By Dylan Moran
As a DJ, what do you do after you’ve redefined your genre, featured in a documentary, as well as movies and games?
If you're DJ Shadow, nothing. You just continue to push the boundaries, and keep on touring.
It's hard to believe it's been five years since he last released an album or graced our shores, but New Zealand's slowly becoming a permanent fixture on his tour schedule.
“I like coming here because it's not Australia, it's a different place, it has its own vibe and I have good memories from the last two times I've been here,” he says.
He was in Auckland this week on the New Zealand leg of his Shadowsphere tour. The tour is all part of his preparations for the release of new album The Less You Know The Better; his wake-up call to current DJs.
“It's almost like a missionary, travelling the world and trying to spread the anti-whatever people think DJing is about at that moment. I'd like to try and offer the antithesis of that,” says Shadow.
So he's shunning the hip hop “swagger” in favour of his orchestral funk style, but the man who makes a living from his hands doesn't hold back when he delivers his punches.
“There's certainly way more DJs now than there were back 10 years ago, especially 10-15 years ago, but I'm not seeing a lot of creative DJing. I mean, I'm seeing what I really consider to be lazy DJing,” he says.
While some of that might be down to technology, which helps everyone think they're a DJ these days, Shadow himself hasn't ignored what it can do in the right hands.
“I believe that there's a skill to DJing and it should be entertaining, it shouldn't just be a person up there with turntables,” he says.
DJ Shadow’s new album comes out in September, so 'lazy' DJs should consider themselves forewarned.
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