Roger Shah
Roger Shah | |
---|---|
Birth name | Roger-Pierre Shah |
Also known as | Sunlounger, Purple Mood, Savannah, Black Pearl, High Noon at Salinas, Magic Island, Global Experience |
Born |
Esslingen am Neckar, Germany | 29 November 1972
Genres |
Balearic trance Balearic beat |
Occupation(s) | DJ, Producer, Radio show host/DJ of Magic Island |
Instruments | Synthesizer, Equalizer, etc. |
Years active | 1996 - present |
Labels | Armada, Black Hole, Anjunabeats, Magic Island |
Associated acts | Sunlounger, Global Experience, Mellomania, North Dakota |
Website |
http://www.rogershah.net/ Roger Shah@Facebook Roger Shah@Myspace |
Roger Shah (aka DJ Shah, Sunlounger) is a German electronic music composer and producer.[1]
Biography
History
Roger Shah was born in Esslingen in southern Germany to a German mother and a Pakistani father. His brother Pedro del Mar, also a Trance DJ, hosts a bi-weekly vocal trance show called Mellomania. Roger first began to hit his production stride in his native country in 1999 putting out the tracks "Claps", "The Mission" & "Tides of Time". In 2003 his "High" release was signed by Virgin Records imprint Nebula. This marked his first non-domestic release, and over the course of the next 5 years he inked productions to a range of trance labels such as Black Hole Recordings, Anjunadeep Records and Vandit Records.
Roger Shah, Mr Magic Island, the master of balearic sound and melodies is a 5 times awarded DJ Mag Top 100 veteran, being in the music industry for about 20 years, with more than 500 releases in more than 80 countries, countless hit records, his music videos watched about 90 million times, travelled around the world with his unique sound and live performances and has played at the most important clubs such as Privilege Ibiza or Zouk in Singapore but also at a lot of major festivals such as Ultra Music Festival in the olympic stadium in Seoul or at a lot of A State Of Trance events around the globe.
As a producer he has worked with and produced for artists such as Tiësto, Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, Sarah MacLachlan, Kosheen, Bryan Adams or Moya Brennan, whom is best known for her works with Hollywood producers like Hans Zimmer. Roger's unique live performances have been rewarded for five consecutive years in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs Poll with a peak of #21 and received a double EMPO nomination for Best Trance & Progressive DJ and Best Radio Show and an IDMA award nomination as break through artist in 2008.
As a classical music composer but coming from an EDM world he has also all abilities to do a next step in his career, he recently signed deals with some of the leading movie score/ trailer houses in Hollywood and started to work on orchestral cues for those companies.
With his unique, globally renowned Balearic music style, he not only celebrates great success as a solo artist but also under various monikers. The most prominent alias is his Sunlounger project, with which he had chart entries on almost every continent. Roger releases most of his productions on his own Magic Island imprint with global sub-licenses. It is also the name of his famous weekly radio show, which is broadcast on dozens of FM stations across the globe. He had chart success in the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Mexico and many other countries. The fact that Roger harvested more than 90 million views on Youtube and hosted thousands of live performances all over the world are the logical result.
Sunlounger is without doubt Roger's best-known nom de plume. It was under this handle that he released the “Another Day on The Terrace” long-player in 2008. It reached No.1 on the Dutch iTunes' all-music-genres chart and included the single “White Sand”, which is still considered one of the biggest EDM classics of the last decade. In 2009 Roger released the Sunlounger follow-up album “Sunny Tales”, featuring the acclaimed single “Lost” - a track that took the illustrious 'Single of 2008' title on the ASOT radio show and reaped numerous #1 airplay positions across the globe. The third Sunlounger album, “The Beach Side of Life”, was released in 2010 and his latest long player “Balearic Beauty” which entered the ITunes Top 30 in 50+ countries including multiple number 1 spots as well as number 1 airplay chart results.
The Armin Connection
In 2007 Armin van Buuren named Shah’s "Who Will Find Me" release as his favourite track of 2007. Having heard the demo of its follow-up, Van Buuren saw crossover potential in the track and made contact in early 2008 to ask if Shah would like to collaborate on it. The result was the Chris Jones song ‘Going Wrong’… A national top 5 smash in The Netherlands, the track went on to become one of the biggest selling trance singles of the year. From there Magic Island Records – Shah’s primary label moved from his own stable to that of one of Armin’s industry-leading Armada Music.
Magic Island Records
An imprint for both Roger’s own material and that of likeminded producers, Magic Island releases have quickly become fixtures in the CDJs of the world’s biggest spinners. Notable up and coming names like Ralph Fritsch, DJ Cosmo, Kim Svard and Walsh & McAuley have all had releases on the label.
Songbook
The M.I. deal’s quickest produce of the Magic Island/Armada deal was Roger’s first artist album, Songbook. Strongly received by both press and fans alike, it was praised for its innovative dual club mix and acoustic version approach. Singles taken from it like "Don’t Wake Me Up" and the aforementioned "Going Wrong" & "Who Will Find Me" (a Top 20 ASOT Tune of the Year in 2008) proved to be particularly popular.
Live and DJ performances
In late 2008 Shah took the decision to change his artist name. Dropping the ‘DJ’ prefix, he revised it to Roger Shah – a move that signalled a move away from straightforward DJ sets. During live performance, Roger Shah frequently uses a wireless keyboard interface such as the M-Audio Oxygen 25 (25 key USB midi controller). Roger Shah has mentioned numerous times that will perform with his laptop instead of CD.
Pseudonyms and side projects
In addition to his own-name tracks, Roger has also produced under a matrix of other sun-tipped aliases. Notable among them are his ‘pka’ DJ Shah, High Noon at Salinas, Magic Island & Savannah. Shah is also one half of the Anjunabeats released act Purple Moods, Black Hole project Global Experience and ASOT’s Black Pearl, whose ’06 – ’09 spanning singles ‘Coral Sea’, ‘Java’, ‘Bounty Island’ and ‘Rise’ generated much additional interest in Shah’s solo productions.
Sunlounger
Sunlounger is without doubt Roger’s best known nom de plume. It was under this handle that he released the ‘Another Day On The Terrace' long-player in 2008. It reached No.1 on Dutch iTunes’ ‘all-music-genres’ chart and spawned four singles: ‘In & Out’, ‘Aguas Blancas’, ‘Crawling’ & ‘White Sand’. The project become so celebrated that Roger expanded Sunlounger into a live act - a performance of which was featured on Armada’s ArminOnly DVD. It was this experience that he credited with his latter wholesale move into live Roger Shah performances. In 2009 Roger released the Sunlounger follow-up LP ‘Sunny Tales'. It's progeny singles included ‘Catwalk’, ‘Mediterranean Flower’, ‘Change Your Mind’ and the much-revered ‘Lost’ - voted as Tune of the Year for the 2008 A State of Trance radio show hosted by Armin van Buuren and numerous #1 airplay positions across the globe. His third album, The Beach Side of Life, was released in 2010.[1]
Magic Island: Music For Balearic People – The Compilations
Shah’s compilation series has so far seen five outings (2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 & 2014). Encapsulating everything Shah stands for musically, their intrinsically White Island trance sound has sound-tracked an uncountable number of clubbers holidays. Roger typically uses the compilations as first-listen holders for future singles & collaborations with Vol.2 including ones with Signum, Judge Jules & Amanda O’Riordan and Tenishia.
‘Magic Island: Music For Balearic People’ – The Radio Show
Broadcasting weekly, Magic Island – Music For Balearic People is a 2 hour radio show carried by the DI.FM station and is currently being syndicated to many other countries, most recently including Mexico and Jordan. Presented by Roger every Friday between 21.00 GMT (22:00 CET), it showcases him playing melodic trance through the first hour with the 2nd focusing on Balearic, chillout and Dream trance.
Remixes
Shah has reworked tracks for legendary vocalists like Sarah McLachlan and Nadia Ali. He’s also remixed tunes for a litany of trance-masters including Tiësto, Armin Van Buuren, Mark Norman, York, Cosmic Gate, Josh Gabriel, Johan Gielen, System F, The Thrillseekers, Solarstone, Three Drives, Matt Darey & Oceanlab. Most recently Roger has rewired Andain’s ‘Beautiful Things ‘10’ and Richard Durand’s ‘Always The Sun’.
Discography
DJ/Roger ShahAlbums2000 The Album Singles1999 Claps Compilations2005 The Ultimate Chillout Collection as Dj Shah2008 'Nadia Ali' - Crash and Burn as Roger Shah2008 'Sunlounger & Cap Feat. Stephanie Asscher' - Heart Of The Sun Sunlounger2007 Another Day on the Terrace Singles2006 White Sand Black PearlSingles2006 Bounty Island SavannahSingles2006 Savannah La Mar Global ExperienceAlbums2015 Global Experience Singles2005 Tennessee / Dakar 2015 Louder Remixes2006 'Brian Laruso' - Song For The Ocean References
External links |