Catching Up With... Wookie & his FABRICLIVE Promo Mix

It’s fair to say that Jason Chue (or Chewie, hence the artist name Wookie) is a bit of a legend. In and out of garage circles, the music he made in the early and mid nineties helped pave the way for a lot of people. Tracks like ‘Battle’, ‘Scrappy’, ‘Back Up Back Up’ and his self titled 2000 debut album proved that there was life for garage outside of [what the charts saw as] a fleeting dancefloor trend. Once an in house producer for Soul II Soul, Wookie has remixed tracks for a hell of a lot of people including Gabrielle, Destiny’s Child, Sia, Justin Timberlake, Roll Deep and many more, but six or so years ago he became disenchanted with the industry and stepped away from what was a hugely promising career. Re-emerging replenished rumours abound about a comeback single and having played here a couple of times since he started DJing out properly we thought we’d ask him to put together a mix to give our blog readers a taster of what’s to come from his production and his set here on 30th March. Download: Wookie – FABRICLIVE Promo Mix You said before that you were busy working on a tune when we asked you to make this mix. What types of music are you working on at the moment? I’m working on dance music, whether it be garage, house, techno .. I want to do it all! I’ve heard rumblings of a comeback single called ‘2 Us’. Can you tell us a bit about it? It features Rachel K Collier, and in a nut shell it’s basically about enjoying what you have, and being happy. Do you feel like your style has developed since the early days? Developed..? I’m not sure. I was always told I was ahead of the curve, so let’s just hope I still am! I mean you’ve always fused lighter instrumentation with those darker basslines... is there anything specific your working into your productions these days? I want to bring back sampling. I think everything sounds too tight and electronic. I want to be able to sample an old record, and incorporate it into my sound. That’s something I haven’t worked on yet but don’t hold me to that… Your music has directly and indirectly influenced a whole ton of producers who are now dominating the music scene. How do you ensure that you stay current? You can’t! All I can do is stay real. Are enjoying playing out to crowds again? Does it feel different to you know than back when? Well, back in ’99-’05 I wasn’t DJing. I class myself as a new DJ, so it’s a completely new way to approach music, but I love it! What can we expect from a Wookie set next Friday? Hmmmm…. niceness with drums & bass! Catch Wookie in Room Two next Friday.