With James Shinra making his debut on 20/20 Vision with On & On, we decided to catch up for a chat to discuss his musical background, working with Bicep & more.
Tell us about your musical background, what inspired you to get into music and how has this effected your output?
I started playing the piano at a young age and got to a pretty good standard. That's certainly helped shape the musical/melodic side of my music.
In terms of my background in electronic music, I remember messing around with some software called Octamed on an Amiga when I was about 10 years old - it's weird because I didn't even know anything about electronic music at the time other than the stuff that crossed all the way over into the charts. It came with some breakbeats and rave samples and for some reason I really took to it. So music production is something that's always been there in the background for me. By the time I was 12 or 13 in the late 90s I had got into dance music - house, trance, rave - even though of course I was far too young to go clubbing! I was a big fan of Daft Punk and their different side projects, Sasha and Digweed, The Prodigy, as well as Paul Van Dyk, Hooj Choons, Platipus records. A bit later, when I was about 16, I found out about Aphex and Warp records and the weirder side of electronic music on Rephlex and Planet Mu. Then a bit after that I got into Drexciya and electro. So: pianos, trancy melodies, rave breakbeats, 808s and 909s, braindance - it's all filtered through into my music in some way, I suppose.
Having previously released on Analogical Force, how did this relationship transpire and what other artists we’re you excited by on the label?
Sergio from Analogical Force got in touch with me in 2016 based on hearing an acid track I'd done for Balkan Vinyl and asked me to send him some stuff. I think at that point they'd had 2 releases - by D'Arcangelo and Dwaalicht (aka Wisp). As a huge Rephlex fan, I was very excited to be approached by a label that had released music by those artists! It took about a year from then and various demos before we arrived at the tracks for my Meteor EP in 2017. The label has since gone from strength to strength and has a really impressive discography now, 100% quality. I've been out to Madrid a couple of times and played a few gigs with label boss Sergio (his DJ name is Pervert) - he's a top guy and a brilliant DJ with an enviable record box. Everyone on the label is exciting to me, I don't want to leave anyone out!
You’ve also previously worked with electronic heavy weights Bicep, how did this relationship develop and what was it like working in the studio with them?
My 2015 EP on Null + Void found its way into Bicep's hands during the promo by label boss Kirsti (thanks again Kirsti!!). They liked it and provided some positive feedback, then a bit later got in touch to ask me if I wanted to do a mix for their podcast series. Soon after I did that they got in touch again to ask if I wanted to remix a track on FMB008 - Sandboards' Visa EP - which went well. By that point I think I'd started sending them various tracks, just in case they wanted them to DJ. I remember that Matt particularly liked my track Orbit which I released myself on Bandcamp. Eventually I sent them a demo of my track Arc which they liked and suggested we put out on their label. My track Signs came about shortly after, originally intended as a B-Side but ended up being the A-Side. To do the final tweaks to the tracks I went down to their London studio for a couple of days where we re-recorded some parts using their 808 and used some of their effects units. We also did a couple of recordings of the bassline for Signs on their 101 which added a nice bit of real analogue magic. Their monitoring is also much better than I have at home, you can really crank it up in their studio! It was a dream come true to spend a bit of time there and learn a bit about how they use the studio. They're great guys and I'm really grateful they kept listening to my demos, I feel very lucky! The whole thing is quite a fortunate series of events really, started off by Kirsti at Null + Void giving them my record.
You’ve also supported Bicep at WHP recently, how was the show and can you tell us more about your live show?
The WHP show went well, although I had a cold at the time which put a bit of a downer on it! I was just trying to make it through the day rather than feeling full of energy. The event was by far the biggest thing I've played at - the lineup included Jeff Mills, Floating Points, 808 State and of course Bicep - I was in the smallest room but it was still pretty big! I was on early but it was quite full already which was great.
For my live show I use a laptop running Ableton Live with a Push controller, another Midi controller with knobs and faders assigned to various effects, a Roland TR-8S drum machine and a Roland TB-3 (a 303 clone). The TR-8S and TB-3 allow me to improvise a bit with some live acid electro and techno, while the laptop lets me use audio clips and also play out some full tracks which are too complicated to play live. Some of my tracks have quite complex programming, with lots of edits and changes that are too much to do at once - for those ones I play the full tracks out and embellish them using the drum machine and TB-3, whereas for more simple tracks I can control each part live. 303 + 808 or 909 tracks work the best for being genuinely 'live' but I do like to play a variety of tracks rather than go 100% acid.
Which artists would you say we should keep an eye out for in 2020 and why?
I've enjoyed No Moon's last few releases, his stuff has a dreamy quality but can also hit very hard in places - it's an interesting mixture of electro with breakbeats and a bit of acid too. Shedbug as well, for similar reasons. Lou Karsh is on a bit of a roll too - he can crank out quality acid but also dreamy braindance, it'll be interesting to see what he comes up with next.
VIS318 - JAMES SHINRA - ON & ON