Gwill Morris has developed his talents both on the underground scene and the major club scene. He is a favourite with Silver Planet recordings and will be pleasing them and many other record labels, with his own unique production style in months to come! Also catching up with his DJ'ing side-but not on some wrecked Gemini's I bet!

Gwill Morris is a rising star of the progressive house scene, identified by mixmag as one of the stars to watch for 2001. his first release on silver planet as main element (hedfuk/delta of venus) started as he means to go on, earning inclusions on Nick Warren's global underground compilation as well as Lucien Foort's newest outing, not to mention a multitude of american comps. since then, he has been consistently on form.
(courtesy of Silver Planet Recordings)


The interview:

Firstly Gwill, you have a few aliases, what are they?

"I'd really like to take the opportunity to clear all this up. Main Element is me on my own, Ogenki Clinic is me and James, future sound collective is me, Hywel Dunn-Davies and Duncan Ellis. I love James, and his work, but I'm sure you can appreciate that its a bit annoying when a lot of my work gets attributed to him!! I also record just as me -Gwill Morris! I'm planning to resurrect an old deep house project 'atom / manhattan project' with an old friend Scott Edwards who records as Avus for Easy Access."

To me you have been a key figure in progressive/house for the past two years, but when did you start producing?

"Been doing it for about 3 years now. I used to DJ loads round little clubs in Oxford and run a radio show with Scott but I got really frustrated at how hard it was to make it just from DJing, no matter how good you are. It's all about politics and contacts. SO I thought I'd give producing a try, I thought it would be a more level playing field."

What was first your production without an alias?

"Gwill Morris - Fuktitles, it came out on a little label called midset so stayed pretty underground. It's still prbably one of my favourite tracks that I've done. James and Hywel did a wicked mainline remix too that was Mike's (from Hybrid) WMC tune last year. Hybrid rule, so that was nice!"

Common associations lie with Silver Planet and Midset, who gave you your first record deal?

"Cant remember who came through first actually. I think the first deal came from Midset but due to their huge organisational skills I think Delta of Venus/Hedfuk actually came out first on Silver Planet. "

You touched on DJ'ing around clubs in Oxford, but what made you stand back and think, "i want to take this up seriously"?

"I've always been involved in music, I played the violin from 7 and used to compose classical music when I was a spotty teenager. Then I got in to clubbing and DJing and Production came as a natural step from that - DJing is like the best clubbing ever, you get free beer and get to choose the tunes! I dont really think that you need classical training to be a good producer as is often implied by the snobbier among us, it's a different skill. I think the beauty of electronic music is that anyone with intrinsic musicality can produce their own opus."

Many of our interviewee's say the underground scene was their influence, what have been the major influences that have touched you?

"The first album that turned me on to Prog, and a different style of house than the honking bollocks I was into was the first Northern Exposure album. Still remains the finest mix CD ever I think. James (Holden) is a big influence on me, I love the way he produces and he uses the same equipment as me so I'm constantly having to re-evaluate the way I work. I also love William Orbits early work, the Strange Cargo albums are amazing, especially 3 and 4. Everyone loves Aphex Twin too I guess."

To me your style is much more unique than many, especially 'Fuktitles', how would you describe it?

"It's always hard to describe music, and inevitably leads to pigeon holing which I think is the death of so much good music (ie loads of stuff is pigeon holed into the new big thing - trance for example, everyone jumps the bandwagon, comercialises it and bastardises it making it rubbish and killing of a good music genre - listen to 93 proper trance and tell me that it's cheesy shit, it used to rock). I just try and write a good interpretation of whatever I'm into at the time, with heavy lashings of delay and reverb."

When you hear a DJ begin to mix in one of your tracks-how does that feel?

"Strangley enough I always seem to miss out on hearing it! When Silver Planet were DJing in New York we went to see John Digweed at Twilo on the Saturday. I got sick and left quite early. When I next saw John he told me he'd played two of my tracks and I'd missed them both!"

What have you got coming up in the near future? mix compilations, productions,collaborations?

"Lots and lots. I'm taking time to really focus on my production and DJing career from August. I've got a new single 'take me down' forthcoming on Silver Planet (already featured on Sasha and Digweeds recent essential mix), a few remixes in the pipeline, I'm mixing the next fear of a Silver Planet CD, I'm collaborating with Cass on a track and an album track....... erm probably loads of other stuff I cant remember too!"

Away from producing, do you get the opportunity to DJ?

"The only regular slot at the monet is the 'Ogenki Clinic' silver planet night in Brixton. I tend to get random gigs in far flung places, poland next I think. I love travelling to DJ. I've played quite a lot in Melbourne, my favourite city in the world. Got a lot of friends there and I love the scene (and weather!). There is probably an America tour coming up soon to promote the Silver Planet album, cant wait!!"

When did you get your first set of decks?

"About 6 years ago."

What make were they?

"Gemini, properly wrecked now!"

Can you remember the first 12" or 7" you bought?

"Almost certainly the first kylie minogue album when I was about 8 or something. The one where she is wearing abig hat on the front with 'I should be so lucky on it'. Still tops my chart, should go down a treat at elements next month."

Where has been the most memorable place you have DJ'd?.. and why?

"Stern Radio in Berlin, a perfect DJing weekend! The people that run it and the resident DJ Namito are SO nice and really looked after me. Berlin is a great city and the club was mental, still heaving and screaming at 9am! Brilliant... Namito if you are reading BOOK ME AGAIN!!"

Do you hold any residencies?

"See above - SP night only, open to offers!!"

.... and a non serious question... if you werent into music..what would you be doing?

"I am actually a doctor at the moment! Pretty hard squeezing it all in right niw, but I'll be packing it in in August to be a full time dosser, erm musician."

"Discog what I can remember"

Singles:

FSC vs Ogenki clinic - Beautiful (Silver Planet)
Gwill Morris - Fuktitles (Midset)
Main Element - Hedfuk/Delta of Venus (Silver Planet)
Main Element - Generation/Narcosis (Silver Planet)
Ogenki Clinic - First Light/Kirei (Easy Access)

***forthcoming ---- Main Element - Take Me Down (plus Lemon8 rmx, Gwill Morris dub and Infusion rmx) (Silver Planet)**** (plug plug)

Remixes

Chimera - poison (Gwill Morris remix) - silver Planet
Innate - changes (future Sound Collective rmx) - platipus
Shapemaker - shine eye (future Sound Collective rmx) - rotunda
Microman - the door (future Sound Collective rmx) - rotunda
Adam Dived - state of Painic (main element rmx) - additive
Graham Camp - Stabiliser (Main Element rmx) - automatic
Yum Yum - Heavy Fluid (Main Element rmx) - bedrock
Ashtrax - Digital Reason (Ogenki clinic rmx) - deviant
Drive - the beat goes (Gwill Morris rmx) - global recordings
BluePhaze - the bell (Main Element rmx and dub) - Vapour
Sonic Infusion - reformatted (Main element rmx) - Polyester
Mad Dogs - sudden journey (Main Element rmx) - Silver Planet

Many thanks to Gwill for conducting this interview-musnt have too much time on his hands-being a doctor and quality producer!