7 Sides of Oli Furness
[Interview & Mix] | Selector After Dark

This week’s interview & mix comes from Oli Furness

 

Introduce yourself and tell us about the part of the UK you’re from?

Oli Furness from God’s little playground Manchester, home of the brave, land of the free. A place submersed in a rich musical history and moaning. both as important as each other for a true Northerner.

 

Tell us about some of your British DJ heroes?

Some of my favourite British DJs are probably people like Paul Woolford. Aside from him, the late Trevino was always something to behold as well. Craig Richards, Andrew Weatherall, local lovelies Krysko & Greg Lord (of WHP) are definitely up there – they have kept Manchester dancing between them for longer than I care to remember.

 

What have you been working on recently?

I’ve been in the studio an awful lot the first half of the year and managed to wrap up a few cool projects. I’m happy to have some stuff coming out on what happen to be some of my favourite labels, a VA on Clone Jack For Daze, and a 6-tracker EP on DJ Haus’ Unknown to the Unknown, both labels I’ve been sending demos to for over 3 years so I’m happy to have finally clicked with them. I’m focusing hard on studio work for the rest of the year after a month or so off to hopefully keep things rolling.

 

Tell us about the mix, how did you put it together, what did you want to represent?

The mix was done at my mate’s house as I only have one deck at home and its sole purpose is for scratching on. The mix is put together of tracks I’ve been playing recently and some tracks I’ve not played nearly enough. I wanted the mix to encompass the different flavours you would usually hear from me in a club environment. A mixture of raw rhythms & textures, I enjoy mixes that are punctuated correctly allowing the dynamics to shine through, so hopefully this gets somewhere near that.

 

Talk us through the British music featured in this mix? Which British artists are you most excited about?

So the artists I chose to represent in the 15 minutes of British talent at the start of the mix are UK artists that are close to my heart. I tried to play some older tracks out that might have been slept on and one that you probably haven’t heard before, so hopefully blowing off the dust on some quality tracks and giving props to these UK artists. As for British artists out there at the moment, there’s a lot to be excited about. I just hope some of that talent isn’t over looked for people more “ Social Media savvy” shall we say.

 

What is on the cards in the immediate future?

Trying to find my way through this industry. I gave my job up a few years ago to concentrate on being in the studio more and I’m still really pushing hard on learning my craft so that hopefully pays dividends and I can keep myself sat comfortably in the studio. Aside from that my label Music is Love is 5 years old in December and we are putting her to bed to allow the sister label to become more prominent, so plenty of prep and A&R to get through.

 

Where is the best place in the world you have DJ’s and why?

I’m lucky enough to have played in some very fun / interesting situations in some fantastic parts of the world. Playing the Caribbean was pretty ideal – 2 week holiday for a 2 hour set – but I suppose in all seriousness there is only one real winner and that is and always will be Glastonbury. The reason is very obvious but in case you haven’t been its Disneyland for adults, madness & gladness in equal measures.