Cita:
Simon Shackleton, aka Elite Force, has had a colourful and diverse musical history, from being in a band with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke through to having music featured music on ‘The Matrix’ soundtrack.
Widely know as being a massive player within the breakbeat scene, ‘Shack’ is now pushing his tech-funk sound to a global level.
Simultaneously running his U&A Recordings label, playing shows around the world, putting out releases and remixes and hosting his own radio session, ‘The Strongarm Sessions’, to say ‘Shack’ is constantly busy would be an understatement of gargantuan proportions.
Beatportal caught up with Simon to quiz him about his history with Thom Yorke, his thoughts on the modern day music industry structure, and what his future plans are.
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You have a musical history with Thom Yorke. How did that come about, and do you too keep in touch, swap music ideas still?
I was at University in Exeter in the late ‘80s and it was the kind of place that really drew like-minded souls together.
I used to edit the student magazine, and first really got to know Thom through that, as he was keen to blag his way into gigs as a reviewer & interviewer.
We became friends & started up a band together, ‘Headless Chickens’.
At the time I was quite involved in a local anarcho-punk organization called ‘Hometown Atrocities’, and we used to bring bands like Fugazi into town (and then get to support them ourselves).
After a few months of gigging, we released a tune on a 4-track EP that Hometown Atrocities put out (some of the initial pressings of these now go for up to £500 a time!) and we continued to gig around the southwest, but when Thom graduated he decided to move back to Oxford to continue with some band or other he was involved in (Radiohead I think they were called) and since then, I haven’t seen him nearly as often as I’d have liked to have done
You touched upon international success with Lunatic Calm. Do you ever have any regrets about leaving it far behind? (excuse the really bad pun)
Yeah, that is a bad pun!
I have to confess that I really did enjoy the live performance / frontman angle a lot, and we did some cracking shows in the US, mainly supporting Crystal Method to several thousand people a night.
However, the dynamics of being part of a unit really aren’t for everyone, and everyone involved in the band around that time has since spiralled off into quite different directions, which kind of consolidates the notion that we maybe weren’t built to live in quite such close proximity on a tour bus!
It’s a shame we didn’t get to play more shows though, especially in the UK – in our day, we really kicked people’s faces off (in a good way).
You cited record labels were the reasons for Lunatic Calm’s disbandment. Can you expand on this further?
Ultimately we had no choice other than to scrap the project really.
The first album was stymied when we were effectively blackmailed by the record company into taking part in an advertising campaign that we were completely opposed to in order to help promote the record; the second album went pear-shaped when our main A&R man was busted importing drugs into Australia, and understandably the parent company wanted nothing to do with his subsidiary from that moment onwards.
Recently you changed the label’s name from Used & Abused Recordings to U&A Recordings due to rivalry with a label with the same name. Was their a bitter dispute over this and what were your primary reasons for changing the name?
Actually, it was far from bitter.
It was just an unfortunate co-incidence really. The first label I started back in the mid-90s was called ‘Fused & Bruised’, and we did a compilation called ‘Used & Abused’, so I saw it was a logical next step when I was looking to launch an new imprint.
I was just keen to crack on with building the label’s identity, and the ‘other’ label ended up having a release on the same day, so I said enough’s enough & changed it.
Ironically enough, I don’t think they’ve released anything since!
Your recent album ‘No Turning Back’ was originally on the now defunct ‘Adrift Label’. It now seems almost a gamble to release music on other people’s labels, due to fear of bankruptcy and accountability. With this in mind do you think record labels have a real place in the modern day music industry?
On the first count, and going on my own personal experience, then yeah – it’s been a gamble that hasn’t paid off.
‘No Turning Back’ was actually a Whole9Yards release, with ‘Modern Primitive’ being an Adrift one – both ceased to exist for different reasons right around the time of both album’s releases.
There’s definitely a place for the record label, but I see things becoming much more personal and much smaller than ever before – with the virtual cessation of vinyl, it makes it a lot easier to make a small amount of income from a decent release…. It just takes a stern constitution and a willingness to undertake WAY too much administration.
What happened to the broken beats that made you switch to a more 4/4 sound?
What goes around comes around.
The first tune I ever released (back in ’94) was a techno track, and in between there’s been everything from downbeat to breakbeat and from electro to techno.
I suppose I’m a bit of a musical magpie really – I just don’t see the point of putting needless self-imposed restrictions on myself in order to conform to someone else’s genre-stereotyping.
There’s a ton of great music out there, and I often find the most creative work is done out on the margins, where genres blend and overlap, and that’s something I carry over into my DJ sets and my production ethos.
As it happens at the moment, I’m playing a lot of breaks when I play out, as I’ve spent a big chunk of the summer devising a bespoke series of mashups & new tracks specifically for my live sets.
Your sound has incorporated more diverse influences over time, how do you see your records sounding in the near future?
I’m planning on embarking on a new album project before the year’s out, so we’ll see where that takes me … recently I’ve been quite influenced by some of the more groove-orientated techno that’s out there, but I’ve also been getting right back to making some thumping beats, so we’ll see how that kind of marriage will work out!
Even though you’ve moved on you still get booked for events that centre predominately around breaks. Does this bother you, or generally does it please you to add diversity to such events?
As a DJ you slowly become established over the years and inevitably become pigeon-holed.
I’m just happy that I get booked to play at a really wide range of nights these days, and because I’m in no way a militant purist of any one style, that suits me perfectly as it keeps you on your toes, and keeps you questioning and adapting what you play night-after-night.
And finally, what can we expect soon from Elite Force?
I have a single I’ve done with Meat Katie that’s primarily breaks coming out on U&A as well as the continuation and completion of the Re:Vision series of back catalogue remixes which should wind up around Christmastime with remixes from the likes of Tom Real & Cheshire Catz, Broombeck, Gella, Heavyfeet, Deepgroove, Zodiac Cartel & Jesse Rose.
I have also started up a new project with Meaty, which is specifically more techno-oriented called ‘Dustbowl’, and we’re doing a single on Lot49 before the year’s out, with more planned for the new year.
I’ve also been incredibly busy this year developing some of the up & coming talent on the U&A label, such as Hyperion, Butter Party & Zodiac Cartel, all of whom are coming strong with new material for the new year.
Fuente: Beatportal
