Originally crawling out of the cold, damp earth back in 2006, Zombie Disco Squad now comprises the solo project of Nat Self (former member Lucas Hunter departed a couple of years back, leaving Self shuffling along by himself). Known for an off-kilter approach to dance music that encompasses elements of hip-hop, glitch and disco as well as classic house, it’s fair to say ZDS is a unique project.
Recently invited to take a retrospective look at the Classic Music Company catalogue with Classic Through The Eyes of… Zombie Disco Squad, we caught up with Nat for a quick chat about dance heroes and ‘Self’ promotion…
Thanks for talking with us… what have you been up to recently?
Yo yo! I've been doing what I do; making music, Djing, drinking coffee and generally being foolish.
After the release of your album last year, did you find it difficult to get back into the groove of producing?
It took a little while; I spent a bit of time out of the studio and then came back in hard. I've been working pretty solidly since then though.
You profile was given a boost after you gave away a free download of ‘Straight Boy’… now that making music is commonly seen as a way or promotion rather than making a living, do you think that potentially devalues music?
Good question! Back in 2006 when that track was given away it was defiantly a good thing to do - right now I kinda think it can go either way. It can be as effective as having an EP out or can do nothing. I feel like right now there are a lot of people unwilling to pay for music anyway, so it's already devalued. As an artist you just gotta adapt the best you can to a changing market.
Who or what are some of your biggest influences when it comes to making music?
I love a wide variety of music and all of that feeds into what I do. In terms of dance music there are a few artists who I will always love - from the top of my head, Green Velvet/Cajmere, Claude Vonstroke, Herbert, Justin Martin, Jesse Rose and obviously Luke and Derrick!!
Tell us about your relationship with Classic… can you remember the first Classic record you bought?
In about 2001 I discovered Music for Freaks (Luke Solomon and Justin Harris) and from there discovered Classic and became fairly obsessed. I have bought pretty much every record they put out and am about as big a fanboy as it's possible to be.
Tell us about the mix for Classic… how did you go about putting it together?
I spent about two weeks just listening to the back catalogue again. I whittled that down to my absolute favourites, removed the ones that had already been used by the earlier comps, pulled out a few I thought would benefit from an update (I did about 10 edits in all but I only used the strongest), and finally sat down in the studio and used the ones that made me most happy and fitted nicely.
Any tracks in particular on there that you’d like to highlight, or are particular special to you?
I'm pleased with how the remix of ‘Time to Begin’ came out. I also really like what Jesse [Rose] and Barclay [Claude Vonstroke] have done on their edits.
What else are you working on at the moment?
I'm toying with the idea of writing another album - aside from that I have some remixes in the pipeline and I'm writing a couple of tracks for sunshine times!
Anything else you’d like to tell us about…?
Um nah not really; just buy the compilation please and try not to look through my eyes at inappropriate times (ho ho ho).
Classic Through the Eyes of... Zombie Disco Squad is out 28th April - listen & pre-order
