’d love to work with Louie Vega, Dave Lee, Tappert n Pomeroy and of course get to write a track with India!
Question: Your 3 favourite all time songs:
Answer: This is always a tricky one for me, but house wise I would say…
Luther Vandross – Are You Using Me (MAW Mix)
Louie Vega & Jay 'Sinister' Sealee – Diamond Life
David Bendeth - Feel The Real (Jazz n Groove Classic Mix)
Question: Anything else you would like to share with us:
Answer: Yeah, check out website for the label, www.tempogroove.co.uk releases forthcoming from Audiowhores and some new guys we signed to the label called the Cookie Monsterz, watch out for these chaps! You can also check out new mixes from Audiowhores @ www.audiowhores.net too, cheers! Thanks to you Michael for your continued support over the last 6 years, you da man!
Many thanks to Graham Lord for taking the time to answer our questions.