With almost 25 years in the Electronic music industry, Vince Watson has released over 250 projects worldwide, including 11 albums and 75 remixes, and his hard work has been rewarded with recordings for some of the very best electronic music labels like Planet E, Yoruba, Poker Flat, Cocoon, and Transmat as well as running his own Everysoul label. His unique style and skillsets have allowed him to work with some of the very best electronic musicians including Laurent Garnier, Derrick May, Richie Hawtin, Sven Vath, Carl Craig, Osunlade, Steve Bug & Josh Wink, and as a touring musician has been able to play at some of the worlds best clubs and events including Enter at Space, Ibiza, Berghain Berlin, Womb Tokyo and many events in The Netherlands.
Now, Vince Watson is set to present his new Amorphic project, which sees the seasoned DJ & producer walk down the ‘dark side’ between pulsating beats and earth-quaking subs.
EG caught up with Vince Watson to learn more about Amorphic, the release of ’01’, mindsets and workflow, and what the future holds in store for the veteran artist.
EG: Hello Vince! It’s a true pleasure to have you here with us today. How have you been? Where are you right now?
Vince Watson: Hey, I’m in the studio at 0600 ready to start. It’s production day, so who knows what’s gonna happen!
EG: Congratulations on the launch of your new Amorphic project! What’s this all about?
Vince Watson: It’s simply a way for me to express myself in this direction, something I’ve had been wanting to do for 4 years. Covid messed up my plans, but it helped me prepare even more. I wanted to do it comprehensively, so I’m glad I had the extra time to get ready for launch.
EG: So this entails a new alias and a new musical direction? What was is it that triggered this need for a different platform for your music?
Vince Watson: It’s not really a new musical direction! I needed a way to separate my music up, so I made a grand plan 4-5 years ago to design my output a little better. ‘Quart’ was the first part of the story, with its nujazz and downtempo album on BBE a couple of years ago. Amorphic is the second part of the jigsaw. There is one more to be revealed, which focuses on IDM and Electronica [and has already 2 albums ready to go] but let’s take it one artist at a time! 🙂
EG: And now you’re ready to share ‘01’, your debut release under the Amorphic moniker. Congratulations! What has the initial reception been like?
Vince Watson: I’ve been very grateful for the response. I knew a lot of the artists in the scene already, but even the ones I did not know seemed very happy to have me enter the ‘Dark Side’. I’ve had great support from the DJ side of things, with many A-list techno DJs testing the tracks for me and spinning them over the last months since we opened up again. It made me realize that it’s taken me too long to do this, but better late than never. I was a little wary of being accused of jumping on the ‘techno bandwagon’ because Techno is ‘cool’ again…but I think anyone that knows me and my discography well enough, knows that this isn’t some kind of desperation to be cool 🙂
“I’ve been very grateful for the response. I knew a lot of the artists in the scene already, but even the ones I did not know seemed very happy to have me enter the ‘Dark Side’”
EG: What was the inspiration behind ‘Amorphic A01’? What will listeners find on this particular release?
Vince Watson: The entire Amorphic sound is essentially me making hypnotic sub-heavy techno with each track being a trip of evolving textures and huge low end. ‘A1’ and ‘A41’ are the first 2 tracks to see the light of day. ‘A1’ is on the Ben Sims side of things, and ‘A41’ is a little bit more polyrhythmic and intense. There is also going to be a side label called Morph, which will be a bit more sci-fi and deeper, so it’s not all intense kickass beats, it will also be techno with real depth but overall, I think the main theme is hypnotic.
EG: Amorphic will also see you change the way you play live, switching over to a completely hardware-based set-up. How hard was it to take that step after playing with a laptop and Ableton Live?
Vince Watson: I wasn’t sure what the hell to do. There are many ways to approach it, and I think I went through five different setups before returning them all until I discovered the Akai Force. It’s essentially a slightly limited Ableton Push 2 that’s a stand-alone with an MPC inside it, so it seemed like the perfect instrument to try to make it work. I was fortunate to be invited onto the Beta program for Akai and when I discovered that Disk Streaming was coming sometime in the future, I started testing the new lives using the beta software, and thankfully the public release came just before Covid started to fade. The transition from Ableton on laptop and controllers, to being able to just play without looking at your computer screen was really fun. So much so, I am now intending to transfer my VW live sets to the Force. I’m also using 2x Novation LaunchControl XL, Roland SE02, Roland TR8S, and some other bits and bobs along the way. It’s great!
EG: These kinds of changes also usually have an impact on the way in which we view/create music. Has this been the case?
Vince Watson: I’ve been blown away by this. I did an Amorphic test gig in Colombia recently at a festival, and by the time I had finished my set, I had 3 tracks that I didn’t have before I started the gig. By being able to jam and mash up so many stems and parts, it’s given me so many ideas. Then, getting into the studio, I can fine-tune them and bring in sounds from my other machines. The Force really has made me create tracks on the fly, it’s been an inspiration. Not having to look at a screen just makes things more fluid. It will allow me to really focus on the keys when I’m doing VW gigs as well, so I can play strings and piano easier.
EG: How will you manage Vince Watson and Amorphic? Are you both of them at the same time? or do they require completely different mind frames?
Vince Watson: I have always produced in phases. I deep dive into a particular vibe and tend to stay there for 2-3 months at a time, which allows me to get a lot of music finished. All my artist projects get attention 2-3 times per year for a prolonged period, and it really works for me. I get to express myself in many different ways. For example, Amorphic already has all its releases signed off for 2022 and half of 2023 already, so I’m about to switch back to VW and finish the next album for release later this year. I don’t think I would be so productive if I wasn’t able to switch like this. Things get stale, you start running out of ideas…so take a week off and then deep dive into a new direction for a couple of months.
“I did an Amorphic test gig in Colombia recently at a festival, and by the time I had finished my set, I had 3 tracks that I didn’t have before I started the gig. By being able to jam and mash up so many stems and parts, it’s given me so many ideas”
EG: What else can we expect from Vince Watson & Amorphic in the near future? What new milestones are you looking out for in the coming months?
Vince Watson: For Vince Watson, the follow-up album to ‘Moments in Time’, called ‘Another Moment in Time’, is about to be completed over the next 6-8 weeks, as well as remixes for John Beltran, Joe Claussell, and Souldynamic. For Amorphic, we have releases coming on Modularz, Symbolism, and Token, as well as a whole host of podcasts to help me get the artist off the ground as well as I can.
Electronic Groove: Thank you so much for your time, Vince! We wish you all the best for the future!
Vince Watson: Appreciate it. Thank you!
Amorphic’s ‘Amorphic 01’ is now available. Grab your copy here.
Follow Vince Watson: Facebook | Soundcloud | Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify
Follow Amorphic: Instagram | Bandcamp
