The producer and DJ behind Simple Records and Aus Music, whose sound is self-styled “deep dubdiscohousetechno with flashes of soul”, pulls together an amazingly eclectic moodboard on the eve of the launch of his DJ Kicks compilation. Read, learn, love.
No Will Saul moodboard would be complete without Build. I met Michael Place (the founder of Build along with his wife Nicky) whilst working at Sony Music over ten years ago now. He does all my artwork – for my CLOSE project, DJ Kicks and also both identities for my labels Simple & Aus. He’s done some amazing work over the years – a lot of album artwork for Warp (he did the stunning Flying Lotus LA album artwork). He’s the master of typography….
Richard Wright
Richard Wright won the Turner prize in 2009 and I’ve been a big fan of his for a while now. His work is best described in his biog…
Through his unique intricate painting methods, Wright injects complex works into often overlooked architectural spaces. As he says:
“In the end the position of the work could be half of the work for me. In the first instance the work has the possibility to effect or change the way you are drawn through the space; it therefore has the potential to reveal the space in a new aspect.”
Working predominantly with paint and gold leaf directly on walls, his paintings are often short-lived, only surviving the length of an exhibition, they are painted over at the end of the show. This often seems to heighten the senses of the viewer in the knowledge that the work may not be viewable again, in any other place, at any other time. Wright’s oeuvre includes a wide range of works made on paper, from prints on poster paper to elaborate and complex large-scale works that can include thousands of hand-drawn and painted marks. As Douglas Fogle remarks:
“Wright’s subject matter, if it can even be called that, is derived from a variety of sources. His kaleidoscopically converging lines, repetitive geometric progressions, and baroque decorative fragments collide with a variety of extrapolations of typographic fonts and patterns seemingly derived from the world of underground tattoo design to form a kind of hybrid, graphic Esperanto.”
Pedals
Moog: http://www.moogmusic.com/products/Moogerfoogers
Eventide: https://www.eventideaudio.com/pedals/space/
These little puppies are a pretty important part of my creative process when writing music at the moment. I run pretty much everything I write from pads to drums through various combinations of these and they nearly always come with something good. They often completely transform the rhythm of a drum groove (Moog Delay) or the texture of a pad (Eventide Space). You can get a little lost in them though sometimes in the sense that they are so absorbing you will fiddle about for ages and lose focus so you need to be quite disciplined about how you record through them otherwise you’re left editing for ages. Sorry, I geeked off a little bit there…
I used to work at this shop when it first opened. Simon Rigg the manager is an incredible record buyer and his team are all ace. Whilst I don’t DJ with vinyl anymore, I still scour their site to keep abreast of everything that’s being released and always pop in to say hello (and usually buy a load of CDs for the car) when I’m in London. I still miss the interaction with music lovers and record buyers, other DJ’s, friends….
Nike ID
I can spend hours on here designing my ideal shoe….then my wife will see my creation and laugh and I’ll chicken out and go for black on black….
I do run quite regularly to keep fit so my moodboard would be a lot darker without a decent pair of running shoes…it’s also just about the easiest and cheapest way to keep fit if you travel a lot – all you need are the running shoes and you can head out wherever you are in the world.
How middle-aged is that!! I live in the middle of the Somerset countryside with my wife and young son and we recently moved into a house that had one of these bad boys. Basically it’s got two hot plates on the top and one is just about the ideal cooking temperature to cook steaks perfectly and in a controlled way. The other plate is not as hot but allows you to keep things warm. Same applies with two ovens. It also keeps the kitchen nice and cosy. Rock & roll.
I do love a good shirt. Nothing beats putting on a freshly dry-cleaned shirt. Makes everything feel a little bit better for a brief moment….George FitzGerald is renowned for having the strongest ‘shirt game’ in house music….ha ha ha…
Coffee
With a 2.5 year old, Coffee is a massively important part of my morning and definitely shapes my mood (i.e., if I don’t have any I’m moody). I tried Nespresso and bought one of their machines and they’re great but I find their pods all have a certain flavour so would rather plough through a large pot of decent strong filtered coffee. I do miss good London coffee shops….
Will Saul’s DJ Kicks is released by !K7 on 16th July 2014
