Newspaper Article

I DJ, therefore I am: Floating Points on musical experiments and marathon sets

Hutchinson, Kate

2015

Overview

Still, [Sam Shepherd] finds it frustrating that he is often made out to be some sort of techno Einstein. \"The worst question I get asked is the one where people try and draw a parallel between science and music,\" he groans. \"It is possible that the two exist exclusively of each other, but apparently that's not a good enough answer.\" As a young boy, Shepherd was a chorister at Manchester Cathedral and went on to study piano at Chetham's School of Music. His father is a vicar and the family vicarage turned into a studio for musical experiments: \"I could set up cellos in the kitchen, drum kits in my sister's room,\" he says mischievously. A teacher gave him some jazz records and it was then that he \"stopped thinking of classical and jazz as two different things\", and started seeing them harmoniously. \" Kenny Wheeler is so beautiful that [his music] could have been Rachmaninov,\" he enthuses. \"And Bill Evans is similar to the colourfulness of Debussy.\" All of which, to be honest, is starting to sound a bit rollneck jumper. But Shepherd winces at the idea of anyone using the word \"jazzy\" to describe his music, as if it could be found on the kind of compilation that would've played in a hotel lobby in 1998. \"It's very sad to be misunderstood. You can press play and have prejudices about what jazz is or isn't, but I like to imagine I make music that doesn't require the listener to have any prior knowledge or reference points.\" After all, he adds, \"what kind of boring music is that?\" Elaenia is anything but boring; even in its chaos, it is beautiful. It builds like a hypnotic DJ set -- a soothing balm after a hard day in the office; a respite from a packed train full of screaming children where you can't sit down. Some people are angry Shepherd hasn't made Floating Points: The Bangerz album, he says, but he hopes they will find Elaenia \"inviting in some way\" in spite of that. \"I would like to feel that a person walks into an empty room and that, through listening to the record, the room is built for them without trying to push them out at any point,\" he explains. \"I'm trying to draw people in.\"

• Publisher: Guardian News & Media Limited
• Subject: Shepherd, Sam