Audio: Shenoda - WYS! Promo Mix

A core member of the Hypercolour family, Shenoda is currently riding high off the back of his ‘Shots EP’ garnering support from artists like Catz & Dogz, Martyn and Konrad Black. His own particular brew of dark, dubby electronic music continues to impress throughout his remix work and the recent collaboration with Alex Jones, ‘Have It Your Way’ on the Connaissour label. Appearing in Room One on Sunday for WetYourSelf, Shenoda took the time to piece together a promo mix so Team WYS! caught up with the London based producer to reveal a little more about the man behind the music... Download: Shenoda – WYS! Promo Mix Tell us a little bit about how you got into DJing, production and music in general... I guess like a lot of people my age my first introduction into dance music was around the age of 12, listening to Dreamscape tape packs and acts like the Prodigy, Daft Punk, and Chemical Brothers. I used to listen to a lot of garage in my late teens and bought my first set of decks and started DJing from then on really. The first time I was introduced to production was actually when I was really young, only about 6 years old. I remember going round to a family friends' house and their eldest son had a studio with an old Amstrad set up in his bedroom. He made an entire track using just a recorded sample of my voice and I remember thinking this was insane. The whole process of making a track from the most stripped down elements really interested me and for as long as I can remember production was always something I’d wanted to get into. I’ve always written music and as a DJ it made sense to make tracks that I could play out. Your ‘Shots EP’ on Hypercolour is doing well, getting rave reviews, climbing the charts and being played by a lot of top DJ’s. What’s it like to see videos of your tunes ‘going off’ at places like DC10? Yeah it’s great. Getting really good reviews and feedback is always good to see and of course always a big compliment. It’s especially good seeing videos of people vibing off your music in clubs like DC10. Making music is such a personal thing and even if you're happy with a track that you've made it’s a great feeling to know that other people are also into it. You recently made your debut on Connaisseur Recordings alongside Alex Jones with Allan Winfield on vocals. How did the project come about and are you hoping to work with more vocalists in the future? Any plans to explore other styles of music? It was one of those tracks that came about after a heavy nights jamming in Alex’s studio. Allan came down to hang out and we got him to record some lines and the track came together pretty quickly actually. Allan’s vocals perfectly suited mine and Alex's original idea for the track. I’ll definitely be working with vocalists again in the future. Vocals are great to produce with and have a depth to them that if used well they can often transform a track and make it really stand out. I always keep an open mind when it comes to exploring other styles of music particularly as I take influence from various genres that I listen to. But at the moment I'm focussing on building my current sound. It seems there’s a never-ending list of generic house music released daily. How do you go about buying/selecting the music you play when DJing? The whole digital thing and the sheer amount of new tracks that are released every week definitely makes it harder to find quality music, especially on download sites. I always look for tracks that instantly grab my attention and that generally have a solid groove. I try and keep the music I play out quite varied and not too tracky if you know what I mean. Plus I guess the handy thing about producing and being part of a group of friends who are also producers is that you often have access to new unreleased material to play out which you know very few will have. Which artists have really caught your ear so far in 2011? Axel Boman has been an artist that has been making some consistently solid music this year. His forthcoming release on Glass Table is absolutely quality. Brawther, Matthew Burton, Blawan, Youandewan are all other artists that I’ve also been into recently. The house and techno scene in the UK seems to be thriving at the moment, especially in cities like London and Leeds . What are your thoughts on UK scene in general and where’s your favourite place to play? Yeah it definitely seems as though the UK is at the forefront of the scene right now. This country has had a long history of excellent artists so it’s great to see us on top again. Even though the UK has some great cities and scenes in places like Leeds, Bristol etc... I’d probably have to say London is still my favourite place to play, especially in the more unconventional and grimy venues. What have you got lined up for the rest of the year? I’m busy working on a few remix’s right now. Next up will be a remix of Maya Jane Coles’ ‘Nobody Else’ on Hypercolour, and then shortly after is a remix out on Raw Cutz recordings. Alex and I are working up on follow up EP from our last collaboration and I've also got some new original material underway that I'm really excited about. And finally, what’s the most bizarre thing you’ve ever seen in a nightclub? Jamie Russell.