Down to the Bone is
Stuart Wade as producer, writer and mastermind behind the whole groove
project. Set up at the tail end of 1995 when Wade decided to take a track from the
soul band he was
in at that time, Think Twice, and remix it to give it a more rawer and stripped down feel. The result
was the Down to the Bone remix of the track Joy is Free, which was in the top 10 playlist of Kiss Fm
for weeks on end and resulted in widescale DJ support in the U.K. and Europe. The name also came about from a London club that Stuart went to at the time called 'To the Bone'. Wade frequented
many venues and clubs of that time including Martin Lewin's popular Floorshaker events, co - hosted
bu other DJ's including Chris Bangs, Gilles Peterson and Chris Brown.
At the time Wade wanted to take his experiences of these nights and his love for groove music and
turn them into a project. He wanted to try to inject some new fresh and funky grooves into a scene
that shortly afterwards would start to mellow out with the whole smooth side of things. He wanted to
show that the funky side of jazz groove was still popular and at the same time pay homage to those
artists from the past and present who had inspired him to start
Down to the Bone.
So, following on from the success of his remix he teamed up with Think Twice keyboard player,
Simon Greenaway, to put together a string of songs. This resulted in the first release on a 12" of
Staten Island Groove. This resulted in a huge success and drew the imagination of many DJ's and
magazines resulting in rave reviews for the single and loads of club and radio play in the U.K.
Shortly after this Wade and Greenway recorded the second single featuring Muesli Brown, which
followed in the light of the first. It was at this time that Stuart could see the opportunity in front of him
and decided to try to complete an album.
After the completion of the first album From Manhattan To Staten, a title Wade came up with to show
his influences came mostly from across the pond, it was decided to try to take the whole sound over to America to see what would happen.
Not expecting anything, Wade was astounded by the huge response after two important guys at the
U.S. radio decided to take it upon themselves to play DTTB on their stations. It was clear that the
radio scene was stagnant in the U.S. and the audience were desperate for something different to
latch on to and DTTB happened to be in the right place at the right time.
The momentum grew in America resulting in From Manhattan To Staten reaching no. 2 in the
National US Billboard Jazz Chart, no. 3 in the Gavin Jazz Chart and nr. 4 in the Radio en Records
Jazz Chart. Not bad for an act that is not strictly jazz.
Astonishingly a lot of this success has been down to word of mouth, with people taking it upon
themselves to spread the word.
Wade continues to be amazed at the thought of being able to 'live his hobby' and never takes
anything for granted. As he says, 'you are only as successful as your last album so you never know
how long it will last. So you must make the most of it while it is there and as long as you can stand up and say you did your best then no one can take that away from you'.
> Down to the Bone - Supercharged
