SHIT ROBOT

Ireland’s very own Shit Robot (Marcus Lambkin) is currently downunder for his first Australian tour. Signed to DFA, Marcus has brought our three 12″ releases: “Wrong Galaxy” (2006), “Chasm” (2007) and just recently “Simple Things (Work It Out)” (2009), and has remixed artists like Simian Mobile Disco, Dondolo, The Juan MacLean, etc.

I’m a bit late on this post (as he has already played a few places already) but Melbournians/Perth kids can catch him this weekend. If you are in Melbourne, definitely come along this Saturday to our good blog friend’s, Scatterblog’s, festival “Scatterfest 2010” featuring Shit Robot, NASA, James Amato et al.

Shit Robot tour dates:

22 Jan – Empire, Brisbane
23 Jan – Goodgood Small Club, Sydney
25 Jan – Sugar, Adelaide
29 Jan – The Republic, Perth
30 Jan – The Espy, Melbourne

I was lucky enough to get an interview with Marcus as we talked about his past, various club scenes, Plant, New York, moving, James Murphy, DFA, his new album and everything robots:

PATCH: Halloooo Marcus! How was your Christmas and New Year?
MARCUS: It was great, relaxing at home with the whole family.

PATCH: And how’s the family?
MARCUS: The family are doing great. My wife is a bit upset as I just got back from NY and now I’m going to Australia and she’s stuck at home with our daughter.

PATCH: How’s the preparation coming along for your Australian tour? Will this be your first time in Australia?
MARCUS: Yes, first time. I’m really looking forward to it. I have a lot of friends here and I can’t wait to see them. Some of them moved down here when I went to NY, so it’s been a long time.

PATCH: OK, so let’s go back in time. Tell me about growing up in Ireland. What was the early club scene like? Tell me about your childhood, etc ?
MARCUS: I think I had a pretty good childhood. I grew up in a not so great neighborhood, but not so bad either. It was a little rough, but we also lived close to the sea and surrounded by countryside. We built camps a lot and one of my friends had a dirt bike, so it was a lot of fun.
After finishing school I started to venture in to Dublin on the weekends to go out to clubs. I found some old mates from my neighborhood were already involved in the “Rave” scene. That’s when I started to go out religiously. My friends would organize coach trips to illegal raves in the countryside or clubbing in Belfast. It was pretty sweet. There was only a handful of us doing this at the time, we thought we were great, we thought we had found the solution to the worlds problems.

PATCH: I’ve read in an interview with James Murphy & Pat Mahoney that you were more “punk oriented who turned rave”. Is this true?
MARCUS: I guess you could say that, I used to listen to Killing Joke, Dead Kennedys and the Clash before I got into dance music.

PATCH: So these days, what do you find yourself listening to? Also, what artists impress you lately?
MARCUS: I listen to old stuff a lot, I’m not really up on the new bands. I like to listen to Fleetwood Mac, Bowie or T-rex. I am really enjoying the new Hot Chip record though, it’s great.

PATCH: Today, has much changed in Ireland? Do you still enjoy playing there when you get the opportunity to do so?
MARCUS: I love playing there, it’s one of my favorite places to play, it rules. I love going home. I don’t know if it’s because I’m from Dublin and I’m on DFA, but I get a great response when I’m there, I love it. It has changed a lot since I last lived there though. A lot of money was pumped in to Ireland with the Celtic Tiger, nobody had any money when I lived there.

PATCH: Tell me about moving: why did you initially decide to move in 1992? And why New York?
MARCUS: I just knew I wanted to travel somewhere. I was actually thinking about moving to Australia with my mates, but then I won a Green Card in the lottery. I also had a cousin in NY at the time, so I said “why not,” I’ll give it a year and see what happens.

PATCH: And now you have ended up moving again, living comfortably in Germany. Is there a great comparison between Europe and America?
MARCUS: Yes, especially with music. You can play anywhere in Europe, but In the States you are limited to the big cities. Dance Music is not as mainstream as it is in Europe.

PATCH: Were you already DJing before you secured three gigs and two residencies in New York?
MARCUS: Just about, I was just starting. I had a party with a few friends at a place called Brownies in the east village on Sunday nights. I learned to DJ in front of people there. There’s a huge difference between DJing in your bedroom and DJing to a crowd. It’s a totally different experience.

PATCH: Tell me about your “Save the Robots” two year residency?
MARCUS: It was a pretty sweet gig. I used to play upstairs on a Saturday night. It was pretty mellow as Robots was more of an after hours place and it didn’t get going until 4am. It’s a shame there’s nothing like Robots around anymore, that place was really special and a quintessential part of NY as I knew it.

PATCH: How did the three Plants (Plant Records, Plant Saturdays and Plant Bar) come about?
MARCUS: After Dominique Keegan and myself started up Plant records we threw a record release party that turned out to be huge. We found out that we were much better at throwing parties than running a record label.
After throwing the Plant parties for a few years Dominique got the chance to open a Bar. He drafted me in and we turned it into the Plant bar, it was a natural progression for two Irishmen in NY.

PATCH: When James showed you the ‘crap’ robot drawing, what was the first thing you said? (if you can remember…)
MARCUS: Ha ha!

PATCH: I want to know why James was drawing robots in the first place… was it for a flyer?
MARCUS: Yes, it was the flyer for the first “Shit Robot” party at Plant bar.

PATCH: So this drawing led to the name for the so called “Shit Robot Parties” (ran also with James Murphy) held at the Plant Bar. Face Magazine stated Plant Bar to be the “coolest and loudest bar in New York City” (10/02). Paint the readers a picture of what went on in Plant Bar. These parties must’ve been huge!
MARCUS: No, they weren’t really that big. Plant Bar could only legally hold 74 people. Of course there was more like 150/200 people in the place on a good night, but it was still pretty small. The best parts of it were the lock-ins. At 4am we’d kick everybody but our friends out and lock the doors. This tended to leave the place half full though. We’d play records and drink for hours.

PATCH: And obviously this is where your DJ name comes from as well?
MARCUS: Yep, to be honest though, I never thought it would go this far. I wasn’t thinking past the first 12”.

PATCH: Do you still tend your Plant projects?
MARCUS: No, I left that to Dominique many years ago. He’s a lot better at that stuff, I shouldn’t be in control of anything.

PATCH: I’ve read that you taught James & Pat how to DJ. Is this correct?
MARCUS: I wouldn’t say that I actually sat them down and gave them lessons, but I guess they picked some of it up from me. I mean, James was always talking about it and he was fascinated with the whole thing. With Pat, he came later and I did give him a few pointers. I also gave him a pile of records to get started. It helps to have a load of records when you are learning to mix.

PATCH: Was it tricky introducing dance music to a “dance hating” (at the time) James Murphy?
MARCUS: No, he wasn’t really a dance hater. He just hadn’t been exposed to anything good. He was really excited about stuff like Mr. Ozio’s “Flat beat.” He really loved that one. I’m sure he had his doubts about plenty of the stuff I was playing him, but he kept his mouth shut.

PATCH: Can you tell me about the early DFA days where you got involved with James Murphy (after the Shit Robot parties) and the DFA label?
MARCUS: Well, I had been friends with James long before DFA and the Shit Robot party. He had been pushing me to make music for ages, it was only after my move to Germany that I finally managed to get something finished.

PATCH: Would you say your sound is very unique to DFA?
MARCUS: I guess you could say that. I don’t think of myself as something unique on DFA, I think most of the stuff from DFA is pretty different.

PATCH: Finally you have a new album coming! What can you tell us about it? Any special guests featuring on the album?
MARCUS: Yes, I’ve got lots of special guests, I’ve been very lucky. I did songs with Alexis from Hot Chip, Al Doyle lent a hand too. The Juan Maclean did vocals and played some guitar, Nancy sings on there, as does Janine from Planningtorock, Saheer from House of House and there’s more.

PATCH: Shit Robot, “Save the Robots”… am I seeing a trend here? Are you a techy nerd at heart?
MARCUS: No, definitely not. I’m a retard when it comes to techy stuff. I am getting better though. Because of where I live, I’ve been forced to learn how to fix stuff myself.

MP3: Shit Robot – Wrong Galaxy
MP3: Shit Robot – Chasm
MP3: The Juan MacLean – No Time (Shit Robot Remix)
MP3: Idioma – Landscapes (Shit Robot Remix)
MP3: Simian Mobile Disco – It’s the Beat (Shit Robot Remix)