Lost And Sound
Lost and Sound is a podcast exploring the most exciting and innovative voices in underground, electronic, and leftfield music worldwide. Hosted by Berlin-based writer Paul Hanford, each episode features in-depth, free-flowing conversations with artists, producers, and pioneers who push music forward in their own unique way.
From legendary innovators to emerging mavericks, Paul dives into the intersection of music, creativity, and life, uncovering deep insights into the artistic process. His relaxed, open-ended approach allows guests to express themselves fully, offering an intimate perspective on the minds shaping contemporary sound.
Originally launched with support from Arts Council England, Lost and Sound has featured groundbreaking artists including Suzanne Ciani, Peaches, Laurent Garnier, Chilly Gonzales, Sleaford Mods, Nightmares On Wax, Graham Coxon, Saint Etienne, Ellen Allien, A Guy Called Gerald, Jean Michel Jarre, Liars, Blixa Bargeld, Hania Rani, Roman Flügel, Róisín Murphy, Jim O’Rourke, Yann Tiersen, Thurston Moore, Lias Saoudi (Fat White Family), Caterina Barbieri, Rudy Tambala (A.R. Kane), more eaze, Tesfa Williams, Slikback, NikNak, and Alva Noto.
Paul Hanford is a writer, broadcaster, and storyteller whose work bridges music, culture, and human connection. His debut book, Coming to Berlin, is available in all good bookshops.
Lost and Sound is for listeners passionate about electronic music, experimental sound, and the people redefining what music can be.
Lost And Sound
Jonnie Wilkes - Optimo/Naum Gabo
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When Jonnie Wilkes and former Lost and Sound guest JD Twitch began their Optimo Espacio night one sunday in 1997 at Glasgow’s Sub Club, did they think that their eclectic style of mixing house and techno with post-punk, krautrock and far outt exotic treats would kickstart an institution, as well as carve the way for a dancefloor seachange?
On this week’s show, Jonnie takes the mic to share his auditory odyssey with us. The narrative weaves between his distinct loves for both DJing and music production, and how this ties into a background in fine art. With over two decades of experience to his name, Jonnie offers profound insights into how his artistry has shaped and been shaped by the reverberations of the industry. This echoes into talking about jis recently released Naum Gabo album (made with James Savage and released on the hugely influential DFA Records) is a dark, post-industrial journey that explores the outer reaches of electronics.
Wilkes' candid reminiscences and musings on the emotional tapestry of live performances cast light on the intimate connections forged between DJ and audience, how our physical surroundings influence our creative process and the fluidity of art.
F.Lux by Naum Gabo is available now here.
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Lost and Sound is proudly sponsored by Audio-Technica
Paul’s book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culture Capital is published by Velocity Press. Click here to find out more.
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Lost and Sound title music by Thomas Giddins
Lost in Sound With Johnny Wilkes
Speaker 1lost in sound is sponsored by audio technica , and right now I'm wearing a pair of the ath m50 headphones . I love them . They fit great and snug . They're for the studio or for out and about , like where I am on a bench in berlin . Audio technica are a global but family-run company that make headphones , turntables , cartridges , microphones quality yet affordable products , because they believe that high quality audio should be accessible to all . So , wherever you are in the world , head on over to Audio-Technicacom to check out all of their range of stuff . Thank you , hello and welcome to episode 129 of Lost in Sound .
Speaker 1I'm Paul Hamford , I'm your host , I'm an author , a broadcaster and a lecturer , and Lost in Sound is the weekly podcast where I chat with an artist who works outside the box , from global icons to trailblazing outsiders and emerging innovators . We talk music , creativity and perhaps that most daunting part of being an artist the praxis of life . Previous guests have included Peaches , suzanne Chiani , jim O'Rourke , chili Gonzalez , cozy Fanny Tootie , jean-michel Jarre , mickey Blanco and Thurston Moore , and today on the show my guest is DJ producer artist Johnny Wilkes . Meanwhile , my book Coming to Berlin is still available in all good bookshops or via the publisher's website , velocity Press , and hopefully next week I'll have some exciting news about some new stockists there . Yeah , okay . So on the show today , johnny Wilkes is both DJ and producer . As a DJ , he's one half of the duo Optimo , the other half being former guest on this show , jd Twitch .
Speaker 1The two started their Optimo Espacio night in Glasgow's House Mecca , the sub club in the late 90s . Night in Glasgow's House Mecca , the sub club in the late 90s . Their eclectic style of mixing in techno and house with post-punk and all sorts of musical deviations made the night , which ran until 2010 in its earliest incarnation , a total institution . Over the years , the pair have cemented an untouchable reputation , both individually and together , for their adventurous curation , a deep , deep love of niche genres and an ability to tie this all in together where it matters on the dance floor . But that's not all away from optimo and away from twitch . Johnny has been working for nearly 20 years with the engineer James Savage . They've been getting together every week for about 20 years and some of the material that they've started gathering together has emerged under the name Naum Geibo .
Speaker 1The pair released an album under the name Naum Geibo on James Murphy's DFA label in March . The album is called F-Lux . It is a deep atmospheric record with touches of industrial , with dark ambient , with experimental techno and dub . There are parts every now and then where you can really dance to it , but there are a lot of other parts where the music more transports you somewhere else , perhaps somewhere industrial , somewhere nocturnal , quite solitary sounding . It's very much like musical sculpture , and Naum Gebo is a reference to the Russian sculptor and theorist called Naum Gebo as well , and this is a clue also to Johnny's formative experiences in the fine arts .
Speaker 1We speak about how , whoa , there's a plane . Yeah , I'll just let that plane go over there . I think I'll keep that in . Actually , yeah , everyone likes a little plane noise , don't they ? Yeah , so we speak about how he approaches the different creative disciplines in his life and how they overlap or don't , about drawing influence from your surroundings and about his approach to djing um , which at the time that optimo espacio started was was really really kind of a different step from .
Speaker 1I remember . I remember I was living in edinburgh at that time , not far from glasgow , and I remember there was a kind of very orthodox approach to what people like to dance to . You had your techno people , you had your house people , um , and they came along and they . They kind of ripped that up really and it's a blueprint . But artists since then I'm thinking like errol alkin of james murphy have really , really taken on board this eclecticism , this kind of rock kids meets the raver kids and everything's all the same , or everything kind of melts together .
Speaker 1The interview in places , uh , we had to uh , the zoom signal uh was pretty bad and so I had to take separate channels of our audio and edit them together and mostly this works totally fine . But every now and then you can hear one of us just reply a little bit like acknowledge what the other person's saying , and it sounds like we're down the other end of a telephone , because in a sense we were . But I really enjoyed chatting with Johnny and this is what happened when I met Johnny Wilkes . Okay , johnny , how are you doing ? You're in Glasgow right now . Do you have spring in Glasgow yet ?
Speaker 2Actually I was just saying that yesterday I thought I felt different and I went out to the back garden and I saw a few buds on the trees and plants and I have to say I got a bit of a lift , because it was pretty grim there for a while .
Speaker 1Yes , it's the same here in Berlin . Suddenly we've had spring the last couple of days and suddenly everyone is out and people aren't looking so aggressive at each other as well . So I mean , you've got the Naum Gebo album Apologize about the pronunciation on that and it arrives 27 years or so since the first Optimo Especio night . Looking back , how do you feel that you've changed the most as an artist and a DJ over that time ?
Speaker 2Well , I think I mean the two , producing music and DJing . I kind of never really integrated the two , so they're two sort of separate activities for me . Separate activities for me I mean to deal with DJing first of all . I think really from day one of Optimo I began to think about DJing differently because I didn't think that I could play that way prior to then , having spent it was 1997 I suppose from 1990 through um playing burley straight ahead , house and techno and not really um digressing too much , and um , when we started Optimal there was really nothing at stake for myself and Keith and we just thought the whole thing kind of opened up for us in reality and what we could play , as well as an idea prior to that . And I've never really played the same way since . So I still admire artists who really specialize in one kind of , perhaps a kind of micro-genre , but for me it feels a bit different . I'm always looking to kind of integrate other sounds into what I'm doing . So really since the start of Optimo I think I've grown a lot as a DJ . I mean it is most of my DJ career . I was only DJing for about seven years before that DJing for about seven years before that , but I think it changed everything . For me going through that time , especially in the early years , when we had a residency and it really was possible to . I think a DJ residency in itself is an amazing opportunity and it's not such a Common thing these days , but I really think it makes you a better DJ and I think it makes you Experiment more . It makes you Feel the room in a different way . I couldn't Recomm recommend it enough actually to play every week in the same room for 12 or 13 years . You really really begin to find your feet and some of the things that might be at play in other contexts or may be difficult in other contexts are actually reassuring in the context of a residency . So it leaves things open for much , much more creatively . I think and it's something that we've started a residency again recently in Glasgow . It's not in the true sense of the word , it's every eight weeks , but we do our . I feel already after a couple of years that I'm really becoming familiar with that room and it's maybe the place that I'm beginning to play best , maybe better than touring gigs . So , but that's a very personal thing . I'm beginning to play best , maybe better than touring gigs , but that's a very personal thing . I'm sure other DJs feel very differently about that , but the experience of having that was very important to me . And with production , as I say , I've never really merged the two practices at all and I've never really thought of them the same in terms of a kind of a process or , yeah , as a creative process . They don't feel the same at all .
Speaker 2I've been working with James Savage on music for over 20 years and really for me personally , that's been a great outlet for , you know , in a way that I've been able to fulfil a lot of needs as an artist , you know , to try and pull together musical ideas and put something out there that's come from me . That's , sadly , something that I need as a person , but it's been a huge learning curve as well . You know , when I first met James I suppose it would be , probably would be most of 20 years ago I went to a studio in the in the centre of Glasgow to try and well , I thought I was going to master these tracks that I made . But once I got there and we listened to them in the in his studio , I sort of realized , you know , it wasn't a mastering job , it was a mix problem and really what I was recording through my home studio was , or what I thought I was recording wasn't what I was recording , and there was a huge repair job needed and I think I've begun . And then James and I became kind of friends and decided we should like you know , I think I brought something to the table for him . He brought this wealth of knowledge in terms of engineering that I didn't have and I think every time I sat down beside him and we've been meeting every week or more for over 20 years every time I sit down beside him I'm learning all the time . So I'm indebted to him for what I know now about production and that's been brilliant for me .
Speaker 2But , as I say , very , very different , creative approach to DJing . I really like finding out how I can achieve these things in terms of production and it's kind of I don't know . It's one of the only aspects of my life where I'm like gathering kind of like the skills up and I really like that . It's like it's like right and I know how to produce that and I know how to , you know , get this machine , to talk to that machine and get and I'm not particularly nerdy about this . I don't really enjoy conversations about , you know , multiband compression or like expensive outboard mastering equipment and who's got what and what's better than the other . I'm not down with all that at all , but I do enjoy kind of learning techniques .
Speaker 2I was an engineer before . I was a DJ , not a sound engineer . I worked in engineering . So I've always been kind of interested in building things and being able to fix problems . And you know , a lot of studio work's to do with kind of finding new routes for things and kind of ways that you can get one thing to control another thing or at the very least one thing to control another thing or at the very least one thing to talk to another thing , or I kind of like the relationship between all these components in the studio and how you can begin to make really unique sound by the kind of connections that you make .
Speaker 1So yeah , I hope I've explained that that . Yeah , it's a great explanation , thank you . And and with that I love what you're saying about how you and james meet up every week for about 20 years now , when it came to making this album
Creating Soundscapes Through Collaboration and Exploration
Speaker 1. Was there a period of the feeling of that you were working specifically on this album or did it come out of just the flow of you always meeting up weekly ?
Speaker 2I think we never really felt that motivated or any obligation really to put everything in one place and make an album before . It was kind of a hobby for us and we were making 12-inch releases on various labels and we were jumping about design work . We were taking on little bits of work for um , short films . We were , um , really just doing . You know , we always had something to do when we went to the studio and meet and it might be I will need to get one more track ready for that release or something , but there was no sort of sense of urgency in terms of producing an album and and then I've got it . It's such a cliche . But when lockdown hit and it was really the first time in many , many years that we could go and meet one another and eat bad food and make tracks together and we started to swap files about and I'd send him something and he would expand on it or process it a bit , or send a MIDI part and maybe elaborate on that and see how these things were combining and we're starting to coming up with this kind of . There was a character to the kind of all these little sketches that was coming through and we were like , well , you know , maybe we could , maybe we should put all these things in one place and maybe it's an album . And I mean we soon got out of that set of circumstances and were able to meet at the studio . But that was the beginnings of it and I really don't see it as a lockdown album at all . I don't feel that way about it . But that was maybe the point when we thought let's try and work towards that . We didn't have an outlet for it at the time . We didn't have a label , particularly interested in it or anything Wasn't really caring about that Probably would have done it anyhow a self-release thing or a cassette or something . We were fortunate enough that DFA I just sent it to James Murphy actually I don't really know why . I think we've been chatting a little more actually than we had been in recent years and I said I must send you some music . James actually did . He's expressed an interest in what we've done over the years . I must send you some music . James actually did . He's expressed an interest in what we've done over the years in a sort of quiet way , and I remember he put a track or a couple of tracks that we'd made on a little compilation . He did , and I always knew he had a kind of big interest in what the Nom Gabo thing was and I sent him this album , which was pretty much complete at the time , and it's vastly different from any of the music that he would have come across from us prior to that , I mean . But Sam was telling me that he and James listened to it on the big tannoy in the DFA offices there and Williamsburg .
Speaker 2I think they just really enjoyed what it sort of brought sonically . They've really got seem to have a really great energy for the label now that Sam Duke's involved and they're releasing loads of really interesting younger artists not us , but they are . They've got some great . They've got a great release schedule ready and kind of they're reissuing some obscure , more difficult stuff from the back catalogue as well and it seems like really really lively what's happening there . And I mean I'm not under any illusions . I know that the record that we've made might be quite challenging for some people , but I think they're open to that level of difficulty . I was just so pleased when when they said they'd like to do it and the whole experience has been like , yeah , it's just been a pleasure working with them . They've been really great .
Speaker 1Oh , that's cool , it's good to know and I feel like with the album as well , there's this sort of element of like industrial and like music concrete to it and I'd read , at least in the press release it sort of talks about how , um , the music is a kind of reflection of like sounds from real life and , uh , accepting how sound is around us all the time . Um , I was wondering if you could elaborate that on what your processes or what your thoughts were about , how we take in sound all the time and how that fed into this work .
Speaker 2I guess it's kind of disturbing if you consider that we're never not exposed to sound and that's I think it's quite a responsibility to inflict sound on a listener and sound on a listener and I don't really know as a as an artist , sort of what my responsibility is there or what really . Even I'm trying to communicate , but I'm really to communicate , but I'm really , and when I think about the album and when I listen to it and I took a break from listening to it I listened to it the other day again in a slightly different context and different speakers I'm thinking back and I'm not even sure how we produced some of the sounds . I guess I could go to the sessions and open up and look at the buses and see what's on , what we're using and things like this . But you know , for me I've got a very sort of visual imagination and even when these songs are coming together , I feel like I really do see things . I feel like I really do see things and they feel like they're certainly from my world and I try and hold on to those things and if they feel important and interesting , then that's something that I'd try and retain through a track and hopefully have a kind of coherent image by the end of the track .
Artistic Process and Musical Evolution
Speaker 2And these might be . They may have begun as field recordings from reality , but they may also be just synthesized sound . So I'm kind of aware of that . You know , I can't remember how you referred to it , don't you you ?
Speaker 1you , you like um sounds from real life yeah , sounds from real life or or like kind of oral dissonance uh , I think was a term as well . Uh , I mean I don't . I think it kind of means something very different to different people . But for me , what I took away from that was you know how like just sounds . You know , there's so many sounds we just hear in day-to-day life and in our environments and how like sometimes we kind of our ears just block them out and then other times they do form part of like a kind of soundtrack of our of our day , without necessarily us seeing it as music all of the time sure , sure .
Speaker 2Well , maybe that's close to what I was saying about .
Speaker 2If something like that becomes apparent , then trying to hold on to it throughout that bit of music and making a slightly clearer picture of it , and particularly where our studio is geographically . I'm sure maybe if you were listening to the album and I took you round Glasgow in the car , you might say I think the album was made close to here and you might well be right , because the area that the studio's in is kind of there's a serenity to it at certain times of the day because it's right by the river , right down at the shipyards , and early evening when there's no one about , it's very quiet , very peaceful . During the day , you know , the scrapyard is non-stop , the cranes are going non-stop , the forklifts are running around in the yard , there's people using heavy machinery , there's there's a whole plethora of sound there , but there's also kind of there's a landscape there and I think it's definitely informed some of the tracks on the album . I often wonder what it would be like to go to one of these residential studios , you know , in a beautiful green valley and with a panoramic window I know they exist and just to make music , or to make music in front of the sea or something . Maybe I should try that . Maybe the next album should be made somewhere else .
Speaker 1Yeah , I saw Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios . I always kind of imagine like that , just like sweeping hay bales outside .
Speaker 2Yes , that's the kind of place I was thinking about and I think everything to your . You know it's not a particularly comfortable place that we work Peter Gabriel's studio probably is . There's probably a little bed you can lie down on . Things like that . You know we don't have that yeah , yeah , I'm , I .
Speaker 1I . I think it's also like there's people , different artists , have different things that just in their lives don't they um around that ? And um , I mean , you have a background in fine art as well and I I was wondering , does that still play ? You know , obviously , that there's a name check to to fine artist in the name of the album as well , but does your fine art background have any bearing on how you approach music , or is that just like something completely different ?
Speaker 2Well , I think maybe some of the stuff I was wittering on about earlier which weren't very well-formed ideas at all , duncan , but I was trying to maybe allude to the fact that I do see things when I'm making music and I do see the process to a degree as as similar , and when I was making art I was never really tied into one medium . It was like the idea was the thing for me and that could be translated . Tied into one medium , it was like the idea was the thing for me and that could be translated sculpturally through a film , through a performance , through a publication or I didn't really care . It was the idea that was important to me and finding the best way to communicate that . And I don't think I always kept music and art very . I tried to keep them apart because I felt that I'm Especially DJing . I never really felt that I had an identity very much as a DJ , because I know a lot of people thought , oh , he's the kind of arty guy that DJs as well . And then a lot of maybe my peers in the art world would be like oh , that guy that has the exhibition's , he's a bit of a maniac , he's a dj as well . You know , it's like and I was like I don't , you know , I don't know who I am and I don't know what I'm doing , and I gave up art and went only with music .
Speaker 2But I really like and I say I've probably softened a bit and I've come to realise that , like I said earlier , that I do have needs in terms of , you know , needing to have some sort of fulfilment creatively , and I don't see the two things as very far apart at all really , and they certainly give me , I think , the satisfaction that I get from it . I know what we have as an end result . It's entirely different . I think what I have as an end result , it's entirely different . I think what I'm getting from it as an individual is a similar feeling , and so I wouldn't be , I wouldn't exactly say that what I knew as an artist or the way I was informed , the way I do do music or anything like that , but I do think where I'm left now as someone who's done both , um , it feels kind of the same so like a different sort of set of like technical skills , but a similar sort of like thing that you need to do .
Speaker 1Do you think like a sort of similar like communication or something ?
Speaker 2yeah , I mean , even like breaking down the process is like the sort of very , very fundamentally , the process feels kind of the same what you need to , the things that you need to pull together to realise something that then can go out into the world as art or music and sort of apply the same techniques . So that feels the same and I'm okay with that . But I feel like the last 25 years has not been entirely wasted and I wouldn't rule out even , you know , thinking about making art again , because I feel really that I've become better with these things that we're talking about , which is like strategies for making a cohesive idea that can be put out there as expression . And , you know , maybe I would find it easier now . I don't know .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean , I love the way they're sort of describing the whole thing about the process , but including the creativity is like strategies for putting out like a cohesive idea .
Speaker 1Um , and on the music side as well , or rather on the djing side , one of the things , the biggest things that I've sort of feel anyway , um , from say 97 , when optimo first , the optimo night , first happened , to now , is that there's always been this sort of sense of just joyfulness about music , with , with what you do as a dj and what you and keith do as a dj , and that involves playing lots of different styles . And now it feels that with streaming and with like several successive generations that have come up that do listen to music in a very , very different way . Because I remember in the 90s I was living in edinburgh at the time that , um , all right , but it felt very , very in a way like I don't know if tribal's the right word , but like you know , there was like the . You know we had like I think there's like nights like burger queen and stuff like that and and um , you know it was . It was like very much like edinburgh seemed like a house city , glasgow seemed a bit more of a techno city .
Speaker 1There was a bit of an indie scene , but people didn't really between them , whereas now I feel there's a lot more fluidity , probably from the way people consume music and listen to it . Did you feel like , at the time when you started to be playing different kinds of music together , did it feel like you were doing something that was really out of step with everything else ?
Speaker 2Yeah , and , to be fair , it upset a lot of people . I think probably that's a good case in point . You know , edinburgh in the 90s , glasgow in the 90s , there was a real yeah , there was a feeling that you know , if you went to certain clubs and you were really , really immersed in certain forms of house and techno , that really , you know , a lot of people didn't see much beyond that and they saw anything that kind of deviated from that as kind of irreverent and not in a good way , like in a kind of in a way that was just spoiling things , whereas like we had the notion that things could be a little more irreverent from the point of view becoming much more fun , because , frankly , at 1997 the house and techno scene was not fun . No , yeah , it was something else . The drugs have become awful . The clubs had become mainly populated by boring straight men .
Evolution of Dance Music and DJing
Speaker 2This is kind of the you know dance music anyhow , and for us to boot open a few other doors and try and play just music that we could make a sort of some , regardless of what that was .
Speaker 2You know , there was tenuous links in our head that meant that I think this can work on a dance floor , and it did and the people that came , you know , in our head that meant that I think this can work on a dance floor , and it did . And the people that came , you know , started to go to our party and then subsequently , you know , the party was so crowded for years and they became very accepting of us experimenting like that , whereas , as I say , there was a lot of people who were really upset about it . Especially , you know , we were hosting the party in the sub club , which was kind of , you know , it's one of the most important locations for house music anywhere on the planet and we were starting to play post-punk records and kind of all sorts of oddball stuff in amongst dance music and people were like literally saying to us you can't do this in the sub club .
Speaker 1And I don't know how radical we really were , we were just having fun and it was a great community that built up around it , you know yeah , and it's funny because I think , like you know , now the new album is on DFA and I do feel like something like what James Murphy went on and did in the noughties felt like a little bit of like the ball . You know like a passing I don't know what the expression is , but you know like a passing of the ball onwards in terms of these ideas . You know of a kind of eclecticism and kind of putting like post-punk in there with techno and just like a love of sound .
Speaker 2James was so important , he changed things so much . When we put on the Rapture in the very early 2000s , james had come . He was their sound engineer . Actually the club had burnt down actually the sub club and we were in a temporary location and we had a very DIY set up . It was quite a difficult room and James just got . He was the engineer . I'd never met him before and he got stuck in and he didn't moan about the fact that the you know the , the desk was off to the side and you know the line of sight was bad and the monitoring was difficult to all get on state . There was so many problems and he just worked around it , worked around it and he would like we did this gig with . It was with this band , the Rapture , you know and we were like it was really amazing . And he said to me oh , by the way , have this , you might like this . And he gave me a 12-inch and I took it home that night and it was losing my edge .
Speaker 1Oh , wow , yeah .
Speaker 2And it was so indicative of the kind of spirit of what we were playing at the time and I was like fuck this guy , like he totally gets it . And , of course , you know , nlcd just blew up , didn't it ? And he was like such a and I don't know if James would concede to , you know , having this sort of very , very watertight vision for the type of music he wanted to make . He was just like doing what he , he was just doing what he liked and it was just caught the wave of something and , um , I think club music ultimately benefited so much from from um , from what he did .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean , and obviously what you and JD did is did and do as well and like um , what do you feel like now , when you're both playing now or when you're playing individually now ? What do you think in terms of when you're DJing ? Do you enjoy now the most about DJing , Like you know , looking at it through , like your eyes and ears that you have now compared to when you started ?
Speaker 2I think when you played that as many gigs as we have played together I mean it's Keith and I have played over three and a half thousand parties together on every continent in the world and you know , if you want to get into it , it's like that . I think a lot of djs or maybe they don't want to maybe concede that you maybe didn't play your best or as well as you could have , or you weren't as adventurous as you might have been , or you didn't play that record that's been in your bag for weeks and you've not been , or you didn't play that record that's been in your bag for weeks and you've not been brave enough to play it , you know . So I think I would imagine most DJs privately are critical of themselves and I certainly am . If I don't play as well as I might . It makes me really sad actually .
Speaker 2But when I come away and I feel like I've given I mean I always give as much as I can to it , which I think is a lot , but I think when it goes well , it's really really , and I mean personally , I mean it's kind of I'm sure you look at Instagram like every DJ smashing it in front of every huge crowd . It's like no one's , like no one's conceding anything about shitty gigs or bad sound or poor performances or anything . It's like there's too much to lose , you know . But believe me , it happens and when it happens it's absolutely soul-destroying . But when you play well and you get something of yourself across and you can feel a real , genuine connection with the crowd that's there , it's really an incredible feeling .
Speaker 2And I feel that , on the touring point of view , keith and I are getting better and I'm not saying that you get better with age or anything thing , and because some of the younger DJs that I come across on the same lineups are absolutely phenomenal . But I do think that you can learn a lot from having a long career as well . And I think that we're really enjoying playing at the minute and we're fortunate enough to be placed in , you know , into a lot of great lineups and a lot of great festivals and a lot of great clubs , and I think it's like I'm just thrilled that we're having so many good gigs and you know I'm enjoying it so much . If I didn't enjoy it , honestly , I couldn't go out there . I would just I would just wrap it up and do something else , but I'm really , really enjoying playing at the minute and playing with Keith and like just yeah , I feel fortunate to be able to have this as a job . Still , you know .
Speaker 1Okay , so that was me , paul hanford , talking with johnny wilkes for lost and sound podcast , and we had that chat on march , the 15th , 2024 . If you wondered about what we were talking about , like the early signs of spring , that's what it was . It was from a little while ago now . Thanks so much , johnny , for sharing your thoughts and your time there . The naumgabo album f lux is already out . It's on dfa records and , of course , my book coming to berlin is available in good bookshops or via the publisher's website , velocity press audio technica . Thank you so much
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Speaker 1.
Speaker 1Our sponsors , sponsors of this podcast . Audio Technica , the global but still family-run company that make headphones , turntables , cartridges , microphones , studio-quality yet affordable products , because they believe that high-quality audio should be accessible to all . So , wherever you are in the world , head on over to AudioTechnicacom to check out all of their range of stuff . The music that you hear at the beginning and the end of every episode of lost and sound is by thomas giddens , hyperlink in the podcast description . And so , yeah , thanks so much for listening . Um , yeah , I hope you have a really , really , really wonderful day . I'm really due another coffee right now . I feel I really need to wake up a little bit . I hope , whatever you're doing today , you're having having just a really , really fucking lovely one and , yeah , I'll chat to you soon , thank you .