Aston Shuffle

Capturing the moment perfectly. ‘Photographs’ – the stunning new album from the duo from down under


Interview : Dan Prince

A huge week for you two as the new album ‘Photographs’ launches. You threw a free party down at The Soda Factory in Surry Hills last night which was an absolute roadblock we hear. So ten tracks which you teased us with early releases ‘Comfortable’ and ‘Tear It Down’…please give us a few words on each of your babies…

1.       Tear It Down – A very hearts on sleeve song that’s about breaking down the barriers we create to sometimes protect ourselves from the fragility of love

2.       No Place Like Home feat. Kaelyn Behr – We wrote this during our sessions in London so it was about longing for the connection to our loved ones at home

3.       Never Take It Away feat. Mayer Hawthorne – A song about an affair that you know is wrong but still feels right

4.       Comfortable – Ever get the feeling of meeting someone for the first time and feeling instantly connected?

5.       Can’t Stop Now feat. Kaelyn Behr – Sentimentally It’s about a gathering of people coming to together to share a moment and that feeling of invincibility it can give you

6.       Astronaut feat. Joel Compass – we always felt like we had an RnB song in us and the awesome Joel Compass delivers an amazing vocal on it!

7.       Back & Forth feat. Elizabeth Rose – RnB meets house with the amazingly talented Elizabeth Rose on vocals. One of our personal favourites on the album!

8.       Restart feat. Lila Gold – Sometimes when nothing’s going right in a relationship, you kinda need to hit the “restart” button!

9.       Ordinary Love feat. Alice from Youngblood Hawke – One of the more straight up club jams on the album… It’s such a great song to play live

10.    You Really Got Me feat. Kaelyn Behr – definitely another heart-on-sleeve emotional kind of track.

There are some incredible singers starring on the album. Did anyone surprise you in the studio?

“There were some big surprises for sure. Will Heard was a big one – you just don’t envisage that voice coming out of such a young & mild-mannered young English chap, but every time he opened his mouth, nothing but gold is what came out.”

The album was written and recorded in some far flung places we hear…

“It was done all over place really – Ulladulla on the south coast of New South Wales, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, London and on various planes trains and automobiles everywhere in between.”

You wrote ‘Tear It Down’ in the depths of the London winter with long time collaborator Styalz Fuego and Ivor Novello award-winning, Golden Globe and Grammy nominated Amanda Ghost. Tell us about that experience…

“It was absolutely incredible and ever so slightly daunting to jump in the studio with Amanda, someone of her stature is definitely a formidable proposition to collaborate with but it was amazing how quickly & easily we found a great working vibe between all of us. Hopefully we can do it again!” 

It has been three years since the release of your debut LP ‘Seventeen Past Midnight’. What do you think as producers, have been the most notable things you have learnt and put into your musical creation skills?

“It’s hard to pick one thing specifically, the landscape of production has definitely changed since our first album but luckily we love the studio, we’re definitely studio nerds at heart and we are always honing our skills and checking out all the new stuff that comes out every year. We also did a bit more stuff with live instrumentation on this album too which is the other side of that coin I guess.”

Was the album a smooth process, were there any dark writers block moments…?

“Yeah there were definitely some dark moments in there, but that’s just the process and you have to go through it to some extent. There’s shades of those moments here & there in the record but only in a few places, it’s definitely not the overall focus.”

In your own words, what makes each such a good producer?

“I think it’s a similar thing to what happens with many/most producer duos – we each complement other’s respective strengths & compensate for each other’s weaknesses. It’s hard to put our finger on exactly how that actually works, but that’s definitely the end result.”

What is the current top 10 you are spinning…

“In no particular order…

London Grammar – Hey Now (Arty Remix)

Touch Sensitive – Slowments

Silversix – Love What You Feel

Tiga & Audio – Fever

Galantis – You

The Alexanders – Don’t Miss

Skream – Bang That

ZHU – Faded

Wordlife – Club Strobe

The Presets – Goodbye Future (Aston Shuffle Remix) – had to include one of ours!”

“The Aston Shuffle are at the vanguard of the next wave of the Southern Hemisphere’s electronic elite.” Discuss.

“Oooh it’s tough to comment on praise like that! Hard to say much, except that we wholeheartedly agree of course!”

Best festival story of the summer for you?

“Our 2013 summer was taken up with finishing the album unfortunately so the crazy story cupboard is a little bit bare at the moment, so we will have to get back to you after the forthcoming summer!”

What are the live plans for 2014…

“We are doing our album tour here in Australia in August, which we are extremely excited about – we have been stepping up our live game and the upcoming tour is gonna be a continuation of that. We’ll have a busy summer as well!”

‘Photographs’ aside, what are the next studio plans?

We’ve got some great remixes we’re working on at the moment which we can’t wait to get out there…”

What is the last song you heard?

“Kelis – Rumble (Breach Remix)… super dope!”

We swing round to yours on a lazy Sunday afternoon, who are some of the artists you are 

listening to chilling out?

“A big Sunday afternoon chillout fave of mine is Bibio, that guy is incredible, hopefully he tours Australia one day.”

It may not be good for our image, but The Aston Shuffle really love…

“Gardening!”

And finally…be brave. What is your favourite track from the album?

Mikah: “Tear It Down for sure!”

Vance: “Also Tear It Down for me, hard to go past it!”

 

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