Interview with Slow Hands

Slow Hands (aka Ryan Cavanagh) first started making waves after joining the Wolf+Lamb family in 2009, Slow Hands has quickly risen to the forefront of the US slo-mo disco scene with ear perking productions of space disco and low-slung disco-filtered house. But who’s labeling? The bottom line is – he’s captured a refreshing hybrid of future music that is yet-to-be-defined, which is why we’re proud to have this innovative talent as our resident. 2010 has been an exciting year for Slow Hands. He’s released several successful tracks and remixes on a plethora of respected labels, played numerous successful gigs across the country and was signed on to the notable Geist Agency. And now he’s in Europe for his first international tour. Days before his departure (and hours after his return from a looong night at San Fran’s Compound), we caught up with this man about town and chatted about the challenges of New York, the demise of jazz and musical evolution.

- I interviewed you a year ago when you had just been signed to Wolf + Lamb. Had you ever imagined you’d be on tour a year later?

I had hoped so. It’s weird – this tour thing is wild. A lot of people ask me if I’m excited and to me it just seems like a natural evolution. By doing a residency with AUTOBRENNT people started paying a little more attention. I’m excited. These are all the things that I wanted when I was 19 and decided to do all this stuff. Now here I am, 9 years later. I guess it hasn’t hit me entirely yet. Maybe when I get on the plane, or when I’m standing in Fabric, DJing.

- Most of your musical career as a DJ and producer was established here in New York. What are some of the challenges you faced or still face as an artist?

New York…it’s a pain in the ass to play here. New York is the hardest crowd to please, I think. There’s a lot to do here and a lot of quality music – not even on a weekly or monthly basis but on an hourly basis. Like right now I bet at this moment right now there’s probably someone – a band or a DJ – playing who’s awesome. It’s hard to keep up with that.

You’ve kept on going, though.

Yeah, I mean, it hasn’t been easy.The biggest compliment I got was when the Valenti was like talking about JP, who is one part of the Worst Friends duo I’m in, was like “these guys break tracks.” That’s a pretty big compliment. That’s why I got into this when I was 18 or 19, listening to Sascha and John Digweed. Before the digital era those guys made music popular, because no body else would know. How the hell would you know if you didn’t go to a record shop? That’s what DJing is for me. If you’re not doing that, then, you’re not doing it for the right reasons so maybe it’s time for you to reassess.

- What is it exactly are trying to make a difference to in terms of dance music, are you trying to change what you hear out there? Which direction do you want it to go?

To answer that, I’ll give you an analogy. I went to school for jazz and classical. Not to discredit the school I went to, but most musicians who are successful and go to music school don’t get past the first year. So we’ll say that I’m successful because I didn’t get past the first year. I lost interest. You see, Miles Davis was a massive influence on the changing in the jazz world when he died, jazz never went anywhere. So all of a sudden, here I am nearly 20 years after he died and I’m studying this music and it hasn’t changed since then. But when I really got into electronic music, there was something very primal and very powerful about the dancing aspect about it. The club culture, seemed kind of tribal, to me it was just awesome. I saw a lack of pretention, an abundance of rudimentary elements, musical elements and human elements in this form of music, and ultimately the largest possibility for evolution, as a musical format. That’s kind of what it is, it’s about, attempting to change things. So ultimately, to answer your question, what I want to do musically is be a part of its evolution.

- How has your residency with AUTOBRENNT played a part in your progression as a producer and DJ?

First of all, I’ve met so many amazing people through what Sigu has done – Jacque Renault, Justin Miller, Phillip Stone, to name a few. Sigu has really given me the opportunity to push the style of DJing that I do, like the long sets and developed sets. I’m able to just play how I want to play. That’s really cool thing to have and have people believe in a crossing over style. That’s hugely important. That’s the hardest thing to overcome and that’s the biggest thing about this music that needs to be fixed.