Forming in 1997 from Nick Warren, who had already found fame with Massive Attack and a residency at Cream, and Jody Wisternoff, a prodigious talent who released his first record at age 15, WOW quickly established itself at the top of the dance music scene, both in terms of production and as a live act. In anticipation of their headlines role at Gatecrasher Summer Sound System, Resident Advisor caught up with Jody Wisternoff.

Though only 22 when WOW formed, Jody had already been in the industry almost a decade, originally producing hip-hop and jungle based tracks. He explains that a range of influences drove him to his chosen career.

“I was hearing hip hop stuff when I was 13 or 14 and I was like “woah” at the electronic drums and the whole DIY ethos. Then Bladerunner the film came along and the soundtrack was completely beyond belief. That’s what made me get into the electronic sounds. So a combination of what I liked from hip hop and the Bladerunner soundtrack.

Both artists were already well established when WOW was formed with Jodi indicating that it was something that eventuated out of chance meetings and common tastes.

“I met him about seven years ago and used to bump into him in record shops and see him now and then in clubs, I had already been making music for years before that, and I met Nick and thought it would be a nice change to get into some house music and he had a lot of good connections which was pretty inviting as well”.

WOW formed with the rather broad intent of creating “original music” a goal clearly achieved. There first album virtually gave rise to the success of the Progressive House, a genre that has boomed over the last three years while WOW have been noticeably absent, content to avoid the trend they seemingly created. Jodi sidesteps the tag of Progressive House, a legitimate avoidance for anyone who has listened to a complete WOW album.

“In the first place I don’t want to be called progressive House, because I mean its like I don’t even like most progressive house these days, pretty unoriginal form of music really. We are different form your typical Progressive Housers, we make stuff with breakbeat and have with my history in hip hop and jungle and stuff have clearly been influenced by it. I think we aren’t really deviating too far away from our original blueprint, but in the end its all just dance music.’

“I think a lot of acts make the mistake of continually releasing anything they come up with. We haven’t tried to go to mad with releases and tried to keep in line with what we started off intending to do and because of this I think we should continue to go ok, as far albums and tours go.”

With over ten years age difference between them it appears to a strange combination, though as Jodi explains is a relationship that has proven itself workable and successful.

“Its wicked, we don’t always work together or not at the same time in the studio, like quite often Nick will do something in the morning and I’ll come over in the afternoon and work on it. It’s a good thing really, more the merrier. Someone you can bounce ideas off, someone who can tell you its shit if its shit, if your not quite recognising that, and hopefully you can arrive at a happy medium which in the end is better than either of us could do on our own…the only time the age difference is a problem is when I call him an old bastard. Obviously having a family now is a bit more restricting on the time he can spend in a studio, but not really…works well.”

‘The Gift’, announced WOW to the world, getting featured on ‘Top of the Pops’ as well as been featured in commercials for a building society. It remains their biggest track to date, and its importance to the success of WOW is not lost on Jody.

“It was a great thing to happen at the time for us for it opened a whole lot of doors for us. In dance music once those doors are open and you get your foot in the door, its hard to go down from there. If you keep making music that people are interested in then you build a reputation slowly but without peaking and falling out”.

The new album ‘intensify’ has being released on Distinctive, a move from the first album that was released on BMG subsidiary Deconstruction.

“When deconstruction folded we were passed over to BMG, who deconstruction was a subsidiary of, and I didn’t think this was a good thing at all. I was like, shit! With deconstruction we were given artistic license and this didn’t happen with BMG. We kind of knew it was going to lead to problems and ultimately it did. Distinctive, who we released Intensify with really good, they give us a lot of tour and recording support”

Having developed a live act that is renowned for its energy an innovation WOW have been one of the few acts that have managed to succeed both in the production side of things as well as on stage, with fellow Gatecrasher Summer Sound System acts Roni Size and Hybrid the only other ones I can think of.

He was obviously a producer already, as was I, and I suggested rather than just produce why don’t we get a band together and form a live act. Nowadays its about as live as you can possibly get, or at least as live as studio music can be which is…. its pretty darn live, lets just leave it at that.

Live acts are still few and far between, largely because it is extremely difficult to do it well. In recent interviews Hybrid, Nubreed and Infusion have all remarked on the energy and realism that the live acts are bringing to dance music, a belief that Jody is clearly aligned with.

Doing the live thing is definitely a step forward for dance music. For a start hardly anyone does it and I think if you want to develop as artists then playing live is a very good move, I mean hopefully in the future it will happen more, and I might be wrong, but I get the feeling that people might be getting a little bit bored watching a DJ stand around and play records for a couple of hours. A show like ours pushes the sound and gives the show that little bit more, its better value for money for the punters. Our show and I guess live acts in general adds an element o f randomness and an added energy that you just can’t get from pre-recorded music.

Jody is adamant that they will live up to the rather daunting reputation that precedes them at the Gatecrasher events across Australia over the next couple of weekends

They’ll be really good shows in Australia. We’ve played them before and they were great. Nicks not coming but it’ll still be live. We are bringing a singer with us as well and a guy to do the lights that should really add something to the show.”

On been asked what Australia can specifically expect from WOW at Gatecrasher.

“Specifically…specifically it going to be me on stage, jumping around giving it as much energy as I can, getting on the microphone occasionally, and interacting with the crowd. The rest of it is up to the crowd”.