Audiowhores are the Manchester-based DJ, production and remix duo of Graham Lord and Adam Unsworth. Their versatile and technically-brilliant DJ sets which incorporate everything from deep and soulful sounds to tougher and techier beats, have won the pair fans worldwide and they're just about to release an EP on thier brand new label 'Audiowhores Music'. We caught up with them both to discuss how they go about making music...
How are you feeling today? Anything exciting happened so far?
Adam: I’m feeling great actually, it’s my birthday today! I went out for dinner last night to celebrate, I’ve been shopping this morning and I’m due in the pub in half an hour, so life’s good!
Graham: Well it’s Valentines day but we don’t really celebrate this day, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow when we’ll be having a Lanetta & Graham day, bless!
Adam: Oh right, so you don’t even celebrate my birthday? I’ll remember that!
You’re about to release a new EP…….tell us about it?
A: Yeah, it’s our first production of 2010 and it will be the first release on our brand new label ‘Audiowhores Music’. We always look forward to releasing new music - it's what it's all about! Defected are promoting, distributing and publishing the label so we know it’ll be well looked after and will get good exposure too. The EP comprises of two techy tracks plus a remix, all with plenty of bite! The EP represents the sort of stuff we play out these days; we’ve come along way over the last few years and our sound has evolved so it’s important to us that our productions reflect our DJ sets. We’ve been playing demo versions of the tracks for quite a while and the reactions on the floor have been great.
G: Yeah we’ve had the pleasure of playing all 3 tracks out a few times now, it’s nice to test them out a few times as I like to tweak the mixdowns and arrangements etc. I was particularly pleased when we played the club mix of ‘Rhythm Is Love’ in Croatia, sounded really fat indeed! Really pleased with the reaction it got too.
What kind of set up have you got in your studio?
G: We got a PC running Cubase 5, a lot of secret weapon plug-ins, a Virus TI Desktop, UAD1 card and a Korg Triton. The studio (aka Gongy’s room) is at the top room of Adam’s house, we’re hopefully gonna be moving into the cellar when we get the cash and time together!
A: Yeah, it terms of hardware we keep things pretty basic I suppose. We use a PC which is weird because we both love our Apple MacBooks and Graham especially loves all things Apple! Graham is constantly on the hunt for new software and new sounds; that's important and helps to keep things fresh and interesting.
Between the two of you, are there areas of production that you each specialise in, or do you both do a bit of everything?
A: We both do a bit of everything, but Graham is definitely the main drive behind the engineering of our tracks. I’m relatively proficient in Cubase, but Graham is far better and quicker so the work flows more with Graham at the helm and me sat on his shoulder making creative and directional suggestions! That’s the way we’ve always worked. Things tend to go a lot slower when I’m in control of the mouse! More recently, I’ve been taking a bit more responsibility for the DJ mixes we send out. I’ve been using Ableton for a little while now (late I know!) and really enjoy putting mixes together.
G: Yeah I would say that I specialise more in production and Adam hears the track from a different perspective and works more on the arrangement and overall feel of our tracks. DJ wise I tend to do a bit more of the effects and accapellas of our live sets and Adam tends to program our sets and do most of the mixing.
What’s the toughest thing about making a track?
A: These days we find it pretty easy to put the main track down and our new ideas seem to come together pretty fluently. The bit that we continually struggle with is vocals. Obviously, neither of us can sing which is a problem! It’s not that there is a shortage of talent out there, but it we’re extremely particular and it can take months or even years to nail the right vocal by which time we're bored of the demo track!
G: Yeah I think if we get that initial buzz when creating the track that’s all that matters, then yes sure after that we get a little lost in the mix. So the hard part is distancing yourself from the track and trying to hear it from a non-productive perspective. But yeah our main struggle at the moment is trying to find the right vocalists, we are quite particular with vocals, hence us doing a lot of tracky stuff at the moment.
What have you got planned for the rest of the year?
A: Believe it or not, it’s our 10th anniversary year this year! We’re putting a party on in Manchester to celebrate late in the summer – that’ll be messy no doubt! Right now, we’re off to Indonesia again in a couple of days. We've got gigs lined up in Bandung, Jakarta and Bali! We love it in Asia, so it’s nice to be out there so often. Also, We are currently in the planning stages of our first ever compilation mix CD. It'll be coming on Audiowhores Music and will be selected from the vast Defected and Defected sub-label catalogues. It's our first, so we intend to make it special. Watch this space!
G: Yeah we’ve got the compilation which will be interesting, we’re planning on doing some special edits/unreleased productions for the comp’, other than that our main focus is on Defected and our label Audiowhores Music. We’re really happy where we are at the moment with Defected and it’s great working with Simon and the crew, so we’re quite focused on getting new music out this year!
The Sundaze EP is out March 3rd - click to listen & pre-order
