Today I’ve got something VERY special for you. An Interview with legendary Simon Shackleton aka Elite Force. His newest album “Re-Vamped” was released on March 8th, so right after reading, go to your favourite digital store and buy this wicked stuff. Believe me – It’s worth it!

Damage Cult – Your youngest “child” – ReVamped was released this week. Where you get the idea for this kind of album?

Elite Force – When I wrote these tracks I had no intention of releasing them – it was more about cherry picking all the quality bits & pieces from tracks I really loved and working them together into new productions … so the end product a lot of the time was likely to be closer to an original track than just a re-edit or remix. It really varies from track to track, but I realised late last year that it would make a great album if we could get permission to use all the tracks I’d used.

Damage Cult – What was the main criterion when you pick the tunes to your album?

Elite Force – Whether we could get licenses for the tracks used or not – there were almost as many tracks again that we didn’t get permission to use (hence the Pre-Vamped series of free downloads).

Damage Cult – Can we expect more vinyl samplers from ReVamped in near future?

Elite Force – Well there have already been two and they are both now on their 2nd re-press. There’s also a third piece coming up which features ‘The Law of Life’ as the A-Side. You can check for availability on these at Juno

Damage Cult – What song’s next for the re-work and do you have any plans for original material?

Elite Force – Well there was original material on the album & as I said before I see it as much as an artist album as anything, but yes, I’m always writing new stuff. I just did a mashup this week featuring 3 tracks from Afrojack, Boyz Noise and Wolfgang Gartner which all came together very smoothly & should be a big one for Miami.

Damage Cult – Your music straddles the breakbeat/electro/tech-house genres. Do you think that your style can be described as a specific genre(s)?

Elite Force – Well I’ve used the term ‘Tech-Funk’ a lot in the past as a means of basically saying ‘no, I don’t think I can describe what I do as being one genre’. I’m very much into what the likes of Soulwax & 2ManyDJs have done in the past and I guess the aim is to be able to develop my profile to a point where people just see me as ‘Elite Force’ rather than an Electro or Breaks artist … for example, people don’t define what style Justice or The Chemical Brothers do, it’s just music right?

Damage Cult – What are your views on the breaks scene at the moment? Do you think there’s still enough freshness in breakbeat?

Elite Force – I think it’s had a tricky few years to be honest – lots of the finest producers seem to have been keen to sever their ties with it (as much as anything down to a swamping of truly awful, cheap bootlegs a couple of years ago), but there are plenty of people coming through on the margins & cross-breeding their sounds with other exciting types of new music, as well as more established names putting out quality tunes. I’ve been amazed by how well Revamped’s been received this week for example – we have 14 tracks in the Top 50 on Beatport today and given it’s rare for a single breaks tune to feature in the Top 100, I’d say there’s a pretty serious fanbase out there just waiting for some quality music : Beatport Link

Damage Cult – As well as producing and performing, you’re involved in the whole running of U&A label. Can you tell me something more about it?

Elite Force – Yeah that’s my baby! Very proud of what we’ve achieved at U&A … it’s basically just me and one other guy handling every aspect of it, and we’ve just tried to manage a label in the most professional way possible from the ground, taking care of the quality of the music right the way down to the quality of the artwork, packaging and web-presence. We have a family of online stores now
[ U&A LINK > http://uaarecs.com > LINK > http://www.eliteforcemusic.com > LINK > http://zodiaccartel.com > LINK > http://rektchordz.com ] where we’ve been trying out a whole load of new models to connect with fans & give them the kinds of unique collectable stuff that seems to have done missing from a lot of music production these days.

Damage Cult – How do you select what’s going to be released. Do you approach artists or do they approach you?

Elite Force – It’s a mixture of both – I get sent a LOT of music, but I don’t have much room on schedule to release it … such is life. If it’s good enough though, of course I would find a way.

Damage Cult – Any artists you’ve got your eyes on?

Elite Force – That would be telling.

Damage Cult – What are your plans now for U&A? When can we expect a new material from Speculum?

Elite Force – No idea really – I only worked with Speculum on one early EP and beyond that their music veered off in directions that weren’t really right for the label. I have a new single coming up from Rektchordz shortly and then there’s new stuff from Zodiac Cartel, The Loops of Fury and a Revenge of the Revamped EP.

Damage Cult – Are you going to participate in any of summer festivals?

Elite Force – Yep – I’m doing a few of them at the moment including Burning Man (Nevada), Glade (tbc), Picnik Electronik (Montreal), Wickerman (Scotland), Kendal Calling (Lake District UK) and several others that I can’t announce yet

Damage Cult – Ok, and final question – Do you remember your last visit in Sfinks Club in Poland?

Elite Force – I sure do man – that was a great great party. I was really struck by the passion of the crowd that night & remember having a truly wicked time, so I hope I’ll get to come back & play in Poland again soon!

Damage Cult – I can’t wait mate:) Thanks and keep up your great work!