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Artist Interview: Trouble Andrew |
Trouble Andrew performing at the Roxy Chicken Jam. Photo Credit: Peter Morning
Skater, Olympic pro snowboarder, husband to Santigold, lead singer of Trouble Andrew, and 100% an artist, Trevor Andrews sat down with us at the Roxy Chicken Jam before his memorable performance. We got to ask him a couple of questions and learned that this soft-spoken yet assertive guy considers action-sports his community, wants to take up surfing and is a bit of a visionary when it comes to digital.
Trouble Andrew reviewing the set list at the 7th Annual Roxy Chicken Jam concert in Mammoth. Photo Credit: Craig Wetherby
ROXY: We know you’re a skater, and an Olympic snowboarder. Is this why you always come back and perform at action-sports related events? Is that why you chose to perform at the Roxy Chicken Jam?
TA: Well, I don’t really feel like I am coming back, this is my community, you know what I mean? I grew up around snowboard culture and skate culture and obviously competed in it and took part in it in a big way. With the music it’s just a natural thing to stay in that community and that culture cause I live in it, you know what I mean? So the music is just kind of an extension of the culture and I feel like snowboard, skate, surf culture in general, like breathes so much art, you know?
ROXY: We read something that you’re also a bit of a graphic designer. Is there a career for you?
TA: Yeah for sure. I mean I have been doing graphic design for years now. I started really being involved with designing outerwear and stuff for Analog years ago and then just doing my own snowboard graphics and yeah. Any way that I can stay creative is just what I am about so, if I am not like making flyers for shows or writing music or making beats, or like designing a snowboard graphic or clothes or whatever. I just like to stay creative.
April 8, 2011
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James Ford and Jas Shaw. Two men. Three letters. SMD. Electronic pioneers. DJs. Producers. They’ve been tearing up dance-floors around the world for the past few years, but how did their story begin, and where will it end…? Back in the late ‘90s, James and Jas were studying folklore and physics respectively at Manchester University, while crafting strange electronic music in the spare room of their shared house. Although he eventually dropped out of his course, Jas’s grounding in quantum physics was to come in useful later: the drum pattern on SMD’s early white label Tits & Acid was based on matrix mechanics devised by Werner Heisenberg. But before Simian Mobile Disco there was Simian, a four-piece band Jas and James formed at Manchester with singer-songwriter Simon Lord and bass-player Alex Macnaghten. Like contemporaries such as Broadcast and the Beta Band, Simian sought to combine traditional songwriting with electronic sounds, with one key difference – their name did not contain the letter ‘B’. Soon the duo started knocking out their own tunes, releasing limited edition early bangers such as The Count, Fake Bake, and Clam Digger on friend’s labels like I’m Cliché and Kitsune, Catnip and Wax Fuckface. One early tune – Epilectrics – infamously had to be withdrawn from record stores when it was found to induce fits in dogs and Tweenagers alike. So what’s next for Simian Mobile Disco? 2009 will see the release of their hotly anticipated second album, Temporary Pleasure. If Attack Decay Sustain Release was a record for the dance floor, their sophomore effort is aimed squarely at the boudoir. “This one’s for all the ladeez out there”, says Jas. “And for all the gentlemen who wish to get with those superfine ladeez”, adds James. Then the boys will head back on the road, bringing their unique blend of hip-house influenced crunkadeleic poonstep to a venue near you. Be afraid. Be very afraid…
