Interview: Five Minutes with Shadow Child
Simon Neale is known as one of the early pioneers of the house music scene in the UK and Worldwide. His sound can range to anything from early rave, drum n bass to the more current approach of house and techno music of today. In 2012, he adopted the moniker Shadow Child and released his debut single ‘String Thing’. To date, the DJ and music producer has released official remixes for The Prodigy, The xx and Hot Natured with his 2017 album “Connected”. And more recently Neale has announced his “Apollo 2” series which will include future club banger ‘Mars’ and the rework of the classic Binary Finary track ‘1998 (Venus)’.
We find out more about the multi-talented DJ in this exclusive:
Your latest single, ‘Mars’ has already seen support from Calvin Harris in his Love Regenerator live-streams. Do you expect your reworked version of Binary Finary’s ‘1998’ to be as well-received?
I hope so… Although you should never expect anything in this game, it’s not healthy for making music. I’m thankful for the support in the limited ways that people can on live streams etc, and Calv’s Love Regenerator play was pretty immense and grabbed ‘Mars’ a load of attention. ‘1998 (Venus)’ is a remake of a classic though, it was so good to get the original artists on board this one as well. A lot of remakes and ‘cover versions’ are out there these days totally without permission or grace from the original artist, even if they don’t own the music.
As a radio DJ, amongst other things, do you feel the medium of radio is still relevant to the youth?
I definitely feel it is, or I wouldn’t do it still. I think you get something from radio that’s unique and delivered in a different way to other things, especially if it’s live. There’s a special energy to it which you can’t get from anything else.
Tell us a little about your other alias, Dave Spoon
There’s not much to say at the moment really… Spoon was an immense part of my career so far, but there’s no plans to do anything more with the project… but you never know what’s around the corner. Who knows!
Name five rising artists you think we should look out for.
Some of these may not all be new, but I have strong belief in what they’re all doing at the moment…
Silvestre
Loods
Karl Jordan
Otik
Cinthie
How would you like to see progressive trance develop and grow in the future?
I have no idea to be honest, but I know some of the sounds from the past are creeping into some great new music and it’s nice to know it’s not just me that’s experimenting with it. Ejeca has been on it for a while too, and it’s nice to hear other artists like Alex Virgo and Loods bringing it into their thing too.
Tell us a bit of what to expect from the third and final series of EP releases.
There’s actually four now! I have so many tracks developing throughout the pandemic so far, that I had to do something with them. It’s been great to do this project. It’s very different to what people know me for, but I always feel I need to throw curve-balls in to keep everything fresh and engage with new fans too.
Music is the source of comfort to many during trying times. If you could send a message with your music, what would you say?
Just for people to have belief, and also feel more uplifting music again. There’s been so many ‘tracky’ tracks around which are great but they don’t tell stories or make you feel like some of this style of music does. I just hope my music connects with people and give’s some hope that we can enjoy it in the rave again soon when it’s safe. It’s definitely a challenging time for everyone but there can always be an exciting flip-side to everything.
One last thought to leave your fans with?
Just to wish them well and thank them for years of fun, and for the privilege of calling this my ‘job’. I know so many loved what I did before – that music is out there forever now – but I hope they also respect that as a producer first, I have to be trying new things. If I hadn’t done so in the past then they’d never have connected with the music of mine that they love.
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