DJ Wax On has just released his new mix, Fine Time. Tom caught up with him to talk vinyl, influential DJs and Yacht Rock.
Hatch'd Magazine: Tell us about your new mix
DJ Wax On: It's called "Fine Time", it's a mix of some of the lesser known late 70's/early 80's AOR/Yacht Rock type stuff.
HM: I think I've heard of most genres, but Yacht Rock is a new one on me! Can you describe it for us?
DJWO: Yacht rock is a name for the smooth contemporary rock of the late 70's/early 80's, like Steely Dan and Christopher Cross - it's a term coined by the makers of a set of mockumentary shorts about the stories of some of the classic tunes like What A Fool Believes (The Doobie Brothers) and I Keep Forgettin' (Michael MacDonald). People seem to have embraced the term and gone with it - I think it fits the genre well, and whilst making this mix I was thinking about what tunes I'd want to be listening to on my Yacht in the 80's. I've been fortunate that my step dad had a pretty mean Yacht Rock collection which I was able to steal/source from, and my digging spots have been kind to me in recent months.
HM: Digging spots?
DJWO: My favourite places to dig at the moment are Vinyl Tap in Huddersfield, and Langley Mill Records, which is far from somewhere I'd expect to have a good record shop. I was told about it at the Derby Cattle Market car boot sale a few years ago and it turned out to be better than I could have imagined. The Cattle Market was a regular digging spot for some time for me, but the early Sunday Mornings are something which I struggle with too much! Only the most dedicated of diggers/collecters attend week in week out, and some of them have crazy record knowledge, and will be looking for £1 records they can sell for a hell of a lot more than that! Digging is a very competitive thing at times though, people tearing pages out of phone books so people can't find the dealers, and covering the labels of their records so people don't know what they are. To be fair though, with the sheer amount of data available on the internet about samples on things like whosampled.com, YouTube and the like, this side of digging isn't as cut throat as it used to be.
HM: What do you consider to be your greatest digging successes?
DJWO: There's been a good few occasions where I've come away with a pretty hefty record haul for pocket money. In terms of profits I once bought 4 signed Oasis CDs, a Jam test pressing and a Sex Pistols test pressing for about £7 from the car boot, and reselling them I got around the £300 mark all in, not a bad morning's work eh!
HM: Who's influenced you, as a DJ?
DJWO: Loads of people - DJ-wise it'd be Cut Chemist from Jurassic 5, DJ Shadow, Paul Nice, DJ Muro and Mixmaster Mike among others - basically DJ's with crazy record collections, good tune selections and nice skills. In terms of record collections, I think I'd like to see Madlib's collection more than anyone elses - whilst I think there's a lack of quality control with his music, you can hear the amazing amounts of soul, jazz and world music he must be stashing. Some notable producers who influence me are The Mizell Bros, No ID, Dave Grusin, DJ Premier, Pete Rock and 9th Wonder amongst others.
HM: Are there any other musical projects Hatch'd readers should know about?
DJWO: I've got some beats out with MC's at the moment that they're working on, which can take a while in my experience, so just playing the waiting game at the moment! Also aside from my normal DJing, I scratch for a project called The Demon Barber Roadshow (due to be relaunched as The Demon Barbers XL in 2013), which is a folk/hip hop crossover project - it's pretty cool and just something different, I'd recommend checking it out if you get chance.
Listen to Fine Time on MixCloud
for bookings