Turn it up, not down
The Aston Shuffle's brand of self- described "electronic, emotive pop music" has been striking major chords on dance floors of late. Their single Tear it Down was recently identified as the eighth-most "Shazam-ed" dance track of the summer, sharing the list with Rudimental and Avicii.
I was totally blown away," says one half of the band, Mikah Freeman. "The calibre of music that was in that list is pretty big, so it's just really nice to know people are connecting with the music.
Indeed, making all the right connections, Freeman and his shared musical mind Vance Musgrove have gone from being relatively unknown Canberra DJs less than 10 years ago; to being crowned Australia's best DJs in 2010's Inthemix50 awards; to releasing their second album, Photographs, this week.
Yet despite taking Australia by storm and beginning to sell out shows internationally, Freeman is still nervous about how fans will react to their sophomore.
"It's always pretty nerve-racking when you've been working with a body of work for so long and you're about to put it out to the world," he says.
"The last two singles have done extremely well, beyond our expectations. We just did a national tour, which was kind of like dipping our toes in the water with all this new music but the reactions to the new music were amazing."
Part of the appeal of Photographs will surely be due to some impressive guest vocal inclusions, ranging from upcoming talent to modern day soul genius Mayer Hawthorne in the track Never Take it Away.
Although Freeman was "dumbfounded" Hawthorne even liked the song, it turns out the LA artist was more than a little enamoured.
"I think he's so in love with the song that he has put it in his live show in America, so he's actually playing an Aston Shuffle song in his own set, which speaks volumes."
Being turned up is something the duo is also used to, thanks to their role as hosts of Triple J's Friday Night Shuffle radio show, yet nothing quite prepared them for one fan's request; to sign his prosthetic eye.
"Not too many people can say something like that has happened," Freeman laughs.
'It's always pretty nerve-racking when you've been working with a body of work for so long and you're about to put it out to the world.'
