My interview with Will Holland (Quantic)

I can't tire of his stuff. Each album blows me away. I defy him to make an album I don't like! Wait..um, no. But you know what I mean.This is an interview I did with him a coupla years back for Scoot! just for fun......Will Holland came to San Francisco to perform as "Quantic," which is his DJ moniker. We caught up with him at about 15 minutes shy of midnight, as he was about to take his place at the decks. Our interview was short, punctuated by interruptions from the sound crew, but we managed to get to know a little about Will Holland... . .SQ: How did you come up with the "Quantic" name?WH:I just looked it up in the dictionary [laughs]. It means a homogeneous function of two variables. On the outset, my music is, I hope, very soulful and organic. But on the inside it is quite a mathematical process of samples and beats.....SQ: In addition to 6 albums, you've done remixes for other bands...WH: Well, basically this is how I spend my time. I spend about 10% actually at my home, probably about 20% doing remixes for other people...Let's say a label gets into your sound. Say they have an artist and they want your take on it. It's like the traditional elements of remixing, but now it's more about adding musical elements. Now I'm doing remixes where I'm using just the vocal and I'll entirely reinterpret the song, get musicians to record new elements, or I'll record new elements. I've done over 40 remixes or labels. Primarily it's a good way of experimenting with a lot of possibilities.The other percent of the time I spend with the live band (QSO) we toured this summer in Europe and Canada. We're edging towards America. The other thing I do is DJ and produce under Quantic. It has been hard to spin my time around all these [projects]. We haven't made it to America as a band, but we will.. .SQ: What are you listening to, now?WH: My musical tastes are more eclectic than my output. I listen to a lot of Ethiopian music now, a lot of world music, salsa, whatever I can get my hands on. I'd say the best album I've heard this year is an album by Jose Gonzalez called "Veneer." . .SQ: I have to say that I am amazed. You must be about 10 years younger than me and you've accomplished so much. How did you get started so young?WH: I was into music through my family. My father was a banjo player. My mother was into folk music... I got into playing guitar around 15-16. There was a store called "Mr. T's One Stop Rock Shop" which was a fancy dress [costume] store that sold Father Christmas costumes and also sold records. Basically, I used to go there and buy rock records and I slowly worked my way around the room until I got to Northern Soul, generally just 7-inch Northern Souls records. I eventually got to funk and I started playing soul guitar and got into Northern Soul Dj-ing. . .SQ: What is the most expensive Northern Soul single you own? WH: I dunno. I probably have nothing more than...two thousand dollar records. For singles, I probably have one thousand dollar singles, but I didn't pay any crazy money for them. I think, personally, that there is more good quality Northern Soul music in the north of England than there is in North America.