Third place label head Will Hofbauer chats to us about life, working in the music industry, and his latest release on AUS Music.
You can learn a lot about a person by looking at their photos, and in Will Hofbauer’s case, there is a common feature in every image you can find of him – a playful and infectious smile. The London-based DJ and producer hit the scene hard in 2019 with his amusingly titled Who Wants to be a Willionaire EP on New York label Homage. Since then, he has received recognition from some of the biggest names in the industry and has seen releases on reputable labels such as Facta and K-Lone’s Wisdom Teeth, Rinse, and Rhythm Section, to name a few.
Over the last few years, his time has been spent throwing parties, starting labels, and working as a music PR. Despite his deep involvement in the scene, however, it’s all still just a bit of fun for Will. This explains the playful and infectious style of his music that, kind of ironically, is transforming him into an artist with a serious future ahead of him.
Recently engaged and pushing a new release on seminal UK label AUS Music, things seem to be on the up for Will. We spoke to him to find out more.
How’s life going for you at the moment? I saw that you got engaged, congratulations!
Hey Callum, thank you! Love to Beth always. Life-wise I’m incredibly lucky in the grand scheme of things, especially as the world regresses into an increasingly sad and unstable place, to put it lightly.. I hope things are going good for you too.
You’ve worn many hats in the music industry over the years. From record label owner, to DJ, to publicist and everything else in between. When did this become more than a hobby for you?
It’s still just a hobby for me really!
Obviously when I was working as a publicist that was a paid job in music, but I don’t make a living or any money really from any of the other aspects of the music stuff I’m involved with. It’s all still for fun, passion projects, that sort of thing. 🙂
Do you think working your way around the industry in the way that you have has helped you as a DJ, and if so, how?
I think being involved in a few different areas music-wise has helped me a lot for sure, the more you know about how the sausage is made the better I think. Well not always, but I’ve found it useful anyway.
I definitely have a lot to thank the Dispersion PR team for in particular. It was a job that certainly opened a lot of doors for me and offered me some opportunities I might not have had otherwise, so I’m super grateful for that. Apologies to anyone who was continuously bombarded by my emails though lol, it was just part of the gig I swear!!
Elsewhere, diving head first into starting labels, throwing parties, putting out music etc is just a lot of fun. I get a kick out of all parts of the processes really, even the occasionally stressful ones. I’d recommend just doing as much as you can!
Tell us about your upcoming release on AUS. What was the inspiration behind the project?
It feels like quite a random collection of tracks to me really, so there’s not really a cohesive idea behind the EP overall, hence the EP name. I’ll break down some of the ideas and thoughts behind each track if that might be of interest:
Ah! Bats! takes a bit of fast dembow and gratingly combines it with ‘Wearing My Rolex’ era UK flavours. 8 Bar Baile is an attempt at combining the energy of Funk and 8 Bar Grime, it turned out quite tooly which I like.
Scrumble is my attempt at a ‘deep house’ type of thing. It’s in 4/4 rhythmically, but it’s arranged in 6/4 to give it a more languid feel. There were some frog samples in there towards the end, but these were removed at the request of Will Saul. Probably for the best, haha. Moss On feels to me like Scrumble’s weird mate.
I suppose the second two tracks are a bit more ‘house-y’ than what I usually cook up and I think they sit nicely together. The first three were made relatively recently, which is quite odd for me, in general my tracks tend to simmer for quite a while before coming out.
Really though, having the stamp of approval from Will’s time-proven A&R talent was definitely encouragement enough to let them go out and about into the world haha.
How did you end up releasing on the label?
I was working on the PR side of Aus for a few months towards the end of my time at Dispersion, and Will kindly asked me to fire some demos over to put together a release. I still have a hunch that he was being polite, but I’ll definitely take it haha.
What are you listening to when you’re not behind the decks?
Plenty of ambient bits, dub stuff, this great live recording of Townes Van Zandt from 1973 (I think) is next to the living room turntable right now. I’m pretty sure it’s the most expensive record I’ve bought and I like it a lot.
I also spend quite a bit of time searching around for music that might work in a DJ context of course. In all honesty I mostly listen to whatever Beth’s playing around the house – this is usually Taylor Swift.
What’s next for Will Hofbauer?
I’m turning 30 this year which is fun, and jetting off for some world travels in the second half of this year too. Maybe some DJ things too along the way, who knows!
Musically, whirm with mi amor Sangre Voss will keep rolling out – we have a load of tracks slipping and sliding around this year which is super fun and I can’t wait for everyone to hear them!!
I also have a three-tracker lined up for an iconic Glaswegian party-turned-label which I’m excited about, and maybe something on Third Place too. A few remixes and compilation contributions too. Way too much music, sorry! Roll it!