Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

4. SlowdiveSouvlaki

My first album ever, Early Works, was released by Simon Scott, the drummer of Slowdive, on his old label named KESH. When he contacted me through a private message on MySpace, I really couldn’t believe my eyes. At that exact same time I also had to quit my drum studies to concentrate 100% on the world of electronic music: I have always been very dedicated to what I was into… So when I made the decision to not try to become a professional drummer anymore, I felt that the time spent between snares and cymbals had suddenly become just a heap of dates in the calendar. Day and night, I was studying Max/MSP and sound synthesis, but on the first record there are many guitar samples that I processed with my first patches… All those ‘early’ sounds that I had recorded, they were made while I was seriously looking into the world of shoegaze.

I’ve always been a big fan of Slowdive, and that’s probably because they’re less distorted and more tuned than other affiliated bands like My Bloody Valentine, Galaxie 500 and The Jesus & Mary Chain. In comparison to these bands, I’ve always found myself listening to Slowdive for longer periods of time without losing interest. To me, Souvlaki is a special kind of record – when listening to it, I could easily link every track to an image or a short story taken from my life – ‘Here She Comes’ was the soundtrack of my first solo tour in 2008.

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