Slam have been on a highly prolific run of singles and remixes lately, including the critically acclaimed Soma Track Series, all housed on their own Soma Records, the Glasgow label currently celebrating 25 years at the cutting edge of electronic music.
Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle released a double vinyl album Machine Cut Noise last year with tracks inspired by ideas that occurred in airports, hotels and dressing rooms as the duo travelled the world.
After last Summer’s sell-out on the banks of the Clyde, the Electric Frog & Pressure Riverside Festival returns this Bank Holiday weekend, with Slam playing a special back to back set with Alan Fitzpatrick.
Glasgowist caught up with Orde Meikle for a chat.
When did you realise you could make a career out of music?
We’ve never really considered what we do as a career – it’s a passion that makes just enough money for us to live off. When we started there was no consideration given to the financial aspect of the clubs or the label – it was just something we felt we wanted and needed to do because of our all-consuming love of music.
How has the music landscape in Glasgow changed since 1992?
Glasgow has always had a prestigious history of clubs and live music and the early 90’s was no different. But the underground scene was certainly not as well represent as it is now.
Today, Glasgow can hold its head high with many other European and Global clubbing capitals – mainly due to the crowds and their energy
What have been your biggest personal lessons of the last 25 years in terms of how you perform and record?
Probably the main lesson is to stay true to your own musical vision and not look over your shoulder at what others are doing – originality will always shine through, even if it takes a bit longer.
When you meet people when you DJ in other countries, what’s their perception of Glasgow?
The perception, from outside, of Glasgow has changed over the years – the film Trainspotting for a long time was many peoples vision of what life was like in Scotland and Glasgow – but with so many more people partaking of clubbing tourism that stereotype has changed and the city is now seen as a real powerhouse of global dance music.
How does technology help you connect with a wider audience?
As with almost every other aspect of modern day life – social media has utterly transformed the way we approach our crowd. We still follow the older forms of promotion with posters and flyers for local Pressure, Return To Mono and Riverside Festival events.
But interest in dance music is global and you have to approach your promotion with that in mind. We spend a lot of time and effort keeping all our social media channels continually refreshed.
What about other local DJs who you see coming up through the ranks, who do you have your eye on?
Glasgow has a spoil of riches when it comes to DJs and producers. There are far to many too mention, but the city punches well above it weight in artists emerging on to the scene.
This is one of the things that most pleases us about the development of the scene here – long may it continue.
What’s left to do as you mark the Soma 25 anniversary?
We often said “that we never had a master plan” for Soma or any other aspects of what we do – so we can’t really see an end to our mission to release forward thinking un-commercial underground electronic music – so there is no end game. Just to keep doing what we believe in.
Give us a sense of what you have planned for the Riverside festival set? How did the b2b with Alan Fitzpatrick come about?
This years Riverside Festival will be our best yet – the line up is second to none (especially for a British dance festival) – and now sold out on the Saturday and almost sold out on the Sunday.
We are continually tweaking everything about the festival to improve the experience – for sound system and lights, layout, food, bars, security and crowd management.
We’re good friends with Alan and have just done a remix for him so this B2B is a follow on from that. By their very nature B2B sets are very spur of the moment affairs – you’ve absolutely no idea what the person before you is going to play and leave you with – so should be fun
What are some of your favourite places in Glasgow to go when you are home and not working?
When we’re at home we often will meet friends down in Finnieston for a drink or something to eat – walking the dog out at Murdock Park – a trip in to town for a wander – Hydro for a gig from time to time – pretty much whatever our partners arrange for us in our absence.
Find out more about the Riverside Festival here.
