SHOVE - D.A.M Remix (Feat. Our Carlson)
We speak with Naarm legends Shove and Our Carlson about their most recent collaboration ‘D.A.M Remix’, all things hardcore, phoning a friend and trauma bonding.
Shove and Our Carlson prove themselves to be a match made in sonic heaven in “D.A.M Remix” - a rejig of Shove’s first single “Death Admin Machine” from their latest EP, released last Friday via Rack Off Records.
Read on for our interview with both front-woman of Shove Bella and Our Carlson, and be sure to catch Shove live in full swing at their SHOVE 2 EP Launch at Old Bar on Saturday 15th of October.
It’s so exciting when bands do the unlikely and listeners are able to catch a glimpse of the band under a new light! I really love what you’ ve done with this remix, I’d love to find out how this unlikely collaboration came to life?
BK - We love O.C. He’s a certified legend. We asked, he delivered. Simple as that.
Do Shove collectively have any fav electronic hits that may have been a point of reference for this Our Carlson remix of your latest single Death Admin Machine?
BK - To be fair, we let O.C do what he wanted with this one. Full creative control. If anything, we came to him because we like his music and thought he’d be able to put a great spin on things. So, in that sense you could say that his music inspired the collaboration. Other than that I like Mark Stewart & The Mafia, that was the vibe. I don't know if that really counts as electronic, maybe? It makes you uncomfortable, that’s the inspiration. Discomfort.
With a live show to match the energy of this remix, are there any clues you can give listeners about the upcoming second release ‘SHOVE 2’ in October?
BK - The Twin Towers was always my favorite LOTR film.
G’day Carlson! How good is this remix you landed your mitts on!! Always impressed with everything you do. Now I know you have a background in heavy music that people may not be familiar with so I can imagine this collaboration was something that you may have jumped on pretty eagerly. Is there anything you can tell us about the process of remixing the latest Shove song that listeners might find surprising about your working process?
Our Carlson: Hey Evie, I got asked to do this remix and yeah I jumped at it. Shove slap.
Bella sounds great and has the best style going round on the mic, like a cork in the ocean. I first heard of shove through their record label Rack Off Records, got the 7 inch and blasted it, I couldn’t get over that bass tone. Anyway I think it was lockdown and I was talking Alex Cameron from Bad//Dreems over the internet about music about what’s hot and what’s hotter, I’d just got the first shove 7 and told him it was sizzling, Alex agreed and next thing we were all on a mini tour together and the trauma bonding began.
My heavy music background started in the hardcore scene, I had a band called King Brown! slang for a long neck stubby) we were a bit of a joke, like not the songs but in-between songs we would talk shit about 80s cricket or what bin I woke up behind the night before, I watched people in the audience looking at the big dogs of the scene to work out if it was ok for them to like this crap. At the time hardcore was very serious lots and lots of black and not much of a drinking culture, we were none of these things, I thought the Mindsnare crowd was the shit. People trying to drink jugs and smoke ciggies in the wildest pit I’ve ever been in, anyway I am getting a bit nostalgic here. We ended up playing with Mindsnare at the Arthouse (holy grail).
The trauma of my childhood started to catch up with me and I pretty much lost my mind, my community, King Brown! and almost my life. I still love hardcore.
This collaboration is a match made in heaven! What has been your favorite thing about working with Shove and how did you get onto these heavy hitting legends?
Our Carlson: I’d never fucked with a band remix but I never let an opportunity pass especially if its a challenge, best way to learn I recon. I knew what I wanted to do with the track, I didn’t want it to be long to match the punk attention span, the drums flow and groove but I wanted them to be precise like a machine, like suicide. My Ableton trial run had come to an end and I was trying to get it done in ablation live but this was taking soooo long and the deadline was looming so I did what I always do and phoned a friend, Pat Telfer and I write some of the tracks (Izzy Stabs doing the majority of the beats from Alice Springs). Pat and I sat down and bashed it out. Pat is a wizard, what would take me hours and hours we can do in minutes. I’ve never met anyone who can decode my ideas like Pat, the guy just gets me. We had to move everything bit my bit lyric by lyric to get the precision I wanted.
My favourite part of working with Shove is hanging out with Bella. I also love the lyrics. thinking about the death admin machine, something that everybody will go through in some form but nobody ever talks about and it’s a huge part of death. We need to talk about the things we don’t talk about more. Bella also told me that the lyrics were inspired by the way I confront things head on with Our Carlson lyrics and I fucking love that. Having a remix on Rack Off Records is the icing on the cake, nothing but gold on Rack Off.
Article by Evie Vlah (@cherrygarcon)
Polaroid of Carlson by Natalie Jurrjens (@nataliejurrjens)
Poster by Show Pony (@showpony_____) and photo by Charlie Foster (@its_charlie_innit)
Photos of Shove by Ben Hudson (@distorted.youth)
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