Simon Shackleton Unveils Stellar Stop-Motion Visual for “Far and Wide (Further and Wider)”

As a producer who doesn’t need to prove a point to anyone but himself, Simon Shackleton decided to ditch the dancefloor-oriented productions he’s known for in exchange for material targeting the body, mind and soul. The seasoned veteran today pushed out his first LP in 10 years, Piece of Me, which sees him shedding the skin of his previous projects, Elite Force and Zodiac Cartel. It’s the first full-length offering with his name emblazoned across the cover, and it features his handy work at every step of the way. From vocals to programming all the way down to engineering, Shackleton poured his everything into this independently released display of personal progression fusing his experience behind the boards with soul-searching songwriting.

He’s also dropped off the visual for the featured electronica-enriched jam “Far and Wide (Further and Wider),” with the help of filmmaker Chele Gutek. The video is a stop-motion stroke of life-affirming joy, depicting a black-and-white Shackleton finding color in a way that brings to mind “Allegory of the Cave.” Peep the premiere of the music video after the jump, and while you’re at it, grab some context from Simon Shackleton directly, where he touches on the album, the video, and all that jazz.

It’s been over a decade since you’ve released an album, with Piece of Me being your first full-length released in your own name. It seems like a pivotal project, to say the least; what personal developments have you undergone during its creation?
In many ways, the transformational nature of the music very much mirrors the transformations that have been happening at home over this period. It’s been a very intensive phase of my life, really, with almost all of my anchor points torn out of the ground. I began really wrestling with my past—both musically and personally—around the time I started recording the album tracks, way back in 2012. I was looking for something more soulful, personal and musical than simply writing floor-filler, which I’d done over many years as Elite Force & Zodiac Cartel.

The album sees you shifting away from your previous work, which was mainly dancefloor-centric. What inspired this change of focus, and how did it affect your headspace as a producer?
I think in the world of electronic music production, we have become far too seduced by the dancefloor. In fact, we’ve become slaves to it, and we willingly subjugate ourselves to its rules and regulations. This is no doubt because DJing has become the main source of income for the vast majority of producers. As a result, the needs of the dancefloor are creatively enslaving, in many ways.

It’s funny how those at the top of the pyramid (i.e., those who attain standalone-brand status) are much more enabled in not playing to that same set of rules. For example, you don’t hear people describing the Chemical Brothers as anything other than
“the Chemical Brothers”—they have the creative freedom to go where they want, artistically. We all have that freedom, but most people choose not to exercise it, and that results in a maddeningly shallow musical gene pool sometimes.

You’ve had complete oversight virtually every step of the way on this project, from the producing, engineering, live instrumentation, vocals, and beyond. Do you ever look outward for a second opinion, or does the album stay solely with you until completion?
I have a few close friends that I’ve played and shared tracks with along the way, but it’s been less about canvassing opinion and more about feeling what it feels like to let the music go. I’ve learnt over the years that the act of committing to a track being finished is largely about trusting the way you feel about it when it appears in the public domain. Along the way, there were plenty of occasions where I shared a track and almost instantly had to come back and give it a fresh mixdown. It’s like a bright light of focus shines down on the track as a whole when you put it out there, and it’s either time or it’s not.

Let’s talk about the PledgeMusic campaign that helped fund the album. What was the experience like on the platform, and why insist on working independently?
The experience was great, actually. I went into it with some trepidation, as it was a new platform to me, and you can’t help but doubt yourself when you put yourself on the line in that way. But people have been hugely supportive and responsive to the campaign, and we are close to hitting 250 percent of our target—which is so very welcome, given we’re not really pushing things down the more conventional channels at this point.

We’ve got our hands on the visual for “Far and Wide (Further and Wider),” which is a really dope stop-motion piece. Walk us through the process and your level of involvement from start to finish.
This was a huge undertaking, and the lion’s share of credit must go to my manager and Denver-based filmmaker, Chele Gutek, for putting it all together. She effectively storyboarded the entire piece and then took a huge range of photos of me in motion—probably around 2,500 photos. Each one was then printed onto card and cut out by hand. The photos were very carefully logged and then placed into a number of little stage sets that we built. There was sooo much creativity in that, as we had to keep it on a shoestring budget. I think the total cost of the materials was around $100, mainly from Hobby Lobby and stuff we sourced for free. After I went back to the UK, Chele meticulously photographed the cutouts frame-by-frame and painstakingly put it all back together to fit the album track “Far & Wide (Further & Wider).”

Now that the album is available on the whole and the brunt of the work is behind you, what would you say has been the most rewarding part of working on this LP?
There have been many rewards at differing points along the road. When I was making the music itself, it gave me a real sense of escapism and retreat from the trials of life, as did capturing the imagery with my camera, which forms the bedrock of the record. The response the project’s had from people has also been truly moving. I think there’s a real connection there, and I’ve been really taken aback by how many people have found inspiration in the Piece of Me project. The key metric that I’ve chosen to measure the success of this project by is happiness, and it’s made me very happy from start to finish.

Buy the Piece of Me LP here.

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