Andy Votel
is a
musician
,
DJ
, producer, graphic designer and one of the founders of
Finders Keepers Records
,a label dedicated to forgotten treasures across all genres: from original recordings of psychedelic music, over world music, jazz. and
wretched pop music
.
Andy Shallcross
is a
music fanatic
and has been since school. Hailing from Stockport, Manchester''s largely unsung sibling, Andy began collecting records aged 14. It was the
mechanics of hip-hop production
that spurred his search for original samples on vinyl, with his father teaching him how to make his first
"wrong-sounding" demos
using cassette tapes. Finding a "kindred spirit" in Mark Rathbone, aka Boney, he entered the realm of performance as a member of the
Violators of the English Language crew
, adopting the acronym V.O.T.E.L. that he still uses today.
Andy has gone a long way since then, though, like the music he champions through
Finders Keepers
together with
Doug Shipton
, his actions have remained distinctly niche, preferring to operate deep below the strata of fashion and consumable tastes. Even the music he makes now, be it solo or with long-time collaborator Sean Canty (of Demdike Stare), rarely bears his name. Indeed, each new record seems to throw up another moniker—
Applehead, Slant Azymuth, Anworth Kirk
—making his musical whereabouts difficult to trace at any given time.
