We Look Back With The Aston Shuffle On Their Groundwork For Success!

Written by wowNovember 26, 2015

Australia’s god father’s of house and bass music The Aston Shuffle are embarking on some show across Australia towards the end of the year including a live performance at The Met this Saturday. In the lead up to this gig, we caught up with the fellas to reminisce on some of the insanely good remixes they’ve done in the past, how they’re fairing in national radio world and caught some advice for young producers slugging it out in house music in Aus.

We’ve been reminiscing recently on old The Aston Shuffle remixes and classic hits like ‘For Everyone’, what was your favourite part of that ERA with your music?

I think having no idea what we were doing made it a lot of fun, we were really just playing around and not trying to be serious about anything at all, hence a lot of the dumb stuff we did in tracks back then, e.g. in For Everyone, the slow tempo bit and all the excessive weird freakout moments. We used to be the biggest dickheads in the studio too, just silly dickheads making silly dickhead music – if we had a manifesto in the beginning, that was it.

What was your favourite old school remix you guys did? and why?

I think the Terry Poison remix definitely qualifies as a favourite, a lot of that dumb and not-serious ethos comes through with that one. I don’t know if this qualifies as “old school” Aston Shuffle but our Owl Eyes remix is a big favourite of mine personally, really happy with how that one came out and the whole vibe of that remix.

Is there ever the temptation to visit the past and throw down a new classic Aston Shuffle remix?

Not really, music moves on and so do our tastes, all that matters is what’s next really. Maybe one day we’ll try but we’ve kinda done it already so it won’t be the same, and there’s nothing worse than trying really hard to do something contrived.

You’ve been at the helm of Triple J’s Friday Night Shuffle, what’s your favourite part about doing the show?

It keeps us engaged with music in a different way, obviously as DJs you’re always engaging with new music but when you’re curating a 3-hour show every week the way you engage with music is a little bit different, you’re not strictly listening for yourself, which can be the way you approach things as a DJ. It’s given us a particular perspective on music we wouldn’t have I guess.

Low Steppa recently opened up on the legacy you guys have left for the house and bass scene. What advice would you give to Australian house and bass producers in terms of achieving success?

Be different. Being stupendously great isn’t enough anymore, because every man and his dog has the same tools you do, and it’s easier than ever to be really really good. That’s the level playing field the internet has created, and the only way to stand out on a level playing field is to be different to everyone else.

Favourite Aussie original track at the moment?