Biography:
From his earliest recordings on influential East London imprint Sound Of The Underground to the recent 'Nuttah vs. Bambaata' soundclash, which tore apart clubs up and down the country earlier this year, Andre Williams - aka Shy FX - has more than earned his stripes as one of the leading lights of the drum & bass movement. Despite an enviable balance of dance floor kudos with consistently high sales, Shy has continued to step beyond formula in favour of his advancement of sound. So much so that 'Everything,' the taster for his long overdue album which envelopes Gary Paul's rich R&B vocals with a swathe of twitching jungle rhythmics, has seen acetate play from DJ's across the board in addition to receiving props from the likes of Trevor Nelson and creating an inevitable major label interest.

"Things are definitely a lot better this year," opens Shy in reference to the opening out of the music from the switchblade mechanicals, which have dominated so many sets since the mid-nineties. "Certain DJ's have started to come with a mixture of tunes where they would just be playing dark a few months ago. That single mindedness was bound to reflect in what producers were doing with the end result that the entire scene starts moving in just one direction."

Continuing he says, "I've never said that the noise should be gotten rid of, but have always felt that a lot of producers would benefit from listening to other things in order to bring another feel and vibe, just to get some variety back in the scene. Essentially I've never been interested in sound trickery - whether a track uses this or that filter or all of that bollocks, I just want to be able to go to a rave with my girl, brock out and have a good time and its that party vibe I'm trying to achieve in my tunes. It strikes me that producers are trying harder and I personally think that next year will be where we started to see the punters come back into it."

Although Shy's Ebony label has been anything but prolific since its inception four years ago, when tunes drop - they drop - with the Nuttah VIP undoubtedly one of the biggest tunes of 2001 so far. He explains how the record came about. "I'd started DJ'ing to test out the tunes. Although I'm pretty au fait with myself and what I want to hear in a record, obviously it helps to see the response that your tunes are getting on the floor. Basically the bookings flew in and I was playing one of SS's raves down at Bagley's and wanted to have a little treat for the crowd so slung this quick VIP thing together and cut it. Other DJ's were ringing up for the track literally the next day! Like I say it wasn't even for release, but that's often the way it happens where the track you'd least expect to do anything is the one to do the damage."

The labels second release of the year was the "D.j. Vu" compilation, which acted on the genre's current predilection with all things old school with a definitive collation of some in demand tracks; 'R Type,' 'Rollidge' and Shy' s own 'Wolf' amongst them.

"It came about through 'Nuttah' really. I was out at a party and a girl asked me if it was a brand new tune which came as quite a surprise," he laughs. "Maybe I'm getting a bit older or something but I saw that there were a whole bunch of people who had missed out on a lot of those tunes that we all knew."

This isn't something that Shy is about to make a habit of though. "I enjoy playing certain tunes out but with my music there's a feeling that I've been there and as such I'm more about keeping it moving and doing my own thing. Having said that sometimes you have to go back to go forward and I would say that the old school thing makes a good starting point and its the introduction of those basslines and vocals which has helped the music come around again."

DJ'ing was just one of a number of reasons behind the two year hiatus of releases at his Ebony imprint, broken only by occasional twelves for Formation and Emotif's Double Zero imprint. "Although I've been setting up a few labels and getting the studio dealt with, I just haven't had a chance to focus on the label. For example I'd be out in Japan for a week, come back Wednesday and see my family and perhaps get into the studio Friday before catching a flight somewhere else on Saturday - nothing was getting done."

With a subsequent calming of his schedule, Andre found the time to settle into the album over the last few months. Although a funk element has been a consistent part of Andre's music through the years, an r&b slant has been something of a more recent angle.

"Where I'm at now there's a unit of maybe twenty studios which a lot of r&b heads pass through," he explains. "I've always found it hard to focus strictly on just one style of music and had a need to keep myself busy and essentially my way in with that whole scene came through being commissioned to do drum & bass remixes, where I'd return the DAT with an r&b take as well. A couple of people felt what I was doing and its gone really well, to the degree that after I've finished the Ebony album I'll be going out to America to work with some named artists."

"I definitely wanted to take what I was doing somewhere else, and having had conversations with people like Krust and Dillinja about songs and structure, realised that there were a lot of other producers on that tip for change," elaborates Andre. "When the garage thing came along, it just took the piss. It was no better or worse than our music, where there are both good and bad tunes but they knew what they were doing in terms of not being afraid to use vocals and, through coupling that with an eye for marketing, really pushed their scene forward. The way I want my tunes is to be able to hear them in a drum & bass rave but also to be able to hear then drop to the same effect in an environment outside of that."

"Everything," the first track to surface from the project is already tearing apart dancefloors up and down the country. "I had met Gary through these other projects I'd been working on and just approached him about whether he would be interested in getting involved with something a bit different. The rhythm track was actually done a couple of years ago but I'd always felt it needed a vocal"

The album also sees a continuation of earlier work with old SOUR spa T Power, with what began as a sharing of studio space now having grown to a full collaboration. "Basically Marc had moved his equipment into the unit where he was going to work in the day while I'd record over night, but we ended up working together. I'm not sure as to whether we'll make up a new project name or whatever but it has really come together in terms of us bouncing off each other in the studio and what not. He's very technical and brings a brilliant clarity when it comes to mixes while I'll be in there jamming it out."

More recently Shy FX has been working T Power whom he first met during his time with S.O.U.R. The two share a studio and now do all their projects together. One of these was .Shake Ur Body. which licensed by Positiva/EMI in February and released on 25th March 2002 after floating around on the underground for about 9 months. It achieved something that no Drum & Bass track had ever achieved. It entered the UK charts at No 7 and remained in the top 20 for six weeks. This put Shy FX & T Power into the mainstream market and they have now brought together both their labels (Ebony & Ivory) and produce as a team.