FRIENDS N' FAMILY - SHIVAS HOWARD

Shivas Howard Brown is a visionary entrepreneur known for founding Friendly Pressure, a company dedicated to creating innovative solutions in the tech industry.  With a passion for technology and a commitment to excellence, Shivas Howard Brown continues to inspire and lead the industry with groundbreaking ideas and a relentless pursuit of innovation.

Spencer: Let’s start with a little introduction. Who are you?

Shivas Howard Brown: My name is Shivas Howard Brown. I'm born and raised in North London, and I've spent the last four to five years developing a studio where we make bespoke loudspeaker systems.

Spencer: Where would you say you draw inspiration from? I know the last time I was here, you spoke about your, I guess your family is in music.

Shivas Howard Brown: Yeah. Growing up in a predominantly white community in North London, it was quite juxtaposed. My school was quite white, and then my family situation was just crazy mixed. All my parents' friends and individuals I call auntie and uncle were not blood related, but their kids were the same age as me. That was my family. I had these two very polarised existences. Weekends and evenings were with them, and then school was very institutionalised and conformist and quite colonial British.

I think I've always had a massive love for hardware, electronics, technology, and products. Growing up with the PC becoming a thing and later on smartphones and downloading music at the age of 13 with Napster, me showing my dad and uncles who made music. Napster probably put me in this place of connecting the dots between these prolific musicians and what I was learning at school. Music's been how I've socialised, engaged with people, and created real relationships. Music as a medium is the most immediate art form. It's language less. I think a lot of people can listen to an instrumental and hear lyrics in it or hear a song in it, and those things are really important to me. I guess all of that's built up to this reference point on me drawing on my experience and then wanting to package that up in a product and let the right people buy into it. 

Spencer: You mentioned North London a couple of times. I'm assuming you were born and raised in London.

Shivas Howard Brown: Yeah.

Spencer: Have you lived in London your whole life?

Shivas Howard Brown: Yeah. I've lived in London my whole life, specifically in North London, between Crouch End and Archway. That house my parents bought when I was six months old. We were in Stanford Hill in East London before, and then I moved up there. My dad's actually born in Woolwich. My mom was born in Nakuru in Kenya. So, it all started further afield and then ended up in North London. There's a massive difference between the ethnic communities in West London, South London, North London, and East London. North London has always felt to me, probably the most European. You have a strong mix of Arabs, Jews, Greeks, and Turks. That makes up this very open house family welcoming, providing food, sharing loud music. That's not necessarily an English identity, but something imported. I'm really proud to be from North London and be part of all of those communities.

Spencer: You said your moms from Kenya and your dad is...

Shivas Howard Brown: Yeah. My mom's Punjabi, born in Kenya. All her siblings were born in Kenya. My grandfather left India in the late twenties. My grandmother left India in '41. My grandfather came over from Jamaica in '51. So, I'm third-generation Windrush on my dad's side and part of the breakdown of greater India because of colonialism on my mom's side. I call myself the commonwealth kid.

Spencer: That must have been a culture clash. I'm curious what that was like growing up in a household where there were, I wouldn't say opposite cultures, but you know what I'm saying? 

Shivas Howard Brown: Yeah. Well, exactly. There's a lot shared between those two cultures. This mixed identity in cities didn't really happen before the eighties. My mom's mom didn't speak to her for six years until I was born. Out of her six siblings, she only had two of them at her wedding with my dad. So, it was a massive deal. Imperialism somehow reinforces that idea. There's a whole classist identity in India, which has a place here and evolved there. Looking at mixed couples now, a lot of that's gone away because it's the work we've all had to do through our lives, growing up around other people and understanding there's way more shared in the differences of not being of English blood.

Spencer: Geez. Yeah. I think with a lot of my work, I think my parents both came from Ghana, but I was thinking of this idea of migration, and I think that is the reason why we're all here. Places like New York, London, Toronto are such a melting pot. Without migration or unfortunately without slavery, we wouldn't have where we are now. These countries were built on colonial structures. Music is universal. It's specific to every country, every city, but it's universal.

Shivas Howard Brown: Now would probably be a good time to plug that I had a pair of speakers commissioned for this exhibition at the British Library, which is on now. It's 500 years of Black British music.

Spencer: How long is it on until?

Shivas Howard Brown: Until the end of August. Just going and reading the boards through this space and the story it takes you through, for me to understand that there was this Black identity in classical music in the 1800s in the UK, which I've never heard about. To read the 500-year history of how we've got to this explosion of repurposed identities through genres, it's mental. When you start to understand the context of how dub became dub, Ska became Ska, or dubstep became dubstep, drum and bass and jungle, you see there's such a rich history here.

Spencer: That's amazing. Remind me, where is it?

Shivas Howard Brown: At the British Library. It's called Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music. 

Spencer: What are you listening to these days?

Shivas Howard Brown: I put a 12-inch subwoofer in my car about three and a half months ago. So, I'm just listening to dub and drum and bass. I got a big Volvo and put a massive 12-inch sub in it. The music I'm playing must represent that. I'm digging for the craziest baselines. Driving at night with the windows down in the summer and smelling London summer with those tunes playing, there's nothing that feels like that. London has been so fruitful for me specifically. My dad being a singer-songwriter, my other uncle is Jazzy B, who started Soul to Soul. My other uncle was Cass Lewis from Skunk Anansie. These quite separate genres have created the palette I listen to everything else from.

Spencer: That's amazing. Just so much rich history. A lot of people would kill for that. I think you come from a lineage of music, and it shows with what you're interested in and listening to now.

 

Shivas Howard Brown: Most people's bios start with that. Speaking about representation and seeing yourself as an adult and what you want to do in life, those first early memories and seeing people creating real community, that music being the lubricant and the catalyst to people smiling and dancing, the smells of the food, it stays with you for the rest of your life. It's very difficult to deviate from that. Very few people experience that and then go work in finance.

Spencer: Would you say London is your favourite city?

Shivas Howard Brown: No. I hate it. I love and hate it all at the same time because I'm hyper-aware of everything that's wrong with it. But the cultural richness of this city keeps me anchored here. Maybe that's me being risk-averse. There's nowhere else in the world like London. There's many of me here. So, I feel at home.

Spencer: Would you say you have a favourite city besides London? A second home perhaps?

Shivas Howard Brown: I've not been able to find it. In 2010, I spent nine months working in New York. The older I get, I'm trying to find somewhere more remote where I can still find representation, prototype, and develop the speakers, but isn't totally getting fucked by a system like the conservative system. Every city has its own problems. Every city's unique for that issue. Every city's built on a financial centre. People talk about Scandinavian political systems, but what does that mean for the working-class community?

Spencer: How would you describe your style?

Shivas Howard Brown: Timeless. I've never been one to buy into that style of the moment. I think I've only had money to spend on what I want to wear for the last seven to ten years. I've always been particular about buying classic silhouettes. It doesn't matter how much it costs, but if I know it's going to last 20 seasons and go with all my outfits, and has functionality, comfort, and a silhouette built into it, then I have to have it. I don't want to look back on my wardrobe and cringe. The fashion industry is moving faster and faster every year. It's difficult to keep up and make the right choices. I'll be buying a house one day. So, you have to be conscious of what you buy, like design classics.

Spencer: What are the three things you can't live without?

Shivas Howard Brown: My girlfriend, my cat, and my mobile phone. Then I can get some speakers and start listening to music. If I have my phone, I can talk to the world. It's so integral.

Spencer: What would be your go-to take-out?

Shivas Howard Brown: Curry Goat from Lion's Rock in Finsbury Park.

Spencer: For sure. And last question. What does a normal day in your life look like?

Shivas Howard Brown: I don't have a normal day. I don't have an office. I could be fixing my van, wiring a room, testing equipment, or sat on emails for 12 hours in a day. Every day is different. But a great day is when I don't have to be on the computer, which has become most of my time. I would be at the studio soldering, setting up, or in meetings with architects and other collaborators. I've been fortunate to have these great relationships with people who really buy into the vision and want to do the best job for this project. Those relationships help build this project to the level it should be, which is creating beautiful sound for beautiful places.

Spencer: Thanks, Shivas.