Balls Deep With Josh Wink: Part 1

Part 1

Following a four year production drought Josh Wink fans finally have something to get excited about with the arrival of his “Balls” EP. With some thirty years of touring and producing music under his belt, Josh has long been regarded a stalwart of the scene. Not least because of milestone releases such as “Higher State of Consciousness” and “Don’t Laugh” but the equally merit worthy Ovum Recordings imprint that he has conceived and nurtured for nearing 20 years. With the “Balls” EP gaining tremendous support from the likes of Sven Vath, Laurent Garnier and Richie Hawtin and a performance at London’s Fabric alongside Mr. C imminent we wanted to know what’s kept him out of the studio for the past 4 years. Typically, what we got was a thought provoking and philosophical discussion on work, life, fatherhood and music.Hey Josh, thanks for taking time out to talk to us. We don’t want to bleat on too much about the longevity of your career…

Go for it, it makes me feel good!

Ok. So what are the most important factors for your maintained enthusiasm for what you do? 

Well, I think it’s two pretty paramount things. One is passion and the other is integrity. Both are personal. So it’s different for everybody, but I mean aging is something that all humans do and it’s just how we deal with it. It’s an interesting thing because as we get older we look in the mirror and we still see ourselves as how we were. It’s like we’ve not changed very much. But if I see a picture of myself from when I was 25, even though I feel like I am, I look like I’ve aged 15 or so years.

So, you know it’s an interesting thing to be in an industry that is always ever changing, like anything else in life, but always being surrounded by younger people and it’s important to be seen as relevant and do things rather than getting lost in the shuffle and “whatever happened to so-and-so”. This new single that I have coming out, it’s the first release of my own music in four years, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t done remixes, it doesn’t mean I haven’t been active in a DJ world and with Ovum Recordings. I guess just the passion and integrity of releasing music that I want to do rather than music I think I should do. That’s a big thing because at the end of the day if I’m happy with what I’m doing, I’m happy with how I’m feeling. I have to live with myself and my consequences and I don’t feel it necessary to go and do the trend of the music or what’s big and popular now for me to feel like I need to fit in and sound like the new sound right now.

So I guess this integrity of myself and to my artistry. If I don’t get enjoyment out of it and it doesn’t seem natural I don’t do it and my passion just keeps me wanting to do it. So, I just keep on releasing the music that I am able to create and express myself with and everything else kinda happens from there. You know, I had no idea but “Balls” is turning out to be a pretty big release. I mean seriously, after not making music for so many years I didn’t expect this kind of song to come out. I was thinking of doing something a little deeper, you know that’s where my head was, but all of a sudden this tension-filled piece of music came out.

The trend is definitely towards deeper tracks at the moment but you said it, you’ve come out with this smashing track with a monstrous 2 minute breakdown that drops so aggressively. It’s nasty! How did it turn out like that?

Well the version that you hear isn’t the original version that I did. You know “Balls” got its name from someone that heard the track that I trust and they said “Well you’re really gonna have to have balls to play this” and I was like “Aah, that’s awesome”. So I ended up calling the track “Balls”, but Matt who’s the label manager for Ovum said “Look, if you’re really gonna do this, just do it” and then he made a joke, “just balls to the wall, make the breakdown you. Don’t try to change, don’t try to be anybody else, just be you.” The music that I’ve done in the past whether it’s the tension in “Higher States of Consciousness”, the tension and the breakdown in “I Am Ready”, that long breakdown from hip-hop into that snare-roll build-up, whether it be the tension from “How’s Your Evening So Far” and “Oakish”, “Superfreak”. I mean all these songs have a kinda Wink breakdown based on tension. And I ended up making it a little bit bigger than normal. Like I said, there’s tension, there’s a feeling of “Is it gonna come in… no, it’s not gonna come in… is it gonna come in, it has to come in here”. Where it feels really uncomfortable but when it releases it’s a release.

What were you thinking when you were putting that together?

Uhhh… I don’t know dude. After having the talk with Matt he was just like “Go do it, just go make it big dude, don’t do it half-assed”. So that’s actually what I ended up doing and the original version wasn’t actually as long or as intense. It was a little bit more congruous with the rest of the track. Whereas this is like “Wow”, without a four in the floor kickdrum for a while and you’re just kinda waiting and you’re getting lost. I really want people to get lost in music. I’ve been saying this a lot in interviews but I get more satisfaction when people are on the dancefloor, or wherever they are, when they have their eyes closed and they’re lost in the music rather than having them jump up and down, pumping their fists in the air. It’s to me more satisfying when someone can get lost in the music by closing their eyes and just feeling it and hearing it. You know, using those two senses rather than the sight aspect of it. And I like the fact that, I think, in those two minutes you can really get lost and it’s like a therapeutic thing.

On the topic of getting lost in the music. Electronic music has grown so much in popularity lately. You were recently in Miami, how does it feel compared  to years gone by?

Well, you know, things change. I don’t wanna be the old man who says “things aren’t how they used to be”. Whether it’s progression or not, things change and that’s ok. For me, everything changed at least ten, twelve years ago in terms of Miami. Musically speaking it’s gonna change anyway, but in terms of its content, i.e. what is there, yes. WMC used to be a place where a lot of my colleagues from Europe would come and it would be the only time that they would come to America, during the WMC. It’s wintertime, it’s hot down there, we can do business, we can do deals. A lot of business and deals went on and then all of my friends who were running record labels or publishing, they didn’t really come anymore and it just became more of a performer aspect where artists and DJs would come. Then it became a place where deals necessarily weren’t happening anymore or it wasn’t as grass roots as it used to be and it seems more now to be about the American public and coming and hearing people that don’t come to their own cities. So that’s the biggest change for me.

So you’ve been touring a fair bit but why for the past four years have you not released your own music?

Good question. It’s easy to get caught up in the DJ world. That’s pretty much the front running thing. You know, I have responsibilities, I have a record company to run, I’ve got bills to pay and producing music isn’t necessarily paying bills. In a way it is, artists release music now to be able to tour and from the touring they get paid. So many artists whether it be r’n’b, rock, hip-hop, they give music away for free to get their name out there or to get likes on Facebook or whatever it may be. So there’s not so much of a fiscal aspect of making a living as there used to be. And you know, what I do is a business and DJing keeps me paid. It pays the bills, it makes me able to do the things I wanna do. So that’s one of them and I think DJs tour all year round without having to tour like a band does. A band does something which is tour with product, they have an album out, they do a press release, they do radio, videos, they tour, they have merchandise, shirts, wallets, CDs etc. They go and tour and that’s that. Djing we don’t need to do that. As long as the person is in demand you could be touring all the time. So that’s one of the reasons, it’s because it became a touring lifestyle.

And then when I get home it’s difficult. I’m on the road for four days and then I have to be Josh at home, which is a partner to my girlfriend, someone that goes by the record label, takes care of business. Then I’m Josh the normal person that has laundry to do, has a house to take care of you know all this kind of stuff. I find it hard in those three days that I have at home before my next trip.

I get in the studio and I have to be creative on demand. It’s very difficult. If I have a remix that has to be done on a certain day, there’s a little bit of leeway with time but, you know we need it. So I’m coming home for three days and I have to be on my point, I have to be 100% Josh Wink creative in three days and if I don’t, I’m screwed. So there’s a lot of pressure. I have to go in the studio and learn my equipment again and there are updates that don’t work with certain operating systems and the learning curve again.

So, yeah, there’s a lot of stuff going on in that realm. And then I guess simply, the past year and a half and more-so 9 months before that, I was in the process of becoming a new father and it’s a big responsibility and something I enjoy and love. I wanna be a father pretty much all of the time and find it hard to be able to balance these three new people that I am. I’m Josh Wink the artist, I am Josh at home and then I’m daddy. Trying to balance the three of those things is a little bit more challenging for me than normal. I’m just kind of getting used to it and getting into it again.

Then I had time in November/December when I was able to just submerge myself in the studio and just get lost in my stuff and update and learn again. So that’s what I did and that’s how “Balls” came about. But, yeah, life and responsibilities kinda kept me away from it and I tend not to be a laptop musician. I bring my laptop on the road as my record box, but I don’t actually compose music on it.

Having so much going on must put quite a squeeze on life. Has there ever been a moment that’s made you consider throwing the towel in altogether?

No. I mean I get frustrated at times. You know, maybe because of where the industry is going and the direction, but I still get such joy and excitement doing what I do.

You know, it’s frustrating because I’d really love to stay home and make a living that way but unless you’re a popstar the industry doesn’t make it possible for you to do that. Most of the stories that you hear about these big popstars whether it be Swedish House Mafia, Skrillex, Deadmau5, Tiesto, or whoever, you don’t really hear them making so many million dollars on sales with their record releases. You hear about how much they get paid when they DJ. So it’s a frustrating thing to know that you’ll always be on the road. I love it, but after doing it for 25 years it takes its toll. It’s really become my work. It’s a good quote “I love my job but I hate my work”, you know and I hate my work. That’s what I get paid for. When I DJ it’s like I DJ for free. I perform for free. I do that absolutely for free but I get paid because of how I got there and how I leave. You know people are like “Oh my God, you were just in Estonia, Belgium and Malta in three days! Oh my God, how amazing that is!” And I said:

“You try it, you take a train from Philadelphia to Newark, New Jersey, fly from Newark to Oslo, have a connecting flight after an 8.5 hour international overnight flight when your back was aching and you couldn’t sleep. The kid next to you was screaming and then you get to Oslo and you wait for 2.5 hours and then there was a delay in the flight and you were just waiting at the airport. Then you fly into Estonia and your hotel room isn’t ready and it’s already an hour later than it is there, its 2:30 in the afternoon and your check in is at 3. You’re exhausted and then you have to do a workshop at 8 o’clock at night. You haven’t eaten, you haven’t slept and then you gotta work. Then you don’t go to sleep after the gig until 6 in the morning, then you’ve got a flight at 12, you get three hours sleep.”

It’s work. That’s what I get paid for. So, it’s frustrating sometimes when I know that I have to go on the road to make a living rather than being able to express myself musically and make a living by just making music. So that’s the only reason sometimes that I get frustrated. But knowing that I can create, I can make a living by doing something that I really love and I really enjoy and I can touch people and get them to be inspired… it’s an amazing feeling. And that’s why I don’t want to throw in the towel.

DJ lifestyles are well recognised as being pretty full-on but that sounds more demanding than we’d expected. Do you get much time to pursue interests outside of work?

My brother’s in town, he’s visiting from California this week. He just arrived yesterday and he and his girlfriend asked me “what is there for Josh time? What do you do to balance and ground yourself?” I told them “recently, nothing. I don’t have time”. It sucks. I used to read, I used to enjoy reading on airplanes but now I just sleep or I have some work to do. At home I don’t really have much time because I have my blessed time with my child and my family. And then I had some health issues the last year with a compromised back and degenerative bone disease and stuff like that so I haven’t been as active as I like to, or used to be. I used to get a lot of enjoyment from being active, being athletic and rock climbing. You know…. even cooking. I used to get a lot of enjoyment from cooking and now it’s all about cooking for my son and when that’s over I’m so tired I can’t make dinner for my lady and I, or she’s tired because she had mother duty all day. So we’re just like let’s order in.

It’s a beautiful thing that’s happened, but I really need to find something to be able to balance and create the time and not feel guilty for doing anything like that.

To read this rest of this interview click here…

You can catch Josh Wink alongside M.r C, David Scuba, Luke vB and Stacey Pullen amongst others Saturday January 18th at London’s Fabric. For more information and tickets click here