Bodhi

Hailing from the welsh capital of Cardiff, and calling upon a wealth of diverse and inspiring influences, it’s easy to see and to hear why up and coming production duo Bodhi have got us excited.

We sit down with the pair behind the operation, Luke Welsby and Olly Howells, to chat about how they took their love of Motown and funk and made it into a new type of ultra fluid house music, as well as discussing their upcoming performance at Bestival, their knack for flipping pop star hooks and much more.

The first we heard of you was your recent Beyonce edit, which originally came out under the name ‘Owls & Bodhi’. How did that track happen?

Olly: Well that Destiny’s Child edit was the first thing we ever did together. Then after that we decided to keep doing stuff together, we dropped the Owls, and it just became Bodhi.

Luke: Yeah we had known each other through playing in different bands, and we one day just got together and started banging out music. This track was the first song that we did and it got a really good reaction, so we decided to keep producing together.

What’s your connection to pop/R&B music? You have done edits of Janet Jackson, Beyonce and Marky Mark, among others…

Olly: Well, I like a bit of cheesy R&B to be honest. It’s just a good source.

Luke: I’m more into Motown, funk, disco, but Olly’s the main influence, especially vocally. He’s got a tendency to lean towards R&B vocals when we chop stuff up. It has that nostalgia factor.
Olly: They are really accessible, and give you a hook to work with.

Obviously your music has quite a bit of house influence, it’s also mood enhancing music. Can you enlighten us as to your influences and where this sound comes from?

Luke: It’s difficult to pinpoint what the sound is. It’s definitely house, you know, it’s got the 4-4 beat running through it strongly. One of the main aspects we like to include in our music is a solid bassline that’s really groovy, something that’s catchy, and that sort of comes from the disco, house and Mo-town background I have. We just naturally end up getting to that point where we have drums laid out and we’d rather just smash out a really sort of groovy bassline and then we sort of build if around that.

In terms of influences, if you want to be specific, we sort of listened to Earth, Wind & Fire, The Commodores, Sheik, just that sort of vibe. Contemporary artists, would be like Detroit Swindle, Medlar, Disclosure, Bicep, we love Ifan Dafydd, Space Dimension Controller, that sort of niche of music really.

Olly: Also if you listen to Giles Peterson’s show on a Saturday, everything he plays is a good influence. Three hours of gold.

Do either of you have music idols?

Luke: Jamiroquai. I think my first cd was Jamiroquai, I just loved him.

Olly: Luke, I thought your first cd was supposed to be something embarrassing, not something good.

Going back to your music, can you expand a bit more on your process of how you go about creating sounds?

Olly: I try to make our music sound a bit more natural and not out of the box. Artists like Maribou State, Space Dimension Controller, Bonobo, even Burial, you listen to their music and it doesn’t sound like it’s straight out of Logic Pro. I think that’s important. It’s finding the balance between that, and what sounds good in a nightclub.

If you are djing a club, what is your go-to party music?

Luke: Inner City’s ‘Good Life’.

Olly: Any MK dub usually gets the party going.

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So it looks like you have a ton of shows booked for this year. Have you played many shows?

Luke: We’ve only done about 7-8 shows, which is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Olly: I think we’re most excited for Bestival, that’s a big one for us.

Interesting, so do you play DJ sets? Or all originals? What is your live setup like?

Olly: We are just doing DJ sets at the moment, but we are looking to develop into a live act you know.

Luke: We are figuring out our live setup as we speak. There’s going to be a lot of live percussion, because I play drums. I also play bass, so live bass. Sampling, electronic pads, midi keyboards. We want to make it a big thing once we get to that point.

Bodhi is a sanskrit word used in Buddism and means enlightenment/to be awakened. Why did you choose this name?

Luke: I visited Bermuda for three weeks last year and that’s when I really got into writing music. I visited this tree while I was there. It was the most beautiful, spectacular thing you’ll ever see, a massive tree with all these roots hanging down from the main branches. I took a picture with the tree and later found out it was called a Bodhi tree. We’re both in touch with our spiritual side as well, and do have massive conversations about life and enlightenment. So that’s where the name stems from.

Can you tell us about your recent ’Culture/Deliquesce’ release out on Grizzly?

Luke: Well we have progressed as far as our technical abilities go, so you should see a massive difference between the first EP we released on Push&Run and this. Getting involved with the software, learning, EQing, mixing, it’s a lot more of a polished piece. It just feels better.

Olly: Yeah I would agree, it’s much more fine-tuned than your first EP.

The video for ‘Culture’ is wild! It really conveys that groovy, fluid feel of your music has.

Luke: We went to them with half an idea of what we wanted and they did the rest.

So what else do you have in store for 2013?

Luke: We’re currently chatting with some people to do topline vocals, so we’re actually working with vocalists. We’re chatting to quite a few labels, can’t say where we’re going just yet. We’re also heading to Red Bull Studios in London in two weeks time to do some tracking with a couple of vocalists. Definitely have a couple releases coming up this year.

Any vinyl releases?

Luke: We hope so.

What’s your favourite vinyl?

Olly: The sickest vinyl I bought last was a house remix of ‘Gravel Pit’ by Wu-Tang Clan. It’s called ‘Gravel Flashback.’

Luke: My favorite vinyl release of last year was Bicep’s ‘Vision of Love’.

What’s the scene in your hometown of Cardiff like?

Luke: Cardiff, it’s busy. It’s sort of got a name for itself for producing acts now. There are so many nights popping up it’s crazy. It’s a good thing.

Olly: There’s a lot more choice and competition. For ages it was just two or three really consistent promoters, now there are a lot of new ones popping up. We played a sick show in Cardiff last weekend with Disclosure and Karma Kid. That was really cool.

What’s the last great show you went to?

Luke: The Julio Bashmore show in Cardiff two years ago was amazing. Right before he blew up. There was like 200 people there.

Olly: Joy Orbison at Motion last year was pretty sick.

What do you hope people will get out of your music?

Luke: We write music to please ourselves, but there has got to be some sort of goal for people listening to feel something as well. If what we’re writing makes us want to get up and dance, then we’re on the right course with things.

So how does your music make you feel?

Luke: When we write music, we sort of turn to each other and we’re so excited. I guess it makes us feel like excited children really.

Olly: That buzz. It can be frustrating at times but working through it when you are on to something, that’s what makes it exciting.

What can we expect from Bodhi this year?

Luke: A lot more music, a lot more shows, working with actual vocalists as opposed to samples.

Olly: A lot of mixes. Our own monthly mix series, and a mix for Red Bull.