All Shook Up: Shakes

Fresh from their sound-check and from behind an assortment of flower clad mic stands, synth’s and Acid faced helium balloons, set up in preparation for tonight’s Rave Not War gig, emerge Shakes, aka Matt and Darren Farrow. Mixing their own unique brand of electro indie dance, Shakes are the latest set of dance-floor revolutionary’s intent on stirring up the current UK music scene, and Gigwise thought it high time to have a chat with the pair.

Although coming from a shared musical background and growing up under the same roof, Shakes have only been together for little over a year; the brothers initially embarking on different musical paths that ultimately led back to each other, as Matt explains. “It was just working with different people and finding that we didn’t actually connect in the same way as when we worked together. It was inevitable really. Darren was doing a lot of DJing and I was playing a lot of guitar based music so it seemed sensible to get together and do something about it.”

Darren adds: “We’ve worked with quite a few different people in the past, where our ideas were so different, it didn’t ever end up working. Its easer when there’re two of us. We bounce ideas off each other and we kind of produce each other. If I have an idea and Matt likes it, then we go with it or if he has an idea and I like it, then we go with it. Or if one of us doesn’t, it kind of filters it through.”

Recognised as being a cross over act, blurring the line of distinction between indie anthems and hardnosed dance grooves, Shakes are the latest band to come to the fore off the back of the (don’t say it too loudly) Nu-Rave scene. But they’re not here to jump on the bandwagon or to exploit the current trend in hype bands.  “I don’t think it’s by chance. It’s an exciting time for this kind of music. That’s why we’re into it.” Says Matt.

“But we’re not thinking there’s a gap there.” intercedes Darren “This is what we were doing and it just so happens that there’s not many decent electronic bands or acts out there. That’s where our act walks the middle ground as it were. Between the rave kids and the indie kid’s.”

But it’s a dangerous balancing act and not easy to pull off. Get it wrong and you run the risk of loosing both fan-bases. But this isn’t lost on Matt, who appreciates that there’s a lot more to success, than superficially looking the part. “I think it’s hard to get it right. I think a lot of people get it wrong. They just get a band and they stick a synthesizer in it. I think you’ve got to be able to make dance music and you’ve got to be able to write decent song based tunes. You’ve got to be able to do both those things.”