Five Things with Serge Santiago and Firas Waez from Waze & Odyssey

FW: I got into electronic music via friends, early Slammin Vinyl tape packs in my car. UNKLE’s Psyence Fiction album really got me into electronic sounds. I started at the bottom in the club world handing out flyers – that moved on to getting residency in Sheffield, which pushed me to try and learn more.

2.Inspirations

Film, people, music. Mainly Daft Punk’s Homework album. We must have listened to that a million times. Neptunes, early Basement Jaxx. It all helped mould an idea for the future.

3.Your Crew

Our label Street Tracks has released music from acts like Citizenn, Ejeca, New Jack City, Eliphino, XXXY, Urulu, Steve Huerta, Sage Caswell, Bodhi, Squarehead and more, and everyone is wicked. It’s cool when we get to hang out together, and we love keeping it a family thing. The crew is building! We’ve got releases from Quell, Palace, Neville Watson and Manik forthcoming to the label.

4.The Music You Make And Play

It’s house music first and foremost. Whether it’s tougher, a little lighter – it’s about what feels good at the time, what works. We’ve been building our studio and developing the equipment we’re using to make it; that has been cool. Our Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1 in the UK gives you a good idea of our DJ sets – jacked-up house music that we enjoy playing. But to be honest, it totally depends on the time and day. You feed off the crowd, that’s the key thing.

5.Music, Right Here, Right Now

It’s in a good place. The UK is definitely seeing a renaissance in the bigger events but the underground is as strong as ever. London is our home turf and has a great scene and variety, but definitely the regional cities are really holding their own. There are some amazing parties in the UK at the minute – amazing vibes, great production and totally slick organisation.