DJ Woody Madera

Breaks, Beats, Burnley and Bollywood

Welcome to the DMC world Lee. A Burnley lad which we all like to see as most of the DMC crew are from the north of England. So how does a Lancashire lad move into the world of Turntablism? Who were your early musical influences you were listening to growing up?
“I grew up listening to my mum’s Motown and Stax records, so Soul music was the only thing really played in our house. Apart from Michael Jackson, there wasn’t very much new music that grabbed me in my early childhood. That all changed dramatically when I was about about 7 or 8 years old with the explosion of Hip Hop in the UK, the whole culture made a massive impact on me and from that point I mainly just listened to rap music, artists like RUN DMC, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Eric B & Rakim, BDP, Public Enemy, Kool Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane, basically whatever I could get my hands on. I think one of the things that was so appealing about Hip Hop was that you could try it yourself, I tried rapping, beatboxing, breakdancing and grafitti, but I always wanted to DJ and scratch. Unfortunately the latter was the most expensive pursuit so it took me until 1992 to get my first set of decks, but from that moment on I was hooked.”

So 2010 – a very exciting new AV Show ‘Turntables In Technicolour’ about to hit our dancefloor’s in January – talk us through what we can expect out there from you – and why do you think the time is right to now do something like this?
“I’m really excited about Turntables In Technicolour, it’s the first time I’ve been able to combine my two life long passions in one creative outlet. I was always good at drawing and trained as a graphic designer (I was at the same college as Mr.Scruff), working full-time in print and then later television before my DJing career took over.  I’ve been eager to get into scratching AV for years but the DVDJ’s just never felt right, now technology is available to manipulate visuals on ‘real’ turntables there’s no stopping me. I wanted to use my design and TV experience to produce something much more aesthetically interesting than simply cutting up music video’s or raiding my dvd collection. It’s definitely a crowd-rocking set but the custom made video’s and animations are all designed to illustrate the mix and really bring the scratches and the beatjuggles to life. I just can’t wait to get out there touring it!”

You were the first European DJ to win the ITF World Championship title in San Fransisco in 2001 and a year later the Vestax title. Why do you think the DMC World Mixing Finals has eluded you?
“During the peak of my competition career, I was battling the same DJ’s with similar sets at all three major contests but achieved very different results, so that’s a question I’ve definitely asked myself in the past. It’s hard to answer, DJing and Turntablism is very subjective, what I think is great about a set isn’t necessarily what the next DJ thinks is great. You put yourself up for scrutiny and then it’s all on the judges, maybe it was just bad luck, maybe my style was too aggressive or maybe it was because DMC had a different judging system than the other competitions, who knows? I’d have loved to have repped the UK at the DMC Worlds but by the time I’d won all the other competitions, my DJ career was going so well that DJ battles were no longer my primary focus.”

Who are the Turntabilst stars over the years that stand out – and for someone who has brought new scatches to our world – who is the best ever scratcher?
“Jam Master Jay is probably the reason I’m doing this and DJ’s like Cash Money and Jazzy Jeff kept my fascination with DJ’ing – but by the time I got turntables it was all about the UK DJs Supreme and Undercover from Hijack. By 1992 Qbert and Mixmaster Mike came along and left my jaw on the floor, I always loved Wales’ DJ Excel for his creativity, then in 1995 DJ Noise blew me away with his meticulous sets and wordplay beatjuggles. The next DJ to truly blow me away was DJ Craze who brought a completely new level of execution. I also always loved Prime Cuts and Plus Ones’ solo battle sets for their energy and aggression. My favourite ever scratcher is to this day is DJ D Styles, even if I can technically do the scratches I see him do, he just does them with 10 times as much style as anybody else!”

What are the big ten tunes you are into at the moment?
“Well different music soundtracks are different parts of my life so what you’ll hear in my car or in the kitchen isn’t necessarily going to be what you’ll hear me play to a dancefloor, I’ll give you 5 of each if you want…

Music rocking my kitchen:

Brother Ali – The Travellers
Mos Def & Slick Rick – Auditorium
The Slew (Kid Koala) – The Grinder
Chacho Brodas – Himno HH
No Days Off (Akira Kiteshi Remix) – Asaviour & DJ IQ

Stuff I’ll bump to shake your rump:

Bass Nectar – Backpack Rehab
Sam Young (feat Aphletik) – Peep This (Beatnik Remix)
One Step – Souleance
Dynas feat Slick Rick – Family Jewels
Broke n’ English V’s Major Lazor – Pon Di Floor Dubplate (my remix)

The last decade has seen you put on over 500 shows across 40 countries sharing the stage with the likes of Eminem, The Beastie Boys, The Black Eyed Peas and Snoop Doggy Dog – what performances will you always remember?
“I often remember my experiences before and after the shows better than the actual performance as I’m usually ‘in the zone’ concentrating on my performance. There are lots of stand outs though, the Snoop Dogg one was good, that was this huge festival called ‘Monegro’ near Barcelona, Snoop had just flown in that day and he didn’t want to play very late so as it worked out, we played the headline set – he was effectively supporting us, haha. Another is when I did a show in these huge Bollywood studios in the middle of Mumbai, India. It was a free event open to the general public so Grandma’s to toddlers turned up, they really didn’t know what to make of the whole thing, I’m sure for many it was the first time they’d heard rap music or seen a DJ, never mind scratching and turntablism, it was ace.”

Some great mix albums and great studio collaborations – what is the one piece of work you’re most proudest of?
“I’m very proud to have worked with some of my favourite producers over the years, I love the new CD ‘DJ Woody v’s The Bodysnatchers’ simply because I got to produce a straight up dancefloor mix for once and got to play around with everything from dubstep to breakbeat. However, I think one of the projects which satisfied me the most creatively was my CD ‘A Country Practice – The First Appointment’. An old friend of mine, Sean Canty, is a ridiculous crate digger and he very kindly opened up his library of breaks for me to create something. I tried to create a really subtle piece of music that was more like a movie score than a DJ mix, utilising turntablism purely for it’s musical value. It contains hundreds of extremely rare breaks, most of which have never previously been used and blurs the lines between production and mixing. There’s heaps of beatjuggles and scratches but the end product isn’t just a cratedigger and turntablist showing off, it’s just a bloody good listen (in my opinion).”

Craziest place you have toured in?
“Well I’ve done some pretty crazy ones from workshops around Soweto to nocturnal van rides through the Mexican jungle, but one of the craziest places recently was Colombia, simply for the fear factor. I’d heard all these horror stories about the place so I decided to read the UK Government info on traveling in Colombia and after reading the first paragraph about the death rate, kidnappings and drugmules, I decided to stop reading. I haven’t seen as many machine guns in my entire life, it’s like a flipping Rambo film!”

So how did the collaboration with Latin Hip Hop Star Mala come about, walking down the red carpet in Las Vegas is certainly different from a dip in the River Calder?
“It certainly is. The Grammy’s were ridiculous! Basically the manager of Mala was the booking agent and tour manager for Spain when we used to tour there with Russian Percussian and One Self. About 18 months after I finished touring with DJ Vadim, I got a call from Mala’s agent, I thought she’d be a very interesting artist to work with so I took the job. It’s really great because as well as Spain and North America, I’ve been able to tour some really cool places like Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. Not the kind of places you get to tour as a scratch DJ or with a UK band so definitely some experiences to tell the grandkids!”

Best Hip Hop album of all time?
“Obviously this is an impossible question, I was asked this recently for another interview so I just had to give them 3 of my favourites as it’s all subjective and I’m far too indecisive to give you a definitive favourite.
In no particular order ‘Raising Hell’ LP by RUN DMC, if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be doing what I do, they had a huge influence on me.
‘The Horns Of Jericho’ LP by Hijack, in my opinion the best UK rap LP of all time, DJ Supreme was a massive inspiration to me and my original crew.
Finally, ‘Follow the Leader’ by Eric B & Rakim, my favourite album by one of my favourite all-time MC’s.”

Burnley, is most known in the dance music world for the now demolished ‘Angels’ nightclub with DJ Paul Taylor. Did you ever go?
“I actually never did, when Angels was in it’s heyday I’d have been a bit young and whilst the older lads were discovering girls, raves, booze and probably E’s, I was still totally consumed with hip hop, rap and skateboarding. I was pretty anti-house music when I was growing up too due to the fact that rave and house music pretty much killed the hip hop scene where i lived.”

You used to work Granada TV, what was your role there?
“I worked at Granada TV for 4 years as a graphic designer, in my time there I did everything from design flyers for The Southbank Show or graphic props for Coronation Street to producing graphics for title sequences, designing show identities and even triggering live TV graphics. It was extremely varied and often good fun but I came to a crossroads when I was offered at big tour in the States with some amazing US hip hop artists and DJ’s, I didn’t have enough holidays left at work so I took the plunge and quit the day job to do the tour. You only live once.”

What are your plans for the rest of 2010?
I have the first ‘Turntables In Technicolor’ tour from February ’til April across UK and Switzerland, then we’re looking at an Asian tour after that. Dephect clothing will be producing a range of Limited Edition T-shirts to celebrate the launch of the project so look out for those. Following that I start work on the new live show with Mala Rodriguez for her new LP, so well be touring Spain, South America and North America over the summer. I also start a new residency in Manchester with the legendary Hacienda club so we’ll be bringing over all the dopest DJ’s from Jazzy Jeff to DJ Yoda. Last year I recorded a mix CD for the Jack 2 Phono label so that’ll also be getting release in 2010 at some point. Then on top of all that I’ll be continuing to work on new animations and graphics for the 2011 AV show, so a busy year.”

www.turntablesintechnicolor.co.uk
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