Chamboché is Nottingham based DJ/Producer Sam Williams. His first release ‘Ipso Facto’ came out last year to rave reviews, with his epic house/disco sound getting love from jocks including Mark E, Steve Bug and The Revenge. 

His DJ sets have the amazing ability to tear a dance floor apart whilst keeping the tempos relaxed, with a bag of tunes that has you constantly asking ‘what is this?’ as seen on his recent podcast for Fresh out of Death which showcased his skills nicely.

Keen to find out more about, Loose Synths caught up with Sam earlier this month to chat about his favourite producers, the rise of deep house and the ‘T’ word…

First up can you tell us a bit about yourself? 

OK, I grew up on a farm in rural Wales, moved to Nottingham to study Zoology. Around this time started making some music on Fruity Loops. Graduated and decided to stay as I liked the city. Moved on to using Reason; played around for a couple more years and gradually got a good work process. Sent some tracks to David at Under The Shade records on a friends recommendation about a year ago and things have just rolled on from there, with a couple of releases and another one shortly.

Outside of Chamboché what are you up to on a day to day basis? 

Well I’m an assistant manager at arguably Nottingham’s best club, Stealth and also at The Rescue Rooms. My job entails a bit of everything from running shifts, to staffing and promoting nights.

How did you get into dance music and house/disco in particular?

I think I first took an interest in dance music in my early teens which developed into a love of mid to late 90’s house and trance particularly. It’s funny because I recently saw an interview with Pangaea and he had a similar background initially. So I think I can drop the ‘T’ word now. Maybe..

Who are you particularly enjoying listening to/buying at the moment?

Nicolas Jaar, The Revenge, Jay Shepheard, Tornado Wallace, Mark E and particularly Space Dimension Controller who I think is just on another level at the moment.

The Love Quadrant - Space Dimension Controller (KGO002) - Forthcoming by stholdings

What sort of things do you look for in a new record… What makes your ears prick up and get excited?

I find all kinds if different elements interesting, sometime interesting rhythmical patterns in either the percussion or very often in synth lines. The bassline needs to be quite distinguished and have drive, but there probably isn’t one particular formula that works for me. I’m continuously surprised by the some of the music I do find appealing!

Against the onslaught of recent club music which has a tendency to push harder and faster, your sets and production tend to champion a more relaxed, slower tempo. How do you find dancefloors respond to this? ls there a particular appeal for slower stuff?

I think there has been an overall drop in tempo across the board in dance music actually after a peak in bpm’s around the early naughties. You’ll find this in techno, house and more commercial dance music. Obviously there has been a resurgence in deep house which tends to be slower than other forms of house and then of course the rise in disco influenced house or Nu-Disco or whatever you want to call it. This is the group in which I’ve found myself. Probably somewhere between slo-mo house, deep house and nu-disco. It very much dependent upon where you play. Sadly there isn’t much of an appetite for a lot of this music in Nottingham, at least not with the general student populous. But I played a gig in Bologna in Italy at the start of the year and it was seriously slow, and everyone got it.

Nant Rouge - Glass Floor (Chamboché remix) [Unmastered] by chamboche  

Whats your production set up like? Anything you particularly like?

Macbook and Logic. I’d of course like to play around with hardware but it just not an option for me at the moment. You use what you have.

What’s the vibe for the next release? Is it a different feel to the first release?

Yes I think it probably does have quite a different vibe to the first release. On a more of a house tip, a bit tougher but around about the same tempo. I think I’m still in a relatively experimental phase where I haven’t quite nailed down any particular sound.

In relation to the T -word… Its interesting how things we used to love sometimes translate into our work in different ways. Would you say there were elements of trance that have found their way into your work? 

Yes most definitely. I very often tend to fall in to a zone where I just make everything sound a bit on the epic side. This can be good but also bad. This kind of music played a large part in developing my sense of what works and what doesn’t work in a track. Quite often I’ll work a highly repetitive motif into a track that probably comes from listening to a lot of early trance. And then key changes in basslines which I fight a constant battle with (trying to avoid them) quite often crop up in my productions. Used well they can give a track a boost in momentum but they can also make a track sound a bit obvious.

What have you got coming up over the next few months?

I’ve got my next release on Under The Shade, with a great remix package. I think its a had a good response with the early promo so I’m quite excited about that. Other than that I’m just trying to get as much music finished as possible.

Head over to Juno to pick up a copy of Ipso Facto and keep your eyes pealed for the new release out later this year!