Nik says 'the only thing we have a problem with is finding time in our schedule to record it. Dom's got more fingers in more pies than Mrs. Beaton and Mr. Scruff put together so sometimes it's a bit tricky to do shows'. How do you respond to this pie-fingering allegation?
I can't deny it. I'm a sucker for a bit of crust tampering. I guess my problem is (like Nik) I'm a workaholic and get bored just concentrating on one thing so inevitably I've ended up doing too much: running my Wah Wah 45s label, writing, and running club sessions, writing for Straight No Chaser, hosting a couple of internet shows, promoting two or three London club sessions, DJing as much as I physically can, writing press and sleeve notes for a few small record labels whilst trying to hold down a sound engineering job, supporting a certain North London football team and keeping both my Girlfriend and Mother happy with regular guest appearances! Nik's no slouch in the pastry poking area either by the way.

The lady is cracking! She could start a riot in a mortuary and is one of the nicest ladies around to boot

It's rumoured that you live in a Church and the studio is a spare room? Is it the one on the Samurai FM photo with Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' cover on the wall?
This is all very true, and yes, Coltrane sits between two stained glass windows and above the decks like the focus of some kind of pseudo-jazz altar. I try to 'worship' there at least three or four times a day, although sometimes the neighbours complain about the noise levels during my services.

Nik says you like the twisted funky stuff? The track listings for NipponSpeedyExpress would seem to suggest that's right with an increasing jazz thing?
Twisted is a term that I can relate to for sure. Any music that has that little twist, a bit of added spice that separates it from the norm is alright by me. Producers who have that 'twist' in their work, for me, are people like Moonstarr, Quantic, Daedelus, Marc Mac, Domu and so on. People who take jazz music forward into other dimensions. I know that sounds a bit pretentious, but these guys are fighting the good fight against mediocrity and apathy in music. And they should be supported!

At the same time, I have a lot of respect for labels like Gerald's Jazzman imprint, a label that educates listeners in yesterday's boundary pushing artists. Tracks like Terea's 'Little Bird' and Masque Myers' 'Black Land Of The Nile' are tunes that may well have been forgotten by a whole new generation if it wasn't for people like Gerald, and others like Jake at Counterpoint, Dan Jordan at Harmless and Miles Cleret at Soundway.

In terms of the differences in what Nik and I play, this can vary from show to show. Nik's selections obviously often feature a lot of Japanese rarities, exclusives and underground shit, but at other times he might drop a bit of twisted hip hop, deep jazz flavours or broken beat sounds like me. I guess we react to what each other is playing at the time to a certain extent. In contrast, my milkaudio show is a one man journey into deeper areas and often features a lot more old jazz and soul as well as suitably moody new cuts from artists like Mos Def, Tom Tyler, our own Unforscene and so on.

Nik did his bit about Mukatsuku at Clinic and you'd have been doing Stoned Monkey at the same time on a different night
I was a regular guest at Stoned Monkey in the mid 90s at about the same time Nik was doing Mukatsuku at the same dirty, dingy (but absolutely classic) venue. I remember seeing The Amalgamation Of Soundz playing at Nik's night and being blown away at the atmosphere he'd achieved at a weeknight club. I'd only seen that at Bar Rumba on a Monday! (And often still do by the way!!!). Stoned Monkey of course became Mouseorgan when I took the night over in 1998 and eventually left The Clinic when I made the mistake of booking Gilles Peterson at the venue in 2001. There were more people queuing up down Gerrard Street than you could ever fit in that tiny space. It was a great (if incredibly sweaty) night though. I remember Benji B and Zinger arriving with Gilles just as a fight between a group of South Africans broke out in the bar. They'd also brought Raphael Sebbag (from UFO) with them, who turned up in his trademark pristine white suit, took one look at the funky, sweaty little toilet that The Clinic was and legged it immediately!

How did Wah Wah come about?
I joined the Wah Wah club session in 1999 after I'd booked Chris Goss (then part of London Elektricity) as a guest at Mouseorgan. The connection was pretty immediate between Chris, his brother Simon and myself. We all share the same love of Tommy Cooper, Morecambe and Wise, Fawlty Towers and, of course, dirty funk and jazz records! In fact, our last proper Wah Wah session at The Jazz Café ended with the three of us doing the Eric & Ern' dance to 'Bring Me Sunshine' on The Jazz Cafe stage.

We then moved on to 'I Love Wah Wah' parties at Catch in Old Street, before moving to Clockwork in Islington, North London, where we've recently been putting on live acts alongside our DJ sets. Guida De Palma was a recent guest, in her Jazzinho Sonico guise, just her and a percussionist with a backing track. The lady is cracking! She could start a riot in a mortuary and is one of the nicest ladies around to boot. And she is a regular vocalist with Chris Franck's Da Lata project. We've also had DJs from across the globe spinning with us.

Recently our good friend Kahuun from Norway and Richard E were guests. Kahuun is a wicked DJ and spins a lot of broken beat (but in a really funky way) and drops a lot of his own killer productions that mix broken sounds with fucked up jazz and heavy live double-bass sounds. He's a name to watch for sure. Richard, as I'm sure you know, is also a top geezer, owner of a wicked little record label (Further Out) and one of the smoothest DJs I know both in terms of his gorgeous bossa/jazz records and his dress sense!

It's also been rumoured that Richard E has been spotted leaving Wah Wah HQ in the early hours. Does this mean a joint venture?
OK. I admit it. We're gay lovers. Just don't tell our girlfriends.

Also, what's happening with Norwegian connection Wah Wahmoose?
Wah Wahmoose is a hook up between our friends Eivind Olsvik and Espen Horne in Bergen, Norway and Wah Wah 45s. They ran a night called Moosejuus in Oslo and a collaboration made sense due to Espen's access to rare Norwegian jazz nuggets and our desire to put them out on wax! At the moment, that project runs at about one release per year. It's a very niche market with Espen providing a remix on the flip of every 7". You've just reminded me that I must give Espen a call and see if we're gonna get one out in 2005!

Are you a regular visitor to Norway?
I've been to Norway many times and I have to say it's one of my favourite places to spin! (There goes all my Swedish gigs...). Bergen, Oslo and Stavanger are hotbeds of underground music with the likes of Butti 49, Hi Fi Terapi records & The Bobby Hughes Combination hailing from these most beautiful corners of the country. The crowds in Norway are ace, if usually quite inebriated and largely have an unpretentious and open-minded attitude towards the music they hear. I remember Kahuun dropping 'Future Jazz' by Mustang at Hi Fi Terapi in Stavanger last time I was there, and the crowd went absolutely mental as if it was their all time favourite tune. It was the first time it had ever been played there as far as I know.

What's forthcoming on Wah Wah 45?
Wah Wah 45s (to give the label its full title) has moved from releasing one 7" single a year, to one release a month, including 12s, tens, sevens and very soon, LPs!

Alison Crockett's 'Crossroads' has been remixed by DJ Spinna and Unforscene's 'Don't You Worry' has been remixed by Domu on a broken beat tip with Ms. Alice Russell on vocals (HMV's nu-jazz 12" of the week this week!).

This Spring we'll be promoting releases by our young prodigy Aaron Jerome (as previously featured on fly), including his remix of Capstone's 'I Don't Know' (featuring Quantic on guitar!) and his very own debut solo ('Man Troubles'/'Jelabi'). Aaron is a really talented guy who I first ran into at Release The Groove Records in London. He has now become a solid member of the Wah Wah team both DJing and producing music as well as looking after our lovely website. He's a producer with a very unique drum sound, largely broken but very soulful which is partly what made him right for the label. We've also got a single dropping from our own funk rockers, Talc, which we expect to cause a big stir (See below details of Talc gig at Cargo with The Wah Wah 45s Players House Band!) and some Eastern European twisted funk breaks from Hungarians Easylifenatural remixed by Nostalgia 77.

As well as that we're hoping to release more new music from Alison Crockett, Unforscene and Rosie Brown and will be dropping our first LP release in the autumn from another young prodigy, Max Cole.

How did you get into doing the reviews in Straight No Chaser?
I've been writing for Straight No Chaser for a couple of years. I got into it through Sean McAuliffe who was doing the page before me. I was given a break by the legend that is Paul Bradshaw as he'd been receiving my weekly(!) charts for sometime and I'd worn him down! Of course, I'd like to run the whole magazine one day such is my megalomania!

Do you review your own singles?
I try not to review my own material if I can help it, although, I must admit, I have bolted a few honest words about Wah Wah 45s cuts onto the end of my Straight No Chaser reviews once or twice; it's just too tempting!

Have you any plans to go to Nik's wedding ceremony in Japan?
I only managed to get to Nik's London wedding but then it was only ten minutes from my house! Although I am going to Japan soon for about ten days and will be DJing with the likes of Toshio Matsuura (ex-United Future Organization chap), Raphael Sebbag (still in UFO and the wearer of those wicked suits!), The Jazz Brothers and my fellow Arsenal supporter Mr. Gilles Peterson. I get the feeling it's gonna be like nothing I've ever experienced so I'll let you know when I get back!

So as Dom jumps on the next train out of North London thinking of Thierry Henry's Achilles tendon, the Shinkansen (Bullet trains) and the possibilities of more Wah Wahmoose, keep checking the various 'pie crust' web sites below as there's no sign that this man will stop prodding the pastry of jazz, soul, funk and all other tasty goodness. Praise to the preacher, he deserves your support.

Links
Samurai FM
Wah Wah 45s
Jazzman
Counterpoint
Harmless
Speedy's Audio Repair
Forwards Backwards Show
Clockwork 96-98 Pentonville Road Islington, London N1 9JB
Release The Groove, 20 Denman Street, London W1D 7HR
Further Out Recordings
'Future Jazz' Mustang
Straight No Chaser
Cargo 7th April 2005
THATS HOW IT IS 2 @ Bar Rumba, Every Monday: 36 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 7EP
Nik Weston www.nikweston.co.uk

LIVE: TALC + THE WAH WAH 45s PLAYERS
DJS: AARON JEROME + DOM SERVINI + SIMON GOSS & CHRIS GOSS
Cargo, 83 Rivington Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 3AY £4 ADVANCE / £5 ON THE DOOR

Nippon-Speedy-Express No. 17 tracklisting
Dom's 30 mins
1. Tribe Called Quest - Jazz We Got - HHJ
2. Wale Oyejide - This Is Dedicated - Fat Beats
3. Plantlife - Bottle Of Hope - Gut
4. Heem and Music Monsters - Wake Up People - Jazzman
5. Phuturistix - Chohiba - Phuture Lounge
6. Intuit - Planet Birth (Truby Trio Remix) - Compost
Nik's 30 mins
1. Afronaught feat. Alison David - Now or Never - Especial Distribution
2. Mixed Moods - Stay A While - Groovement
3. Okada Taxi - Tell Her - Planet Groove
4. Face - No Fear - Especial Distribution
5. Evil Ed - Nico Suave Inst - Janomi
6. Sunaga T - Versillian Samba