From "Twisted" hard house to "Heaven"-ly Hi-NRG, Wayne G's production and DJ career has certainly been diverse. Starting in the mid 90s, Wayne was part of the nu-NRG scene championed by contemporaries Tony de Vit, Mrs. Wood, and Blu Peter. A satirical track featuring the voice of Stewart Who, "Twisted," launched Wayne into stratosphere making him one of the most in-demand DJs internationally with major success in Australia and the US (thanks to a Danny Tenaglia remix). A residency at the legendary London night club Heaven brought him to the main floor as he transformed his sound from nu-NRG to Hi-NRG. As the go-to guy for commercial dance music, he has remixed everyone from Cher and Madonna to Kylie Minogue and the Backstreet Boys. Since leaving Heaven, Wayne G has found a new home on the circuit scene, adding tribal and house to the mix. With the new mixed CD Nervous Nitelife aimed at the states, is US domination next?
DJ Ron Slomowicz: So you're in the States right now, what are up to?
Wayne G: I am midway through a six-week tour. It started off in
Provincetown mid-July and then I went off to Australia. I've played
San Francisco and will be hitting Fort Lauderdale before heading back
to London.
RS: In addition to touring the US, you have a new CD in stores
right now called Nervous Nitelife, High Impact One. How did you get
approached to do the CD?
Wayne G: Nervous contacted me in October last year about the
possibility of doing a compilation for them and we sat down and worked
out what tracks we wanted to use. I wanted to do a CD that broke
away from the Heaven anthem sound that I'd become sort of notorious
for, so it gave me a good chance to do something a little bit housey
and then take in a slightly darker and more circuit-y direction than
the usual mix compilations I've put out.
RS: The sound of the CD is definitely different than the "Wayne
G sound," so this was a conscious decision?
Wayne G: Yes, totally. Since leaving Heaven back in 2004, what I
found was most club promoters only play one style of music and they
associated me with kind of a cheesy high energy sound with big riffs.
When in reality, it's really the complete opposite. I still love my
vocals and stuff, but I wasn't really playing that high energy sound
outside of London or at a tea dance. When I first sat down to make
the CD, I had a few ideas of some exclusive mixes I wanted to do with
it and I did think about it beforehand. I thought this could be a
chance for me to push a new sound and let people know that I am doing
something different.
RS: Was the sound of the CD basically aimed at the US?
Wayne G: Yes, it was. When we spoke about the marketing of the CD,
there were talks about it being mainly marketed in the US. I had a
lot of tracks from Nervous that they wanted me to include and I
brought in a little bit of house element at the start just so it
didn't make it kind of a generic circuit CD that's already out there.
We were aware that it was mainly marketing to the US market. It's
selling quite well in Australia as well because the US sound is quite
big over there.
RS: Outside of the US and Australia, is this circuit sound big
anywhere else in the world?
Wayne G: In Asia – Taipei and Shanghai, they like the very hard kind
of tribal circuit sound there.
RS: Is it exclusively a gay sound or do you ever play straight
clubs with this kind of music?
Wayne G: The more circuit sound tends to be a more gay sound, for
sure. When I play straight clubs, there's only a few tracks that I
really sort of cross over from the circuit. I tend to play sort of a
little bit heavier and a little bit dubbier in the straight clubs.
RS: I notice you have a project coming up called God Save the
Queer, what's the story behind that?
Wayne G: God Save the Queer is a track from the early 90s by Dutch
music producer Patrick Prins. His label, Movin' Melodies, was a very
big Trade sound at the time – very big nu-NRG in the early 90s. "God
Save the Queer" was one of my favorite tracks from back then and I
wanted to do something that brought it up to date. I added a few new
sort of current sounds and kept all the old school piano rifts and the
Bobby O bassline. It's getting great reactions and I'm very happy.
RS: When you work on music, are you working in Logic, Reason …
Wayne G: I'm using Logic Pro 7.
RS: I also notice you usually collaborate with Porl Young or
Andy Allder. How do you work with them?
Wayne G: I work with both guys. With Andy, our working relationship
goes back to '95. I started working with Porl probably back at the
end of '98. It depends on which engineers are around at that time.
Porl does an awful lot of traveling and a lot of rock band stuff, so
he's not necessarily available most of the time when I want to go in
the studio, work stuff out, or get a vocalist down to record some
vocals. I'm not the greatest musician on the planet but I can play
piano OK-ish, so I need an engineer. We sit down and bounce ideas off
each other with chords and it works better for me that way, I can have
a laugh in the studio. If I start doing stuff on my own, I tend to
spend two days going over one drum sample which ends up ultimately
driving myself mad.
RS: Andy Alder, is that Andy Almighty?
Wayne G: No, Andy Alder is one half of the remix team D-Bop.
