UK born Uttam Shah, better known in the world of electronic music as SILKY from his label imprint Faceless recordings with productions in notable labels such as No.19, OFF Recordings, My Favorite Robot, and his latest on Timo Mass’ Rockets & Ponies where he shares an EP with James Teej (scroll below for preview link).

Currently based in Los Angeles, SILKY is aiming to make a strong statement in 2018 after taking a much needed break for most of 2017 to clear some of his mind, we sat down with the British bred talent over the course of an afternoon where he shares his journey and career that has spanned more than 15 years and how he has coped with the inevitable changes in the electronic music and DJ industry. SILKY is a vinyl-loving artist with rare old school mixing techniques and deep crate selections that only serve to amplify his roots in early house and techno, our exclusive Facebook Live showcase will feature SILKY mixing live on Vinyl so be sure to tune in Tuesday, Jan 16th via our FB Page.

Hey Jia, great to see you! It’s been a long time indeed. Last time I saw you, you were rushing about in Guam getting your festival ready, you seem a lot more relaxed today! Everything is great on my end, well last year was an interesting one. Basically, I took a break from everything in April and then the break just continued to pretty much until now!

Well, it started off just as a break from playing out, however, as I delved deeper into the reasons why I wanted the break, it transpired across to the studio and I felt that a complete break was necessary.

Funnily enough, when I decided to have this break, at first I didn’t really know why I just knew I wanted some time out from this industry. I’ve been in this game professionally since 1998 and Dj’ing since 1994/5 so at first, all I thought was I just need to hit the ‘reset button. After a couple of weeks though, I started to understand why I was feeling the way I was, and it was very simple, I just wasn’t happy.

It wasn’t that I was unhappy with myself, I just realized that I wasn’t happy with the way in which I was going about everything, it was like a feeling of being trapped. It all stemmed from the last few gigs that I had played, I remember being at the hotel and rushing through new music/promo’s online an hour before I was due to be picked up for the gig, trying to quickly skip through tracks, seeing if I could play them in my set, quickly burning them onto my USB and then getting ready for the event. Then getting to the events and basically ‘winging’ a set just because I could and because it is (now) so easy to do so. I then realized, that I’ve been doing this for pretty much the last couple of years, especially when things started moving to USB. I mean, within an hour, you can literally download a whole bunch of tracks and have them on your USB ready to play regardless of whether you’ve properly listened to them.

I started to question this and thinking that this is not the reason why I’m in this game. I mean, I was collecting vinyl of underground music from 1994 and I have a collection of around 10,000 records which all of them I sought out, listened to, looked after etc. I knew them inside out. So when I played out back then, I really knew my music. Now, I realized that lately I truly didn’t know the music fully I was playing and I was just putting together new sets every week because the digital side of electronic music is just so disposable. Everyone and anyone can go to Beatport, Juno download, Traxsource or whatever and within an hour have the same music that I have. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but really, as a DJ, how can you expose music to people who can get that same music the same time you do? The whole point of what I do, or did, was exposing music to people who may have never heard these records, and possibly may never hear them again unless they really sought them out and were dedicated to doing so. Plus, I also realized that some of the music I was playing I wasn’t truly in love with, because I hadn’t taken the time to listen to it properly, and again winging the DJ set because ‘I could’ and it’s easy to do so using CDJs.

When I used to buy vinyl, I would spend hours in the record shops, sometimes going every day and listening to everything. Then I would buy one or two records that I really loved. Then go home and listen to those records, find different ways of mixing with them etc. I don’t think I’ve done that in years!

So, once I realized what was making me feel this way I decided to have this time out to question what I really wanted. I almost got to the point of potentially quitting this industry entirely, however, I decided to start going through my record collection (which is in storage in London) and slowly ship it across to my home here in Los Angeles. Going through my records is what re-inspired me. I still bought vinyl over the years, but few and far between, so I made a point of going back to record stores and instead of spending money digitally on 15 tracks that sounded ‘ok’, I started to buy records that really excited me, which most of are just not available on digital platforms.

It took a while for me to go through my collection and really connect to everything again, but I think it was exactly what I needed. It’s almost like having a fresh set of ears again!

So basically before I was ready to play out again, I wanted to make sure I was connected to the music in every way possible.

  

 

It seems a lot of artists that have been around for over the ten-year mark are going through the same thing, would you agree?

Well, I definitely know that some of my peers are either going through what I did, and I know some of them are just fed up. A lot has changed especially with the popularity or limelight associated with DJ’ing and how easy it is to become a DJ.

 With the attention focusing more on peoples social media presence rather than their catalogue of work, knowledge or skills, becoming an overnight sensation now is easy to do so. Setting up an Instagram and Facebook page, buying a whole bunch of followers will literally end up with you being booked to play events, which in turn saturates the industry, lowers fees etc.

Definitely. I for sure think the art of storytelling in a set is gone. A lot of people that I’ve heard lately it’s more about ‘smashing’ the set regardless of what time slot they are playing or who they are playing before/after. The whole art of searching for new/exciting music, something that really and truly reflects you individually as an artist or a person I feel is being lost.

Even with producing music, a lot of the music that is coming out and the reasons behind why it’s so disposable is people are making them with loops. You really don’t have to have any musical skill or engineering knowledge to download a whole bunch of different royalty free loops and put them together to make a track.

As I mentioned before, it’s now so easy to become a DJ. Learning to mix seamlessly on CDJ’s is not a major feat. Especially when most use the master tempo button. Don’t get me wrong, I know some artists who are incredibly skilled at using the CDJ’s, and do stuff which is mind-blowing and I’m not knocking anything they do, on the other hand, there are also many lesser known underground acts who play some of the most amazing music I’ve ever heard. Regardless of how they play it. But I’m really talking about myself and what is best for me, and for me to convey my music in the best way possible.

I’m not saying that I’m going to be playing only vinyl and be purist like that because sometimes that’s just not possible, but I am going to be making sure I don’t compromise anymore. If I play digital it will be rips from the vinyl that I bought, or tracks from friends/producers which are not available as yet, or something that I just merely love.

Absolutely. Being on the road is draining, especially when trying to stay healthy. Literally prior to this break, I remember taking a good look at myself and thinking holy shit, what the hell has happened! For me, I’ve always been an active person my whole life, however, over the last 10 years I really wasn’t and it does catch up to you!

Therefore I made it a priority to really change that and focus on my health. I changed my diet and made sure that I did at least 2-3 hours of exercise a day. I’m a bit of a workaholic, so I get up very early, I’m working on stuff from 6 am and then by the late afternoon is my time to exercise and relax for the evening. Living in California is great as there are so many outdoor activities you can do. I didn’t really take an advantage of this, but now I certainly am and it keeps me sane.

Mental health wasn’t anything I really had an issue with, but I know a lot of artists are talking about that at the moment. It’s awful, and I hope they manage to find their path.

I did, I played for the homey Ray Kash at his Temple Tuesday’s at Pattern Bar in downtown LA for Halloween which was amazing! It was my first gig back and I played a vinyl set of music that doesn’t come out on digital. It was a packed house and so much fun. It felt great again to play to a crowd and especially ones that were receptive to hearing underground music that they hadn’t heard before.

Then I had to go on the road to play Chengdu in China, Beijing, Dhaka, and Myanmar. For those ones, I played using USBs, but of material which I had ripped from vinyl, so again predominantly music that is not easily available.

Yes, well I just had a remix come out in November for an artist called  Mundane from Toronto. That was really well playlisted and got a 10/10 review on DJ Mag, so that was a nice little comeback start for me.

I made a track with one of my best friends James Teej about 5 years in London, which we recently re-visited, finished it up and Timo Maas signed that to his label Rockets and Ponies. That will be coming out on vinyl and digital in Feb with a killer remix from Tiefschwarz.

I’m working on finishing up another collaboration with my homey’s Nitin (from No.19), Adeline, and Shaun Cruda, then I’m just going to be working on new solo stuff and actually write an album that reflects myself fully as an artist.

Jonny Cruz and I have also restarted our Discern project which I’m super excited about