:: BB INTERVIEWS ::

:: WAVEWHORE ::

Wavewhore - Bright Lights, Big City by Doug Vaccaro With his recent releases on Broke Recordings and Electrofly Records, Wavewhore is pushing new boundaries in electronic dance music with his hi-energy breakbeat. His music is aimed directly at the dancefloor and his beats are making waves across the globe. Wavewhore began his musical career playing heavy metal guitar in several bands which toured the New York City area. During that time, Wavewhore also began experimenting with electronic music. In 1992, Well Primed records released 'The Thorazine Stretch Factor', a compilation featuring his first dive into the realm of electronic dance music titled "Voodoo". This acid house song illustrated his ability to develop innovative compositions by fusing musical styles and applying his experience as a guitarist. In 2001, Wavewhore founded Audio Tactics, an audio production house and event promotions company. One year later, Wavewhore's "Bulletproof" was featured in a film documenting the New York drum and bass scene titled 'Prohibited Beatz' by Julie Covello. In 2004, Wavewhore signed with Electrofly Records and "Breakin' The Law" was released on vinyl in May 2005. The record featured his original mix along with his 40,000 Watts remix and received solid support from Elite Force, The Autobots, Jay Cunning, Jonathan Lisle, Bill Vega and many others. His current single, "Funk Pill" featuring vocals from Bex Riley was released on vinyl in December 2005 on the high profile UK imprint Broke Recordings. "Funk Pill", has been getting plays from the Drumattic Twins (who have licensed it to their upcoming mix compilation on Fingerlickin' Records) as well as DJ Icey, Chris Carter, Ali B, Soul of Man, Transformer Man and Myagi. As a DJ, Wavewhore can be found delivering high energy breakbeat sets at various venues in his home base of New York City. He has held several residencies including Unbreakable at The Sullivan Room and Redline at Scenic and has performed along side domestic and international breaks talents such as The Crystal Method, Evil 9, Tipper, Quest, Liquid Todd, Baobinga, 30Hz, Kid Kenobi, Jay Cunning, Influenza, High Eight, Fine Cut Bodies, DJ Wool, Son of the Electric Ghost and many more. His DJ skills have been featured on numerous radio shows including BreaksFM and Proton Radio and he is currently being interviewed for an artist feature on www.BijouBreaks.com. He has also expressed his creative energy as a visual artist by showcasing his work in numerous New York City galleries and museums such as Exit Art, Priska Juschka Fine Art and The New York Historical Society. Being born in Spain and raised in Belgium, Wavewhore's international background has added diversity to his music. His name is derived from his addiction to manipulating audio waveforms and from all appearances he promises to be an inspiring force in electronic music. Hello Erik! Long time no speak! How have you been doing lately? Things are good. My new Broke release is in stores and I’ve got a new track in the works that I’m def excited about. I’ve also been getting booked more often by other promoters and it looks like all the hard work that we’ve put in to developing breaks in New York City is starting to pay off. That’s great news! You are one of the few promoters pushing breakbeat in New York City. How long have you been doing this for? The first full-on breaks event I threw as the main promoter and in my Audio Tactics production company name took place in February of 2004 - so it’s been almost 2 years. For many years before that, I‘d been playing breaks for warehouse & loft parties and always had a hand in promoting those events but more as a DJ. NYC has been a house music driven party scene for decades. Do you think breaks will ever catch on and become a major player in our city? I hope so! Despite the fact that the New York breaks scene is still relatively small we’ve made tremendous progress over the last 2 years. It’s been a lot of work but it paid off when I was tapped to be a resident for the Hit The Breaks weekly at The Sullivan Room, which is one of the top venues for underground music in NYC. Having a regular event there gave breaks visibility and enabled us to bring in some top artists. Eventually, Hit The Breaks became a monthly called Unbreakable and these events also led to my Redline residency at Scenic, which was a 2 floor Saturday night breaks event, probably the first for the Big Apple. You’ve brought in some amazing talent this past year. Who was your favorite act at Unbreakable/Redline in 2005? That’s a tough call! I really enjoyed all of the artists & DJ’s that came through to play our events. From a performance standpoint, I really thought Baobinga, 30Hz, Cause’n’FX and Influenza smashed it and Kid Kenobi was also a standout DJ but to be honest, all of the artists that played kicked some ass. The 30Hz & Baobinga show was great. That was the first time we met I believe. I also had an amazing time at the SOTEG show. Bring him back! Yeah, Bill Bless definitely has an interesting sound! I was also really impressed with Dave Cannon (of Carbon Community) who really takes his live pa performance to the next level. And I’m feelin’ some of our locals too - especially Sean Infinitee, who is often my business partner in the breaks promotions game, and Ceos vs. Arcee, two of the main players behind the New York City based record label Downbeat Productions. Your latest track ‘Funk Pill’ has just been released on Broke Recordings. I have to say that it’s rather large! The vocals from Bex Riley are uber sexy! How did you two get together? Bex Riley, who is from New Zealand, was in London working with Tom & Jez of The Autobots on some other material around the same time that Broke Recordings decided to release Funk Pill. Jez suggested that it might be a good idea to lay some vocals down over the song and I was all for giving it a shot as I think vocals can give a dance track individuality and help the listener to make a connection with the tune. So, the vocals were actually recorded in London and everybody was really happy with the way they turned out. I Agree. Gives people something to sing along to! Hopefully those Autobots will send over some more vocals. I think I’m addicted to her voice! Cheers… yeah, she did a great job! So you are actually from Spain right? What made you decide to come to the states, and how did you end up settling in New York? I was born in Madrid although my father is American and my mother is from Sweden but I actually spent most of my childhood in Waterloo, Belgium. My dad, who was working for an American company, was eventually asked to return to the US, so my family then moved to the New York City area. I’ve basically been chillin’ in lower Manhattan for the past 12 years. I also heard you’re quite the artist! What kind of art do you dabble in? Mostly, connect the dots & color by numbers!!! Nah, I’ve focused on contemporary art and became interested in the Young British Artists movement, which I thought was exciting because of its openness towards the creative process and the end product. I’ve done a lot of different things including collage, installation, painting, graffiti, screen-printing and photography. I was even asked to paint on the wall of a gallery for one of my shows, which I thought was pretty dope! During 2001 – 2004, I had some 15 exhibitions in galleries, museums and cafes in New York City and across the country but more recently, I have been spending most of my creative time producing music and performing as a DJ. Connect the dots. La La Lala. Moving right along! Sorry, couldn’t help myself! So what are your plans for 2006? What kind of stuff are you cooking up? I‘ve been thinking more about the direction that my music will take… In 2005, I had 2 releases including “Breakin’ The Law” on Electrofly and “Funk Pill” on Broke and I’m probably going to continue to explore different styles of breaks just as I have in the past. I’ve got a new funky breaks track that I am finishing up which has nu-skool attitude yet an old-school, organic vibe and I’ll probably work on some tear-out material too as I often include that style in my DJ sets. I have also been working on some tech breaks so we’ll see how it goes. On the event promotional tip, we are looking for a new venue and some sponsors to help us to continue to present quality breakbeat events. That all sounds great to me! Hopefully the New Year will bring good fortune to you guys! Thanks! Keep your fingers crossed for big ‘tings in 2006. Anything else you’d like to let the masses know about before we depart? Sure… I put together an instrumental version of “Funk Pill” which may be available soon from Broke for digital download so check in with www.brokebreaks.com for the latest update. Also, this instrumental version of the tune will be featured on the upcoming Drumattic Twins mix CD on Finger Lickin’ Records – keep an eye out for that too! Thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to sit down with me! Wicked man. It was a pleasure and thanks for having me! :: January 2006 :: Wavewhore's ‘Funk Pill’ is out now on Broke Recordings. For up to the minute info on Wavewhore peep his website at Wavewhore.com.

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