More about Nick Warren
Over the past 15-plus years, English DJ Nick Warren has gone from being a local legend in the Bristol scene (also home to Massive Attack, Tricky and Roni Size) to a global star, packing houses and getting rave reviews around the world.
As one half of Way out West, Nick and partner Jody Weisterhoff became one of the leading production teams in the electronic genre, knocking out hit tracks and becoming dance floor staples.
His years in the music industry have given Nick a long-term view of the scene's ups and downs. Echoing a sentiment heard from a lot of DJs these days, Nick says the dance industry's darkest days are behind it, thanks in part to emerging markets. "The whole of eastern Europe is a fantastic scene," he says, "I think the UK is now getting really strong again, and I always have some great gigs in the USA."
Part of the slump that has affected all aspects of the music industry over the past few years is the ongoing debate about digital file sharing. Unlike some of his peers, Nick takes a more stringent view on the subject. "If you visit the main file sharing sites, there's pretty much everything I have ever done on them," he says. "Do people expect to walk into a clothes store and take whet they want for nothing? So why is it ok in music?"
His new mix album, Shanghai is a break from the industry's hit-filled norm. Instead of packing on familiar sounds, Nick sought out unsigned tracks from undiscovered artists. The musical mix runs from indie rock to deep house, coving sounds not usually heard on mainstream mix CDs.
"My main goal was to choose as many young, new, international producers who, in my view, are making exciting new dance music," says Nick of the adventurous track selection. "I think my long-term fans will dig the album and also I hope it turns a few people on to my sound."
Shanghai is out now on Global Underground.
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 Nick Warren became one of the first so-called "superstar DJs" in the mid- to late '90s, holding down a high-profile residency at Cream in England, touring around the world, and appearing on several DJ mix albums before they became commonplace. Though he spun an eclectic array of dance styles in the late '80s and early '90s, he eventually championed the late-'90s trance sound of labels like Hooj Choons and joined the ranks of other superstar DJs like Paul Oakenfold, Sasha, and Tall Paul. Furthermore, he dabbled a bit in production, collaborating with Jody Wisternoff as Way Out West.
Before leading a jet-set lifestyle, Warren moved to Bristol in the 1980s after having just turned 20. By the early '90s, he was one of the city's top DJs, spinning upstairs at Vision, one of the city's first superclubs. At the time, Warren spun everything from dub and hip-hop to house, which became his preferred style. When fellow Bristol artists Massive Attack left to tour America in the wake of their early success, they invited Warren to accompany them on tour as their official DJ, a testament to his turntable skills as well as his reputation at the time.
Eventually, Warren began a massively successful stint as the resident DJ at Cream in Liverpool. The club's stature grew quickly, as did Warren's as a result. Mixmag asked him to mix a volume in its Mixmag Live! series, which the magazine tagged as the "Future Sound of Europe." Around this same time, the mid- to late '90s, Warren was also garnering quite a bit of attention for his Way Out West collaboration with Wisternoff, resulting in several popular singles for Deconstruction, most notably "The Gift," as well as a self-titled full-length featuring the group's hits.
Next came an opportunity to mix the third volume in the then relatively obscure Global Underground series of DJ mix albums. The resulting mix, Global Underground: Prague (1997), featured several anthems of the time such as "Cafe del Mar," "Life on Mars," and "Nipple Fish," helping to define the then-evolving trance sound of the late '90s. Warren's mix proved so successful that he was offered the opportunity to mix a second volume, Global Underground: Brazil (1998), and then yet more successive volumes in the increasingly popular series. Moreover, DMC offered Warren the chance to mix the first volume in its Back to Mine series of downtempo albums. In particular, 2001 was a big year for Warren; the New York-based Mixer magazine chose his Renaissance: Revelation mix album on Ultra Records (also featuring Danny Howells) as its album of the year, and his second Way Out West album, Intensify, also proved to be a favorite among not only listeners but critics as well. Global Underground volumes followed in 2003 (Global Underground: Reykjavik) and 2005 (Global Underground: Shanghai).
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