Wookie Returns

For the first time in his prolific dance music career, UK garage figurehead Wookie has picked up a pair of headphones and stepped up to the decks.

Amazingly, despite being known for his ability to create club classics and push musical boundaries, Wookie (aka Jason Chue) has never had the urge to take to the ones and twos.

His move into DJing marks something of a reinvention for Wookie, which has also seen the producer-cum-DJ move into soulful house again.

"As a producer it's not easy to showcase yourself on the road and one of the easiest ways to get noticed is to show people what you're about through DJing," said Wookie.

"Now as a DJ, I'm much more receptive to what is going on out there, unlike in the past when I now realise I was quite narrow-minded about music.

"I really didn't care what other people were doing.

"But now I buy records and I hear what my peers are doing, which then inspires me to do something better."

Wookie's defection from garage to soulful house is in tune with the current feeling that urban house might be the next big thing in UK clubland.

But Wookie suggested that the 'urban house' boom was just a myth.

"I don't believe urban house is going to be the next big thing because it's just a new title for music that has been around for a long time already," he commented.

"We like to pigeonhole everything, and we have come up with another new name which is gonna take on its own identity."

However Wookie agreed that the UK garage scene has reached a downturn.

"I think it has been exploited," he retorted.

"It was exploited before its time and in the end it was destroyed."

Wookie's new soulful house attitude can currently be heard on his latest track 'Do You Believe' feat. Xavier on Wookie's own Lovestar Music.