DJ Shadow: “Kraftwerk is a touchstone for every stage of my career” | DJ Shadow

Can you share any regrets or missed opportunities from your career? nnagewad
In 1999, Deftones approached me to work on White Pony, but I had just come off Unkle’s Psyence Fiction album. I was nurturing the image and reputation of hip-hop, so I was wary of working with anything that seemed too alternative or rock-oriented. So I missed being part of a nice album. I wouldn’t say I regret it, necessarily, because I feel like my rationale was sound, but it was a missed opportunity.

Was your move towards sample-free production for your recent albums driven by the hassle and cost of removing samples, The desire to keep the creative process fresh, or A bit of both? Joe’s editorial
Certainly both. There have been times in my career where I’ve wondered: At the end of the day, am I only going to own 15% of my catalog because of all the samples? So that was part of it. But equally, I’ve become known as someone who tries to be at the forefront of making music with samples, but I always knew that I wanted to make music in as many different ways as possible.

Before there was [digital audio workstations] Like Ableton or Logic, the MPC sampler was the closest thing you could do to working in the box. Since I have no interest in technical matters, it was easy and comfortable for me to work this way. I’ve never given up on samples, and I always feel like my involvement in making music in other ways has been very deliberate and at a real pace. So it’s interesting sometimes when people are surprised: “How come there are no dusty recesses?” I’ve already done that, and I’m doing new things. I think this is very important for an artist.

Who are your favorite DJs from the UK? Megaplast
The group that really stood out to me was Hijack. DJ Supreme and DJ Undercover were very influential. I didn’t have access to a lot of the real, independent stuff and very little was coming out of the UK at that time. I was definitely looking for that. I used to read Melody Maker and NME on import because I was a music geek and found them more comprehensive. In the US at the time it was all about rock and roll, whereas I could pick up a copy of the NME and see John Peel’s ten favorite highlife records.

Will artificial intelligence ultimately be an enabler of human creativity? Or do we kill him stone dead? 2023 AD
I hope for the best and expect the worst. I’m not going to lie to you, it keeps me up at night, not just music-wise, but as a human being. I think technology has the power to liberate or the power to constrain, and we’ll see where we end up. But it feels a little different than anything I’ve ever experienced. I can clearly remember the time before the advent of the Internet and social media, and life changed in many ways with the advent of these technologies. AI seems to be bigger than both of them combined. So I hope it doesn’t become something where your survival depends on being as skilled and immersed in it as possible. I enjoy nature, I enjoy the real, tangible world we currently live in, and I hate to think that the world can’t coexist with whatever is on the horizon.

In an age where all music seems to be at our fingertips, do you feel that finding records is more important than ever? Mr. Nick Tudor
There is an aspect of my collection that feels curatorial, as I actively try to discover neglected music and give it a new audience. This is something I’ve always done, even in the 80s, when hip-hop was cool and no one in the town I lived in knew it existed. I used to preach at school and say, “You have to listen to this.” When I started researching older music and looking for samples and breaks, I began to appreciate jazz, soul, funk, rock, folk, and music from all over the world. You’re always looking for that thing that touches you and that you can share with people.

Looking back at the early days of your career, what was your one non-musical influence? – Movie, book Or a life event – Has it unexpectedly shaped your approach to sampling and sound design? Ronan Tierney
The way I think about albums specifically, and the whole show, from the artwork to the song titles, has always been influenced by films, books, authors, and paintings. For me, all creativity is a potential source of inspiration. I was inspired by Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was a kid. This all goes into the way I played with the convention. I would have very long songs, or track lists where it would be like, track one, track one and a half, track two – playing around and breaking it up and doing things that hadn’t been done.

The TV show Twin Peaks was a huge influence. I was a senior in high school when this show first came out, and all the actors in it were high school seniors. The way David Lynch handled the narrative process was very unusual. I was always thinking: What if I applied the same sense of adventure to my songs?

If you were given the brief on how to create an album solely from samples of one artist or band, what would you choose, as an homage?? walmai
I’m still in awe of Kraftwerk. They are a touchstone for every stage of my career. The first song I ever heard was the 1983 Tour de France, when I was 11 years old; Then I heard Numbers on a mixtape, played along with a bunch of other hip-hop records. I really didn’t know anything about them. I didn’t know they were from Germany. I’ve never heard of the highway. I had no idea that music was from [Afrika Bambaataa’s] Planet Rock was based on the Trans-Europe Express. So, as I learned more about the group, and discovered their earlier, more traditional rock-based – and very adventurous – recordings there was a lot to admire. Their image is a constant source of inspiration, especially as I’ve explored ways of making music outside of sampling. Their music is still unique. There is no one else I can compare them to. They are often imitated, never replicated. This is the highest compliment you can give any artist.

What is the most expensive LP in your collection, and Are there still records that you want to own but don’t? Zack Mc Kraken
Monetary value doesn’t really factor into any part of my aesthetic as a collector. I mean, yeah, the high price is going to keep something out of my ability to get it for a while. But I still get excited when I find something my own way, in my own time.

I kind of take an old school approach that’s more about getting out there and wandering around and being willing to sacrifice some time, dig through a bunch of junk and find that diamond in the rough. I actually gave away the record I paid the most money for – I gave it to a college buddy for free, just because I felt free to do so. It helped me remember what drilling was all about. Value is more about what I assign to something as a music lover.

There are definitely records that I still want to own, but they don’t bother me as much as they once did, where you feel incomplete, in a way, as a rabid collector. I prefer to enjoy every aspect of the acquisition and the eventual abandonment of the thing. We’re all just temporary caregivers for these things anyway.

Have you ever gone back to early recording settings? Danosism
Not really, because my personal philosophy is that it is a fallacy to try to unlearn what you have learned. When I first started making music, I knew nothing about sound or the studio. I am completely self-taught. But as you move forward and collaborate with other people, and work in real studios, and develop…for me, there’s something artistically wrong with pretending that learning never happened. It’s all about continuing to move forward as a creative.

How did you end up doing the King Gizz remix? [of Black Hot Soup]? Nonagon221
Very simple: they asked. I think some people might be surprised by how rarely I’m asked to do things like this. So anytime I get asked, I say: I’ll check it out. What I always tell people is, let me mess around with it, and if I think I can do something cool, I’ll let you know. Then we can formalize things. But I don’t like to burden my work with any expectations or to be paid until I know if I think I can do something great.

This remix was pretty quick and painless, as things go. I like to try to reach different audiences and kind of surprise and do different things. It was just a fun thing to do during a pretty miserable Covid year, to be honest.