The Struggles Of Committing To An Album

Dominating the charts last year with their second album, Photographs, The Aston Shuffle has been relatively quiet throughout 2015. Now dropping tracks Don’t Let Go and High With You, the boys are back playing five dates across the country in November.

“Those two records felt different to each other but they’re kind of in the same space. It’s almost like a double A-side saying, ‘hey, we’re back'. We just wanted to get the DJs excited again and take things back a bit rather than going for a radio-focused song.”

With the releasing coming weeks apart, the question arises whether the boys have another full-length in the works.

“We’re not committing to saying we’re doing an album. I think over the course of this year we finished touring the last album and just wanted to take some time out of the scene for a while. Try and get the productive writing juices flowing. We’ve written a bunch of new music that feels ready to go.” Freeman comments on the releases, “Rather than committing to a full body of work, we’re just really enjoying ourselves in the studio again and I think the two records we recently put out kind of capture what we’ve been getting up to of late. It’s nothing too serious, just a bit of a palette cleanser from the last album really.”

Now well seasoned in the dance music industry, both of the Canberra-bred producers are spreading their wings a little, lending themselves to vocalists abroad (albeit very discretely).

“We both have different aliases for stuff that we don’t tell anyone about. We now work with rappers and are producing songs for other people. I guess we’re diversifying our bonds in a way. Producing for someone else you’re not as emotionally connected to it so you see it a lot easier and bring the best out for that person whereas with your own artistic endeavors, you get too close to it so it’s a little bit harder.

Come next month, The Aston Shuffle will kick off their Australian tour in Sydney followed by dates in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, and Brisbane. It will mark the first live shows for the duo since their last appearance at Stereosonic, this time in far more intimate settings.

“We’re kind of stripping things back a bit now. It feels a little more electronic and club focsused, so it’s about ramming small venues. I’ll have my Maschine, MPC and little drum pad and Vance will have a novation pad as well. We’re stripping it back and making it a bit more raw, a little more techno. We’re playing about 50 per cent brand new music we’ve never played before and it’ll be better for a smaller crowd.”

Originally published in X-Press Magazine