News Mix #001: Shells

It must be hard for a young, budding musician or producer these days, always in a struggle for self-sufficiency to stay afloat. Hoping that a limited physical release provides a minor financial return, wishing that gig payments merely cover the cost of Young Persons Railcard travel, just clinging onto to the misguided belief that one day, just one day, hopefully in the very near future that Soundcloud plays will be recognised as legal tender that can actually be exchanged for beer, bread and self-respect.

Life as a student is hard enough already, having to sit through hours of Jeremy Kyle and force-feeding yourself baked beans in an endless attempt to fit in. But if college is good for one thing, it’s that it seems to be introducing a whole host of impressionable kids to the world of underground music. You’re either a DJ, a promoter or you go to the clubs and get overcharged by the latter to see the former press stop and start on an hour-long playlist.

But amidst all the ‘Big in *Insert University town here*’ on-campus hyped cool kids, you get a few bubbling under the surface. Shells - otherwise known as Khalid Rafique - is definitely one of these, more likely to be making music in his bedroom at midnight than playing to a room of sweaty peers three hours later. After learning a few things at school, Rafique started to create some music of his own - cementing a smooth brand of minimalist glitch with a hazy atmosphere to it. Not quite a Clark Kent double-life living figure yet but recent single ‘Arctic’ - picked up by Pitchfork - could very well see him rocket to brighter things in the near future.

We spoke to Shells after his support slot with fellow London producer Halls, and he even provided us with a First On mix (below) too.

So, Shells - why ‘Shells’?
To be honest, I was just reading something and my eyes honed in on that word and I thought “Yeah, yeah I’ll call it Shells.” I guess there is a prevalence of monosyllabic producer names these days, but that was pretty much the extent of the story. Sorry!

I guess once something sticks, such as a band name or moniker, it doesn’t really matter so much what it means because words become associated with certain things over time.
Yeah, that’s true. I don’t think I’m the only ‘Shells’ out there though. I believe there’s one other band, maybe two, out there that seem to be winning on the Google search results front. But hopefully people will be beginning to think of me and not them. To be honest, it was a bit of a rushed thing that has somehow just stuck because I was in a hurry as I didn’t want to use my own name [Khalid Rafique] because it’s quite difficult to pronounce.

How long have you been creating electronic music?
Well I studied music technology previously and now I’m currently studying computational arts. Before this, I basically just played guitar in a few little bands that went nowhere. But it was at college where my interest in sequencing, mixing and recording was born. I was sick of being in bands where people didn’t have the motivation, whereas I really cared about making music so I decided to try and go alone. So learning how to do these things myself gave me the element of precision and control that I was after. I basically went in not really knowing much, which is a good platform to learn from I guess.

What did your University teach you to do, and what did it teach you not to do?
I remember going in and thinking that we were going to be taught how to make whole tracks, but it wasn’t like that at all. Ultimately, I’m glad that it wasn’t like that because it means that you’re taught the technical side but not influenced creatively. Most of the time was spent learning about sound, studying sonic arts, and being encouraged to think about the actual processes that are involved when making music. It was a bit bizarre at times, I had this one performance assignment where I had to create my own instrument!

What puzzles me about some creative courses like this is how they’re graded. I guess that was your first instance of being reviewed!
Not at all, really. The criteria was such that as long as you showed the right engagement and had the thought and process spot on, then you should be graded accordingly. It was less of a critique and more about showing you’re using techniques.

I know that James Blake’s ‘Klavierwerke’ EP was actually his last dissertation piece at Goldsmiths. Likewise, have any of your released work been part of your coursework?
I was actually the opposite to that! There was a bit of a crossover but it was more that if I had a spare track that was half-written or unfinished then I would use this for an assignment and pull it apart to make it fit in with the criteria.
But I was always kind of hesitant to publish or release something that I’ve made for the course because I was trying to treat the two things differently. I was trying to take myself out of my comfort zone of what I had been doing on my own. For my last big project, I was toying with the idea of making something that I could then put out as Shells after I graduated but I ultimately decided against that train of thought.

I’d say that your new single ‘Arctic’ is a lot more danceable than your ‘Pastels’ EP, apart from maybe ‘Clay’ on that short-player. It has an almost R&B edge to it because of the vocal samples used. Is this a direction you’re purposely trying to head in?
I wouldn’t say it was a constructed or wholly conscious decision, but more of a reflection of varying and changing tastes. I started quite downtempo, my very first release was the remix of Seams [for ‘Nightcycles’] and that was where I was at for a long time. But over the last year I’ve been playing more and that’s kind of seeped into what I’ve been making since then.

You generally seem to create the kind of music perfect for some really good sound quality headphones, do you ever worry about how your music translates?
For a while it was a lot of hipsters stood around judging but part of that could have been me also as I was quite nervous at the beginning. I don’t really like being the centre of attention much, but the more I’ve performed the better I’ve coped with it. The newer stuff is seeming a lot more upbeat because people have been responding more. I’ve had a few drunk people boogieing down to the front, which is a good feeling. It’s like I’ve managed to spark some impulse to dance.

Do you prefer the creative side of music more then?
Every time I’ve created a piece of work or track that I’ve been really happy with it’s not been when I’ve sat down with some spare time and thought “I have some free time, I may as well produce some music.” Also I’m not particular good at forcing myself to do things under pressure. On the other hand it always seems to be when I’ve been buried with loads of work. That’s where most of my inspiration comes from, because then it is an outlet to get away from things - as a form of procrastination. And that’s when the better material seems to arise.

So are all these tracks that you’ve put out to date the only things that you’ve been satisfied with so far?
Whenever I’ve released something, albeit a single or EP, it’s been on a whim when things have already been finished. It’s not a case of thinking “Okay, today I’m going to write an album” or anything like that. I’d have just come up with a few tracks that I think “Yeah, these fit together well” rather than having this rigid overarching grand scheme and vision.

That’s interesting because I have a friend whose band once locked themselves into their basement one weekend, consuming only steak to eat and vodka to drink for the entire stint, and forcing themselves to write an album. Surprisingly or not so surprisingly, it didn’t sound that great.
Well in theory that sounds great but probably not so much in reality. Sometimes you can’t rush inspiration, or at least I can’t. I’m not really someone who’s prolific in terms of output or creation. The way I tend to work is that I start to work on something for a few hours and then I think that it isn’t going anywhere, so I just abandon it. Whereas if I worked on set things at specific times then I may continue with them at later dates and perhaps they could blossom and grow into different things. Sometimes I do experience these moments where I stumble upon something that really grabs me and then I work on it for hours on end until it’s done.

What are you working on at the moment? You’ve put out a few remixes already, is this something you’d like to do more of?
Oh definitely. It really intrigues me taking a few stems or bits from the original track and thinking ‘how would I have made this track if this was my own?’
But in terms of what I’m doing right now, I’ve just been so busy that I haven’t had the chance to sit down and focus solely on them. I’m hoping to get a fair bit of free time in the next month or so and I’ll use this time to work on new stuff. I don’t have a preconceived idea of what may come out of it, but we’ll obviously find out soon enough.

And finally, you made a mix for us - what are the reasons behind your choices? Where and when should this mix be ideally played?
A lot of these producers have a nostalgic ear for dance music of the past, but there’s a delicacy and attention to detail there that I really love. There’s something really human about these tracks - an appreciation for the value of little imperfections and subtleties that make you aware on some level of the care that went into making them. I tried to make a mix I could imagine enjoying equally at a party, or alone in a bedroom on headphones, listening out for any tiny details I might have missed.


Shells’ new single ‘Arctic’ is out now. You can buy it on Bandcamp.