When you hear a Wookie track for the first time, chances are it’s positioned in a mix of UK Garage. In its spiritual home of London, Garage is played at high volumes to sexy crowds of garage ravers, all doing it Garage style – sipping champagne, bouncing around and generally living large. It’s a scene that is quite unique, however over recent years the sound has started to spread to other parts of the globe, including Australia.

We have been exposed to the Garage sound through tracks like “Rewind” by The Artful Dodger and MJ Cole’s “Sincere”. Wookie’s tracks like “Battle” and “What’s Going On?” have ensured that he is the next in line to push Garage further into the mainstream. The ironic thing though is that much like MJ Cole, Wookie doesn’t really fit into the Garage label too easily.

ITM managed to catch up with Jason Chue, aka Wookie (great Star Wars reference there), as he worked away at the Soul II Soul studios in London. On this fine day we score a scoop nonetheless – what he’s been doing all day is remixing a Faithless track called “We Become One”. This follows his previous remix work on tracks by people like Whitney Houston, Brandy and Soul II Soul.

As we chat on the phone he often describes his style as New Soul and when you listen to his album, you can see why. It’s the vocals that earn his style the tag, however the style of his music varies across a wide variety of electronic and more traditional genres. When you dig into his background you can see why.

A young Jason Chue bought his first keyboard in 1990 after an architectural firm made him redundant. It was a blessing in disguise for the young Wookie because it was this fateful event that prompted him to start a musical career. In those early years he was into the UK R ‘n’ B scene, but as Drum ‘n’ Bass came along he was drawn to the heavy bass sounds that every DnB fanatic loves. He lists his early Drum ‘n’ Bass influences in the sounds of people like Andy C, DJ Die and Roni Size.

His father is another person who played a role in influencing Wookie to become a musician. In fact when Wookie would head to the famous Metalheadz parties in London on the occasional Sunday, he would often see his dad there (how freaky is that?) because Wookie Snr was a soundman who worked with the Metalheadz crew.

As Wookie continued to create his sound throughout the nineties, he fused together the R ‘n’ B vocals, the drums and the bass to create his own sound – a sound that has earned him the label of Garage. Certainly when you listen to his self-titled album you can hear the Garage sound in tracks like “What’s Going On?” and to a lesser extent on “Flex”, but the Garage tag just doesn’t seem appropriate when you hear his album in it’s entirety.

To hear some of his non-Garage tunes just look no further than the DnB sound in a track like “Scrappy”, notably the rolling pitter-patter drums and the funky bass throughout the track. There’s also the soulful lyrics in “Battle”, “Get Enuff” and “Time” that prove that this man doesn’t create garage tunes – he creates a spectrum of sound. The Garage tag however is not something that annoys Chue. After all it was Garage DJs like Spoony of the Dreem Teem, Omar and Masterstepz that showcased his talents and got his sound out to the massive.

The fact that he prefers to call his music style New Soul shows his desire to create his own musical path, rather than stick to the defined boundaries a genre like Garage might place upon him. So when asked what he listens to during his spare time, his reply of “I listen to Hip Hop and R n B when I’m driving around … I don’t really listed to Two-Step at all, except in clubs”, now comes as no real surprise.

With “Battle” and “Get Enuff” both performing well in the UK charts, it will be interesting to hear what the future sound of Wookie will be. He sees his future in production and has obviously got his sights set on the lucrative US market. A planned appearance at the Miami Winter Music Conference will be one gig that could be a huge stepping-stone for him.

For us there is also a promise of an Australian tour over the coming months. Nothing is confirmed, however Wookie has assured ITM that he will try to get down to Oz soon after he plays in Japan.

In the meantime, if you are interested in Garage, Drum n Bass, Soul or R’n’B, then his album is worth checking out. If you are a genre purist, Wookie might just teach you something.

Read: our review of Wookie’s self-titled CD