Thanks! I’m at home in Cambridge writing tunes and also working on a couple of exciting projects outside of music making too. Things are good!
I just wanted to give people a flavour of how I work, all my tunes start on the hardware in the studio. For me it’s where the character comes from. Hardware isn’t essential these days to make music of course, but it’s what inspires me and has done for years.
That’s tough to answer… To be honest it changes from week to week, month to month, but I know some of the sounds people always asked me about are those Ravey detuned bass lines. I made some of these for the sample pack using the Jupiter 6, Minimoog and Juno 60. Some of the drums were done in the box but integrated with analogue hi-hats from the 808 and 909 too.
I’m always channelling the past to be honest, I don’t run away from that. The early 90’s UK scene still heavily inspires me, someone once said I’m like a musical medium which seems a fair observation! I love combining the sound of 30 years ago with the production techniques of today, sometimes it’s just a vibe – not about sampling something, but taking a feeling from the past and making it fit into today’s scene.
There’s been so much, but you must do your own thing and stick to it. Have faith in who you are and what you do, it’ll carry you and give longevity even when the scene morphs into something else.
I wish I’d learnt to have a better music / life balance. Be obsessed and try to be technically amazing at music but have the awareness that it’s not everything. This is all I’ve ever known, and I’m privileged to have done what I’ve done, but there’s life outside of music that’s so great too, and I only really appreciated that in the last 10 years or so.
Get inspiration outside of music. Learn and perfect just a few tools to make music and most importantly, take breaks from the studio.
My Dave Spoon project was really successful but I had too many musical boundaries at the time so I decided to stop. Having a new alias at that time was perfect for me, so Shadow Child quickly became a huge success almost overnight. It’s all about timing and stars aligning. The culture was ready for change, and I felt it at the time. I’m grateful to be in tune with these moments, in the UK scene especially.
I love my remix for Yousef on Defected. I’m also proud of my recent Apollo project, “Jupiter” in particular.
It’s always producers outside of House music for me. I love what Coco Bryce does, also Stones Taro and Ot1k is wicked too. There’s too many to mention but these guys are always exciting and never fail to inspire me.
I’m celebrating 10 years of Shadow Child and my label Food Music at the end of the year, and putting energy into 3 creative projects away from the studio.
