WAZE & ODYSSEY
The Orphans’ Odyssey
Sauntering through the packed and dimly lit bar with an easy and comfortable air, Waze & Odyssey stop to search for a coveted table before giving up and elbowing their way to get a drink. Bags are thrown to the ground and beers are swiftly ordered. Time is tight: they’re due on Pete Tong’s show in a few hours, before heading up to Manchester for a late night set.
Waze & Odyssey, a.k.a Serge Santiago and Firas Waez, released their first track Ah Baby (Here We Go Again) in early 2012 and have been kicking up a fuss in the UK house scene ever since. Starting out under a mythical backstory, the duo were cited as US orphans taken in by a New York record shop owner who raised them on a diet of house and soul before fleeing to Detroit. “DJ biographies are so boring!” Firas explains. The London duo eventually threw their cover and continued to spread their sound across our speakers. This imaginative edge adds to a growing web of support, notably from the likes of Pete Tong and Bicep. Consistently producing throbbing new material, the duo set up their label W&O Street Tracks in 2012, a step described as “creating a family that helps you to grow.”
When interrogated about their seemingly intricate fake past, a simple tale is revealed by Serge. “It was one of those things where he (Firas) starts something, I’ll add to it, and it grew into this random story. We wanted to make it a little weirder each time, rolling with it and seeing if it took off. “ A fairly foolproof way to work out who’s been doing their research. “People still book us as a US duo, it’s hilarious!” Their ‘past’ provided an opportunity “to lose a pretence about who we were. We wanted to make it so people could listen to our music and make their own mind up about it; music is more important than the story.” Is it possible that they ever felt like two mysterious names were taking credit for all of their hard work? Firas laughs and shakes his head. “I think that’s a good thing, people were catching on and finding us without any press. It felt like it meant a lot to people. It seemed they were more like ‘Oh wow, we found your tune!’” Their presence has proved refreshing from the beginning, and they’ve obviously been enjoying themselves. “We were quite lairy on Twitter at first,” Serge grins. “It was good fun, it takes the seriousness away. You follow DJs who just moan about their jobs. We would never do that, we love it!”
Pausing to glance around the gloomy room, Serge tilts his head to one side considering whether there was a dedicated aim when they began to make music. “At the end of the day, we wanted to have a career, make a bit of a legacy with the whole thing. We just nailed this track (Feels Good) and we thought, ‘we can take this somewhere’. Every time we got into the studio we would just write and write, then realised ‘Jesus, we work well together.’”
Hailed as possessing a distinctive and recognisable sound, Waze & Odyssey have truly managed to create something fresh and alive whilst avoiding a crowd dictatorship. “If you get locked into crowd reactions, hands up going mental at a tune, that’s all you ever want to see! You have to ignore it, sit back, and write what you feel is right.”
Their tracks prove slick and intricate, held together by a visibly compatible perception of what makes a good sound. “We bicker about stuff,” Serge interjects. “I don’t think we’re that bad!” Firas exclaims. “We’re pretty relaxed. People say we’re lucky as we have each other to bounce ideas off.” “It’s the process in which you work” Serge offers. “Lots of producers do one track per session, we have loop days, arrangement days. You end up not getting bored and it rolls. We broke the system up so as not to lose a sense of what sounds good.” Firas considers Serge’s explanation, nodding before deciding, “we have to work quickly or we think about things too much.”
The band have found a separate interest in the form of their label, which initially exclusively released vinyl before the pair agreed digital had to crop up somewhere. “It’s mostly come from friends, or just listening to tunes … it’s been really fun,” they say. Despite this, they’re familiar with the age-old problem of too many artists. “There’s so much noise now. It’s hard in that respect, but when artists come through … they’re here to stay.” They cite the label as specific – “something might be great but not suited to our style” – without adhering to a strategy. “We’re not going to release all the time for the sake of it. If it’s right, it’s right. We want people to say: that’s amazing!”
Skipping around the UK, you can catch Waze & Odyssey playing in most cities. “We have more direction now” says Serge, “we’re focused and won’t become slaves to A&R men. We talk about everything, whether it’s a good move or not.” Firas pipes up. “We’ve got a lot of control, as we’ve set up so much. You have to stay true.”
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Catch Waze & Odyssey this summer at Field Day (May 25th), Gottwood (June 20th-23rd) and Unknown (September 10th-14th)
Words: Naomi Stanley
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