Nightmares on Wax speaks ahead of SA Tour

The legendary Nightmares on Wax will tour South Africa this weekend – 5 -7 February for the first time ever.

The enigmatic producer who gave us two of the most iconic stoner chill-out albums of the 90’s, Smoker’s Delight and Carboot Soul gives us the lowdown on those seminal years as well as what he’s been up to since…

I’m going to do versions of songs that I’m working on and remixing that are from the ‘Smoker’s Delight’ album – I’m going to express them in a DJ format.”

Your upcoming shows at The Cape Town Electronic Music Festival and at Kitchener’s in Johannesburg will be your first ever performances in South Africa. It seems like a long time coming…

Nightmares on Wax: Yeah, I’ve just been waiting for the invite. I thought it was something I’d said. (Laughs). But seriously, I am really looking forward to it. I always feel very enthusiastic about going to new territories, new environments and meeting new people. It’s amazing where music takes you and this will be an amazing edition to my story in this lifetime right now – to be able to come to South Africa and share what I love and connect with people who love what I do.

You released your seminal album ‘Smoker’s Delight’ on Warp records 21 years ago. Looking back, who were you when you made it and does it surprise you that it still resonates today?

Nightmares on Wax: The story of ‘Smoker’s Delight’ could not be planned – I know that for a fact. It was originally born out of me just making some sample tracks for me and my friends to listen to after parties and out on a night. I was with a bunch of my mates listening to The KLF chill out album at the back of a friend’s house and I said You know what? I’m going to make my own chill out album but I’m going to make a hip hop album and it’s going to be called Smoker’s Delight.

And it was as simple as that. I was already making sample tracks anyway, so I just went ahead and did it – it just came to me. That music was shared between me and my friends for four or five years before we put it into an album form and put it out into the world. From then it was a slow catch on.

You can’t really plan something like that. I still see it as my baby. The album changed my life. It was an amazing experience making it – all those years of making it; and it’s honour to bring it and express it in South Africa to a certain degree when I’m DJing.

It’s hard to say what person I was back then, but there were some dark elements in there. I definitely had a cloud over my head a lot of the time during that time in my life but all I was trying to do was express some sunshine and bring some joy to the space wherever you were listening – whether you were smoking herbs or doing whatever or not doing anything. I just wanted to create a soundtrack where you could journey, you could imagine – I wanted to make music that would make you hear something different every time you listened to it. That was the trip of Smoker’s Delight.

And then you followed up with another classic, ‘Carboot Soul’…

Nightmares on Wax: The expression of Carboot Soul came from performing ‘Smoker’s Delight’ live. When I made Smoker’s Delight I never thought about performing it live but when I was asked about whether I would perform it live I just said yes. And then I put the band together and when I put the band together I just realised, Shit, I could just sample all my own musicians – and then that was the expression of Carboot Soul. It’s been an ongoing journey – where it revealed itself to me. The only major plan was me thinking and visualizing ‘Smokers Delight’ – everything else just unfolded.

When did you realize that this was going to be a really big album? When did things start changing?

Nightmares on Wax: I would say nine months to a year later, when I took it on the road. The moment I was expressing these songs on stage with musicians; then I thought WOW! I can do this, I can do that… I’m a firm believer that any good idea brings millions of ideas – and that’s what happened. I was using live musician on the album anyway and samples but then to do it live – I realized the scope is so wide -especially the way my imagination works as well. That was when I thought right, there’s so much I want to do. And I still feel that way. There’s so much I want to do. It definitely opened up a lot of doors for me.

…hip hop has got a lot to answer for in my life – in DJing, in production, in emceeing – in art, you know.”

Did you have a musical upbringing?

Nightmares on Wax: Yeah, I played drums a little bit at school. But I didn’t like the teacher so that didn’t last very long. I was always experimenting with electronic music equipment. I grew up with a lot of reggae sound systems in my neighborhood. My Dad had two gramophones that we weren’t allowed to play with – which we did play with when we went out. There were record collections there. Music was always around me. My sisters were disco dancers – they’re older than me. So they used to come back from nightclubs winning 12 records or a cassette by the DJ and nick them and listen to them when they were out. So music has always been around me – I was always just trying to find my way of how I can do or express myself and then when hip hop came along it totally changed my world. It gave me a voice and an opportunity to express myself. Even though I was already experimenting with electronics through building speaker boxes for reggae sound systems; I was a break-dancer too. Hip-hop was the one thing that really, really gave me that platform – there were just so many levels to express myself. Hip-hop totally blew my world apart. That was in 1992 for me.

It’s been said that hip-hop was the best music of the 90s. The golden era if hip-hop really stands out for me.

Nightmares on Wax: The Golden era was amazing but I don’t think we realized how amazing it was until it was gone. (Laughs) But seriously, hip hop has got a lot to answer for in my life – in DJing, in production, in emceeing – in art, you know. Just being able to express yourself in so many ways. It’s not just hip hop , it’s definitely a way of life; especially the sampling art form and how it affected the electronic music world as well – which has come from hip hop, really.

You have said that your influences go from reggae and hip hop all the way through to techno. What does electronic music look like through your eyes now?

Nightmares on Wax: Now? Wow, it’s wide-open man! It’s especially interesting to listen to the younger generation of kids creating new genres; there’s obviously always new genres and new movements happening in music – but I listen to some of the footwork stuff and some of the sounds they’re sampling there; even some of the glitch hop stuff and I think to myself I was sampling those sounds back in the day! – it’s just another twist on it now. Even some of the house today sounds like the house I started on – the soul is back in house music! Do you know what I mean? It’s good! I very happy about that. I’m probably the happiest person out of everybody about that.

You must hear all kinds of music living in Ibiza..

Nightmares on Wax: Yeah, Ibiza is great. It has its craziness and it has its wonderful side. I’ve been travelling a lot for the last two years – playing in lots of different countries and that has been great to see what other people’s expressions of electronic music are. I’m really intrigued to see what I’m going to pick up from South Africa.

What can people expect from the show?

Nightmares on Wax: I’m going to do versions of songs that I’m working on and remixing that are from the ‘Smoker’s Delight’ album – I’m going to express them in a DJ format. But I’m going to incorporate that with what I’m into now as well. I don’t want to play just an oldskool set. I like to take my dancefloor on a journey because I think that the foundations of my influences are important, so if I can sneak a bit of that in there – whether it’s old or new; it takes you on a bit more of a journey rather than sticking to any particular genre as such but it will be coherent within itself. So there will obviously be quite a lot of Nightmares On Wax in there – but just the stuff that’s turning me on right now.

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Nightmares on Wax speaks ahead of SA Tour