Sheldon has become one of the most talked about names on the music scene over the past six months or so. Already being heavily supported by Mark Knight, mau5trap, Michael Woods, Third Party plus many more he is one of the most promising acts coming out of the new generation of DJs. After moving to London in 2007 to study audio engineering, he quickly fell into the London club scene and from his first Toolroom Knights experience knew that he wanted to make his mark on the world of dance music.

Spending the next few years producing house music in his spare time and DJing at every opportunity, he found his feet and unique Sheldon style in his productions which is prominent in his tracks today. In 2010, he worked alongside Size’s ‘Third Party’ and co-wrote some of their early tracks including hits ‘Release’ and ‘De-Tune’ before focusing back on his own tracks and releasing under his own name.

The last 6 months have been a very busy time for Sheldon, with a release out on Diffused, playing in the main room at Ministry of Sound for deadmau5’s label night and being booked up for festivals over the summer so it is without doubt that this year is his year which will see him explode globally! One of the nicest guys in the industry big things are to come from this talented and passionate artist.

https://www.facebook.com/SheldonOfficial

In 2010 Ministry of Sound Club introduced three new residents with the idea and belief to develop them into artists who would be internationally recognised for their talents which we had picked up on. Two years later and the response on our guys has blown us away and taken each dj’s career to a level which nobody expected.

Michael Woods is now a global superstar within dance music with residencies not just in the UK but all over the world. Last year saw him release his debut album featuring a selection of his own released tracks plus 4 exclusives produced especially for the CD. He has gone on to produce tracks for Example which got to number one in the charts and was nominated for a Brit Award... who knows that the next step for Woods is but we guarantee that it is going to be massive. When we first heard Joe & Will Ask play, we knew there was something special about the pair from their quirky style and enthusiasm for not just the music but the club too. As the years have gone on their sound has progressed and matured much like them as artists. About to release their first ever artist album in May, the pair have developed a whole new live show and worked hard on the Vikings concept to make it unique and miles away from any other live set-up seen before.

So now we enter into a new era and figured it is about time that we introduced some fresh blood with the same love, passion and hunger the others had when they first started out. After running a competition with Data Transmission, we discovered Shane Patrick who we can officially announce is the new Resident for the club. Shane originally sent over two very different mixes that showed his varied sound and understanding of both underground and mainstream music, so from the off we knew he was someone that we couldn’t miss out on. Having already had his tracks picked up by Roger Sanchez, it is pretty clear that he has what it takes as a DJ, producer and all round artist that with a little nurturing could go on to big things. Testing him out on the Box soundsystem at Benny Benassi and friends, Shane played the closing set and quite frankly smashed it. If you missed him there will be plenty more chances to catch him play as well as regular updates on what he is up to posted by us over the next coming months.


The resident search brought to light over 300 entrants all with a talent and ability that we couldn’t let go unnoticed so we decided to form a small collective of dj’s that you will see starting to play on rotation on many of our Saturday Sessions events. Congratulations to Sheldon, Tim Cullen, Michael L Penman and Jordan G! Keep an eye out for their next dates at the club.

Check out Shane's soundcloud below;

Joe & Will Ask debut their live show this Saturday based around their new album which is out in May...Get to know more about 'Vikings' and watch the EXCLUSIVE preview of Joe & Will's new LIVE SHOW below !!!


JOE AND WILL ASK
‘VIKINGS’
DEADLY RECORDINGS

RELEASE DATE: 21ST MAY 2012









Following a series of notable single releases in 2011, Joe And Will Ask have evolved their production style and signature sound with their outstanding electronic debut album due to be released this spring on Deadly Recordings. The title ‘Vikings’ is synonymous with the two young musicians whom have hosted rammed East London monthly Techno nights under the same name.

Notorious for their ability to create the most cutting edge club tracks, Joe And Will Ask combine their sound with perfect vocal hook cameos, to deliver an array of pulsating tracks that will dance right through your system. The album is the ultimate testament of their talent. From day one they’ve been unrelenting on creating a complete proper album, not just a collection of tracks, but a continuous amalgamation of their sounds.

“We really wanted the record to have a cohesive narrative, hinting at a range of influences from nostalgic 80s keyboards, to future house, from our older banging sound, to the big chords of 90s dance classics.”

The album represents the culmination of over 5 years of collaboration between Joe and Will, a time frame that, according to Joe allowed them to “sit back and evaluate what we really like about dance music over all the years we’ve being listening to it, and not be linked to one particular movement”. The album’s narrative has been carefully crafted, from the seductive album opener ‘Freya’ to the vocal charm of ‘Last Forever’ (which has been chosen by Radio 1’s Rob Da Bank for an exclusive play) right through to the celebratory ‘Spring’.

In the past 12 months the boys have gone from strength to strength – recently being hailed as East London’s young, stylish Booka Shade, they’ve moved from their monthly residency at Ministry of Sound to hosting Vikings to headlining Club NME on New Year’s Eve. They also developed a reputation as remixers du jour with treatments for La Roux, Arcade Fire, Paloma Faith, Groove Armada and Japanese Popstars under their belt. The talented duo are also making a name for themselves in the fashion world with Will’s hugely successful menswear label William Richard Green being one of the highlights at this year’s fashion week. Whilst Joe has been all over Europe creating catwalk music for top designers like Gareth Pugh.

Beyond all this, they’re two musicians who love dance music. Joe Ashworth and William Green originally met through mutual friends and bonded over a love of hard house and trance that had been kindled during their teenage years. Their versatile DJ sets win crowds over every time with their energetic ability to mix in deep techno, electro, house, pop and indie so seamlessly and passionately. With ‘Vikings’ ready to drop Joe and Will have turned their attentions to creating a live show to complement the new record, expect to be entertained and surprised.

Artists like Brodinski, Booka Shade, Zombie Nation, Drop The Lime and Annie Mac hailing them for big things were right as 2012 looks set to be Joe And Will Ask’s year.

facebook.com/joeandwillask

For more information please Mel or Ed at Outpost
firstname@outpostmedia.co.uk | 020 7684 5634

WE ASK JOE...

Where did the concept Vikings come from?
We were brainstorming ideas for names for the album and just thought Vikings was an awesome name - for some reason so many of our friends and favourite people are Scandinavian, so it's partly a nod to them, but also the word brings up some pretty sick images. We started our own party called Vikings just over a year ago, and it just seemed to make sense to stick with the plan and call the record the same name.


How long has it taken to get the album ready and what sort of process did you go through?
It's been a really long on-going process over a few years. We're always making tracks, and most of them we either don't think they are up to scratch, and the ones we like we put out as singles on beatport, but with the album the whole thing is a lot more considered, and you don't just think about the songs, but how they fit in the context of the record. It was difficult, and we changed our mind so many times on things, but finally landed on the finished lp a couple of months ago.


Where do you get your inspiration from?
A broad range of music - it seems a bit obvious to say, but if you only look at the people in the same sub-genre as you for inspiration you won't make any new sounds. Because the record was a work in progress for such a long time, there are hints of the french electro sort of sound, all the way through to the future-dubsteppy feel.  The vocalists we worked with totally inspired us, with their creative inputs helping us shape the tracks (rather than just singing over the top), and probably the main moments of inspiration come from just messing about with a sound, or recording, or synth, and just chancing on something we like. We rarely have much of a plan when we begin a track, and when we do, we usually do a complete u-turn and make something different!


What do each of you add to the mix when producing and dj-ing?
I'm more of a production geek - I produce pretty much the whole time, Monday to Friday all day - not only techno music, lots of different things, so I feel like I come to the Joe and Will Ask project with a broad 'skill set' (horrible word), whereas i'd say Will is more of an 'ideas' guy in the studio. DJing wise, we have different but overlapping tastes in music, and I think i'm more into slighly more pumping repetitive housey stuff than Will maybe?


Would you say that you both have different styles that you combine when coming up with tracks?
Yeah definitely - it's not always an easy thing either. If we both liked exactly the same thing, there wouldn't be any point in there being two of us, if we didnt like anything the same, then we wouldn't agree on anything, but luckily our relationship is somewhere between the two.


Is there a favourite track of yours from the album?
It changes for me, but I think i'm most proud of the weird and quirkiness of 'put it down' at the moment.


Over the last year what has been the one album that has made a difference to you?
I don't know about an album, but as a producer, Scuba. I just think he does the underground/cheesy/hard/melodic mix-up so well - everything he does sounds like him. He keeps his credibility whilst having fun. That's such an inspiration to me.


Can you describe your top 5 ministry of sound moments?
1- The rehearsal for our live show on Saturday! Raving in the box at 10am on a Thursday to no crowd except the lighting technician!
2- The night when Benny Benassi played the box a few months back, we played the 103, ended up playing for about 4 hours 3-7, a lot of the people in the crowd just stuck with us 4 hours, amazing!
3- I think I was pretty blown away the first time I walked into the club and had a look round. I never get tired of taking new friends up to the balcony and showing them the box when it's packed and loud - it's just incredible, and like nowhere else.
4- Seeing Joris Voorn smash the box to pieces!
5- Having Kink play with us in the 103 for Vikings. A genious and such a humble, nice guy.


Next Saturday is the debut of the live show, can you give an insight into what we can expect and the production that went behind it?
After much deliberation, messing about and experimenting, we are going to basically be playing on a riser pretty much in the middle of the floor! It's going to be the first time anyone has done this in the club. Because of where we'll be, we get fredon to do some pretty incredible things with the lighting, you'll see what we mean from the teaser video!


Are there any sneaky clues you can give us about what will be the first single?
Haha, we still can't decide which one of two tracks it should be! What are we like!


WE ASK WILL...

Where did the concept Vikings come from?
It wasnt so much of a concept to start with. We were Djing in Prague and came up with it when we were walking in the snow from what i can remember. We just thought it was a cool word. I few people have asked it if its to do with the Techno Viking from youtube, but its not, it would be a bit lame to name the past 5 years work on a youtube video, even though its pretty cool.

How long has it taken to get the album ready and what sort of process did you go through?
The Album has been an on going thing for ages now. There have been a few different versions of it we have been 'about to release'. We have been constantly making music then putting tracks together and looking at them as an album rather than individual tracks. Some of the project files are up years old which have been changed over and over again. where as some were made in the last couple of months. We tried to produce something which wasn't just 10 tracks of the latest trend genre in dance music.

Where do you get your inspiration from?
Everywhere really, i guess we have spent a lot of time clubbing. From when i lived back in Birmingham and i used to go to a load of hard house nights, to moving to London and being involved in the nu rave and electro scene, to amazing minimal partys like wetyourself and loads of house and techno like at Ministry of sound for the last couple of years. Also alot of tracks seem to be remixes we have started for bands and then realised we way prefer the track without the elements from the original so take them out and bring it out as one of ours.

What do each of you add to the mix when producing and dj-ing?
Joe is more of the producer, he gets the tracks to a certain point then we work out what we like and dont like and then it goes back and fourth untill we are happy with it. in normally takes a couple of month of playing a track out in clubs and constantly tweaking untill we are happy with it. When it comes to djing we have diffrent tastes in music which overlap in the middle which i think works well as it prevents sets from being one dimensional but not too sporadic either.

Would you say that you both have different styles that you combine when coming up with tracks?
Yea for sure, as i said before our tastes are different but do overlap. We often don't agree on things but i think ultimately its a good thing.if we both liked exactly the same things then there wouldn't be much point in collaborating.

Is there a favourite track of yours from the album?
I think its 'My skin' its a really dark broody techno track.

Over the last year what has been the one album that has made a difference to you?
Aw thats impossible to answer. there has been so many i have loved for completely different reasons, i love the Ost aw Kjex album, the Fear Ratio album the new scuba album and the Robag wruhme album was amazing!


Can you describe your top 5 ministry of sound moments?
They are all so good!! I love the ones when we play for hours at the end! also having A1 bassline play for us was great as well as Boy 8 bit and Kink!! its always such a good vibe at Vikings, we love it!

Next Saturday is the debut of the live show, can you give an insight into what we can expect and the production that went behind it?
We have put a fair bit of thought into the aesthetics of it as we feel a lot of live shows you see are a bit flat. Its not that exciting watching to blokes behind laptops. Musicly there is a mixture of old tracks and new album tracks but all edited to fit together into a live format. Im so excited i cant wait!

Are there any sneaky clues you can give us about what will be the first single?
No, i dont know myself yet, there are a few ideas though.