Long standing Australian dance music pioneers The Aston Shuffle are gearing up for some very busy times shortly. Having ticked off an accolade of achievements in a career starting from their mid 2000’s french electro, growing into their signature Aussie indie dance, signing major label deals in the US and UK and more.

In the lead up to their new forthcoming album and DJ set at Cakes at The World Bar this Saturday, we caught up with Mikah and Vance to talk expectations, juggling a radio show, collaborations, the new album and DJing! Here’s some of what they had to say!

You guys are very close to launching your new album and new material. Can you tell us a bit about the music you have been making?

It’s been a pretty long process which has been done in many stages in a lot of different cities – Ulladulla, Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and London… but it’s all finally being honed down to the final tracks and it’s a pretty exciting feeling.

Are there any collaborations on the new album?

Yeah there’s a few more in addition to the ones that are already out there but I think we kinda wanna hold those cards close to our chest for a little while longer I think.

Do you feel there is an expectation with your next release and do you feel pressured by this?

I think the thing we feel most is that it’s been a long time since the last one, certainly it’s been longer than we planned for and longer than we expected it to be. But it’s not done till it’s done, and we’re super hyped by the amount of love there has been for Comfortable and now Tear It Down, so our excitement levels are definitely building.

Has it been harder to focus on the creative side of what you do while doing the Friday Night Shuffle on Triple J as well?

It’s a delicate balance for our weekly workflow but ultimately the process of discovering and championing new music is still a creative act and a hugely rewarding one for us. The thing that probably has the greater impact is weekly travel… airplanes are great environments to jam out the guts of new ideas or make some new sounds but it’s hard to finish tracks on planes, and it’s hard to break the momentum of a productive studio week… when we have 2 solid weeks of never seeing the sun coz we’re locked down in a studio, we are extremely productive, but short 3 day stints punctuated by weekly touring just makes the process take longer. It’s just the way it goes I guess.

We noticed your first single on the new album ‘Tear It Down’ has a very Australian centric remix package. Was this intentional?

There are some overseas mixes coming as well but we are just really feeling so many Aussie artists at the moment, the vibe on Aussie acts is so palpable at the moment and we are certainly tuned in to that in a big way.

Do you guys prefer DJing or doing your live show?

They’re different sides of the same coin I guess, they’re both immensely satisfying but in different ways because the live show thing is about playing your own songs to your fans, which is such an amazing feeling.

Over your career how has building a fan base changed? Do you guys find it easier or harder?

The social media landscape has definitely evolved since we got our start, we are definitely a product of the social media era because Myspace was where we built our initial fan base, and things have changed a *lot* since then, but at the end of the day the key is still making the greatest possible music, it’s the foundation for everything. We’re big fans of that Kanye West approach – we just want to make dope things.