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INTERVIEW: Wordlife

15 August 2013 | 8:38 am | Hannah Galvin

Read up on everything that's happening in the world of Wordlife, as we had a chat to the duo's Adam Bozzetto.

Adam Bozzetto and Barney Kato are the two gents that make up Sydney based duo WORDLIFE. Harbouring deep house and electronica, the pair illustrate a constant hankering for thick beats and a good groove.

Part of the Club Mod roster, the two have just recently released their Breakthrough/Small Talk EP through the label, and have taken it with them on the road as part of their Club Of Life Tour.

As the party-life of their past continues to force its way into the future, we thought it was time to have a chat to the dance music champions that are Wordlife. So we did, with half of the act – Adam Bozzetto.

To set things straight, just how did Wordlife form?

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Wordlife formed one night when I was out at Flinders, and we were both kinda talking about not working with people, and I wasn't doing a whole lot at the time so I just kinda put the idea out there to see if he wanted to make some music.

We've known each other around Sydney for so long now that I guess it wasn't real hard to get started.

In saying that, it was easy to assume that Adam had been working musically prior to this arrangement?

Yeah I'd been producing and I'd been releasing for maybe three or four years before that just under my own name. I know Barney had done some collaborations before. So yeah, I did a lot of my own stuff and I think Barney had done a few things here and there with a few different people.

If you've ever read Wordlife's bio, you'd notice that their beards receive an honourable mention. Obviously an important element to the Wordlife pairing, I asked Adam who he thinks sports the greatest beard in the world.

Well the best beard in the world, I have no idea. But I'd have to say out of the both of us, I'd have to say mine. It's more full. I can't say “wog”, but.. it's more wog..

The boys have had a pretty close connection to the label Motorik who have actually recently celebrated their second birthday. In terms of Wordlife's involvement with the brand, what has been their most memorable experience?

Ohhh all the parties. But I'd have to say our headline party because I think it was like, when they realised and when we all started to realise like wow, people actually come to party and it's not just a bunch of guys nerding out in a corner with techno music.

The whole crew was there. And yeah, we were like wow, this music can happen and we can do these kinds of things, play these kinds of parties with Motorik and they'll actually work! They'll be busy and people will come and be a lot of fun.

And I guess the first release was a memorable moment with them because I don't think we ever expected Motorik music to be able to be played on radio. So it was a big surprise to us when we made a song that was techno and through Motorik but we actually got away with it and we actually heard it on radio. Like wow, they're playing this at like midday?! I usually hear stuff like this at like midnight! [Laughs]

The boys were lucky enough to play FBi Radio's final All Our Friends parties at the end of July. What does the community radio station mean to Wordlife?

Well Barney has a show on FBi. But I guess FBi for us is where we know we can have our music heard. FBi gives it more locally a chance. You know they're going to listen to it and you know they're going to try and play it on radio if they can. It's Sydneysiders go-to radio station I guess!

Having been on the road for the Club Of Life EP tour, Wordlife would have some fresh memories from the recent shows. What's been the greatest experience from this particular tour?

There's probably two; firstly it was great to go down to GoodGod and have people come to see the show. It was really cool with the people there. People just go to a club to just go to a club, you know, they don't know there's like proper DJs playing and all that. So it was kinda like the crossover into almost being a band which was cool. I think people knew that they were only going to hear Wordlife songs. They knew they weren't going to hear DJ songs and they were okay with that. So that was really cool.

I'd also have to say Elsewhere, just because the guys that run the party up there are legends. And people were just getting loose and getting down.

It must be pretty sweet hearing your own tracks interpreted differently from other successful artists. As the original artist, I was keen to hear Adam's take on absorbing his tracks in a new light from Kyodai and Doc Daneeka.

What was the best thing to actually see was how cool the remixes were I think [laughs]! Like to be able to choose someone that was just off the basis of “well these guys are cool, we like what they do” and then to have them do that and get back two really cool [remixes] – well we had three in the end. I think the coolest thing about it is to have the freedom to go to those guys. Like to go “who do you want” and to go “well actually we want these guys” and Club Mod would be like, “alright, we'll make it happen”. And they actually made it happen, and we actually got like super cool remixes. I think one was XLR8R's highest downloaded remix for the week. For a pretty underground, cool remix, it was really cool to see. The success of it as well, we got who we wanted and also it was really successful.

Wordlife have held a residency with Triple J's Mix Up Exclusives recently. Considering their longevity, just how long do these mixes take to prepare?

You know what? I reckon it takes a really long time because Barney does most of the tracklisting [laughs] and I send him what I want in there as well, and I make my own suggestions. He does all the order and I don't see him for two days. So I reckon that's a solid like 16 hours [laughs]. And I'm sure there's some Facebooking in those 16 hours and some of me calling him and talking about new songs or whatever, but yeah. For an hour mix, I think that's a long time.

And the amount of time – I know Barney probably more so than me – the amount of time he just spends on the Internet, looking for cool songs.. Like I reckon if you had to put a time limit on it, I'd put like two or three hours a day just listening to mixes and listening to new music to actually find the songs. Heaps and heaps of hours.

The dudes have been busy putting together the clip to their track 'Small Talk'. What can we expect from the vid?

The guys that have done it – Negative Films, it was just out of fun, they just asked if they could do something really so we let them do it. And they created like The Real World, the characters. So they did all their own illustrations, and there's a lot of animation in it. It's cool.

With 'Small Talk', I guess we use a lot of old samples and older sounding – when I say “older”, the vibe and the drum sounds and things like that. With this clip, we do make a cameo at the end which is kind of cool. It's almost like two worlds colliding in a way. They've messed with some old footage but they're with their animations and that's actually kinda the story to the clip as well. It's like our world meets with this surreal world, which you know meets this animated world. I guess you could say it's kinda like the song. Old influence mixed with new sound.

With such a brilliant first half of 2013 knocked down, what can we expect from Wordlife for the rest of the year?

Well there's three releases lined up that will hopefully all come out this year with Club Mod, Motorik and another Australian label called So Solid. So hopefully there'll be a lot of music. Well the two obvious things I guess: a lot more music and more shows now. I think through the Triple J Mix Up residency and the releases with Club Mod. A lot more people know about our music, so there'll definitely be more shows, especially around Christmas time I hope, and there's three releases in the works. Also hopefully some collaborations. We'll be in America for, well for Barney I think a month and I think I'll be there for a bit over two months to do some collaborations again through Club Mod. That's probably the most exciting thing. A whole bunch of collaborations on these records and future records from hopefully not just Australia.

Words by Hannah Galvin.

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