DJ Ron: The name MegaWoof, where does it come from?
Diddy: The name is from the first, few months when we were in this
one little venue. We called it woof, because it's part of the gay
scene, when someone is hot. It was from the bear scene. The bear
scene is not about twenty year old emaciated men with perfect boides,
its more of a mindset of people who are happy to have been themselves
instead of having to look perfect all the time.
DJ Ron: So now you're doing a lot of work and parties in the bear
scene from what I gather.
Diddy: Right. When we moved to a bigger venue, because the party
was getting too big, we had to change the name and it became MegaWoof.
The club kind of grew and it's sort of grown to be a much wider range
of people than just the original sort of set of people. You wouldn't
say it was a bear club, it's a much wider remit of people who come,
but that's still where we come from and where our friends are, so we
play those kinds of events around the world. This club actually has a
much broader range of people who come to it now.
DJ Ron: I was wondering, when Puff Daddy changed his name to P Diddy
then Diddy, were you involved with that at all – or did they contact
you?
Diddy: Well he changed his name to P Diddy about a week after I had
started being ill. I was really annoyed about it, but I was so ill I
couldn't do anything about it. Now last year in this country we went
through a long legal battle and very expensive, because he changed his
name to Diddy and you have to stop using another artist's name. I'm
very successful and it took over a year of backwards and forwards and
I said I don't want anything, just stop using my name. So eventually
we came to a final agreement and he changed his name back to P Diddy
in Britain. So he can't call himself that anymore because he's agreed
not to.
DJ Ron: That's awesome. You've also been doing some remixes
recently. How did you get involved with Ultra Naté for her number one
single "Automatic?"
Diddy: Ultra heard of the club through her friend and just appeared
as a surprise PA. She was fantastic and we all got on great. Then
last year she eMailed us and said she'd love us to do this mix and we
were very excited about it. So it's just kind of like the way things
normally work, you know someone and they know someone and they like
what you do. Because we haven't been sort of remixing at the moment
because we've been so busy with the club, but I have just done some
other stuff and worked with Marianne Faithful for a project on Island
Records. It's just kind of the last year is just like right time to
start writing again, getting going, and it's just been the very start
of that.
DJ Ron: You recently has a single called "The Reason."
Diddy: That actually came out just after Christmas last year, it's
done really well. I want to start writing again and I want to do
something for the club, so I just did this sort of disco thing which
was a great challenge. It's been pretty big over the world and I
think the people love it. It did really well in the dance charts.
DJ Ron: What are you working on right now music-wise?
Diddy: We just started a new label. We meet so many people who are
really talented and they want to put records out but they don't want
to get involved in all the stupid paperwork of it, so we set this new
label up, MegaWoof Records. It's kind of like a cooperative thing
where people will help each other and do mixes for each other. We've
just been setting that up and then we've just licensed a track from
David Gordon which we're just going to mix next week and that will
come out. So, I've got two or three things I'm working on. Now when
I'm writing again and putting stuff out, it feels like the right time.
I also recently finished a project with the San Francisco opera where I was recording with one of their Sopranos' to turn a famous Aria into something more suitable for performing at open air festivals. It was a real challenge working with the multiple time signatures, but really exciting and I'm really proud of the finished result and it was great to hear it performed.
DJ Ron: When you're working in the studio what software or hardware
do you use?
Diddy: I've got a studio full of hardware, but I don't use those
tools anymore, I'm just using my Mac and virtual instruments. I
actually prefer all the older gear, I think it's just nicer to grapple
with them and turn them and press the buttons and you get a better
sound but things were more difficult. It's very convenient writing
with the computer, everything's just where you put it last time and
you don't have to worry about messing the mixing desk up. I could
probably go back to my proper hardware when I could be bothered to set
all the wires up.
DJ Ron: Are you using Logic or ProTools?
Diddy: I've been using Logic since 1994 when it just came out.
Actually I went on the internet in '94 which in Britain was really
early, because they had an eMail list and you could eMail the authors.
So I've been using it right through from the very start.
DJ Ron: When you're DJing do you use CDs or vinyl or laptop?
Diddy: I used to use vinyl but when you're traveling around all the
world it's so heavy and you worry about losing it. So I changed two
years ago to Final Scratch with the vinyl controlling tracks for DJing
with a Mac. I've found it much more flexible and you can be more
creative but sometimes it would start playing up and you could never
be sure if it was going to mess up in a gig. Recently I just swapped
to using Traktor with a hardware controller, which is good but it's a
little bit too cerebral as you don't get the feel of what you're
doing. So I'm sort of heading back towards, trying to find a better
controller because I want the feel of doing things by hand. It's
great to have everything in the computer.
DJ Ron: What would you like to say to all your fans out there?
Diddy: Thanks for being so supportive. For the last two years,
people have been fantastic all over the world and I've had great
emails from people. I look forward to giving them some new music.
