Glaswegian producer/DJ duo Slam (aka Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle) are in the midst of their biggest year ever as their Soma label heads into its 25th year. With five albums, various festival performances and their own radio broadcast, these guys are demonstrating their cutting edge and passion for modern day electronic music.
Hi guys, thanks for taking the time to chat with Forte Magazine, how are you and what are you up to at the moment?
We’re both good – in the studio at the moment finishing off some remixes and tinkering with our new “LIVE” set. Also just back from the Sonar Festival in Barcelona where we DJ’d with Scuba at his Hotflush night!
We saw you’ve currently been doing a few shows and festivals around, how have they been?
Fantastic! We’ve just performed at the opening night of Cocoon Ibiza in Amnesia with Sven Vath – bloody amazing and a beach Festival in Istanbul with Lil Louis and Fumiya Tanaka which was absolutely brilliant. We also had our own Riverside Festival in Glasgow, over two days with the likes of Laurent Garnier, Rodhad, Ben Klock and many others – it’s been a busy summer already.
With your experience around the world, what do you think makes a festival a great one?
Firstly, for us, it’s down to the choice of artist and programming, then things like location, infra-structure, weather, amenities and safety are all important – but what makes festivals special is different for everyone.
You’re set to play earthcore in a few months, which is one you’ve played before, what have your past trips to Australia and the festival been like?
Our trips to Australia have always been great – once you get over the jet lag. We try and take some time out to enjoy our time in your wonderful country. We had a really good time at the last earthcore Festival and can’t wait to be there again – looks like a top line-up.
It’s been 25 years since you formed Soma, what spurred you on to create the label?
We were buying a lot of records that had been produced on very minimal budgets – “house music” – and we all grew up believing in the independent record company ethos spurned by the Punk era. Couple that with the then British record industry which had no understanding or interest of this new genre of “ dance ‘ music. The obvious next step was to create Soma Records
You also developed Slam Radio which unearths future talents in the DJ and techno world, who has been your best find over the years?
Slam Radio has just grown so fast globally almost without us being aware of it – there have been far to many great guests to choose a favourite and our list of future guests just grows and grows. We haven’t repeated a guest yet and people now get in touch with us asking if they can appear on the show.
If you were told to bring something to a party (aside from yourselves), what would you bring?
Apart for our usual libation of Jack Daniels and Coke – probably a pair of sunglasses in anticipation of a long one.
When & Where: earthcore Festival, Pyalong – November 24-28
