Two Shell on DJing: “In some circles it’s more about clout and name dropping than the music”

Two Shell have spoken about their ambiguous public image and shared their thoughts on dance music culture in a new interview with The Face.

The London duo have stirred significant interest since releasing their debut EP on Livity Sound in 2019, releasing a number of dancefloor-conquering bangers that merge club functionality with sugary sounds, experimental edge and threaded concepts, primarily through their own Mainframe Audio label.

They’ve also captured attention for their enigmatic approach that has seen the duo remain anonymous and appear to skewer certain elements of contemporary dance music, apparently wanting to shift away from elitism in dance music and focus more on the music and having fun.

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Speaking to Chal Ravens in The Face, Two Shell noted: “it’s important for us to push the form and focus the attention on the music. like we were saying before about the music industry thing, it’s kind of the same with djing in a diff way. in some circles it sort of exists for itself, like some big networking machine where it’s more about clout and name dropping than the music”.

For a recent Boiler Room session session at Barcelona festival Primavera, the duo are rumoured to have sent two MF Doom-style imposters in their place to dance in front of the decks on camera while a pre-recorded set of theirs was played through the system.

Speaking about their approach to community building around the project, Two Shell said: “we want to make new ways for people to feel excited about the things they like, and to maybe change the perceived value of certain items, like music files.

“it’s also about making things accessible, we believe in letting go of our music and not having a hierarchy where the makers live up in the big oak tree and the villagers can't get up to pick the good berries. it’s like, let’s shake this tree and let all the tasty fruit come crashing down - and we do like to think we make tasty fruit.”

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When questioned about what party they would visit if given access to a time machine, Two Shell kept their focus on the now and the future: “we’re here to help peeps feel something in the now. we can use music to bring back spirits of dead people, we don't need to bring back the old days for our grandaddies to feel smooth and sexy, we love him just the way he is”.

Elsewhere in the interview, they discussed their shell.tech site, wanting to make their own pop stars, and understanding how music can last forever.

The interview will be live for 12 hours and then be obscured. Read it now via The Face.

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Editor, follow him on Twitter