KingsOfKings
𝔻𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕞 𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕥
Today, sampling means something very different than it did three decades ago. When Josh Davis was working on his debut album, Endtroducing….., his samples were dug out in record stores, lifted from vinyl’s dusty grooves and squeezed into little more than a megabyte of memory on the Akai MPC60.
These were the methods that Davis, better known as DJ Shadow, used to create the world’s first entirely sample-based album, a monumentally influential record not only in the means of its production, but the sample-flipping, genre-flexing genius of the music itself.
Nowadays, many of us are more likely to open up Splice and slice a WAV on our DAW’s timeline than drop the needle on a record. Davis, though, isn’t the least bit precious about preserving the tools and techniques he used to make his masterpiece, telling us that any “old-school mentality” he once harboured has long since evaporated.
“It’s not so much about what you're using or where you're taking it from, but more the ideas that you're adding on to it,” he tells us. “It’s about the way it's being used and the way it's being manipulated. The ideas, more than ever, are what drives interesting music for me.”
It’s this philosophy that guides Davis’ latest project, Action Adventure. His seventh solo LP, the record explores Davis’ personal relationship with music, not only as a producer but as a lifelong collector and curator.
With no scene-stealing features and far fewer samples than previous releases, the project finds Davis sharpening his focus on the fundamentals, digging deep into designing unique sounds, crafting captivating arrangements and writing chords and melodies that evade the obvious. It’s another stage in the evolution of an artist driven by the relentless desire to evolve, broaden and perfect his craft.
We caught up with DJ Shadow from his home in San Francisco to find out more about Action Adventure, talking through the serendipity of discovering the perfect sample, the importance of fine-tuning your bullshyt detector, and why he’ll never go back to the MPC.
You’ve said that Action Adventure is about your relationship with music as a collector and curator. Could you elaborate on that significance for us?
“It’s a natural byproduct of where I'm at right now as a collector and as a musician, in the sense that pretty much I start every day by looking at any of the stuff around me and trying to learn more about it. Listening, trying to understand more about what I'm listening to, thinking about arrangements and melodies in ways that I probably didn't five, ten or twenty years ago. It's part of the lifelong process of being an artist, and trying to be an artist that contributes to the music that inspires me every day.
“I'm looking around right now because I'm surrounded by it. Literally, a moment before this call I was looking at a 45 that I hadn’t seen in a long time. At the same time, I'm always being sent new things to listen to and check out. I think that's what makes my listening unique, is that on the one hand I might listen to a ‘50s big band or swing record and then ten minutes later listen to some new band that was inspired by Death Grips or Nine Inch Nails or Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. That in itself ends up making a weird and unique blend.”
We’re told you stumbled on a treasure trove of 200 mixtapes on eBay that inspired you for this record. Tell us more?
“A friend of mine who I’ve spent a lot of time with, and who understands who I am as a collector and as a music lover, saw this batch of tapes being offered and said, ‘if anybody should have these, it's you’. It could have been anything – just a picture of a stack of tapes and a vague description – but it basically was some somebody saying they’d taped these off the radio between 1984 and 1987. I really didn't have very high expectations and I ended up being the only bidder.
These tapes brought me back out. It was a little mainline into something pure and nostalgic and kind of wonderful in its own right
“The tapes came and I started playing them while I was driving around, and the energy that was put into the mixes, and the love and the youthful exuberance that came out of the mixes was so palpable. The music selection was so different from what they were playing in LA at the time, or what they were playing in the Bay Area at the time. So I was hearing all this music that I rarely get to hear anymore, put into a blender, and making this incredible result.
“It was at the peak of everybody's COVID depression, and at the time, I really wasn't listening to any new music. Everything felt so fraught and gross and I didn't want to imprint my memories of that era onto any music that I liked. But I started listening to these tapes, and it kind of brought me back out. It was a little mainline into something pure and nostalgic and kind of wonderful in its own right.
“It’s not so much about what you're using or where you're taking it from, but more the ideas that you're adding on to it,” he tells us. “It’s about the way it's being used and the way it's being manipulated. The ideas, more than ever, are what drives interesting music for me.”
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It’s this philosophy that guides Davis’ latest project, Action Adventure. His seventh solo LP, the record explores Davis’ personal relationship with music, not only as a producer but as a lifelong collector and curator.
The ideas, more than ever, are what drives interesting music for me
With no scene-stealing features and far fewer samples than previous releases, the project finds Davis sharpening his focus on the fundamentals, digging deep into designing unique sounds, crafting captivating arrangements and writing chords and melodies that evade the obvious. It’s another stage in the evolution of an artist driven by the relentless desire to evolve, broaden and perfect his craft.
We caught up with DJ Shadow from his home in San Francisco to find out more about Action Adventure, talking through the serendipity of discovering the perfect sample, the importance of fine-tuning your bullshyt detector, and why he’ll never go back to the MPC.
You’ve said that Action Adventure is about your relationship with music as a collector and curator. Could you elaborate on that significance for us?
“It’s a natural byproduct of where I'm at right now as a collector and as a musician, in the sense that pretty much I start every day by looking at any of the stuff around me and trying to learn more about it. Listening, trying to understand more about what I'm listening to, thinking about arrangements and melodies in ways that I probably didn't five, ten or twenty years ago. It's part of the lifelong process of being an artist, and trying to be an artist that contributes to the music that inspires me every day.
“I'm looking around right now because I'm surrounded by it. Literally, a moment before this call I was looking at a 45 that I hadn’t seen in a long time. At the same time, I'm always being sent new things to listen to and check out. I think that's what makes my listening unique, is that on the one hand I might listen to a ‘50s big band or swing record and then ten minutes later listen to some new band that was inspired by Death Grips or Nine Inch Nails or Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. That in itself ends up making a weird and unique blend.”
More here: DJ Shadow on why he'll never go back to the MPC: "I got the newest MPC and I lasted about a day and a half. When you know what the possibilities are now and you try to go back in time, it doesn't work"
These were the methods that Davis, better known as DJ Shadow, used to create the world’s first entirely sample-based album, a monumentally influential record not only in the means of its production, but the sample-flipping, genre-flexing genius of the music itself.
Nowadays, many of us are more likely to open up Splice and slice a WAV on our DAW’s timeline than drop the needle on a record. Davis, though, isn’t the least bit precious about preserving the tools and techniques he used to make his masterpiece, telling us that any “old-school mentality” he once harboured has long since evaporated.
“It’s not so much about what you're using or where you're taking it from, but more the ideas that you're adding on to it,” he tells us. “It’s about the way it's being used and the way it's being manipulated. The ideas, more than ever, are what drives interesting music for me.”
It’s this philosophy that guides Davis’ latest project, Action Adventure. His seventh solo LP, the record explores Davis’ personal relationship with music, not only as a producer but as a lifelong collector and curator.
With no scene-stealing features and far fewer samples than previous releases, the project finds Davis sharpening his focus on the fundamentals, digging deep into designing unique sounds, crafting captivating arrangements and writing chords and melodies that evade the obvious. It’s another stage in the evolution of an artist driven by the relentless desire to evolve, broaden and perfect his craft.
We caught up with DJ Shadow from his home in San Francisco to find out more about Action Adventure, talking through the serendipity of discovering the perfect sample, the importance of fine-tuning your bullshyt detector, and why he’ll never go back to the MPC.
You’ve said that Action Adventure is about your relationship with music as a collector and curator. Could you elaborate on that significance for us?
“It’s a natural byproduct of where I'm at right now as a collector and as a musician, in the sense that pretty much I start every day by looking at any of the stuff around me and trying to learn more about it. Listening, trying to understand more about what I'm listening to, thinking about arrangements and melodies in ways that I probably didn't five, ten or twenty years ago. It's part of the lifelong process of being an artist, and trying to be an artist that contributes to the music that inspires me every day.
“I'm looking around right now because I'm surrounded by it. Literally, a moment before this call I was looking at a 45 that I hadn’t seen in a long time. At the same time, I'm always being sent new things to listen to and check out. I think that's what makes my listening unique, is that on the one hand I might listen to a ‘50s big band or swing record and then ten minutes later listen to some new band that was inspired by Death Grips or Nine Inch Nails or Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. That in itself ends up making a weird and unique blend.”
We’re told you stumbled on a treasure trove of 200 mixtapes on eBay that inspired you for this record. Tell us more?
“A friend of mine who I’ve spent a lot of time with, and who understands who I am as a collector and as a music lover, saw this batch of tapes being offered and said, ‘if anybody should have these, it's you’. It could have been anything – just a picture of a stack of tapes and a vague description – but it basically was some somebody saying they’d taped these off the radio between 1984 and 1987. I really didn't have very high expectations and I ended up being the only bidder.
These tapes brought me back out. It was a little mainline into something pure and nostalgic and kind of wonderful in its own right
“The tapes came and I started playing them while I was driving around, and the energy that was put into the mixes, and the love and the youthful exuberance that came out of the mixes was so palpable. The music selection was so different from what they were playing in LA at the time, or what they were playing in the Bay Area at the time. So I was hearing all this music that I rarely get to hear anymore, put into a blender, and making this incredible result.
“It was at the peak of everybody's COVID depression, and at the time, I really wasn't listening to any new music. Everything felt so fraught and gross and I didn't want to imprint my memories of that era onto any music that I liked. But I started listening to these tapes, and it kind of brought me back out. It was a little mainline into something pure and nostalgic and kind of wonderful in its own right.
“It’s not so much about what you're using or where you're taking it from, but more the ideas that you're adding on to it,” he tells us. “It’s about the way it's being used and the way it's being manipulated. The ideas, more than ever, are what drives interesting music for me.”
Advertisement
It’s this philosophy that guides Davis’ latest project, Action Adventure. His seventh solo LP, the record explores Davis’ personal relationship with music, not only as a producer but as a lifelong collector and curator.
The ideas, more than ever, are what drives interesting music for me
With no scene-stealing features and far fewer samples than previous releases, the project finds Davis sharpening his focus on the fundamentals, digging deep into designing unique sounds, crafting captivating arrangements and writing chords and melodies that evade the obvious. It’s another stage in the evolution of an artist driven by the relentless desire to evolve, broaden and perfect his craft.
We caught up with DJ Shadow from his home in San Francisco to find out more about Action Adventure, talking through the serendipity of discovering the perfect sample, the importance of fine-tuning your bullshyt detector, and why he’ll never go back to the MPC.
You’ve said that Action Adventure is about your relationship with music as a collector and curator. Could you elaborate on that significance for us?
“It’s a natural byproduct of where I'm at right now as a collector and as a musician, in the sense that pretty much I start every day by looking at any of the stuff around me and trying to learn more about it. Listening, trying to understand more about what I'm listening to, thinking about arrangements and melodies in ways that I probably didn't five, ten or twenty years ago. It's part of the lifelong process of being an artist, and trying to be an artist that contributes to the music that inspires me every day.
“I'm looking around right now because I'm surrounded by it. Literally, a moment before this call I was looking at a 45 that I hadn’t seen in a long time. At the same time, I'm always being sent new things to listen to and check out. I think that's what makes my listening unique, is that on the one hand I might listen to a ‘50s big band or swing record and then ten minutes later listen to some new band that was inspired by Death Grips or Nine Inch Nails or Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. That in itself ends up making a weird and unique blend.”
More here: DJ Shadow on why he'll never go back to the MPC: "I got the newest MPC and I lasted about a day and a half. When you know what the possibilities are now and you try to go back in time, it doesn't work"
