Harddance

Interview with Wragg & Log:One
This article is about DHF's 1st B-Day Bash! @ Hidden in London (gb), this Fri (25 Sep)

Why the name ‘Log:One’/DJ Wragg? When did you first choose it and what’s its significance?



Log: I wish I could give an interesting answer to that question… but sadly the truth is my surname is Logan, people called me log, and I just randomly put in the “:one!”

Wragg: Errr kind of a pretty crap one too haha, when I first started to learn to mix I used to love proper ragga jungle and had seen the name ‘Wragg’ in a newspaper somewhere and I thought it was cool and would fit what I was playing, so I kinda stole it not thinking I’d keep it for so long!

Can you remember your first rave or club? Are you ravers or clubbers?

Log: My first experience of clubbing was at the Country Club in Dorset — a legendary club, well known for being one of the most important factors in the explosion of hard trance in the UK at the turn of this century. That place introduced me to hard trance, and is the reason I know most of the people that I’m closest to even now. I wouldn’t say I’m a raver anymore really… I’m getting too old for it!

Wragg: Funnily enough the County Club was also my first clubbing experience when I was about 16, but it was long before the County Club became known as a hard trance and techno club as it used to do regular drum & bass nights there with the likes of Kenny Ken and co.
As for if I’m a raver or a clubber? Well if I drink enough beers I’ll try to be both at once, with disastrous results! Haha.

What made you decide to learn how to mix? And to produce?

Log: To be honest, I never really made a conscious decision to produce. I’ve always made music since I can remember, it just happened, with whatever tools were around me — be it a guitar, a tape recorder or a dustbin! I used to love doing multitrack recordings using my stereo and my sister’s ghettoblaster… good times.

Wragg: For me I started to learn to mix because of my older brother, I used to sneak into his room while he was at work and mess around on his decks until he busted me and made me get my own, and then I just went from there.

How did you first hook up with DJ Log:One? What motivated you both to start working together?



Wragg: I put an ad in the classifieds for a fashion consultant, and Log led me to believe he was the man for the job. He lied.

In your opinion, what makes a good DJ? Technical prowess, tune selection or enthusiasm?

Log: Any, or all of the above… it’s the same as any other form of music; there’s no exact formula as to what makes something special. But tune selection has to be top of the list, you can get away with some ropey old mixing if you’ve got the beats… and I’m speaking from experience here!

What DJs do you respect the most? And what producers do you admire?

Wragg: On the DJ front I’d say Ben Eye and also Nick the Kid and Louk are rocking it at the moment, and have been for years now.
Log: I’ve got massive respect for Jon the Baptist and Chuck-e, not only awesome DJs but thoroughly bloody nice geezers as well!
Wragg: Production wise, Slideout always delivers the goods, and I’m loving some of the new Australian producers like Nomad, who I’ve just signed to my label Atmosphere Recordings UK, with a new release coming in October.
Log: It’s great to see my old buddy Iain Cross coming out with some absolutely slamming beats recently (he’s got a track on Atmosphere too!) and one to watch is our fellow Tauntonian DJ Medowz!

What’s your software and hardware of choice at the moment?

Log: Well hardware is easy to answer, cos we’ve only got one bit! But it’s a goodun — Virus TI. Everyone goes on about new softsynths that are going to kill all the time, I haven’t heard one that can come close yet. Software wise we rock FL Studio, which a lot of people raise eyebrows at, but at the end of the day it’s all about the results, not the methods!

Do you have a favourite plug-in?

Log: I wouldn’t call it a favourite, but our most used is probably the db-audioware sidechainer. But we should probably try and use it a bit less the whole world and his dog’s bloody sidechaining everything these days!

You’ve recently remixed Nish’s ‘Dying for You’ for your debut track on Tranzlation. What was the inspiration behind this one?




Log: Well we thought the riff in the break was actually really strong, but wasn’t the main focus of the original mix, so we decided to add a sprinkling of our magic dust to it and make it the key part of our remix. We were massively pleased with how it turned out, and also pretty damn happy to see it grace the number one spot in Trackitdown’s hard dance chart!

Your remix of the Organ Donors ‘In Power’ has been cutting up dance floors all over the place. How did you manage to come up with an even more dark and twisted version than the original?

Log: We like to try and take any remix we do in a different direction to the original, so dark and twisted seemed the way to go on this one!

What are the top 10 tracks that don’t leave your wallet right now?

Log: This is probably going to be quite Log and Wragg biased but here goes!
Rodi Style — ‘We’re Gonna Rock You’ (Wragg & log:one remix)
Neal Thomas — ‘Pyrotechno’ (Wragg & log:one remix)
Organ Donors — ‘In Power’ (Wragg & log:one remix)
Iain Cross — ‘Sexy Beast’
Tommy Pulse & Fausto — ‘Melancholika’ (Wragg & log:one remix)
Nish — ‘Dying for you’ (Wragg & log:one remix)
Prodigy — ‘Omen’ (Hard trance bootleg)
Nomad — ‘Ignited’
Crypsis — ‘Sonic Sabotage’
Nero — ‘Act like you know’ (Hard trance bootleg)

At the time of writing you were about to head out to play the awesome Q-Base Festival. What are you looking forward to the most — playing or checking out the rest of the line-up?

Log: To be honest it was on a level pegging – those Q-Dance guys really know their way around putting an event together! It really blew us away when we got there, the sheer scale of the place. And we had an absolute blinder, one of my favourite events ever.

What’s the favourite gig you’ve played and why?

Log: For me the Atmosphere we just played in August was one of my favourites, as we got to really show that we had all sorts of different genres in our CD wallets! As we were playing the first two hours we got to really work it up nice and slowly and make our way through some minimal, electro, techno, tech trance and trance all the way up to the hard stuff. It was just a lot of fun to get really into all the different genres that we love, something you don’t normally get a chance to do!

Wragg: That’s a tough one, there have been so many phat parties over the years, but I guess recent highlights would probably be a night called Firewall in a small place called Bridgwater, it really is a hidden gem of a club and the crowd are always amazing. Also Q-Base recently in Germany was amazing too just because of the sheer size of it all + the level of production was like none other.

After a it of a dry patch hard trance seems to finally be coming back into its own. What up-and-coming DJs and producers have you had your eyes on lately?

Wragg: I’d have to say again people like Iain Cross who although has been around for a while is starting to really make a name for himself on the production front as is technically an awesome DJ. Also someone that impresses me as a DJ is Frisky who has carved out her own unique sound and image.

2009 has been a great year for you so far. What do you have coming up for the rest of 2009? And what goals do you have for the next 12 months?

Wragg: We’ve got some nice gigs in the pipeline, a remix of Rodi Style’s ‘We’re Gonna Rock You’ on Tidy, our tech trance release on Louk’s Compulzion label, ‘Neonate’ and our slightly chubby remix of Tommy Pulse and Fausto’s ‘Melancholika’ on Excessive all coming in the next month or so…
Log: And for the next couple of months we’re putting the remixes on hold a little bit to concentrate on more original productions, some for the Atmosphere label. We’ve been doing mainly remixes for a while and we’d like to get back to the ‘Creatures’/’AM Frequencies’ style that people first got to know us for, and get some darkness vibes going! For the next 12 months it’s just on to bigger and better things hopefully — we’ve got a couple of things penciled in which should be pretty much off the chain so watch this space! This time next year we’ll be millionaires Rodders!

You’re playing at DHF on Friday 25 September. Why should we come and see you play?

Log: Because you’ll get the killer combination of phat tunage, Wragg’s scratching skills and my stupid dancing! What more could you want?
Wragg: Log’s amazing choice in sunglasses is worth the price of admission alone! Haha!

And what should your fans buy you to drink at the bar?

Log: I think I speak for both of us when I say “Mine’s a pint!” As long as it’s not Stella.
Wragg: Make mine a babysham!