Under a variety of guises working in a handful of subgenres, Michael Woods has been making quality dance music for the past quarter-century. Using stage names like Out of Office, Warrior, Accadia, M1 and M3, he’s created an impressive amount of club and radio hits, including 2000’s “Warrior” and 2011’s “Changed the Way You Kiss Me” by Example.
By 2016, he changed his tune to a deeper, more groovy flavor, re-named himself OFFAIAH and broke out big with the anthemic “Trouble.” Since then, he’s delivered a series of dancefloor winners like “Find A Way,” “When I Push,” and “Push Pull,” and more recent releases on his new All Fire label, like “Save My Soul” and “The Pressure” (a righteous Sounds of Blackness cover), have made more waves. We recently caught up with the U.K.-based Woods, maker of terrific house and tech-house tracks.
DJ LIFE: Let’s get into the new single, “The Pressure.” What made you want to do your version of a classic?
OFFAIAH: “The Pressure” is one of those timeless gospel-house anthems – that massive vocal from 1991 just hits the soul. I’ve loved it since I was a kid – it’s got that raw emotion mixed with drive that screams early ’90s club energy. Teaming up with Kyle Kinch for our take felt natural – he’s been loving this song forever, too. My angle was to honor the original’s spiritual heart, but flip it for today’s dancefloor: tech-house groove with heavy bottom-end bass that rattles speakers to make it a proper peak-time weapon. It’s cathartic, like letting off steam, but fresh enough rock the venue!
DJ LIFE: What was your process in creating it?
OFFAIAH: It was all about balancing that awesome gospel-style vocal with the raw grittiness of the underlying track, whilst carving out some space for the music to breathe and build tension. The synth riff in the buildup was the very first melody I recorded as the track played – I just closed my eyes and let my fingers do the work – you know it’s a good one when you nail it first time!
DJ LIFE: Going back to 2016, you really demonstrated a love for gospel-infused vocals with “Trouble.”
OFFAIAH: “Trouble” was born out of big-room burnout – I craved groove, hooks, and real emotion again, pulling from that old-school house I used to listen to growing up. It was a reaction to what I was hearing and not hearing, blending my classical roots with groovy tech-house. The impact? Massive – it got tons of club plays being supported by the biggest DJs on the planet, not to mention being playlisted for daytime radio – it basically launched OFFAIAH as a name. Nearly a decade on, it’s still one of my most heavily requested records.
DJ LIFE: Musically, what were your first influences?
OFFAIAH: My dad was a classical piano teacher, so scales and theory were breakfast-table stuff from age 3. But we also had everything from reggae to calypso to Motown playing on our living-room gramophone pretty much constantly, so that embedded itself in my musical subconscious from an early age. In the early ’90s, I became obsessed with dance music, artists like KWS, Culture Beat, The Prodigy, Bizarre Inc., and so many more played a massive part in my musical style and inspiration.
DJ LIFE: How many instruments do you play?
OFFAIAH: Piano, trumpet, guitar, and drums– four solid ones, thanks to those early grades and extracurriculars like banging timpani with the London Symphony Orchestra at Queen Elizabeth Hall. The piano is my main instrument, though.
DJ LIFE: How did you become taken by electronic dance music?
OFFAIAH: It crept in through recreating tracks like “Show Me Love” by Robin S on my school Korg M1 – that bassline and vocal had me hooked. But the turning point was around 2009 at Bagley’s Nightclub in London: DJ Ariel dropped something epic, the crowd erupted with hands in the air everywhere you looked, and I thought to myself, “I need to create a moment just like that!”
DJ LIFE: You grew up in a massive dance-music culture in the U.K. What was that like?
OFFAIAH: The U.K. scene was electric – pirate radio blasting from every corner, it seemed. “Show Me Love” by Robin S was a massive tune back then. Other notable tracks were “Rhythm Is A Dancer” by Snap!, KWS’ “Please Don’t Go” and “Mr. Vain” by Culture Beat.
DJ LIFE: How much of a clubber were you when you were younger?
OFFAIAH: Once I hit 17, I became a massive raver – we hit the clubs at least twice a week. We hit up places like Bagley’s Nightclub, The Cross, and Turnmills. One of my best memories was in Ibiza 2000 at Amnesia, my first time in a mega-club. I’d just signed “Warrior,” a few months earlier, and had vanished to the studio, so had no clue it had turned into the No. 1 club record at the time. I’m in Amnesia and DJ Fergie drops it mid-set, massive CO2 cannons blasted the floor with me and all my friends raving right in the middle and we, along with the other 3,000 clubbers go absolutely mental – to my tune! Gives me surreal chills just thinking about it.
DJ LIFE: How did you move into DJing?
OFFAIAH: Even though I had been producing music since 2000, I didn’t get in to DJing until around 2009 – that was after my mix of “Café Del Mar” kicked off everywhere and I started getting requests to appear behind the decks.
DJ LIFE: When did you begin to create music?
OFFAIAH: I started messing around with music production when I was 15 at school, but nothing professional – I was just having fun with it. Then in my mid-20s, I met DJ Matt Darey who took me under his wing and allowed me to learn from him. Eventually we made a record together called “Bailamos” with my sister on vocals, which hit the Top 40 in the U.K. charts. I invested the money I made from that in my own studio and started making my own productions – which led to my first signing, “Warrior” by Warrior. That then led to remixes and other productions – but it all started from a love of making music.
DJ LIFE: Do you have any kind of process to the studio work?
OFFAIAH: Usually, it’s the groove that kicks everything off: drums and bass are the main elements that get me moving. Keys or vocals usually come next. Focus can be hard sometimes, as we have a large family with three kids whom I want to spend as much time with as possible. But it just means having to be strict with my time, balancing touring, studio and family time.
DJ LIFE: What’s in your studio?
OFFAIAH: Ableton Live 12’s my preferred DAW – Session View’s perfect for BPM manipulation and live prep. Genelec 8040s monitors with 7060 sub to keep a check on the lows, Yamaha NS-10s get a listen-in, too, from time to time. Hardware: Access Virus B for synths, UA Apollo x16 interface, M-Audio Keystation 88 for piano feel. Plugs: FabFilter Pro-Q 4 for surgical EQ; Saturn 2 for grit; UAD Neve 1073 for warmth; Valhalla VintageVerb for space; Serum for wavetables; and Voxengo SPAN for metering.
DJ LIFE: Which producers do you most appreciate?
OFFAIAH: I’ve got massive respect for Chris Lake and MK. Lake’s production is just next-level – the way he layers sounds, the crispness of his drums, those cheeky basslines that hit you hard… every release feels like a masterclass, but still bangs in the club. And MK – the king of house. His sound is timeless; those chords, that swing, that effortless cool. The guy’s been killing it since the early ’90s and is still dropping absolute heat in 2025 like it’s nothing. I proper look up to both of them because they’ve stayed relevant for decades without ever chasing trends – just pure quality and groove. I like to think I’m on a similar path: been in this game a long time, still hungry, still evolving, still trying to make records that stand the test of time like they do.
DJ LIFE: What gear in the DJ booth?
OFFAIAH: Always Pioneer CDJ-3000s and the DJM-A9 mixer. The 3000s are just bulletproof – super-fast response, perfect key-shift, the screen layout lets me find tracks in seconds even when it’s chaos. The A9 is the best club mixer I’ve ever used: the sound is fat and warm straight out the box, the effects are actually useful – especially that new Color FX section and the Beat FX feel made for house and tech-house.
DJ LIFE: How has your approach to the DJ craft evolved over the years?
OFFAIAH: It’s become way more about reading the room and picking the right songs for the moment, rather than just technical tricks. In smaller venues, I absolutely love that intimate, sweaty energy – being right in the crowd’s face, decks almost on the dancefloor, feeling every cheer and scream. There I’ll lean into groovier, deeper stuff, longer mixes, tracks with proper stories and vocal moments that pull everyone in close. I’ll play records that might be a bit riskier, roll with teases and loops, because you can see eyes light up when something unexpected hits. That connection is pure magic.
Festivals are a different vibe – massive feel-good energy, hands-in-the-air euphoria, thousands of people who just want to lose their minds together. Song choices shift to bigger, more anthemic stuff: peak-time weapons, singalong hooks, tracks with huge drops and bright melodies that cut through open air. I’ll still keep the groove at the heart, but I’m not scared to go bolder, louder, more celebratory because that’s what the moment demands.
DJ LIFE: What are three tracks that are always ready to go?
OFFAIAH: Green Velvet’s “Bigger Than Prince (Marco Lys Remix)” – foolproof groove and lift for any floor. Then, two of my tracks… “Trouble” – home turf, massive singalongs every time – and “Push Pull” always gets requested!
DJ LIFE: Which DJs do you appreciate?
OFFAIAH: Jamie Jones – the guy is untouchable when it comes to vibe. His track selection is always sexy, warm and rolling, but he’ll throw in the wildest curveballs at exactly the right moment. You never quite know what’s coming next, yet it always feels perfect. Frankie Rizardo – groove monster. Everything he touches just swings harder than anyone else. His sets feel effortless, but every kick, every percussion hit, every little vocal chop is placed with surgical precision. Marco Carola – the king of the unpredictable marathon. Three, four, five hours in and he’s still finding new ways to twist the energy. Minimal on paper, but he creates these massive moments out of almost nothing – just a loop, a filter sweep and perfect timing. Total masterclass in tension and release.
DJ LIFE: What have been the most memorable gigs so far?
OFFAIAH: Electric Zoo NYC was one of my first shows and I expected hundreds, but got 40,000 – inspiration overload! Ushuaïa Ibiza with Calvin Harris and MK is definitely up there: 7,000 ravers going nuts to my tracks is an unbeatable experience.
DJ LIFE: What are some venues you like to play?
OFFAIAH: Ushuaïa Ibiza – open-air spectacle, unmatched energy. Amnesia Ibiza – underground sweat with a killer sound system. Silo Brooklyn – raw NYC intimacy, crowd gives it back tenfold.
DJ LIFE: What motivates you to create music and play shows?
OFFAIAH: I just love that dancefloor alchemy – making a hook that could spark chaos on the dancefloor… or my 4-year-old grooving to a kitchen demo. From my dad’s piano lessons to now, it’s just expression. To know I can get to work in the studio and create something that touches people’s lives is pretty awesome. It can be a hard monotonous grind in the studio sometimes listening to the same 4-bar loop for hours on end – but I feel like I’m built for that.
DJ LIFE: What’s next?
OFFAIAH: I’m really spending a lot of time nurturing my label All Fire, which is heating up with releases like “The Pressure” and “Save My Soul,” which are getting massive plays right now. I’ll be working on some collabs with the likes of Crusy, Ferreck Dawn and more. I’m also working on more originals, which I will be dropping early 2026 so keep an eye out for that.