:: BB INTERVIEWS ::

:: VANDAL ::

Vandal - Smarter Than You Think by Si McEvoy Vandal, otherwise known as Sam Evans, started his musical career in Sheffield in his very early teens, playing uitar in metaland punk bands at any dive that would have them, around the age of 17 Sam discovered Underworld and thus his fascination with electronic music began. Working with Cardiff's legendary Plastic Raygun label in the early 2000's, his first productions drew support from Andrew Weatherall, Adam Freeland, Plump DJs and Damian Lazarus. It was in 2005 that Meat Katie picked up on Sam’s single ‘Mad As Hell’ and immediately signed it to his Lot49 label. During the summer of 05 the track became the soundtrack of breakbeat clubs around the world with all the biggest names in breaks hammering the record. As with previous Vandal releases this amazing support wasn’t limited to the world of breakbeat - it went onto become a smash across the board. This included support from arguably the world’s most influential alternative DJ Zane Lowe, who made it his 'Hottest Record in the World'. It went on to receive over 25 plays on Radio 1, and 2005 was topped off with a nomination for single of year at the International Breakbeat awards. Sam’s next release for LOT49 was the equally huge ‘Obey’ which again became another breakbeat smash, also receiving support from DJ’s from all genres including indie legend Steve Lamacq! A succession of remixes of some of breaks biggest names followed including The Rogue Element and Metric and his huge remix of Meat Katie’s “Round & Round”. 2007 is shaping up to be Vandal’s biggest year yet. Sam is currently working on his as yet untitled debut album for Lot49, due for release in Oct 07. His next single ‘Idiots’ is out in Feb backed with a remix from hotly tipped house producers Audiojack. ‘Idiots’ is already being cained off CDR by the likes of Plump DJs (“we play it every set”!!), Hyper, The Rogue Element, General Midi (“this track ROCKS!!!”) & Meat Katie. He also has remixes coming out of Hyper & Crystal Method, Baobinga & ID, Swain & Paris, and Jono Fernandez. Vandal has become a regular feature at some of the UK’s biggest breaks nights including being booked an incredible nine times at Sheffield’s infamous Urban Gorilla night. He has also become a regular feature at nights like Spectrum in Nottingham, Sumo in Cardiff, he’s played at many Spin Out events, and of course, many Lot 49 events! He also DJ across mainland Europe and the Far east including Russia, Korea, and Taiwan. Who are you and what do you do? I’m Vandal and I write and DJ electronic music. How would you describe your music? Electronic filth. Tell me a bit about what you have planned in the studio this year. My priority at the moment is the Vandal album, which is coming out on LOT49 around October 2007. That should be finished by the end of April. I’ve my house project called Simpleton, one track (Just Let Go) has already been signed to spinout and I’ll be working on follow up for that soon. I’m also working on a few tracks with Hyper for his next album. Writing some house/electro with Cass (cass & mangan, cass & slide). Our First track has been signed up to CR2 and we will be working on the second single soon. I will also be writing and producing tracks for a leftfield/electronica act called Rogue Audio which features various singers. What do you think makes a great producer? For me a great producer understands both the process of manipulating sounds (the technical side of creating a piece of music) and most importantly understands great song writing. There are so many people who can create amazing sounding records but do not understand the importance of song writing or lack those killer ideas that make a record standout. For me personally if someone asked me to give an example of quality producing then I would tell them to listen to either ‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman’ by Underworld or ‘Brown album’ by Orbital. Both albums are over ten years old yet they don’t sound dated and they have amazing songs. How did you get into production? The label I used to work for (Plastic Raygun) had a studio which I would use on my days off. I was hooked straight away and eventually bought my own PC and set up a small home studio. I spent the next 4 years locked in my room teaching myself how to use a computer. I’m not the brightest spark when it comes to computers so that 4 years felt like 12! A lot mistakes where made on that journey. In addition to your studio work you’ve played all over the world, which do you prefer, DJing or studio production? Tough call. I am completely obsessed with writing music on a computer but then the whole DJing experience, from the travelling meeting new people to the actual show is pretty fucking cool. I would probably have to say DJing. Normally when I play out about 50% of my sets are my own music and seeing people go off to your music is like nothing else. I’ve noticed over the last year or so that more people actually know my music as well, hearing a few hundred people shouting the sample from ‘Mad As Hell’ back at me gets me every time, I fucking love it!! Would you class yourself as a DJ that makes music to promote their live work, or a producer that DJs to promote their studio work? Although I started off as a DJ I would definitely class myself as a producer who DJ’s. You used to run your own label, Plastic Raygun, what was it like running your own label? Think of nearly any human emotion and stick it here... It’s an experience I absolutely loved. I look back at what we did over the 4 or 5 years we had the label going and I can’t believe we did so much. For the majority of that time we had no real budget to work with and yet we still managed to put out around 45 records and 2 artist albums & 2 mix CD’s. I’m glad I had a chance to run a label when vinyl was still the preferred format. I enjoyed every process involved with making a record, A&R, manufacturing, artwork, promotion. Then to actually physically hold the record was a great feeling of accomplishment. I may have felt different if I had worked for a label with a budget but for Plastic Raygun each finished record was an achievement as we had fuck all money!! Also the list of acts we launched is pretty impressive…Jean Jacques Smoothie, Phantom Beats, Napt, Baobinga, Deep Impact & myself. Having your own label can be a pretty steep learning curve, did you make any mistakes along the way? We made plenty of mistakes along the way. Most were fairly small mistakes that we were able to learn from and benefited us in the future. Unfortunately, through lack of experience, we made a couple of mistakes which cost us financially. By the time we decided to stop releasing records we had a very cynical attitude and didn’t really trust many people. Biggest lesson ever learned: If you ever deal with a major label then use your own lawyer!! Now you’re signed to Lot 49, is it better or worse releasing for someone else? It’s a lot easier as it means I can concentrate on writing the music. The hard part is not interfering and just letting them get on with it. I spent so long running a label I always want to stick my nose in but I’m learning to let other people do their job. Working with Lot 49 you are releasing alongside some of the scene’s most exciting talents, what’s it like to be part of that? It’s very exciting to be part of the LOT49 movement. Mark (Meat Katie) is building up a seriously impressive roster of acts. Plus you just have to look at the remixers he has commissioned, Marco Bailey, Lutzenkirchen, Radioactive Man, Santos, General Midi etc. I’ve been remixed by Audiofly, Dexter & Audiojack. Although the label is classed as underground at the moment I feel there are acts on the roster who could deliver big crossover/commercial music if they wanted to. 2007 will be an interesting year for the label. You have also worked on a number of remixes for Spin Out over the past 12 months, plus debuting your new Simpleton project with them, how would you describe working with them as a label? It’s been a good experience so far. They are definitely on the ball. It’s nice to work with people who love music and also know how to run a label. I’m really excited about putting out my Simpleton project through the label. The Simpleton sound is very different to Vandal and I’m excited to see how far they can push it. Plus the Spinout posse know how to put on a great party!! Many people are saying 2007 will be a big year for dance music, any tips for who will be big in the next 12 months? Wrong person to ask! I can never predict things like that. I’m not sure who will be big but I look forward to hearing more from people like Digitalism, Alex Gopher, Trouble Soup. I’m interested to hear Rogue Element’s second album as well. He has the potential to deliver a big commercial crossover album if he wanted. There is no reason why the element couldn’t be up there with the Plumps etc by the end of 2007. On a personal level, what are you most looking forward to in 2007? 1] Releasing my first album and playing as many new places as possible. 2] Rick Rubin helping Metallica deliver another classic thrash album. :: April 2007 :: ‘Swain & Paris – Come As One’ (Vandal Remix) is out now on Spin Out Records, purchase at www.beatport.com, www.djdownload.com, www.trackitdown.net and other digital download sites. ‘Vandal – Idiots’ is out on Lot 49 and available for purchase at the afore mentioned retailers.

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