WOLF Music TALK

With the first in a series of parties, aptly titled I Wanna See All My Friends At Once, launching this month down at Dance Tunnel, we caught up with Stu Clark, one half of WOLF Music, to chat records, prosecco and nautical adventures

It’s been just over a year since you last graced Dance Tunnel for the WOLF Christmas party, what have you been up to in that time?  

Weekends have mostly been taking up travelling around and DJing. Working and listening to music seems to take up the rest of the time. The search for the perfect beat is never ending!  

You guys have played all over the Europe in the last 12 months, what made you want to start throwing your own parties?  

We’ve been very fortunate to play some great gigs since we started the label and have thrown several WOLF Music showcases in London. We wanted to start something we could call our own and have full control over the whole party. We both started off throwing parties in our hometowns, in fact Matt and I first met when he came down to a night I was involved with. Having never really promoted our own party in London we thought we should give it a go.   

What can we expect from the series?  

The idea behind the series of parties is to bring artists associated with the label to play alongside our core artists, Greymatter, KRL and Medlar. It allows us to book artists whose music we’ve released, but never have the opportunity to play alongside, at a WOLF party. Also KRL will be debuting his live set at the second party, so that’s definitely something to look forward to!   

WOLF Music’s output as a label has been as prolific as ever in 2013; can you pick a highlight?  

For me personally, it was putting out our 20th release. Greymatter and KRL collaborated for together for the first time and it was backed up with a Medlar remix, so it was a real family affair.   

Your first LP – Medlar’s ‘Sleep’ – was a particular highlight. What’s the next full length on the cards for WOLF?  

Greymatter is just putting the finishing touches on his album, which will drop in April and is something we are very excited about. After working with singer Sophie Brown on Never Gonna (Give Up) released on WOLFEP021, hes collaborated with her further on several album tracks and the results have been fantastic. There’s also further collabs with KRL on the upcoming album as well.   

There seems to be a real sense of community within the guys associated with the label. KRL, Greymatter, Medlar, James Welsh Is this something you had in mind when you started out or did the “Wolf Pack” form naturally?  

It was a very natural thing, but most importantly we’re all mates, so the record label is really just an extension of that. It’s always a good laugh when we’re away playing at a gig together. Matt and I have been very fortunate to be able to work with the guys and have hopefully helped them grow as artists by giving them a platform for their music.   

Any new additions to the roster that we need to know about?  

Two artists we’re really proud to be working with are Frits Wentink and Ishmael. Both guys are now firm members of the pack and we hope they will be involved in the upcoming parties at Dance Tunnel this year. Ishmael has featured on several compilation releases, but has a full EP coming out in a few months time. On top of that Frits’ second EP drops next month, and he’s working on a mini album for us as well.    

Your Garden Party boat parties are infamous Are Croatian boat parties the best invention of 21st century?  

They’re definitely up there! Things have been known to get pretty wild on board. I think the mix of prosecco, sunshine and good music send people over the edge once they get on the water. We’ve hosted two boat parties at Garden Festival, one in the day, one at night. This year we’re switching things up a bit by hosting a club night at Barbarellas. As long as they’ve got prosecco behind the bar, we should be fine. 

What can we look forward to from WOLF in 2014? 

Lots more releases! In the next week or so, WOLFEP023 by Casino Times will be in the shops. The release is backed up by a remix by Damiano Von Erckert. WOLFEP024 by Frits Wentink will follow in March as well as a 12″ release of tracks taken from Medlar’s ‘Sleep’ album which features remixes by KON & Greymatter.  EPs by Ossie, Homework & Red Rack’em are also scheduled in for this year. 

We’re also continuing with our WOLF white series with music from Inkswell, Creative Swing Alliance, Thrilogy and a few others. Needless to say this year looks like its going to be a busy one for the pack.   

Keep up to speed with Wolf Music over on their website.

For more info on I Wanna See All My Friends at Once at Dance Tunnel on 8th Feb go here.

Pre Order Casino Times – WolfEP023 Here.