Shur-I-Kan interview

Tell us how Dark Energy Recordings happened, and what is its mission statement? 

Dark Energy has no mission statement – it’s essentially a vehicle for Barry (Milton Jackson) and I to have creative control over our music. It sort of evolved to include other artists but it’s a very ramshackle organisation I think essentially I keep it going because I enjoy writing our facile promo texts. That said we are the only house label that I’m aware of that has our own strategic space program. A guy in the US who makes rockets contacted us and asked to use the name and logo on a rocket he built – as we are massive geeks we said yes of course – and to be honest thats pretty much the only justification we need for the label. 

How did you originally hook with up with Lazy Days and how did this single come about? 

I worked with Fred before with the Simply Yes EP back a few years ago. Fred has real love and enthusiasm for the scene and it’s great to work with someone who cares about the music. You need someone who can get excited about your music, it’s easy even for the most established artists to sit in a studio and fret about whether your latest track is ‘good enough’, relevant etc, so to have that feedback is important. There’s not much money in retailing recorded music at this level, so you better have the love! 

Do you have a favourite piece of studio equipment/ instrument that you like to use? 

Not really, I own a Fender Rhodes of which I am fond of but I lent that to a very talented keyboardist friend of mine a few years back and I’ve yet to get it back! 🙂 One day!! Till then I work 99% in the box. Dull but true. I recently moved into a new studio so the temptation to fill it full of equipment will no doubt increase. 

How do you feel about the vinyl vs. digital debate? 

It’s a bit boring. I say, each to their own. Fundamentally people choose vinyl because they value the esoteric qualities over the convenience of digital. That’s their personal choice. Myself I take convenience because I’m a very busy person. I’ll buy vinyl if I have to or if I want to own the packaging, but it will end up digitised either way. 

How do you approach Dj’ing and what for you makes a good Dj?

It’s quite simple – I pick tunes I like that I think will work in a club environment and play them in a sequence that I think will work well.  Some sequences are more successful than others, but that’s where experience comes in. I try to balance between what people expect from coming to see me and also to introduce some new sounds that I may be into to keep things fresh. The main thing is never to bore yourself, that’s why I don’t play every weekend I’d get bored quickly.

http://www.shur-i-kan.com/

https://www.facebook.com/#!/fredeverything.lazydays