Size Records is turning the page on their first decade of existence and looking towards their second generation of dance music domination. With artists such as AN21, Max Vangeli, and Third Party already established as faces of the label, a fresh duo is preparing to make headway for the future of the famed brand. Iman Gilani and Simon Widman are Steve Angello’s newest protégés, and together they are the promising talent of the next generation, Wayne & Woods. We had a chance to sit down with the duo as they inch closer to exploding onto the scene, and they open up about their first year growing with Size, working under the wing of Steve Angello, and what the future holds.

Hailing from Solna — the same suburb of Stockholm that produced Steve, AN21, and Sebastian Ingrosso — the duo are following in the footsteps of Sweden’s greatest exports. Having been signed for over a year already, Wayne & Woods have waited months upon months for their big break, and gave fans “Pyramid” back in December as a reminder that they’re hard at work and will soon come out to play. Still on the development path at Size, Angello is taking the duo through the same motions that have produced every new artist and release on the imprint, carefully incubating their talent by teaching them all he knows about sound, phasing, soundscapes, and mixing.

Spending so much time in the studio with the Size labelhead, Wayne & Woods have a collection of records that are currently earning airtime. “Jumangee” has been the most anticipated, but “Revolt” saw its world premiere on Steve’s Essential Mix this weekend, causing even more restlessness among fans waiting for Wayne & Woods to officially hit the scene. They may not have been around during the first ten years of Size, but they plan on being around during the next ten…

As Size’s latest addition, which of your label mates have taken you under their wing or really showed you the ropes?

Iman: Steve and AN21. Steve is like a big inspiration for us, same as AN21 and Max. They’ve shown us a lot of things.

Simon: We were in the studio last night and they taught us a lot of great things about production. They’ve been like bigger brothers from day one.

How were you initially recognized by Size?

Iman: We just sent in some tracks. First and foremost, we’re from Solna, and that’s the same city as Steve and AN21, Sebastian Ingrosso! They liked the vibe, Iyoas liked the vibe on it and showed the tracks to Steve.

Simon: We were on a quest to make 10 tracks in a month, and from that moment… they were like we want you on Size, let’s go!

How did you guys meet and join forces in the first place?

Iman: Back then, 3 or 4 years ago, it wasn’t as many producers out there as today. Nowadays almost everybody is a DJ/Producer. By word of mouth we heard about each other and we started to work, not as Wayne & Woods, it was just for fun back then. After a while we started to get really good feedback on SoundCloud and we thought yeah, why not Wayne & Woods. Now we are here!

Simon: Haha yeah I still remember the first track we made together! I called Iman over and was like “hey let’s try a collab” we did a track in like 4 hours that we at the time thought sounded MASSIVE! Production sounds like crap today but the idea is really cool so we might recreate it some day!

You hail from the same suburb of Stockholm as Steve, AN21, and also Sebastian Ingrosso. What about Solna produces the Swedish talent?

Iman: The city of Solna has a great heart to begin with. The weather in Sweden is shit. We have 3 weeks of summer, it rains all the time, all the producer guys just sit in the studio for 24 hours a day and just produce.

Simon: It’s a lot of great DJs, a lot of great producers that come from Solna and Stockholm. They just pump out music — that’s the secret.

Why did you keep silent so long after being signed and how did you choose “Pyramid” as the track to giveaway to break the silence?

Iman: We’re just following the plan that our manager got for us and we are super happy about it.  When we are “silent” we produce a lot of tracks, we are sitting on about 25 – 35 tracks right now. Everything has been going really well and we are super excited for what the future has for us. I don’t think that Pyramid is the track that breached our silence, We wanted to give our fans a Christmas gift as a thank you for the support through the year, at the same time they could get our vibe and style. When our first real release comes (super soon) then we can say that we have ” broken the silence”

Simon: Pyramid was never meant to be a “break the silence” track, more like a track that we wanted the fans to have! And since we already had our release plan done for 2013 we wanted to give it out as a Christmas gift!  As Iman said the silence is broken after the real size release!

When you’re producing, what is the standard of sound you hold yourselves to for the Size brand?

Iman: We just go with what comes up. We trying to be big in the producing scene so we do whatever we feel like doing. If we want to do minimal shit, we do minimal. If we want to do hip-hop, we do hip-hop.

Simon: We just do everything and at the end of the day we show it to Steve. If he smiles and puts his finger up in the air, it’s like “damn!”

What is the story behind your collaboration with Chris Avantgarde, “Revolt,” and what was your reaction when you heard Steve Angello debut it on his Essential Mix?

Iman: We started to chat with Chris since we met him a lot at the sSize partys, we liked his vibe and yeah we just did a track! We started to work on the track and we really liked how it turned out. Steve liked the track too and thats why he played it. It’s a blessing that everything turned out so good and we are super happy about it. To hear it on the Essential Mix was just sick, I was dancing and raving in my bedroom! Really a happy moment that I wont forget.

Simon: And he made a bootleg on our track “Pyramid” that was badass so when he asked if we wanted to do a collab there was only one answer! Steve playing the track on the Essential Mix was a big moment! And the response was even bigger so I’m super happy about that

How did “Jumangee” come about and what other works do you have planned out for the near future?

Iman: “Jumangee” started out as some ideas we sent to Henrix. We just started feeling it to get this vibe with what he’s doing and what we’re doing and to meet in the middle. It sounds big and it sounds good. We have been signed for exactly one year and we have a lot of stuff. We have done a lot of tracks and very good collaborations. This year will be very exciting and we’re looking forward to it. A lot of people are playing our IDs right now in a lot of different places. Steve’s given us feedback of the tracks and our manager has given us a plan to follow and we trust him.

Simon: They’re playing a lot of IDs we have too. To be where we are right now and to know that they’re playing our tracks, it’s the best thing and a dream come true. We’re just following the plan, no rush, everything is going to go real good. We do good gigs, Creamfields coming up, now Miami. Just follow the plan and sky is the limit.

Stay tuned for Ten Years of Size all week:

Sunday: Steve Angello premieres 10 unreleased Size tracks on his Essential Mix

Monday: Dancing Astronaut‘s top 10 Size Records releases

Wednesday: Interviews with AN21, Max Vangeli, and Third Party

Thursday: Interview with Junior Sanchez

Friday: Interview with Steve Angello

Tags: Size Records, ten years of size, Wayne & Woods

Categories: Music