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Ned Woodman, 27, was born in Harwich, Essex in 1978. He moved to London to study art at Kingston University in 1999. He now lives in Muswell Hill, North London. As a child he was a fan of role-play games and regularly frolicked in the woods dressed as an elf. Now of course he’s a super-cool DJ with an image to protect, so keep that to yourself. |
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Adam Relf, 25, was born in Hackney, east London in 1979, but moved to Kent when he was seven. He moved back to London to Study art at Kingston University, where he met Ned. His first taste of dance music production came thanks to Music 2000 on the Sony Playstation. He now lives in Clapham, South London, and his favourite colour is “a bit like khaki but with more blue in it.” Difficult bastard. |
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Matt Baird, 26, was born in Clapham, South London in 1979, and has remained there ever since – apart from spending three years studying biology at Manchester University. His passions include vintage microphones, djembe drumming and silent films. One day he plans to rule the known universe “but I’ve just got to make a cup of tea first”. |
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Ned Woodman, Adam Relf and Matt Baird are The Magnet Men. To the untrained eye they may look like ordinary human beings, but UK breaks’ very own superheroes conceal extraordinary powers which, when unleashed, create earth-shattering sonic reverberations. Until now they have been living among us incognito, hiding their unique abilities: but all that’s about to change.
Adam and Ned met as art students at Kingston University in 1999 when they were into wildly different music scenes. Born in Hackney, Adam had grown up listening to bands like Radiohead, Muse and Deftones, and had been bashing out songs on his guitar and four-track for years. Back then, he didn’t even like dance music. Ned, from rural Harwich, was raised on a diet of old skool hardcore, and spent his teens learning to mix and sneaking into Essex raves with his mates.
Not surprisingly their music tastes clashed at first. “I assumed everyone thought hardcore was rubbish before I met Ned,” says Adam. “But he wanted to make music, and I wanted to be in a band so we went from there.” By this point Ned had fallen in love with UK breaks, and was soon spinning on pirate radio station Rude Awakening as DJ Eskimo.
With Adam on songwriting and vocal duties and Ned bringing his arranging skills and encyclopaedic knowledge of dance to the table, the pair started writing their first tracks. In 2004 their first single, All That Shines, was released on Inigo Breaks – but thanks to a distribution disaster the track failed to make an impact. Production-wise they knew they were onto something, but they needed a technical genius to help draw the best out of their material.
Enter studio engineer Matt Baird. Matt – a friend of a friend – was a child of the drum ‘n’ bass generation, but says his influences encompass dub, jazz, classical and even chanting monks. A knob-twiddler extraordinaire, he was enlisted as the third Magnet Man and the line-up was complete. “As an engineer I’m coming from a technical place,” he says. “But I’m also a part of the writing process.” In September 2005 the trio inked an album deal with Inigo Breaks, and their debut long player is expected in 2006.
So how do they describe their sound? “It’s big, bad and heavy,” says Ned. “It’s music that makes you want to shit yourself!”
“But there’s more depth to it than most dance music,” adds Adam. “It’s more intricate, there’s more of a songwriting sensibility.”
“You can definitely hear Ned’s old skool influence,” Matt points out. “It’s dark, but it’s not industrial.”The final word is left to Ned: “Whatever happens, the tune has to roll, it has to make you want to get up and dance. There won’t be any chin-stroking tunes on our album.” |
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SQUARE HOLE
