Concrete Playground Meets Nightmares On Wax

Nightmares On Wax is a name synonymous with UK hip hop. His albums Smokers Delight and Carboot Soul re-defined the relationship between electronica, soul, and downtempo beats; the sort of stuff that Sunday session dreams are made of.

After appearing at Wanderlust Festival in Taupo last year, Nightmares On Wax returns to our shores to play what promises to be a rather majestic DJ set at Splore in February. In the lead up to his New Zealand appearance, we chatted to Nightmares On Wax (otherwise known as George Evelyn) from his Ibiza home. Here is what he had to say.

You were last in New Zealand for Wanderlust Festival in Taupo. Tell us a bit about that experience.

Well, it was an interesting experience for me because I'd just gotten back from doing a tour in the US, and all the way through it I kept meeting yoga teachers. When I got back I got invited to do the Wanderlust event, which obviously is a yoga festival. So I was like, there's something telling me something here. Upon arriving I thought, "What is this going to be like?" It's pretty unique for me going to a yoga festival. I loved it, there were so many smiling faces there, so many beautiful people there. I did my first yoga class and I was the idiot in the class without a yoga mat, slipping over on my towel.

I loved the whole experience, it was nice to be in a space where people were just totally getting off on life, totally getting off on music. Obviously, DJing arenas there are lots of other things people are intoxicated by, but this was just life, happiness and joy. It was great just feeling the energy of New Zealand in that environment.

After spending most of your life in the UK, you packed up and moved to Ibiza. What prompted the change? What does Ibiza mean to you?

Well, it was more of a life change really, a lot of people think I moved to Ibiza based on music but it was more of a life change. I needed to get out of Leeds. I'd spent 36 years living in Leeds, I needed a change for me and my family. We were like, "Where do we love the most and where is easy for our family to come and see us?" So we were like, "Well, we love Ibiza, lets move to Ibiza."

18 months later we had moved. We always said, if Ibiza didn't work out it was a stepping stone out of our old reality and into something new. From that moment, May 2006, life changed massively in a sense that Ibiza gave me a blank canvas.

Within the space of a few months I was offered to start my own radio show, Wax Da Box on Radio Sonica. I also got invited to play some of the major clubs, which I did but didn't totally enjoy in the first season. A lot of the places didn't really want to pay you for what you were doing, didn't really value what you were doing. So I said well, if I'm going to do something here I'd rather do something for free and make it my own event. I started Wax Da Beach at Kumharas, and that developed. Then I started Wax Da Jam in 2010 and that developed as well. Basically my nights then became synonymous with a lot of the island people, a lot of local people.

So really Ibiza gave me this platform and this reminder of where I came from, of what I do. It was like a blank canvas and a fresh start. Ibiza means a lot to me in that sense. I am really grateful for this place, it's an amazing place in the winter, amazing place in the summer as well. A little bit crazy in the summer but for me Ibiza is home right now.

Does living in paradise affect the way you create music?

Of course it does, I think all environments affect the way you make music. The music that I create is a reflection of my environment, a reflection of my reality, a reflection of my life.

I took a bit of time to adjust to making music here. The ultimate dream seems like yeah, make music in the sun but it's not that easy when people are jumping in the pool or everybody is at the beach, you don't really want to be in the studio. So understanding that paradigm and having that balance here. The summer is more about performing and for me the winter is more about writing.

Your beloved club night in Ibiza, Wax Da Jam, what's it like? How do you foresee it progressing in the future?

2016 will be it's seventh season. Wax Da Jam was born out of the idea of bringing people together. It is a jam, there are musicians playing with vocalists, and me as a DJ and my crew just spinning loops and just going into this freestyle mode of a jam and the audience becoming part of that.

Since then its obviously grown, we've had guests here such as Bonobo, Daddy G, Massive Attack, and DJ Shadow. We have moved from being an illegal party at the back of a restaurant to now being based at the oldest nightclub in Ibiza called Las Dalias.

I see the future of Wax Da Jam as having more of a mini festival kind of vibe. It is becoming more of an event rather than a weekly. I see it more becoming four big events over the summer rather than something that happens every week.

First and foremost you're a hip hop head. Who are your favourite artists/rappers of all time?

Quite a difficult question but straight away I would go to people like KRS-One. Inspirers and beatmakers I would go to people like: Marley Marl, DJ Mark, The 45 King, Pete Rock, Preemo (DJ Premier). Emcees I would go: Rakim, Nas, Slick Rick, De La Soul. I also really like a new school guy called Red Pill that I think everybody should check out.

How do you feel about the current state of hip hop?

A lot of people confuse the current state of hip hop with 'hip pop', which is all the stuff that you're hearing on the radio and that generally is around. Most of the clubs mix 'hip pop' with trap and r&b, that's not hip hop to me, that's just an expression that is taken from hip hop and used in a more commercial way. The state of hip hop is still good, I definitely feel that boom bap is coming back. The young kids that are coming through are going back to the golden era style of hip hop. Hip hop will never die.

As a sample based artist, what do you look for when seeking out new tunes to sample?

I don't actually look for something in particular, something catches my ear. I have a major record collection. If I don't already have an ongoing idea that is there in my head I'll just stick my hand in my record collection and pull out whatever's there and then I'll drop the needle on the record and see what jumps out at me. I like the spontaneity of that, the freedom of that. Obviously sometimes you will hear something and you're like, "Oh wow I like that, I could flip them horns," or I could imagine splitting them horns up, reversing the way that the notes are played and then replaying the notes as a bassline, or replaying the notes as a vocal melody.

To me, the art of sampling is about manipulation, about how you can twist it, how you can flip it. Sometimes you don't even use the sample, I just use the inspiration. Just like another musician could hear a guitar player playing a riff and he could start playing a bassline to that riff, and he'd be inspired by that musician. That's how I see samples working.

How has Serato changed the way you operate?

For me as a DJ it has been an amazing tool. My other name is DJ EASE, which stands for Experience and Sample Expert. So I love to loop things, I love to get into the loop zone and then morph that and use mixing and DJing in that sense. Serato is amazing for that, it gives me access to thousands of records as well. The days are gone of travelling and trying to fly across the world with boxes of vinyl, it just doesn't work. It has been a massive massive massive help for me on that level.

What can the crowd at Splore expect from a Nightmares On Wax show?

You can expect feel good music, you can expect to not be able to stand still but just dance and lose yourself in the atmosphere of feeling really, really and good and feeling together. I like to play music that brings people together. My music is about fun, my music is about joy, my music is about feeling free. If anything I am a spiritual conductor, and I am there to conduct your spirit toward the direction of feeling amazing.

How's the new Nightmare on Wax album coming along? When can we expect to hear some of the new material?

The album is coming along really well. It is going to drop in 2016. Being able to tell you when is not possible right now because I am still in the midst of it. It's going to be fresh, it's going to be where I am right now. I am very excited about this record. I believe we are going into a new realm.

See Nightmares On Wax at Splore Festival, held at at Tapapakanga Regional Park from February 19 - 21.