Slam- I've Never Seen London As A Necessity

"I can't stress enough how important Glasgow is to our make-up. London would have been the obvious choice but I've never seen it as a necessity, to me London has always been more a place to visit rather than to live in. Glasgow for me has always retained a very strong pull and I feel it's home."

Chatting down the line from Soma's Scottish base, Slam star Orde Meikle sounds happy with his lot. Firmly centred in his home town of Glasgow he's about to launch a new club night at the Sub Club, where he'll be showcasing tracks and ideas related to Slam's new album Year Zero, a significantly different and more eclectic record than previous works. Citing early 80s influences like Tom Tom Club and even Prince, the pair have looked backwards to move forwards for the record, reinvigorating both their music and their lives in the process, it seems. And Orde seems confident they've seen the way ahead.

"Certain scenes reach a point where they no longer seem to be progressing, they have a short period while they treat water, then sure enough something fresh comes through, and that's where I think we are with a lot of genres of dance music. People are looking around for other influences," says Orde.

"And one of the happier aspects of the changes taking place is that some of the upper echelons of dance music might be pushed aside," he predicts.


Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): How much do you see Slam as being in the upper echelons-

Slam: "I never really feel we are, if anything I always feel we're floating around in the middle, somewhere."

Skrufff: Do you think of people coming to see you having expectations of what you're going to play-

Slam: "Yes, and it's always good for us to play around with that expectation, but just to play with it a little and not shatter it."

Skrufff: Would you play Tom Tom Club records now, for instance-

Slam: "Yes, though the idea of not shattering people's expectations is still present. We have a new night starting on Fridays at the Sub Club in Glasgow, after an absence of many years. I can't stress enough how important Glasgow is to our make-up, it's important that we have regular nights in Glasgow because we've missed them due to our recent extensive touring. We plan to use this new night at the Sub Club to air the more eclectic side that Year Zero is erring towards. So, yes, we'd be likely to play Tom Tom Club at this new club night."

Skrufff: How much difference would have made to your careers if you'd moved to London or anywhere else-

Slam: "London would have been the obvious choice but I've never seen it as a necessity, to me London has always been more a place to visit rather than to live in. I have friends who have moved to Berlin, New York, Paris and Barcelona and I also have lived elsewhere before returning to Glasgow and becoming involved in music, so I know it is quite common for people to try to experience what different cities can offer, though Glasgow for me has always retained a very strong pull and I feel it's home. I guess I'm lucky to have been able to travel through my job, which has also allowed me to meet some fantastic people and go straight in at the deep end socially in many cities around the world. Of course, there are other places like Sydney, Rio, San Francisco, where I'd love to have moved to, had I not been so attached to Glasgow."

Skrufff: Skrufff's techno reviewers saw you both Djing at Fabric recently and were convinced that you were really wasted and off your heads, is that possible-

Slam: "We could have been wasted! Yes, absolutely."

Skrufff: Is it hard to keep it together night after night given you're in party situations-

Slam: "Well, we were brought up in a drinking culture that follows us throughout our lives, from time to time we try to calm it down, but we do tend to drink varying amounts of alcohol depending on how long our sets are. Fabric is usually five hours, so by the end of five hours we probably have drank copious amount Tags

• Skrufff