Andrew Shaw a.k.a The Artificial Arm grew up listening to all the usual sounds of his generation, such as funk/soul, ska, new-wave, electro/hip-hop and beyond, but it was the early electro/hip-hop scene around 83 in the UK, that really got him hooked.

Come the early 90s electro was like a dirty word almost, but Andy became nostalgic for the old school hip hop scene he grew up with, from this he dug up his old StreetSounds tapes, and indeed they sounded fresh once again. This encouraged him to recreate electro in a more up-to-date form.

It was more the idea behind electro-funk, as futuristic, synthesized funk, rather than the eighties revival which interested him. He started collecting old equipment to try and get that sound and update on it; after a long process of trail and era, his first release, Armtronic Action EP, came out in 2003.

Andy does, indeed, wear an artificial arm. He believes his disability is something to focus on and not to hide, as he has had to approach music in a different way, and this has shaped the character of his sound.

Electro means different things to different generations; nowadays he feels, Andy sees it as a sound characterized by analogue synthesizers and vintage drum machines, but he aims to make soulful, futuristic funk music, with the accent on fun, hence the style electro-funk.