Wyndell Long: Windy City Man

Chicago is not just a windy place, the largest non-coastal U.S. city, or the undisputed home of house music.

While I did my post-grad uni thesis on industrial music in Britain in the 1970s, I partially cut my crap DJing teeth on the Chicago output of labels like Relief Records, Dance Mania and Radikal Fear back in the mid '90s.

So, when it came to getting someone to remix the next Little Nobody track, Jass Muzak, itself heavily influenced by Chicago-style jazz and Chicago-born drummer, Gene Krupa, I turned to one of my favorite contemporary Chicago DJ/producers, Wyndell Long - a man who's previously worked with Mike Dearborn and popped up on superb labels like Peacefrog, Djax, Pro-Jex and Primate.

Wyndell then surprised us all by responding with not just one brilliant remix, but two. "I wanted them to keep the main original sounds, but be rooted in the classic Chicago sound - without sounding too crusty," he assessed.

He also did a brilliant remix of another Little Nobody track, Compulsion, just for good measure, all the mixes destined for release through Elektrax and IF? Records this year - Jass Muzak in fact available later this month.

"This is the kind of stuff I like to spin," Wyndell says.

Simple as that.

So, when later bouncing off Wyndell to compose this interview/story on the man, I decided to keep it equally simple, and go Q+A format instead of setting the stage and leading the witness. Wyndell has so much to say, anyway, who wants my two cents' worth cluttering up the mix? Read on, and enjoy...

Let's backtrack a bit: How'd you get inspired to start making music?

"That's simple: Prince and Mike Dearborn. I'd been a huge fan of all kinds of music, R&B, classic rock, and alternative. Prince really opened my eyes to one man being able to be a full band. Taught myself how to play piano, but didn't do much with it until I got to college. Ran out of money so I got a midi keyboard, a rack synth, and connected it all via midi to my Amiga. I started making rap beats and R&B trax for the campus NIU American Idols. I enjoyed producing stuff, but it would only go so far. I met Mike [Dearborn] a couple years later and he opened my eyes to a few things. He was releasing stuff on Djax and had a crate of records that amazed the shit out of me. His own Djax trax, [Joey] Beltram, [Neil] Landstrumm, Steve Stoll... just genius after genius. He let me hold the crate for a week or so and I dived in and listened to everything. I had no idea techno 'n' house was still going on. Much of the scene we had in Chicago had vanished, due to the labels and promoters constantly ripping off the artists. I guess the artists started getting calls from promoters and labels overseas, and the rest in history. I buckled-down and started recording tracks. I sent demos to a few contacts I had got through K-Alexi and I got calls from Peacefrog and Primate. That's basically how it started."

You've been producing music and interacting within the music industry for quite a time now - what keeps you motivated, and what integral changes have you noticed over that period?

"14 years, off and on. The ability to sit down and create something unique is always going to be the central motivation. It most definitely isn't the money. You don't make a lot of money doing this kind of music - therefore you have to have a real motivation for doing this kind of work, and it's good to be versatile. I do a lot of music in different styles, also audio mixdown and mastering, sell the occasional beat here and there, and now I'm getting back into making trax and DJing. Keeps me busy."

What gear/software are you making most use of in the studio at the moment?

"I used to use a lot of hardware. Never could afford the Access Virus, Akai or Roland boxes so I always had 'lower class' gear. Kawai syth racks and Zoom samplers. I switched to a PC-based system a few years ago. I tried a few of the studio-in-a-box programs and found Reason to be the best answer, along with Sonar. I know gear-happy, Pro-Tools and analog-loving producers frown down on Reason, but really, they can stick a thumb up their ass with that shit. Reason sounds as good as the person who is using it. If you have a basic understanding of creating and recording audio, then that's what your trax will sound like. If you have skillz, then you trax will shine like a Radiohead track. I had no problem importing my custom sound sets into Reason, and once you get pass the presets and get into the Combinator and programming, you can make some timeless stuff. It sounds better than any of my hardware setups did, and it's so much easier to route audio.

"With my custom sound banks and a few refills, I'm able to create just about anything I need to, and for multi-track vocal work I can export everything to Sonar. It's truly amazing what you can do with a fast PC - just don't let your music PC touch the Internet. One of the things I'm trying to do is work with arpeggiators in my techno productions - getting back to that old analog sound. I never used them for any of my vinyl releases. I've always admired artists like Steve Stoll who could turn a great synth-sound into a classic six-minute track, without overloading it. It'll be one of my goals for future trax work.

"For my hip hop and other types of music I do, I tend to stick to sample libraries, programmed synth-patches, and try to never, ever use presets. Less is more these days, so I try to keep the productions easy on the ears. Much of it is being an audio engineer as well as a music producer. Knowing how frequencies interact with each other, knowing when to compress or limit, et cetera."

So which part of your studio is the most vital facet?

"I have the entire collection of the classic albums video series, as well as the Beatles Anthology on my music computer hard-drive. When I need to take a break, there's nothing like looking at how The Dark Side of the Moon or Aja were recorded. My hat goes off to those bands of the '60s, '70s and '80s."

What food/drinks keep you fueled throughout production time?

"Bubblegum and water. All I need."

Which current crop of artists and labels are grabbing your attention?

"To be honest, I've been less-enthused about today's techno 'cuz it all sounds like it's coming out of the same studio to my ears. I do like what's coming out on some of the netlabels out there - I find them to be a great source of trax that try to innovate instead of bullshit with presets and special FX. I'm amazed it's all available for free: good-quality music that 10 years ago you'd have had to pay for. Thinner, Epsilonlab, Archipel, One Bit Wonder, Clever Music... all put out great stuff. Some of my all-time favorite labels are Synewave, Proper, Novamute, Tresor, Peacefrog, Djax, Torema, Elypsia, Drop Bass Network, Sm:)e Communications, Axis, Primate, and Majesty, just to name a few. I like the stuff that's on stompy.com as well. Good, jackin' house music. I purchase from there a lot too. Big fan of Moodymann and Leon Louder."

Mandatory inane question #101: If you were pressed into a corner and forced to confess under great duress, how would you define the sounds/styles you're currently making yourself?

"Retro-future Chicago Jack. I'm trying to make tracks that don't have that over-compressed, overproduced sound I hear now; my stuff is geared towards making people dance. With my hip hop 'n' trippy productions, I'm trying to keep it musical, which can be hard in today's market."

You also have your own awesome outlet through nosleepmusic.com. What's happening in that department?

"It's more like a Jeff Mills/Axis thing, an outlet to release my own productions. There are a lot of people downloading music from my little netlabel; I can see the statistics on my web control panel. I just wish they would reach out and give me a shout. Send me a DJ mix. Something. Hope they're enjoying the sound.

"It's a lot of fun to do the releases. I learned after being bent over and entered a few times by labels that you do this kind of music, #1, because you enjoy it - not to make money. I would like to work with more artists; hopefully I'll get the time to do it in the near future. Last artist I did a release with on nosleep.com was Martin Mueller, who went on to get a release on a Neuton-distributed label (on the Exacta.udio imprint) and is doing a lot of work now. Unfortunately, Neuton closed its doors last year."

Biggest influences on your music?

"When it comes to tracks, its the Chicago instinct to make music for the dancefloor, first and foremost. Something that makes me move. I was drawn to Chicago house cuz it was always focused on dance, no matter how warped a sound might be. Sub kicks, crisp hats, dirty samples. It's all Chicago.

"For my other productions I'm influenced by a wide variety of artists, ranging from R&B, alt-rock, and classic rock. I can take in Steely Dan, Velvet Underground, Parliament, Radiohead, Prince, DJ Premiere, the Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, all in one sitting, and bring all that to my music. It might effect how I play a bassline, or EQ drums, or emulate guitar. I will always be a big fan of music. No ego here."

What new Wyndell Long work can we look out for?

"I'm getting a lot of remix work, so most of my output will be from there. I don't really send demos and stuff like that anymore - I wouldn't even know who to send to. I've had some labels request demos, so I'll probably cook up some new flavor and see where it goes. Otherwise I'm quite happy just putting out new tracks on my netlabel."

You've released through a lot of respected labels like Peacefrog, Primate, Djax, Reel Musiq, Subspace, Majesty, Elypsia, Pro-Jex and R&S. CDs seem to be a disappearing facet of the electronic music industry, and a fair amount of people are cutting back on vinyl production these days because they say it just doesn't make back the money invested. How do you feel about this?

"The music business, on a whole, is dying a slow death. Pretty soon, the way it's going, it will just be a hobby anyone can do. Soulja Boy is making hits with one finger and fruity loops. His target audience doesn't care how the song was made, they don't care about hearing expertly-played chords, bass riffs, minor major changes; they want a slamming beat and loud vocals. Again, less is more today.

"The way music is listened to, as well as how it is obtained, has changed a great deal in the last five years. You could be a music noob, go buy a 80GB mp3 player, then go over to a friend's. He'll take it and fill it to the rim with music. Thus you went from having barely any music to having a collection it would take a lifetime to obtain - that's what's happening now. Downloading was a problem before, but people have been collecting so much stuff over the years now. In fact, if they shut-down file sharing today, it wouldn't matter. The damage has been done. The collectors out there have enough stuff to last them four lifetimes and will continue to pass friend-to-friend, pal to pal. The music business must have been too busy snorting yayo to foresee the damage the mp3 could do to their business model. On top of that, in some genres of music the quality of the songs suck ass. Most of the hip hop I hear sounds like thugs who never finished high school. Not good, cuz that market dries out fast.

"All these factors are making it less and less productive to press these records. For the trax scene, eventually all of the labels that had a successful catalog will go to digital format. It doesn't make any since to press vinyl today. How many people other than DJs do you know that own turntables? It's not enough to support a business. Hell, most rappers and singers out now are trying to become actors in order to get a steady paycheck. The market has changed so much."

Is vinyl, then, dead?

Not dead - just hanging on. It will end up being a nostalgia-type thing. Something for labels to do to celebrate 10 years in the business, or something like that. I sold a lot of my records recently. Not a lot of buyers like you would think. Folks are feeling the digital trend. The days of carting heavy crates to gigs, or your records being stolen or lost at an airport, are over. I bring about 30 records with me for sets cuz I still like the feel of it, but at home it's all audio CDs (no mp3s).

"The cost to press vinyl makes it hard to turn a profit from what I've been told, and those that still do only do small, limited runs. It's sad, really, cuz vinyl is the best way to DJ. No doubt. Nothing like seeing what you're playing. But lets face facts here - the CDJ-1000 MK3 is a beast, and technology determines what's standard now.

"The CDJ-1000 is an amazing piece of technology as well, it's about as close as you can get to using vinyl with CDs. I use a couple of Denon DNS1000s for my mixes and they're a wonderful thing. When you factor in how lightweight it is to carry a crapload of CD-Rs, versus the bulk-weight of a crate of vinyl, coming to a set with CDs or a 4GB USB thumb drive... the future is freaky, for sure.

"I don't buy vinyl anymore. It's easier for me to either download trax, or create my own stuff. Now I can make something with the dancefloor in mind (which is a better way to approach creating trax for me) on fire, burn it and play it. No cost of pressing up acetates or sending a dozen demos in hopes of getting the trax pressed by a label. CDs are lightweight and convenient. The sound is much better; I don't fall into that crusty view of the whole vinyl vs. digital argument. Sonically, CDs cover the full spectrum of sound, and to me that's important. I remember the first time I heard Parliament's Flashlight on CD. I had no idea there were hi-hats in the damn song. With vinyl you lose high-frequency response as the record goes further to the end. Flashlight was the last track on Side B, so a lot of the high frequencies and clarity were lost. It was like hearing it for the first time on CD. This is what CDs bring to music production - a CD is as good as the recording and mastering engineer makes it. You can take out the digital harshness of a song with simple EQ-ing, or a nice tape saturation plug-in. Give it that warmth you hear producers bitch about. I always remaster tracks I intend to play in DJ mixes as well (if needed), so if something sounds too shiny, I can put that dirt and thump in it so my set has a universal bounce to it.

"This is the day and age when everybody is a DJ and can download Beatport's Top 20 and do a DJ mix with Traktor, with the computer doing all the work for you. With all this technology, the one thing that will always weed out the bullshit DJs from the real ones is what they play, especially now. Everyone is going to the same spots to get music now, so chances are everyone will play the same shit sooner or later. If I go see Mark Farina, Derrick Carter or DJ Heather play, I know I'm going get shit I ain't heard yet. The kind of stuff that most DJs won't get to because they want to sound hip, and play two hours of trax that all sound the same from the same source. So many mixes I've checked out over the past year have bored me to pieces. In fact, the last great mix I heard was a nice funky house mix on some blog page which was done with Tracktor. Go figure."

When we decided to switch some of the IF? Records back-catalog to digital download, I got an anonymous email saying "You've sold you're [sic] soul to the devil!!!" (I kid you not). So... have we...?

"Tell them to eat shit with some melted cheese. I can't take comments like that seriously. I guess everyone is suppose to ignore new technology and stay stuck in the days of surface noise, rumble, and scratches. Vinyl is like VHS. It was very nice while it was relevant, but when something comes along that's better, you use it. Are you going to go back to video tape and chuck your DVDs or Blu-ray movies in the garbage? Only music producers and audiophiles scream junk like that.

"Truth is, the music business as a whole is a slowly dying industry, so you need to do whatever you can to make ends meet. Digital makes sense. Everybody and their grandma has an mp3 player now, and there will come a day when the up-and-coming generation won't even know what a record player was... they'll have to Wiki it."

So do DJs really need to continue to use any vinyl? Or can they effectively instead construct entire sets out of stuff they've downloaded off the Internet?

"Why not? I do, and it's great going between the formats when playing live. The only thing I don't like about digital is the non-user friendly nature of blank CD-Rs. When you burn enough of them, you end up having a CD wallet resembling Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans painting. They all look the same, the CDs. How do you know what the hot shit is? Colored stickers? Doesn't work. With vinyl you could look at the record and know what's on it, or look at the record label and know what style you were grabbing. Too bad you can't do that with CD-Rs. I burn six to eight tracks per CD-R, and in reality that can get messy when trying to find that hot track you want to bang at the right moment.

"I saw a video with Ritchie Hawtin, mixing four tracks at once with Traktor along with some funky controller. The songs were blending themselves. He could Skype or check his e-mail while spinning, it looks like. Opens up a whole new area of possibilities, especially for DJs like me who love to hold blends for a long time. When he was looking for tracks, he had picture covers to represent the EPs. Nice."

Where in Chicago are you from?

"Born on the South Side, Marynook, near Stoney Island Ave. Moved to the south suburbs during the wonder years. Had the best of both worlds."

Chicago has such a cool history with house and techno, taking in people like yourself, Curtis Jones (Green Velvet), Mike Dearborn, DJ Sneak, Glenn Underground, Gene Farris, DJ Rush, Emmanuel Pippen, and Boo Williams, just for starters. Who do you most respect from the city, and who have you worked with?

"Mike Dearborn will always be a favorite of mine - not just because he re-introduced me to the music, but more so because people like him, Sneak, Curtis Jones, K-Alexi, Mills, Armando, Stoll, Gene Farris, Paul Johnson, DJ Skull... these guys make stuff I can't. That's what draws me to them.

"As a music producer, I'm limited to what I can come up with. I can't make a decent acid track to save my life, but Mike [Dearborn] can take acid and make it something new every time he fired up the 303s. I never figured out how to use an appregiator or pattern-programmer, so when I listen to Steve Stoll, I'm listening to a master at a work. Sneak makes jams that are for the floor, to get your groove on with. None of that experimental stuff. Classic jams. I can put on Latin Seoul from Sneak and just close my eyes and smooth out. Never gets old. I also loved Armando's (R.I.P.) acid tracks. Good shit.

"Chicago needs a revival. Needs to come back strong. Innovate. The rest of the world has been stepping it up."

So what's the scene in Chicago actually like these days?

"I really don't know, to be honest. Most of the underground clubs are closed, and the ones that are open tend to cater to the same names year after year, so it's hard for new talent to get noticed. Plus it pays shit here to DJ, so you don't get a lot of action. I don't know which labels are still keeping it up in Chicago; I'd like someone to e-mail me on that. There are a couple spots to buy vinyl, like the legendary Grammaphone's, but not a lot of labels are releasing it anymore, so go figure.

"A lot of track producers I loved in the late '90s and early 2000s don't sound like themselves anymore, that includes Chicago guys. They changed their sound so much just to stay relevant and it's a shame that you have to do that. Of course, you can't make a track using the soundsets and samples from the '90s anymore, and expect to be taken seriously. Hell, with the cost of fuel rising, it's been harder for US DJs to travel overseas and spin on a regular basis the last few years. As a consequence, they have developed their own styles now overseas, whether it be schranz, minimal, glitch, ghettotech, whatever. They don't really need Chicago or Detroit music anymore. It's a natural progression. It's progress."

What do you think of veteran British producers like Neil Landstrumm, Tobias Schmidt, Dave Tarrida, Cristian Vogel, Subhead, Tubejerk, Surgeon and Si Begg? Do any of these people stand out for you? Who do you currently dig cutting tunes over in the UK?

"I loved Neil's work before he went all laptop-tech. I still bang his early Peacefrog jams. You would have thought he lived on the South Side of Chicago with what he was dropping back then. Surgeon makes quality stuff as well. Great producer. I DJ'd once with him and Marco Bailey way back. Fun times. Tobias makes nice stuff as well. There're a lot of track-makers and labels I loved that came out of the UK that recorded on Ipcress Communications, Missile Records, Primate."

Have you heard any of the music coming out of Japan?

"I've heard some hip hop coming from Japan. Much better than the crap that passes for hip hop here in the 'States. I always liked Sublime Records out of Japan. Much respect for their stuff, very funky and innovative. Fumiya Tanaka's Torema label as well. I don't know if they're still releasing. Fumiya once sent me most of his catalog to me. It's a treasure I still adore. Great, funky trax.

"I think the Japanese have a handle on making trax 'n' beats that kind of gets lost in Europe and here in the 'States. Innovation is no good without soul 'n' funk. Otherwise it's music that sounds like a computer did it for another computer, not another human being. I swear when I hear what's available on Beatport (the new stuff, not the catalog stuff) I'm thinking every artist up there has to be using the same gear, same studio and same mastering engineer. Where is the funk? Why does every track have the same kick sound? How am I suppose to nod my head to bleep-bleep or another large VST synth saw-tooth chorused bassline? That's what I love about the work of Fumiya, Co-Fusion, DJ Warp, Toshiyuki Yassuda... It's major tech, but used in a way that sounds different each time and designed to make you move. I hate trax that I'm supposed to 'figure out' or understand. It has to move me.

"I mean look at the funk you get with Hifana. You don't need to speak Japanese to groove to those jams. I remember when Farley Jackmaster Funk mixes would be played over WBMX, a Chicago radio station from the early '90s. You would hear Liaisons Dangereuses' Los Niños Del Parque and Peut Etre... Pas (one of my all time favorites) being jacked; couldn't understand a word of it, but bobbin' your head to the funk. That's what's been coming from Japan for the last few years. Hope to visit there someday. Keep jacking that shit, Japan!"

How would you define those aforementioned remixes you've done for us, of Jass Muzak and Compulsion, in a nutshell?

"Just trying to combine the old with the new, without relying on the same sounds everyone else seems to be recycling. They are strictly for the dancefloors. I'm not trying to create some new form of synthesis.

"I found that people responded best to my mash-ups and 'emotional jacking' tracks the last time I played out live. I'm trying to incorporate that into my sound and DJ mixes now. Also trying to keep the amount of elements I use to a minimum. Less-is-more, trying to get better at that. Besides, those Reason Combinators will eat up your CPU in no time."

What kind of listener/audience were you aiming at with them?

"Hot skinny chicks in the white tank-tops and pigtails. No really, that's kind of what I imagine when creating trax now. Girls like to groove, and they generally don't like to have the shit scared out of them by some massive VST synth plug-in. Guys tend to stand around and stare at the speakers. The chicks get them to jack, and all is good."

Not looking a gift-horse in the mouth at all, but is there any particular reason why you decided to do these mixes?

"It's a lot easier than creating from scratch. I can take a jam, feel it out, and try to add some jack to it if needed. I try not to get all experimental with it, I want the remix to have the same elements it did in the original. Remixing is fun, and it seems to be a genre on its own. Besides, no one is satisfied with the original mix anymore it seems. Might as well have fun with it."

Care to add anything else? Pet peeves apply here.

"I can recall when there was only 'house' music in Chicago. In a mix you would hear techno, house, deep house, disco, hip hop, jazz tracks, all in one mix. Things have gotten so categorized that often people only want to hear one narrow singular type of music. Kind of sad, and I hope things change. Variety is the scary spice of life. Technology, no matter how deviant, is a wonderful thing. Embrace it. I could have got into computer recording long before I did but I was too pig-headed and fossil-like to make the effort. Racks and racks of prehistoric gear for someone like me ain't a good way to make music. I should have moved to an all-computer setup a long time ago. I had no recall with my setup. Now I can open up something I did eight months ago in Reason or Sonar, and it's just how I left it, right up to the last patch I was editing. Now I have sounds beyond sounds. I can take a shitty track I did a year ago that I left on the 'to do' shelf, and remake it into something worth listening to, burn it, and play it live. This is the way to make music. Embrace technology.

"Same thing with DJing. CD turntables have been on the market for over a decade now, but I just got into them in my own studio maybe a year ago. I could pimp-slap myself in the face for being so late coming into it, because the benefits are so big. I've sold most of my vinyl and I only have one Technics 1200, which is covered most of the time. I went from having a crate of about 120 records for six years to having thousands of digital tracks in a few weeks. It's so nice. Learn the new toys and network, network, network.
All my remixes will be posted on my site for listening. All my netlabel releases will be available for download from my site as well, and feel free to contact me to talk shop, remixes, whatever."