My first insight into the world of Hip-Hop was from the popular PC encyclopaedia Encarta ’95 in the form of ‘Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s – The Message.’ I remember it quite well; I was twelve years old using my brand new Compaq 386 PC running Windows 3.11, I was so cool... Let’s move on shall we, another six years on and into my teenage years when my musical tastes had evolved somewhat! The first time I ever saw DJ Woody do his thing was about ten years ago and since then my appreciation of Hip-Hop has never been quite the same. When I saw his 2001 World Championship winning routine for ITF in San Francisco I was utterly blown away, I mean I knew that turntablism existed but I thought Grandmaster Flash was as far as it went. Needless to say that year I blew all of my student loan on a Pair of 1210’s and failed miserably at becoming the next best scratch DJ. Having left my DJ’ing prowess back in college I moved onto pastures new and left turntablism to the people who were actually good at it. All these years later I caught up with DJ Woody to ask him his thoughts about beards, his routines and his fondest memories of his world renowned rise to super stardom.

BR.So in all the years I’ve seen you perform I’ve never seen you sporting any face fur, ever thought of giving it a go or do you think Hip-Hop is no place for a beard?

DJW. Hip hop is pretty deep in the beard game, from Africa Bambaata, Questlove to De La Soul's Pos. Unfortunately at 33 I still have the smooth skinned complexion of a 15 year old so odds are you've seen me sporting my attempt at a beard but it's been so wispy you hadn't noticed.

BR.Are you purely a Hip-Hop man or do you like to dabble in any other Genre’s, is there anything in your musical library that would come as a surprise to me?

DJW. Hip hop is widely misunderstood, 'hip hop' isn't a genre it's a culture, in the days of the original hip hop parties of the 70's rap records did not exist, Bambaata or Jazzy Jay would be playing soul, funk, Latin, rock and pop records in the same set. I consider myself a hip hop dj in the original sense so I play everything I feel, it's about how you rock a crowd. Maybe you'd be surprised that I can be found listening to a bit of Black Flag or Minute Men on occasion? (Blame 80 skate videos) I'm a music lover, no boundaries.

BR.I’ve been watching your performances for over ten years now since you smashed the 2001 International Turntablist Federation World Championships in San Francisco, roughly how long does it take you to create a winning routine like that?

DJW. Back when I was battling I was working and commuting say 50 hours a week so my practice time was very limited. My main thing was ideas and I didn't need decks in front of me to think of a good/interesting idea. I believe I won the competitions because I was offering something different, my main motivation was to develop an original style and make technicality advance musicality. Once you have your skills down a routine can take just a few hours to make but being original and having your own style can take a lifetime.

BR.A lot of your routines have quite a big emphasis on melody, do you have any other musical background or did you just start with a turntable and treat it as if it were instrument in its own right?

DJW. We had a piano, a guitar and an organ in my house throughout my childhood, however I was hooked on hip hop from my first taste at maybe 7 years old. I used to have a mess on those instruments but I was more interested in messing about with my mum's reel to reel tape or the record player. I wanted to be Jam Master Jay and at the time I couldn't see the connection between learning the piano and 'Beats To The Rhyme'. As with any kids growing up in the 80's me and my brother had Casio keyboards but I’d take mine to my mates and just write raps over the 'rock' beat pre-set.

BR.A lot of the newcomers to the turntablism world would regard you as quite an inspiration, who were your main influences when you were starting out?

DJW. I wanted to become a dj because of people like Jam Master Jay, Cash Money and Termintor X (or more accurately Johnny Juice). Inspiration came mainly from vinyl as DMC videos were expensive and harder to come by. When I finally got turntables in 1992 I was heavily into hardcore UK rap, it was fast, aggressive and contained some of the craziest scratches ever put on record. We tried to emulate DJ's like DJ Supreme, Undercover, Mada, Renegade, White Child Rix, Devestate, Pogo and Bizniz. Later dj's like Qbert, MIxmaster Mike, D Styles, DJ Noise, DJ Excel (from Wales) and Prime Cuts where very inspirational to me. However I can't overemphasise the huge influence of my own crew the Handroids, 2 dj's from Barnoldswick Mr.Tickle and Filthy Rich, both have such unique styles and our jams together where very formative to my style.

BR.You are responsible for creating quite a few of the techniques used by many turntabalists today including your signature move the Woodpecker Scratch, are there any techniques used by some of the newcomers which make you think ‘damn, I wish I invented that?’

DJW. Certainly in their battle days the Scratch Perverts had me saying that a few times. Today? There are some sick DJ's out there but I don't see so many new techniques anymore, innovation has become more about application of new technologies. The way C2C applied recordings and pre-production to team sets was great, the way people are mixing software, midi controllers and traditional instruments like the Scratch busters is brilliant. A guy called John Beez made a fantastic device to control the Controller 1 pitch using a cross fader. I don't have a sense of 'I wish I did that' because I’m only 1 person and don't know diddly about electronics, but great advancements all the same.

BR.How did it feel when you got called onto the design team to help create the Vestax Controller One Turntable?

DJW. For 20 years turntablism had been developed using a piece of equipment not designed for what we were doing, this was the opportunity to change that so it was fantastic to be asked to be a part of it! I went to the Vestax headquarters in Tokyo and thrashed out ideas for this 'dream machine' with the other dj's involved, very exciting!

BR.When did the decision to go for a full on Audio/Visual set come about, is it something you have always wanted to do but not had the technology readily available?

DJW. I trained as a graphic designer and worked for Granada TV before this DJ malarkey took over as a career, so I’ve always had a massive interest in design and the moving image. When the dvdj gear first came out some years ago I didn't have a spare £15,000 to shell out and performing on CD decks didn't really appeal, however as soon as it became possible to manipulate visuals on turntables I was keen as mustard. Finally I can combine my 2 lifelong passions, art and music in one creative outlet, it's extremely time consuming but I’m loving it!

BR.You have played all over the world with a whole host of different musical talents any stand out as being a favourite?

DJW. I've been extremely lucky in my career and have had the opportunity to jam with many of my musical hero's but one show that remains very special to me as a life long hip hop fan was when I was welcomed with open arms by hip hop royalty and invited to play a set at a jam in Crotona Park in the Bronx (one of the birthplaces of hip hop). I was introduced by Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers and DJ'd along side DJ Jazzy Jay, DJ Red Alert, Pop Master Fabel and Lord Finesse. It was a huge honour to be invited on a stage usually reserved for 'legends only' and the people of the Bronx gave this Burnley boy such a warm reception, a very special day!

BR.Who would you say is the most recognisable person in your phone book?

DJW. You’re asking me to name drop here aren't you? OK then, DJ Yoda, Scratch Perverts, DJ Vadim, The Nextmen and Tim Simenon, 'DJ types' are about as 'celeb' as my phonebook gets.

Finally…..

BR.If the world was to end tomorrow and you could tell our readers to go out and do one final thing what would it be?

DJW. Sensible answer, surround yourself with the people you love and make sure they know it!

There you have it folks; some great advice from one of the world’s greatest scratch DJ’s. Go out, get yourself a close knit group of friends and make sure they know how much you love them.