Thursday 16th February 2012
Leaders of the new wave Elijah & Skilliam founded the 'forward-looking' grime blog Butterz, which they nurtured into the highly regarded record label of the same name. With the second Butterz & Hardrive We Fear Silence showcase taking place next month, we grabbed a few words with the pair ahead of the gig and managed to blag a recording of their recent performance in Paris... enjoy!
We've had your 'Live from Paris' mix on loads in the Cable office lately. Life on the road must be pretty hectic for some DJs. How do you cope? How do you chill out?
Elijah: My work is pretty varied I DJ in clubs, do radio and run the label and other random stuff like today I'm talking on a panel in Shoreditch House. I think if I am doing loads of different things I forget what is work and what is fun. That is how I like it.
Elijah & Skilliam 'Live From Paris'
You raised the point on twitter recently about artists slating other artists that 'give' away free downloads. What are your thoughts on the subject? How does it affect your Butterz imprint?
Elijah: I think it is all good within reason. If you can match the amount of quality stuff you release officially for free then cool. I think sitting down and deliberately recording free download music is dumb. I think everyone in our scene should be pushing to have their stuff easily available on iTunes at least. It's so easy these days there is no excuse!
Production-wise what else have you got in store for us in 2012? Any special collaborations?
Skilliam: We just did the Rinse 17 compilation towards the end of last year and right now we are working on a collaborative project with Greensleeves the reggae label to do some grime v reggae stuff later on this year. We are also working with a clothing label from New York called Mishka and doing some limited edition t shirts too.
How does it feel to bring Butterz & Hardrive back to Cable for your 2nd Birthday?
Elijah: The last one was one of the best events I have ever been involved in, and I still listen back to the sets from the night occasionally too. This time as its the Butterz label 2nd Birthday its a celebration of all the work we have been putting in, and a good time for the people that have joined us on that journey to come party with us too.
JME has been quietly gaining notoriety. What were your thoughts behind picking him to headline the show? Is he someone you would like to work with in the future?
Skilliam: JME has always stayed true to the sound, and done his thing independently and we all respect that here. He is a sick performer too, I think because you normally see him alongside Boy Better Know you don't notice that much, but he has so many classic lyrics people will be going nuts. We booked him way before he charted with his recent track '96 Fuckeries' too, just incase people think it was because of that!
Last time round we heard several unreleased cuts. Is that going to be a tradition from now on?
Elijah: Definitely, all the producers have basically been making sets specific for this event, so much new music will be premiered. We worry about it being too much, not sure if peoples ears can take that much in one night. The party falls at a good time as Royal-T has a release on Rinse, Champion on his own Formula Records, and Terror Danjah & Ruby on Butterz around the same time so no doubt those tracks will get the biggest reaction as it will probably be most peoples first times hearing those tracks in a club.
What can we expect from your performance? Any tricks up your sleeve?
Elijah: HA! Yes, have to be prepared from now really, getting my sly dubplate game on. All of us on the line up are really competing against each other to have the best sets so I don't really ask these lot for tunes, I have to go a bit further and wider to get what I need to smash up the rave! All though it is really competitive between all of us we are all doing well in what we do respectively so coming together for this night is really fun. Long may it continue!
Catch Elijah & Skilliam spinning together at Cable next month: We Fear Silence present Butterz & Hardrive - Saturday 24th March - Cable, London
We've had your 'Live from Paris' mix on loads in the Cable office lately. Life on the road must be pretty hectic for some DJs. How do you cope? How do you chill out?
Elijah: My work is pretty varied I DJ in clubs, do radio and run the label and other random stuff like today I'm talking on a panel in Shoreditch House. I think if I am doing loads of different things I forget what is work and what is fun. That is how I like it.
Elijah & Skilliam 'Live From Paris'
You raised the point on twitter recently about artists slating other artists that 'give' away free downloads. What are your thoughts on the subject? How does it affect your Butterz imprint?
Elijah: I think it is all good within reason. If you can match the amount of quality stuff you release officially for free then cool. I think sitting down and deliberately recording free download music is dumb. I think everyone in our scene should be pushing to have their stuff easily available on iTunes at least. It's so easy these days there is no excuse!
Production-wise what else have you got in store for us in 2012? Any special collaborations?
Skilliam: We just did the Rinse 17 compilation towards the end of last year and right now we are working on a collaborative project with Greensleeves the reggae label to do some grime v reggae stuff later on this year. We are also working with a clothing label from New York called Mishka and doing some limited edition t shirts too.
How does it feel to bring Butterz & Hardrive back to Cable for your 2nd Birthday?
Elijah: The last one was one of the best events I have ever been involved in, and I still listen back to the sets from the night occasionally too. This time as its the Butterz label 2nd Birthday its a celebration of all the work we have been putting in, and a good time for the people that have joined us on that journey to come party with us too.
JME has been quietly gaining notoriety. What were your thoughts behind picking him to headline the show? Is he someone you would like to work with in the future?
Skilliam: JME has always stayed true to the sound, and done his thing independently and we all respect that here. He is a sick performer too, I think because you normally see him alongside Boy Better Know you don't notice that much, but he has so many classic lyrics people will be going nuts. We booked him way before he charted with his recent track '96 Fuckeries' too, just incase people think it was because of that!
Last time round we heard several unreleased cuts. Is that going to be a tradition from now on?
Elijah: Definitely, all the producers have basically been making sets specific for this event, so much new music will be premiered. We worry about it being too much, not sure if peoples ears can take that much in one night. The party falls at a good time as Royal-T has a release on Rinse, Champion on his own Formula Records, and Terror Danjah & Ruby on Butterz around the same time so no doubt those tracks will get the biggest reaction as it will probably be most peoples first times hearing those tracks in a club.
What can we expect from your performance? Any tricks up your sleeve?
Elijah: HA! Yes, have to be prepared from now really, getting my sly dubplate game on. All of us on the line up are really competing against each other to have the best sets so I don't really ask these lot for tunes, I have to go a bit further and wider to get what I need to smash up the rave! All though it is really competitive between all of us we are all doing well in what we do respectively so coming together for this night is really fun. Long may it continue!
Catch Elijah & Skilliam spinning together at Cable next month: We Fear Silence present Butterz & Hardrive - Saturday 24th March - Cable, London
