“We’re tired of hiding”: An interview with Two Shell, dance music’s final boss

Dance music thrives on sleight of hand—the artfully flicked fader, the cannily clouded alter ego—but Two Shell take illusionist mischief to another level. They work under veiled identities, are alleged to have sent out stand-ins to DJ for them, and who knows if a recent ‘face reveal’, on social media and this magazine cover, is actually them. The duo may have started out recording relatively straightforward garage steppers for UK techno stalwarts Livity Sound, but since launching their own label, Mainframe Audio, they’ve given free rein to their wildest impulses. Lately, they’re more likely to be found trotting out patently AI-generated (and, presumably, wildly unauthorised) vocal features from Frank Ocean and Taylor Swift—that is, when they’re not selling what appear to be rocks on their merch page. In DJ sets, you can find them flipping both The Corrs and Panic! At The Disco into guilty-pleasure bangers so criminally sneaky that they put the “perp” into “hyperpop.” Their endearingly low-key website shell.tech, meanwhile, functions as a combined portal and RPG where guessing the right password might net you a DJ mix, coveted ID, or even a Winamp-style player loaded with unreleased tracks. (The wrong guess, meanwhile, will net a reply like “Ah, ye sought whispers in the woods, but the true refuge lies closer to the hearth,” suggesting that the duo has logged plenty of hours playing games like The Legend of Zelda.) Blink and you’ll miss ’em: The 21st century’s answer to The KLF, Two Shell are moving at the speed of pure audacity.

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You could be forgiven for wondering if Two Shell’s alias is derived from the concept of the shell game—the classic huckster’s confidence trick meant for fleecing unsuspecting passersby out of tenner after tenner. Maybe it’s simply a Mario Kart reference, given the sticker design of 2020’s ‘Touchpad’ EP. Or perhaps there’s an alternate interpretation: The duo’s name might also be a reference to protective exoskeletons, impenetrable exteriors designed to thwart prying eyes. Well, hold onto your hermit crabs, because today, Two Shell are opening up.

In a moment of surprising candour, the duo offered Mixmag a rare interview, under certain conditions: It had to take place over email, for one thing, and there were NDAs to be signed before the questions could commence. Questions prepared and sent, Mixmag waited with bated breath… and waited. And waited. But when we finally heard back, the wait was worth it, because Two Shell have finally revealed a side of themselves they’ve never shown before. They’ve opened up about their philosophy of fun, clapped back at skeptics who doubt their DJ skills, and even shared some pointers about selling rocks to cavemen. As for who they really are, though, they’ll admit only this: “Dudes who believe in themself and don’t let the matrix control them.” Read on, and be Two Shell-pilled.