After a couple of 45's for London's Breakin Bread, the first 12" for Tru Thoughts, 'Life in the rain' dropped in 2001. It was instantly lapped up at Jelly Jazz . A guest DJ booking soon followed and Quantic was projected into the funkyjazzybeaty UK music scene at quite a pace. And it wasn't just Jelly that jumped on the Quantic sound . Pretty much instantaneously DJs across the country recognised the breathtaking and raw talent that this 23 year old had lurking within him. Two solo LPs followed very quickly which cemented his standing before his eager production desires led the birth of his live project The Quantic Soul Orchestra. The band is a firm favourite on the festival circuit as well as in clubland, with his recent tour with soul legend Spanky Wilson being a particular success. Right now he has completed eight full length LPs in his various guises as well as many 12's and a dizzy array of remixes for acts all over the world. And with these remixes, he's managed to avoid any 'quantic by numbers' scenarios, you know it's a Quantic mix but there's always originality and an obvious dedication to the track in question. He's recently relocated to Colombia to collaborate with musicians over there which is very exciting. This step is not surprising considering his direction of late. For a while now his DJ sets have been heavy with Latin, Plena, Cumbia and Salsa and these sounds sit perfectly with his particular feel in production. I can certainly foresee a Quantic Latin live project in the near future, and I'd expect it to be the most forward thinking latin act out there.70, 80, 90+ LP's? That could well be the sum total of Will Holland's output by the time he's exhausted his ideas, if indeed he ever does. He's certainly on track to rival all the great prolific artists who rack up dozens of LP's in their career, and it's the sign of a true artist to do so. Just like a painter who finds it impossible not to get as much down on canvas as possible.

Is Quantic the Picasso of modern music? Could be. So after his many trips to Jelly Jazz as a DJ and his 4 or 5 live shows he's played for us over the years, it's definitely time to grab him for an interview and find out what's going on inside his head.Hola Senor Holland...

Let's start out down a psychoanalysis tack. Tell us about your childhood! Seriously though you're obviously from a musical family so what were you into musically as you grew up and what did you start learning to play first?
I grew up in a very musical house, my father left the house most evenings to play guitar and banjo in different folk groups uptown, meanwhile my mother re-strung violin bows and sent me and my two twin sisters to piano lessons. Now, I think my sisters faired alot better than I did on piano, they have a greater understanding of music and spent alot of time singing with my mother. Meanwhile, I was more interested in computers and playing with the keyboards my father would bring back from the college where he worked. I don't think I experienced a particurlaly musically educative childhood but by simply being exposed to my parents musical tastes and record collection I guess I have been affected.

You were so absurdly young when you arrived on the scene I don't even know if you had time to go to college! :-) Have you studied music at all?
When I was 12 or 13, my father bought me an electric guitar and I immediatly started learning any Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath or Nirvana song I could lay my hands on. At 16 my mother enrolled me in a National Diploma of Audio Production at the local college. I was there for 2 years, it was a very unique experienced and a great oppotunity to learn on equipment in my own time. At 18, I did another 2 years in a HND, which I ended up failing, pretty much around the same time I got some demos signed to Breakin Bread records.

You're best known for playing guitar with QSO but I'm not even sure what other instruments you play?
Nothing really that well, guitar is useful because it is something I'm very familiar with, but I am by no means a virtuoso, more an enthusiast. I have also played Saxophone, Bass, Gaita, Marimba, Sitar and Percussion on past recordings.

What was your first experience of recording and at what age?My very first recordings were with school bands in my teenage-hood. After that, my first release was 'Fresh Rhythm' on London's Breakin Bread records, that was around 2000.

How did you get into music production... did you have any mentors/teachers or was it just a hands-on get stuck in, DIY approach?
My father worked as a computer programmer and mechanical engineer. He would always have different computers around the house. My first experiences with computer production was with him using a rudimentary synthesizer on a BBC micro. Then followed experiments on Archimedes, Atari ST, PC then Mac. I have never really been into samplers. When I was 15/16 I was making a lot of tracks in a cut and paste fashion. Sampling the household piano and going out to charity shops looking for beats and loops. After a while I started working with my friends TV company in London, we would send them beats and they would pay us per minute. That was the first time I made some kind of income from music. I was also doing anything I could to gain experience, working on college plays, filming and editing video, sneaking into the photo labs & recording bands.

Did you always know you wanted to be a professional musician? Did you have a plan B?
Well, I still don't consider myself much of a professional. Alot of my methods don't really go down that well with people who consider themselves to be professional. I have never really had a plan B, I knew I wanted to work with music, video or art but had much luck at finding a proper job in this field. It's just something that was a longtime hobby and now has become into a lifestyle. When you work with independant music, it is not a career, it is a way of life. Ask any DJ girlfriend or wife!!!

It's quite funny looking at the catalogue of Tru Thoughts because you arrive at TRU014 and then pretty much take over in no time at all. Tell us about how you first hooked up with Tru Thoughts!
Well, the good thing with Tru Thoughts & Rob Luis's A&R taste in particular is that they are open to ideas and not afraid to take risks. They have always been very accepting of my music and encouraged me to work with different styles and guest artists. They also hooked me up with Alice Russell, which was a good move. It was almost like I had always flirted with musical projects but Tru Thoughts gave me a definite project on which to focus on. Rob Luis would regurlaly send me CDs of new music to check and that influenced me alot. To be honest, at that point, I was just glad for the attention my music was gathering because I still wasn't that convinced that it was something that people might want to hear.

It seems to have been the perfect breeding ground for talent and a useful springboard for your career! At what point did you realise that you were going to be able to pursue music as a full time career?
By the time I released 'Apricot Morning' I was working full time at a Forensic Science Laboratory in Birmingham. I would spend my time working there, buy records in my lunchbreak and at night work on music in my bedroom. After some discussion with Russ Porter of The limp Twins (a project I was also working on at that time) we decided to move down to Brighton. At that point, I took a small advance from Tru Thoughts & I was able to get by living in a shared house with Russ and members of the later to be formed QSO.

On a completely different tack... one of the reasons you've been able to get out and promote your own music so successfully is that you are also an annoyingly excellent DJ as well. :-) Were you always into the DJing side of things or did that develop after you had music to promote?
Russ Porter and I used to DJ in Worcester on a wednesday night. I was collecting alot of funk 45s and northern soul, Russ was into Reggae and Ska so it was a nice combination. When I moved to Brighton I started Dj'ing at the Tru Thoughts' night 'Phonic Hoop' with Rob Luis. That was good because I learnt about programming the night and got regular practice as I didn't have record decks at home. As I listened at those nights, I would go home all inspired and make new music, release that music and as a result get more DJ gigs, it was quite expotential.

Do you prefer playing live in the band or DJing?
Both are good. I prefer feeling the crowd from the stage and playing guitar, I feel like I am more deserving of the applause. when dj'ing, it sometimes feels a little false to be winning peoples appreciation using other people's music, but I guess that's the format of modern live music.

The last time I saw you DJ at Jelly Jazz, you achieved an almost shamanic connection with the crowd having everyone completely absorbed in the music whilst skipping between colombian cumbia, eastern european folk, north african jazz and modern club beats. If you're in front of a crowd that's just not getting it, do you change the set or just carry on until they do?
Well, for me, the worst thing is a crowd that doesn't know what it wants or has some kind of pre-conceived idea of what you've come to do. The best thing is when an audience is open minded and willing to try new things. Music is universal and not just one thing, the best nights for me have been when people recognize that genres are just a method of record catogorisation and do not represent barriers when listening to and dancing to an evening of music. That's not to say I play sporadically, I try to give my sets a definite theme and research the music I play intensely.

You DJ all over the world so where are your favourite places in the world to play at the moment?
I love Budapest, Copenhagen, Jelly Jazz (of course!) and now I have residencies in Paris, London, Barcelona & Cali, Colombia.

We feel that the British club scene seems to have lost it's energy of late... do you agree and what would you put that down to?
I think people have got back into live music, there as has ben a resurgence of guitar band culture, which I think is a good thing if it means people are experiencing lie music again. This is also a good thing for us DJ's who play more 'musical' dance music, because I feel people are getting more responsive to more natural sounding records.

So I guess we associated you mostly with afrofunk to start with, but then you went to Puerto Rico with Nicodemus and a distinctly latin flavour started seeping into your DJ sets and your own music. You mentioned to me at one stage that you'd been learning as much as you could about latin rhythms from a lot of the older musicians in Puerto Rico. Tell us a little more about that experience!
I spent alot of time in Puerto Rico, educating myself through it's residents and the rich plethora of records that were to be found. Most importantly, I realised how all encompassing the music there is. Having been interested in both European music and that of the Middle East and Africa, it was amazing to discover something that contained all these elements. It was also great to find a music where it is all about dancing, something I've always tried to project in my own music. Latin music encompasses more than 'Salsa', something mainly associated with either Buena Vista Social club or middle aged couples looking for a way to spice up their dwindling relationship. Guagauncos, Gaujiras, Plenas, Cumbias, Porros, Gaitas, Danzon, all play as much a part in modern popular culture as hiphop and dance music as say, Funk, Samba, Jazz and Rock. I think for people in the UK and Europe in general, the roots are just not so accessible as if you are living amongst Puerto Ricans in New York or Cubans in Miami.You are more likely to hear latin elements in a Shakira, War or Doors record before hearing that of likes of Cachao or Chano Poso. But just as Hiphop in time brought forward the roots of it's own making, Jazz, Bebop, Soul, I hope our scene will gradually excavate that which you can barely see from the surface, but is the foundation on which we stand.

We knew you'd been spending time there but I was surprised earlier this year to hear from Nicodemus that you'd decided to move out to Colombia! What's prompted that move? What is it about Colombia in particular that you like?
Cali, Colombia, it is the city paved with records, delightful people & a story for every drop of aguadiente you can drink. Colombians are the cross bearers of Salsa Dura, you can see children singing songs here that only the owners of the rarest record collections know of elsewhere. It is a particulaly unique place for that reason and many others. I was also quite sick of spending time recording in the Puerto Rico, Colombia and Panama recording studios and returning to mix in the UK. It had been both expensive and quite hard to keep doing with all the shows with the QSO too. So I decided to move all my studio stuff here and work on things constantly in this enviroment, which has been quite fruitful so far.

Like Sidestepper before you I presume you will be turning your talents to working with Colombian musicians. What are you hoping to achieve musically out there?
I'm just doing what I have always done, however, things are a lot easier to do over here. Musicians are plentiful and it is a great landing pad to travel around Latin America and the Carribean. I guess more than anything, change is what was needed. I was getting very stale musically speaking in Brighton and I wanted to challenge myself with a new enviroment.

17. What does the future hold for Quantic? Anything particular projects in the pipeline that you can share with us?
The next QSO album is in the making, should be out in a few months, and there is a Rarest Funk volume 2 coming out on Jazzman and expect a Spanky Wilson Live DVD too.Muchas Gracias to Will for taking the time out from buying records and making music in Colombia to do this interview. Of course, Jelly Jazz will have him down to spin or play live at the next available opportunity!