Crack

Nate Donmoyer's day job is playing drums in American synth-pop outfit Passion Pit, yet he also finds time to moonlight as DJ and producer extraordinaire Shuttle. The former shot to internet stardom with the release of originally-ntended-to-be-a-valentines-day-gift EP Chunk of Change in 2008, followed by last year's critically acclaimed debut album Manners.

Under the latter moniker, Nate builds a range of rolling sub-heavy 140bpm tracks that sound just as good at home on the headphones as coming out of a bassbin in a club. His debut EP Tunnel came out on Ninja Tune last year,and he has remixed a slew of artists from Micachu to Phoenix, and indeed a few Passion Pit tracks. Currently Nate is trying to write an album expected out on Ninja Tune by the end of the year. With a near constant touring schedule with Passion Pit, Crack caught up with the man when Passion Pit were in town to rock the O2 Academy.

How did you manage to get into the dubstep/bass scene, especially in Boston?

When I first moved to Boston I was still really into drum and bass. Coincidentally the drum and bass nights in Boston with the lowest age limit were at Phoenix Landing on Thursdays. I knew the guys who ran the night, so I could get into without being 21. Eventually I made my way into the Basstown crew, so I was able to get into gigs underage because I was a performer. It was about then when dubstep was creeping into Boston and Bassic started up who were friends of ours. The love has been spread ever since.

Do you notice a difference in the bass music scene since you started playing out? Dubstep has really exploded around the world, is it still getting bigger over in the States?

There is definitely a huge difference in regional scenes and what is produced. U.S. stuff can be very stiff, dark, metallic, and masculine, especially the west coast and south. It's a lot more soulful in the the mid-west and northeast. Then the UK is so eclectic and for the most part leading all of it.

Who are your favourite producers in each respective scene? Any big tips for 2010?

Man I could go on for hours about producers from each scene. I am severely enjoying the recent work of Fantastic Mr. Fox, Egyptrixx, Kingdom, Bok Bok, L-Vis 1990, Sbtrkt, Untold, Brackles, Hot City, Flying Lotus, Breakage, Redlight, Hard House Banton, R1 Ryders, Sony, I.D., J-WOW, and The Count & Sinden to name a few.

You used to be called Etan, now you're called Shuttle, how has your sound evolved since Etan and indeed over the last year or so?

I gave myself the name Etan in 7th grade when I made a hip hop mixtape. Hopefully, both my production and mixing has improved since then. I don't even feel like the same person as back then. I now embrace the area between genres and just try and make it good.

How do you manage to juggle a rigorous international touring schedule with building your own tunes?

It is not fun or easy to balance the two, but when I am at home I am usually in 190% work mode on the production tip to make up for all the traveling time. To be honest I can't wait to have some decent time off to finish this album!

This is now your 4th time in Bristol, what do you think of the city?

Bristol has been very fun every time and it just keeps getting better. I am a huge fan of all the music that comes out of here and now I finally got to head into Rooted Records and pick some more of it up. I look forward to coming back and getting more!

On the subject of your forthcoming album, what kind of things can we expect? Genre-wise will it be similar to previous output? Any exciting guest appearances?

The album will be kind of all over the place, which is more what I am really like. I don't feel like making dubstep everyday or disco or hip hop, it will be more reflective of everything I like. There is a couple tracks I even sing on! I don't know if those will make the cut though! No collabs yet but you never know as there is a few favours I have been waiting to call on.

You and the other Passion Pit boys all have your own sideprojects, how does that work together when writing/recording/playing as Passion Pit?

As far as collaborating with the guys goes, that is actually more active on the remixing side of Passion Pit. We all do our part there. I started doing all of the remixes on my own, but now it's more of a group effort which is nice. In the studio on original material, Mike is the songwriter and I handle a lot of the programming and some production (as well as drumming) at least on the last album. But that could change. Hopefully the next one will be more completely collaborative. That really depends on how much time we have.

Speaking of Passion Pit stuff, any plans for future releases yet? Or is it still early days?

As for Passion Pit, it's gonna be a while before we get the time to get back in the studio, which sucks, because I wish we could release another album right about now... I'm ready to play some new songs...

When you DJ out you use Ableton Live? Can you explain exactly how that works? Also you mentioned the idea of putting together an all-vinyl set?

I usually play out with Ableton Live, but I have been playing some vinyl sets recently too, mainly because I am trying to rebuild my collection. But really it should be all about what the crowd hears, not how it's done. Sometimes vinyl sounds better, sometimes I can make a much more creative and effective mix in Ableton. Ideally, I want to use both for my sets, but it's actually harder to beat match a computer to a record than two records together. I'm working on it....



Words: Neil Kimmett

Photo: Alipio Hernández

http://www.myspace.com/shuttle

Listen to The Orion Mixtape at http://bit.ly/aokMeM

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