DJ Shadow

DJ Shadow’s devotion to vinyl sampling combined with software-based production reaps new rewards on his fifth studio album, The Mountain Will Fall. Danny Turner meets the DJ/producer during a flying visit to London.

- Danny Turner

Born in leafy Yolo County, California, American producer DJ Shadow embarked on his DJ career at KDVS campus radio while developing his own genre-defying take on alternative Hip-Hop, blending elements of Rock, Soul, Funk, Experimental, Electronic and Jazz – culled from his 60,000-strong record collection.

Citing Kurtis Mantronik, Steinski, Prince Paul and European New Wave as his primary influences, early singles In/Flux and Lost And Found (S.F.L.) displayed Shadow’s dextrous yet rudimentary sample-based style. Following the success of his acclaimed debut album Endtroducing..... created on nothing more than an Akai MPC60 and an ADAT digital recorder, he has continued to develop his inimitable sound over the past 20 years through a series of albums, DJ mixes and the documentary based score Dark Days (2000).

The making of Shadow’s new album The Mountain Will Fall saw the producer delve deeper into the process of engineering and mixing, working alongside renowned mastering engineer Bob Macc. The process also saw him bring Ableton out of the live space and into the studio while trialling Mill Valley neighbour Jack Dangers’ (Meat Beat Manifesto) numbingly expensive modular set-up.

FM: Can you enjoy listening to music as a consumer or does your sample obsession interfere with that process?

DJ Shadow: “No, I don’t think so. Hip-Hop taught me to appreciate all forms of music. Ironically, in the Hip-Hop era I was kind of a snob – or a purist. As I grew older and Hip-Hop matured, I was discovering groups like Bad Brains via Public Enemy, and in the process of trying to figure out the samples, I was suddenly listening to Country Rock and Spiritual Jazz. I would never have got into Jazz if it hadn’t been for A Tribe Called Quest and groups like that.