Tomorrow’s People

As Chris Davids was in the throes of recording Maribou State’s jubilant second album Kingdoms In Colour in 2018, he began staying late in the studio after bandmate Liam Ivory had gone home. “I’d still have a little bit left in the tank and I’d stick around into the evening and start working on stuff that was completely the opposite end of the spectrum to the stuff we were making,” Davids tells Apple Music. “It was almost a way of countering the stuff we’d been working on in the day, purging a different side of my writing.” Davids started sliding some of the tracks into DJ sets and, after writing more tunes in that darker, club-friendly vein for a [iconic UK club] Fabric mix, he threw himself into the project during lockdown. “I was like, ‘here four or five tracks that aren’t Maribou records, let’s knuckle down and make something out of them’,” he recalls. His resultant debut as Shire T, Tomorrow’s People, is a record that salutes the very best of British dance culture, utilising an array of vintage synths and drum machines as it takes in ‘90s rave, techno bangers, pulsing house and ambient beats. “I don’t like the idea of the spotlight being totally on me but, with lockdown, collaborating was totally impossible anyway, my hand was forced,” he says. “I’m glad I ended up sticking with it, it’s been pretty important in going back to the Maribou stuff with a new lease of confidence.” Davids takes us through his Shire T solo journey, track by track. “Full Attention” “This started from a session I had with Roots Manuva back in 2016 or something. Nothing came of it in the end, but I had these recordings left on my computer so I went back to them—I always like the idea of making everything count that you've done in the studio. I ended up going back and just chopping through the recording and getting the main sample from that. In the past, I've always been drawn to things that ease you into an album and slowly build and set the tone of the record. But I liked the fact tha