Omnipresent dance music force, Paul Woolford, is coming with the single of the Summer. Teaming up with Serbian producer Pessto, the pair are set to release ‘Can You Pay?’ a high-octane revitalizing house reworking of the iconic 90s R&B classic ‘Bills, Bills, Bills ’ by Destiny’s Child, personally approved and signed off by the band themselves, and released 8th July via Ministry Of Sound. Encompassing elements of Jersey house and bouncing drums, ‘Can You Pay’ delivers the same effervescent rave energy that has become synonymous with Paul Woolford, but this time with added heat from Pessto through the prism of THAT iconic vocal.
EG caught up with Paul Woolford to learn more about the drop of ‘Can You Pay?’, his plans for the summer, forthcoming remixes, plans as Special Request, his views on the current state of the industry, and more.
EG: Hi Paul! It’s a pleasure to have you with us today. Where in the world are you right now?
Paul Woolford: It’s a pleasure. I’m in Ibiza by the pool, just had lunch and a good long sleep last night so getting ready to go again soon.
EG: First, congratulations on the release of ‘Can You Pay’! How did this opportunity come about?
Paul Woolford: Thank you! Yeah, so Pessto started the track, sent it over and I jumped on it and completed it — we were just following our instincts completely, it wasn’t a cynical move and we had no idea if it were possible to clear it. We realized the idea as direct as we could, and then once we had it very close, Dipesh and the team at Ministry loved it and looked into what it might take to clear it. At that point, Sony publishing approached Destinys Child directly. This process took a good 9 months, and eventually, everyone personally signed off on it, Beyoncé and Kelly were pretty fast and then it took Michelle a little longer, but eventually she did the same, and here we are!
EG: The original is such an iconic track and essentially put Destiny’s Child on the map outside of the US. How did you approach taking on this rework?
Paul Woolford: Well, the only way we were going to do it was if they cleared it and approved it themselves. We would never try having it sung by anyone else, that would have been a fool’s errand. I hear cover versions every day that make my skin crawl, and we didn’t want to add to that pile. The first version we did also had the entire song in, so verses as well, and after testing it out in various clubs and festivals, it was clear the main thrust of it was without the verses, so we focused on the main hooks and kept it super-direct. The tempo of the original works well with a house framework, so the marriage of the two things was a simple combination. I have a bit of an obsession with really direct ideas, and this passed the test of being completely devoid of anything that wasn’t vital to the central thrust of it.
EG: Are there any remixes you’re enjoying including in your current sets?
Paul Woolford: Of this song? I’ve been running a DJ tool version based on the acapella over various things in my DJ sets for the last few months. Sometimes I play the main extended mix, depending on the night, whatever the moment demands, pretty much. But yeah, generally, I’m not mad on cover versions, although I did one with Will Saul back in 2020 of ‘Underground Resistance – Your Time Is Up’ that Mad Mike Banks personally signed off on. Again, it would only have happened with Mike’s approval. I have far too much respect for both him and Destinys Child to do these things any other way.
“The only way we were going to do it was if they cleared it and approved it themselves. We would never try having it sung by anyone else, that would have been a fool’s errand”
EG: You’ve collaborated with the likes of MK and Diplo, and this is your first time working with Pessto. How did you guys come to work together and what was the process like?
Paul Woolford: It was super simple, he’s a machine! I’ve mentioned above how it happened, but just on a different note: sometimes the people around some artists make it difficult, and not the artist themselves. I’m lucky to collaborate with people who are completely sound, I find it really easy working with everyone you mention, but in the past, I’ve had experiences where the artist’s team treat every part of the process in an adversarial manner, and that’s the key to fucking things up. There was no such nonsense on this one. The process has been a dream. I always think you know very quickly how something is gonna go, and I just trust my intuition with these things.
EG: You’ve played some amazing venues around the world -Amnesia, Pacha, Brooklyn Monarch, Midway San Francisco, Dekmantel Selectors – do you have a favourite spot in the world to play? Are there any you’re looking forward to getting back to this summer?
Paul Woolford: Pacha’s always fun and that booth feels really comfortable, the Dekmantel team can be trusted to do everything in the right manner. Space in Miami is a purpose-built playground for fun in this context. I’m gonna make my Tomorrowland debut in Belgium this Summer. Excited to return to Amnesia again this summer for a handful more dates after a wild opening on IMS weekend. If we assume the basics are in the right place (sound system, DJ booth), the things that make me extremely happy are: friendly and professional artist liaison staff, enthusiastic crowd, excellent music programming, and the rest is all circumstantial. Bad programming can ruin a beautiful experience, so I’m a lot more involved with questions around set times these days. We are quite happy not playing an event rather than to play it and the programming be incorrect. All the details count. Generally, the simple things, executed well, will keep me happy.
EG: You’ve been performing as Paul Woolford and under the Special Request Moniker for several years, how do you find the process of balancing the two? What’s the main difference in how you approach your work?
Paul Woolford: SR is a completely different mindset and mentality. The key to balancing them both is down to my own personal privacy, which probably sounds bizarre, but the bond I have with the actual music itself is deeply personal and I take a lot of care to preserve it. What the public sees and hears is merely a small percentage of the whole picture, and all the music I make that does not get released is vital as well, and in fact, nourishes me enough that I can release music in the manner I do, where the output can oscillate quite radically from something very poppy to things that are way more experimental. There are also catalogs of music out there that many people do not know I am behind, dating back many years. The full picture is way beyond what most people will ever see. I find new ways of falling in love with it all constantly, and I realised that I’ve done this most of my life. Incredibly flukey really, because I had no idea it would be the driving force behind it all. You just have to make yourself buzz your tits off constantly. Once you crack that, it’s all fun and no-nonsense.
EG: What are your release plans for the rest of 2022, can we expect more remixes?
Paul Woolford: Certainly no more remixes-as-singles in the manner of this one, but yes there are more PW remixes coming. Tori Amos, Jessie Ware, Dermot Kennedy, and I’m about to work on a killer record by The Magrehban, featuring Omar on vocals. After that, there’s one for Barker & Baumecker. On the last two, you’ll hear what you know of me but through a slightly different lens. Every day I get asked to remix old records and it’s tempting, the money I get offered is eyeball-popping on occasion, but they have to be special to go there. I turn down between 5-8 per week. There are plenty more PW singles coming this year and well into 2023 in various collaborative combinations, plenty more household names, and then, on the Special Request side, there are around 3 albums of new material plus another compilation of Bedroom Tapes tracks from my errant youth to be released. It never stops, nor would I want it to! There are also some other things that I can’t go into here. It’s a lot.
“The coverage we are seeing, particularly in the UK music media, is purely advertising although nobody is talking about this, at all, in fact. If a company that owns a large independent record company constantly puts their own artists on the cover, even if they only put 1 record out a year, that is dramatically distorting things”
EG: What was the last piece of (non-dancefloor) music by someone else that you heard before this interview? Why were you listening to that particular song?
Paul Woolford: I mean strictly speaking you can dance to anything, but in terms of non-4/4 things it was the new Cardi B single with Ye and Lil Durk, total banger.
EG: The pandemic gave us all a chance to slow down and reassess. In the electronic music scene, it even gave us time for some much-needed discussions. What would you like to see more and less of?
Paul Woolford: That’s a huge question. I’d probably like to see a lot fewer armchair critics sitting on the sidelines, picking things apart and not participating. Some of the nonsense I’ve read in the global press in the light of the Beyoncé single and Drake releases were laughable. People whose job it is to write about music being woefully uninformed about things is just inexcusable. In general, I’m seeing things leveling up in ways that mean there is more fresh talent breaking through than ever, every week I meet artists in the first flushes of their careers who all have bags of enthusiasm and good energy. Long may it continue. I’d like to see a full and frank conversation about ownership in the music media because a lot of current dance music media is owned by record labels and/or funded through the side entrance this way. So the coverage we are seeing, particularly in the UK music media, is purely advertising although nobody is talking about this, at all, in fact. If a company that owns a large independent record company constantly puts their own artists on the cover, even if they only put 1 record out a year, that is dramatically distorting things. I recently had a conversation with one of the more well-known managers in dance music and this person had no idea about this stuff, surprisingly. It does feel like the conversation around house music’s queer LGBTQ+ roots is becoming more and more referenced and also discussed in more mainstream contexts these days — again, long may this continue. The spotlight is being shone. I’m barely scratching the surface, but there’s a lot more work to be done out there. How long have you got?!
Paul Woolford & Pessto’s ‘Can You Pay?’ is out now via Ministry Of Sound. Purchase your copy here.
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