DJ Shadow: Short interview by Olivier Rousseaux (St Denis France)
On the 2nd of July 2010, the "Au Foin De La Rue" festival in France had the honour to premier DJ Shadow's 2010 summer tour. Olivier Rousseaux (aka Somepling from the DJ Shadow remix cd) already saw a previous DJ Shadow show in St-Malo at the "La Route Du Rock festival" back in 2002 (CLICK HERE TO WATCH THAT FULL SHOW) but because of obvious reasons, he went to see DJ Shadow live again. This time, he had the possibility to directly meet Shadow. They had a short chat and it went something like this:
Somepling: "Did you ever met James Brown in person?"
Shadow: "No. Unfortunately not. But i clearly remember one day i saw George Clinton from Funkadelic in a restaurant's line up. At the time, i didn't go and talk to him cause i was impressed, i guess."
Somepling: "Does Shadow also collects Shadow records? Do you have rare Shadow stuff?"
Shadow: "Yes, i try to keep as many records as i can, demos, acetates... Acetates are great, because there's not that much around. Sometimes, what's on these records is really different than regular version releases. I remember i bought acetates from Astrobboy (an Australian long-time collector) lately. It was "DJ Shadow - Mashin' On The Motorway ACETATE" and "DJ Shadow - Private Repress 2LP ACETATE". We (at djshadow.com) even put a link to Astrobboy ebay auctions." (http://www.djshadow.com/news/rare-dj-shadow-items-found-ebay)
Somepling: "Can you give us a date for a future release (a single of the next LP)?"
Shadow: "We will put out a single, probably in a few months. In this coming tour, you'll be able to hear 4 new tracks. Dante (Express Rising) has worked on some things.
I'll be using some tracks from "The DJ Shadow Remix Project" too.
Next year, perhaps an LP or something else.
What matters is that people can simply hear new material right now. We'll also drop some new stuff on "Shadow radio" shortly."
Somepling: "By the way, all these mixes showing on "Shadow Radio" are simply amazing. but to be honest, i had a few difficulties listening to the "Co-Worker Rock" mix...(laughs)"
Shadow: "(Laughs) I know it's something really special, there's some bad singers out there...It's a love we share (Dante and I) for these
amateurs records."
Somepling: "Where do you keep your record collection? I heard somewhere you put the majority of this collection in storage units around town...Is that true?"
Shadow: "Yes, that's true. You know, it's impossible for me to keep all the records at home. I keep some, but the majority of it stays in storage units. The forth coming album will contain lots of samples from these (now lost in storage units) records.
Somepling: "This still is a secret today...One of the greatest. What's the name of the group and the title of the last song on track 5 - disc 2 of "Diminishing Returns"?"
Shadow: "The name of the group is "Smiles". I think it's a group from Los Angeles, and the song's dating back from 1968-69. Unfortunately, the writtings on the record are not in good shape. I've never seen another record. I remember Dante came to my house, he saw the record, listened to it. He will never stop digging to find that particular record."
Somepling: "How do you use Ebay? Du you only buy records you don't find anywhere else?"
Shadow: "There's no rules. It depends of the time I have. I can easily spend a week digitally diggin', then, stop for two weeks...and again, buy some more stuff during 2 other weeks...etc... It's really useful, not only for the hard-to-find things."
Somepling: "I know you buy lots of clothes too...Why don't you wear them?"
Shadow: "I like to buy shirts and stuff like that, some old rap shirts from the 1980-90 era. It fits pretty well with some records of my collection.
Most of my friends had that particular shirt at the time, a "Main Source" shirt (which was purple if i clearly remember).
I'd like to find that one, but it seems to be quite hard to come by."
Somepling: "In the Eliot Wilder book (Endtroducing...33 1/3), you're talking about big boots that everybody was wearing at the time.
Do you still need these boots now?"
Shadow: "No, hey, you have to keep abreast of the times. I remember i used to wear "Champion" shirts too, my man Stan "The 8th Wonder" also used
to draw me (on the reconstruction tapes and flyers) with these clothes and also these big boots that everyone was wearing at the time."
Somepling: "About Stan Green, at a certain point, there was a big blow-up with his whole family...Can you tell us more about that?"
Shadow: "In fact, Stan's family was really into religion, and you know, Hip-Hop in general has some special ways, points of view. Then, at a certain point, it was impossible for Stan to continue living this way. But nowadays, i know he still like Hip-Hop, he listens to Anticon, stuff like that.
He's an art teacher in a school now."
- Olivier Rousseaux (Somepling), "Au Foin De La Rue" festival, 2nd of July, 2010
On the 2nd of July 2010, the "Au Foin De La Rue" festival in France had the honour to premier DJ Shadow's 2010 summer tour. Olivier Rousseaux (aka Somepling from the DJ Shadow remix cd) already saw a previous DJ Shadow show in St-Malo at the "La Route Du Rock festival" back in 2002 (CLICK HERE TO WATCH THAT FULL SHOW) but because of obvious reasons, he went to see DJ Shadow live again. This time, he had the possibility to directly meet Shadow. They had a short chat and it went something like this:
Somepling: "Did you ever met James Brown in person?"
Shadow: "No. Unfortunately not. But i clearly remember one day i saw George Clinton from Funkadelic in a restaurant's line up. At the time, i didn't go and talk to him cause i was impressed, i guess."
Somepling: "Does Shadow also collects Shadow records? Do you have rare Shadow stuff?"
Shadow: "Yes, i try to keep as many records as i can, demos, acetates... Acetates are great, because there's not that much around. Sometimes, what's on these records is really different than regular version releases. I remember i bought acetates from Astrobboy (an Australian long-time collector) lately. It was "DJ Shadow - Mashin' On The Motorway ACETATE" and "DJ Shadow - Private Repress 2LP ACETATE". We (at djshadow.com) even put a link to Astrobboy ebay auctions." (http://www.djshadow.com/news/rare-dj-shadow-items-found-ebay)
Somepling: "Can you give us a date for a future release (a single of the next LP)?"
Shadow: "We will put out a single, probably in a few months. In this coming tour, you'll be able to hear 4 new tracks. Dante (Express Rising) has worked on some things.
I'll be using some tracks from "The DJ Shadow Remix Project" too.
Next year, perhaps an LP or something else.
What matters is that people can simply hear new material right now. We'll also drop some new stuff on "Shadow radio" shortly."
Somepling: "By the way, all these mixes showing on "Shadow Radio" are simply amazing. but to be honest, i had a few difficulties listening to the "Co-Worker Rock" mix...(laughs)"
Shadow: "(Laughs) I know it's something really special, there's some bad singers out there...It's a love we share (Dante and I) for these
amateurs records."
Somepling: "Where do you keep your record collection? I heard somewhere you put the majority of this collection in storage units around town...Is that true?"
Shadow: "Yes, that's true. You know, it's impossible for me to keep all the records at home. I keep some, but the majority of it stays in storage units. The forth coming album will contain lots of samples from these (now lost in storage units) records.
Somepling: "This still is a secret today...One of the greatest. What's the name of the group and the title of the last song on track 5 - disc 2 of "Diminishing Returns"?"
Shadow: "The name of the group is "Smiles". I think it's a group from Los Angeles, and the song's dating back from 1968-69. Unfortunately, the writtings on the record are not in good shape. I've never seen another record. I remember Dante came to my house, he saw the record, listened to it. He will never stop digging to find that particular record."
Somepling: "How do you use Ebay? Du you only buy records you don't find anywhere else?"
Shadow: "There's no rules. It depends of the time I have. I can easily spend a week digitally diggin', then, stop for two weeks...and again, buy some more stuff during 2 other weeks...etc... It's really useful, not only for the hard-to-find things."
Somepling: "I know you buy lots of clothes too...Why don't you wear them?"
Shadow: "I like to buy shirts and stuff like that, some old rap shirts from the 1980-90 era. It fits pretty well with some records of my collection.
Most of my friends had that particular shirt at the time, a "Main Source" shirt (which was purple if i clearly remember).
I'd like to find that one, but it seems to be quite hard to come by."
Somepling: "In the Eliot Wilder book (Endtroducing...33 1/3), you're talking about big boots that everybody was wearing at the time.
Do you still need these boots now?"
Shadow: "No, hey, you have to keep abreast of the times. I remember i used to wear "Champion" shirts too, my man Stan "The 8th Wonder" also used
to draw me (on the reconstruction tapes and flyers) with these clothes and also these big boots that everyone was wearing at the time."
Somepling: "About Stan Green, at a certain point, there was a big blow-up with his whole family...Can you tell us more about that?"
Shadow: "In fact, Stan's family was really into religion, and you know, Hip-Hop in general has some special ways, points of view. Then, at a certain point, it was impossible for Stan to continue living this way. But nowadays, i know he still like Hip-Hop, he listens to Anticon, stuff like that.
He's an art teacher in a school now."
- Olivier Rousseaux (Somepling), "Au Foin De La Rue" festival, 2nd of July, 2010