On stage, clad in his trademark white, he is impossible to miss or mistake. Wireless keyboard in one hand, an ever−ready clutch of his own productions in the other, his live crowd−interactive performances have brought a new apex experience for club and festival goers worldwide. In 2009 this unequalled approach was reflected in DJ Magazine`s Top 100 chart, where he moved up from his `08 debut position of no.58 to no.21. As a music producer he`s scaled the heights of national charts and with 5 artist albums & compilations released in the last 2 years alone, he is very possibly the most prolific trance musician working today. His name is Roger Shah...

Read more of Roger Shah's bio on his website or Wikipedia Without further delay, ClubDistrict presents UNMIXED with Roger Shah!

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CD: In 2008, you dropped the “DJ Shah” moniker in favor of your own name “Roger Shah”, but you also produced under the alias “Sunlounger”; what is the difference in sound behind these artist names?

RS: I dropped the DJ because of the change of my performance into more of a performance with live elements. The difference between Roger Shah & Sunlounger is that for Roger Shah releases I do whatever I wanna do from my cooler balearic tracks to more uplifting ones. Sunlounger is my 100% balearic trademark alias.

CD: Your 2003 release of ‘High’, signed by Virgin Records, thrust you into the global scene, how has the ride been?

RS: I already had a lot of big major deals before I released "HIgh" with Virgin/EMI; I also worked with Warner, BMG, Sony and others. I also had more than 200 releases in more than 60 countries with a lot of top 100 hit records, all before I changed my sound and way of working and focused more on just my solo stuff with Armada, so this release has not really been a ride for me.

CD: Not many producers can claim that a major artist like Armin Van Buuren named one of their tracks his ‘top favorite track of the year’. In 2007, that happened with your release of ‘Who Will Find Me’, what was your reaction?

RS: I felt very honored and happy when I read this, but he also featured my previous releases on Armada (Armin Van Buuren's record label) and played them a lot. (e.g. "White Sand" in 2006).

CD: Armin Van Buuren has a great ear for music, what is it about your style that first intrigued him?

RS: Maybe the diversity compared to all the other Trance tracks. I try to create my own style of music; when I sit down in my studio I never listen to other tracks or follow any rules. Maybe, especially for this reason, I started to get his attention.

CD: Your music is very uplifting and beautiful. In some of your tracks I can hear the ambient sounds of the ocean, as well as seagulls, where do you draw your inspiration from?

RS: I don't like winter or when it's cold. I love the beach and the vibe of the Islands, especially Ibiza, a place I go to every year since 1996. No matter if it's for a holiday, to listen to other DJs or to perform myself, this place is my so called "Magic Island"; like my happy place where I get all my inspirations and creativity. That's why most of my tracks always sound warm and summerish.

CD: In many of your tracks you incorporate the Balearic beat, a style of sound that is much more followed in Europe than the U.S. Are we American’s just broadly categorizing this style as “trance”?

RS: Hmm...I don't know how or if the American's categorize this style as "Trance". At the end it's my own creation of how trance should sound from my point of view. Everybody is right when they say I'm a trance artist, just for the fact of the grooves and elements I use in my music. I felt and wanted to give my style a specific name, so I called it "balearic trance". I also don't know if this style is followed more in Europe than other countries, since I meet so many balearic people every week on my shows all over the world.

CD: Over the last few years you evolved from DJ sets to a LIVE act. It’s great to see you performing LIVE keyboard at your shows, do you play any other instruments? Will the LIVE act expand to include other instruments or artists?

RS: I don't consider myself a real live act; what I do is a mixture of playing a dj set, combined with live elements. So I play the original track from my laptop and play live topline melodies or additional stuff over the original versions. Makes it a lot of fun for myself and gives me a chance to have a special interaction with the people. Just last weekend, when I played with Signum for Armada night, he wanted to take over but had some technical problems with the cd players, so the last track of my set (Andain - Beautiful things - Roger Shah Remix) was about to run out and the sound guys were still working on the problem, so I just took my keyboard out and played the main melody of the song. Call it "unplugged" with my keyboard but it ended up turning into a jam session with the people, it was amazing :-) I learned to play keyboard when I was young, but just the keyboard, so I can play a bit of a piano too, but that's it. I did a lot of shows last year performing with some of my vocalists e.g. Chris Jones or Adrina Thorpe and will do more in the this direction for 2010. I'm thinking about setting up a real band in the future too, but it's too early in this stage to talk about it.

CD: Your resume includes remixing tracks for some major artists such as Tiesto, Matt Darey, Armin Van Buuren, Josh Gabriel and many others. How do you approach these projects given the variance in their styles?

RS: I don't care about the variance in their styles or about the style of an original version. I have to say that when I got a request for remixing a tune, I always think first if it will fit into my style and if I can come up with an idea very quickly. It makes it a lot of fun to do remixes, especially when the original is very different than your sound. Sometimes, I receive a promo package with 5 remixes that all sound similar which doesn't make any sense for me.

CD: Your “Magic Island: Music For Balearic People” compilations is due for a third volume this year, any hints on who you collaborated with in this upcoming edition?

RS: At the moment, I'm in the hot stage of this 3rd volume. I set the deadline for the project and all Magic Island artists and producers for end of March. It also means that I need to start now with the collabs. I will again do a collaboration with Signum and talk to some other artists as well, but i can't say too much about it at the moment. Just that the first signing of new talent and follow up singles from my artists are amazing, too.

CD: With the wide success of “LOST”, “Another Day on the Terrace” and “Going Wrong” in 2008, how did 2009 treat you and what can we expect from you in 2010?

RS: For 2009, our main focus was on the touring side and it was the first year in my career that I played so many shows. I also gave my debut in the U.S. and did 5 shows in 2009, a lot more shows will follow this year. But also music wise, I had a great year again. I had no artist album out, but I did a lot of collaborations and productions for my mix album. I think, I again had some nice tracks for my fans such as my collaboration with the Maltese Tenishia guys (again) and our single, "I'm not God" ft. Lorilee. It was massive when I played them during the festival season last summer, especially my collaboration with Signum for "Healesville Sanctuary". It turned into a massive tune that's already been voted into the ASOT Top 20 of 2009, which is always a great archievment. Armin himself wrote on his website that this has been one of the surprise collaborations of the year for him. So, I think 2009 treated me very good and due to the fact that I played so much I was able to get closer to all my fans and increase the amount of balearic people all over the world.

For 2010 you can expect a new "Magic Island" album like we talked about before, but the main focus for this year is on the 3rd "Sunlounger" album which will also include the official follow up single to "Lost". I'm very happy with the album so far and I think the people will love it. We will also make the change into "Sunlounger by Roger Shah", because still a lot of people don't know that it's also me behind this project. That's why we will also do an album tour which will be called "Roger Shah pres. Sunlounger".

CD: For new producers of the Balearic style sound, short of going to Ibiza for a good dose of inspiration, what is a great way to get inspired to produce tracks in this style?

RS: As you said, short of going to Ibiza or other beautiful places, when you produce just try to think about the music you would like to listen to when driving around on an island. Try to create your own soundtrack for the summer, this is what I always have in my mind when I work on my music.

Thank You Roger Shah for joining the ClubDistrict family !
We look foward to seeing you on tour and in the nightclubs. - ClubDistrict -
Interview by ClubDistrict - Thank you Tim at Stark Profile PR

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