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Remember when you were in school, and it was a contest to see who was into what band first, as though other people liking them would ruin it for you? It always lead to stupid conversations about who bought what album first. And then, more often than not, degenerated into ludicrous lies about how when you were five you went to see that band live, by yourself, and the drummer took you backstage to chill out with the band and their groupies, even though they probably broke up before you were even born? Remember? Well, if not, that is how we kind of feel about Shake Aletti.
Having only been going for around nine months, they have an impressive CV: working with the likes of Toddla T, Roots Manuva and being nominated by the Mercury Music Prize “as a band to watch this year.” Gareth and Steve met whilst both were studying music at Leeds Met and then moved to Sheffield to form this Electro-Disco-NewRave Double act that is surely set to take the UK by storm.
Article. That’s an odd name!
Steve: Basically, before we were Shake Aletti, we had a stupid name that I’m not even gonna tell ya.
Gareth: Yeah, we had a silly name and then we signed a management deal, and they made us change the name. Changing the name was also when we began to take it more seriously. Before, it had just been a laugh.
A. But what does it mean?
S. Shake is, well, shake. And Alletti is as in Vince Alleti; the journalist who originally coined the term Disco
G. But thanks to the Aletti bit, we have all these Italian fans who have added us because they think we are related
A. What instruments do you use then?
G. Synths and Keyboards, and I play a bit of guitar
S. I also use a talk box as well, which is this old effects pedal with a tube that goes into my mouth. (He assures me it is different from a vocoder… it is slightly more geeky, and Stevie Wonder used one. I’m sold)
A. Why did you guys decide to make a band when most other people in electronic music are DJs. I mean, Everyone’s a DJ, why use real instruments?
G. We do DJ as well. But its always been about making music before anything else. We go from playing instruments to recording. Like, if you build tracks out of samples then you have to look through a bunch of records to find that one that you want when you could just play it on an instrument.
S. Its just more fun as well! But, when we started taking it more seriously, the intention was to be a live act, so we had to start writing it that way.
A. What are some of your projects on the go and past?
S. Well we’re doing a few gigs here and there, and then also playing Fabric soon.
A. Shit, how’d you wangle that!?
S. Toddla T. He’s amazing, he really help us sort it out.
G. We also mixed some of his remixes. He brings projects to our studios and we mix them on our desk.
A. So you’re mixing Toddla T?
S. Yeah, he comes in and says this is what it should sound like, and we help him get it there. All the parts are recorded. We are just taking it out of the computer and making it sound like a record.
G. So yeah, we’ve done a lot of that for him. He also asked us to do a hook for one of the tracks on his album. And then other artists like Flashes and Vagabond. Really I can’t remember, I’d have to look on my hard drive!
A. Toddla also did that remix for you?
G. Yeah, that was really great, and it got us a lot of attention from people who wouldn’t have noticed us before.
S. Yeah, it’s raised our profile and really helped us out.
A. Finally, where do you wanna go with Shake Aletti?
G. We’d always said we wanted to play Sonar, and that is on the cards now.
S. More than anything I just want to see places, that’s why I’m doing it.
