DJ Ron: What was it like working on the Sting remix?
Josh Wink: It was challenging because I didn’t know what to do with it. I’ve always wanted to work with Sting. It wasn’t necessarily my favorite song of his, but I looked at it as a great opportunity to do something like that. It was definitely challenging and I delivered two different mixes and the record was an underground kind of sleeper. There was one that some tech housey people played and one that was deeper which people like King Britt and Maurice Joshua played. Michel de Hey, Sean Holland and myself played it as well. Richie Hawtin actually did his own edit of mine without the vocals. It was pretty interesting and I was happy to be able to do something with such an icon as himself.
DJ Ron: Who are some other artists you’d like to work with?
Josh Wink: I don’t know, I haven't really given it much thought. I’ve always liked to work with Bjork, that would be kind of fun. I was proposed to do a remix off of her new album, but they didn't do any remixes. So who knows what else may come about in the near future?
DJ Ron: You have a following both in the US and Europe, whereas a lot of the US guys only have one or the other. Why do you think that you're able to maintain fan bases on both sides of the ocean?
Josh Wink: Because of my music that I produce as an artist. I’m fortunate to be able to appeal to all different kinds of DJs. I’m not just known as a DJ and that's the beauty of what I do and that's why I get asked to play not just in America but all over the world. So I can release a record and someone like Carl Cox will play it, but at the same time Danny Tenaglia, Roger Sanchez, or Eric Morillo may play the same song, so I’m very fortunate to be able to have records that cross genres. I think that's a key to a lot of my success of being able to travel all over the world, is that I make a style of music that crosses boundaries and that I’m more known as a producer than as a DJ.
DJ Ron: I’ve heard your big three referred to as the holy trio or triumverate – “Higher State of Consciousness,” “Don’t Laugh,” and “I’m Ready.” When you made these tracks did you have any idea they would become as big as they became?
Josh Wink: No, I did not. I mean if really that was the case then I would have put them all out on Ovum at the time. <laughing> And I’d probably be a little bit different fiscally speaking than I am. I’m happy that they’ve created joy for people. A lot of people come up and say that these are the songs that got them into electronic music, they started DJing because of this or these are my favorite songs. Whatever it may be for people, it’s nice to know that people got enjoyment out of them. That makes me happy as a producer, but I’m also fortunate that I’ve had success on an underground level before that and I’ve had success after that as well where I haven't been known as like a one-hit wonder.
DJ Ron: Oh yes, definitely.
Josh Wink: I’ve had three songs that have become seminal songs for people but before that there was a bunch of underground hits that people really liked and then after that there's a bunch of underground hits that kind of cross boundaries again. It’s kind of neat about my music is that it gets to a level where all the DJs are playing it but it never crosses over all the way and that’s a blessing in disguise. If it went to radio or if it went to MTV or if we had videos of it, I think it would be frowned upon. The fact that it gets to a certain level where the underground DJs first play it, then the more commercial DJs play it, and then suddenly the DJs who have radio shows play it and that’s that. Then eight months or a year later, a DJ can drop it and people go crazy. They remember the record but they're not sick of it. So that’s a really cool thing that I’ve kind of grown into doing as well.
