DFA mainstay Shit Robot has reflected on meeting James Murphy for the first time.
One of the decade's defining labels, DFA is a unique mixture of backgrounds, influences and people. Hailing from Ireland, Marcus Lambkin came of age on the New York club scene and never looked back.
Already a notable producer before he was caught by DFA's gravitational pull, Lambkin met James Murphy when the future LCD Soundsystem frontman was still a hardcore rock fan, wary of dance music.
"He was this strictly rock dude, and I was this strictly rave guy," he told The Quietus. "He thought we (Lambkin and a friend) were fucking idiots. Our friend was saying 'I'm putting a studio in the basement, you guys can use it.' And I was saying 'Does this guy (Murphy) know how to use a sampler?' We were totally sceptical, and he was the same as us."
Continuing, Marcus Lambkin explained that eventually the pair hit it off. Forming Shit Robot, the Irish engineer was able to find a home on DFA, which reflected the array of influences running through his music.
"But then me and James sort of hit it off, and we started hanging out and talking about music. I was playing him some of my favourite records and he was like, 'Well, this is actually really good'. He'd never heard a lot of that music before. Dance music to him was C & C Music Factory and MTV, and he fucking hated it."
"But what I was playing he hadn't heard before, so he kind of got into it. And I was going to his place and playing my favourite records - 'Ah, check this out, this is the best' - and then he was playing me the records that they sampled… he was breaking my heart every day. All my heroes who I thought were making these great songs were just ripping off all these other records."
Shit Robot's debut album 'Cradle To The Rave' is out now. The group are set to support LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip at the following shows:
November
11 London Alexandra Palace
12 Cardiff Arena
13 Sheffield Magna Arena
15 Manchester Apollo
Click here to buy tickets for Shit Robot!