Brisbane can certainly identify with Nick Warren: the UK DJ/ Producer is an acquired taste for those who tread the hard side of underground prog and house where all things hard and pulsing is the stamp.
For Nick, he never fails to leave an impression of “deep, deep, deep, throbbing, electronic music” because that always has and will be his signature sound. “That’s what I love at the moment,” Nick notes, “it’s still a lot of melody, but spacier.”
Of his sound, Nick thinks that while he’s undoubtedly prog, his sets are “very spacey, very trippy, almost trancey — without the obvious trance chords. It’s with deep basslines and great production lines.”
This is quite the change from when he first cut his teeth as a DJ, given his sound was steeped in reggae and indie. But if there’s one mark that continues to endure in Nick’s sets, it’s that he has no misgivings for the dancefloor: his beats are hard and his melodies penetrating.
Across the electronica world, Nick Warren stands out as the DJ’s DJ. While his technique behind the decks is celebrated, it is his song selection that overhangs as the foundation to his magic. Since first establishing his musical accent as the man behind the wheels of steel for Massive Attack in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Nick has walked a path where the quality of his sets and the sonority of his melodies are now featured in back-to-back sets with such illustrious names as prog maestro Hernan Cattaneo or doubled up with fellow English compatriot Jody Wisternoff as Way Out West.
With five Way Out West albums and a profusion of singles under the WOW moniker, Nick knows how to both work the limelight, as well as share it. “It’s all about trust,” Nick maintains, “and it’s quite hard to find people that it works well with. The key to playing back-to-back is don’t think about your record until your partner’s played his. It’s all about not making your choice, so you guide each other.”
Nick has quite a few of his own sounds up his sleeve, with eight albums under Global Underground, as well as celebrated releases from the Balance and Renaissance series. After more than 20 years in the business, Nick knows what it takes to release music, with a few projects already in the pipeline. “I’ve been in the studio,” Nick announces. “I’m working on the new Way Out West album at the moment — which is exciting.
“We’ve been talking about it for two years, and we started it in bits and bobs since December. It has really started to kick in and is sounding great. I think we’ve got about six or eight tracks being worked on at the moment, and it’s shaping up very well. We want to make something that is timeless; something that is interesting but is abstract; something we haven’t done before. I don’t want to make an album where we’re thinking we have to sell units. It will be very much like the first and second album — very sample based. But we’ll also bring that idea up-to-date so it sounds very relevant.
“Some of the tracks,” he reveals, “are very breaky, but four-four. It will be a typical Way Out West thing. It’s sounding really good and I’m really happy with it. I also have a new album coming out in June too,” Nick discloses.
Nick will be in the country in April, including a stop in Brisbane. “Brisbane is always great. It’s always nice to come back. In Brisbane, the crowds are very enthusiastic, up for it. There are always smiles on faces in Brisbane – and that’s always lovely ... It’s going to be the last show of the tour, so it will be a special one. I can’t wait to see you all on the dancefloor!”
Nick Warren Dates
Fri 04 April - Dark Beat, Boat Party (Melbourne)Sat 05 April - The Met (Brisbane)
Sun 06 April - Garden Party @ Court Hotel (Perth)
Fri 11 April - Academy (Canberra)
Sat 12 April - Bella Vista (Sydney)
